Match Day Thread Alternative match day

Watched the first 9 mins.

It doesn't get any better.

 

I was blown away that we'd gotten to an FA Cup Final - once the elation had worn off, it was crap. We got beat, beat by the most plastic of plastic clubs; on top of that we had thousands of tourists out for the day who didn't know any songs, who couldn't name a player; it was that bad, that when Bullard walked past where I was sat to give his piece-to-camera I was the only one giving him dogs abuse (like any right thinking City fan would) I was also getting 'tuts' and 'dirty looks' from the same tourists who'd probably never set foot in the KC or BP.

We gave them a scare and then we lost, pah!

 

Class post, Spes

 

The rot had already set in to our club by then with the divisive name change. Since then 6 years of ****ing around with the fanbase, our landlords and the direction of the club.

With hindsight, the seeds of this were sown on May 25th 2008, when Bartlett/Duffen and friends opted for a model of milking the wealthier non hardcore non long term fans rather than sticking with the loyal(ish) twenty thousand we had built up.

When the Allams came in, they did not seem to question this strategy, and had zero interest in or knowledge of the more vocal or passionate fans who have been gradually eased out for the last decade or so.

Our club is not alone in this, plenty of other clubs seem to have become versions of of this model, where they pimp out the club to trendy groups who are not bothered about football, and sideline the fans who have been the lifeblood of clubs for decades.

Twenty twenty hindsight - wonderful thing eh?

 

As ever, you're bang on the money.

 

Do you remember the run up to that 2008 game?

The noise, the numbers, the feeling about the place?

Palace, DPQR at home, Leicester, Barnsley away? Has our fanbase ever sounded better?

The Away Direct database scrapping was the thin end of the wedge. I accept Bartlett/Duffen didn't wish to sabotage the club and had aspirations of 'broadening the fanbase' by 'milking the rich'/align us with other PL clubs, but in retrospect this has damaged the club, as people have seen the wealthier/corporate fans looked after better than rank and file long term ones.

This city is sensitive to stuff like this- it seems Essex businessmen and marine generator floggers are not.

 

Happy days - we had a hungry fanbase urging on a team that was greater than the sum of its parts, once the momentum started you really could feel it. There was no stopping that bandwagon. It was a great journey.

 

It was crap? Have a word with yourself daft lad.

 

Duffen brought away direct back for 'the 61', corporates also ran a coach to away matches, they must have been lucky in the ballot.

The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

I went to every away game in 2008/9 and 2009/10.

Some of the folk at those games had never been seen before (or since).

The family at Anfield in 2008 always sticks in my mind: he looked quite interested, his wife less so, and their young daughter was on some playstation or summat, zero interest in any football match.

 

Cancelling away direct was a mistake. Those original members were the lifeblood of the club. The club should have used the data base and allocated away tickets based on loyalty. I couldn't get tickets for Anfield during the first Premiership season, yet my brother and his mate both who had never been to a City away game before did and you could multiply that tale a thousand times. Dave Burns made casual comment that I couldn't get a ticket for that game on air and I was eventually offered eight from different people who had bought them for sheer novelty value, they had no real interest in going at all. The only way I could guarantee a ticket for Chelsea away that season was by booking on the club's official corporate away buses. From memory I think they ran at least three that day at about £80 a go including ticket and a bacon sarnie. I didn't know a soul on the bus and when we all stopped at the services I didn't recognise anyone on any of the buses. The club's stance on this, from Danny Pratt at the time, was that the club had to encourage new fans and my loyalty ( and many like me) over many years meant nothing, as all our names went into the same hat for away tickets, allegedly.
Yet I called in Cod before the Leeds game and it was the same 40 or so faces in there who were in there every home game when we at Boothferry Park. The club should have valued fans like them more not the day tripper types who deserted us as quickly as they latched onto us.

 

Most clubs run a scheme where you accumulate points for away games attended.

Back in 2008 we had a computer database where you could see everyone's buying history, away games included.

That was junked when we got in the PL, and all of a sudden people who had been going away for years were on the same level of 'worthiness' as some **** from Bishop Burton who was a 'footy fan' and fancied Man Utd away.

THAT'S where the rot set in.

 

Duffen threw those Cup Final tickets in the air and said help yourselves. Years of loyalty was suddenly kicked into touch as hoards queued up around the KC in the early hours scrambling for tickets whilst those at home many who had swerved the famous steps up to Fer ark for years simply clicked on under multiple names and raped the best seats allegedly. Little wonder the bitterness is still in the air...


Over 40 years standing on those empty terraces...they didn’t give a fcuk.

 

I compared different groups at the time, and unless I was somehow favoured, I found putting kids and female names down seemed to increase the likelihood of getting tickets.

 

that ballot for away tickets was absolutely ridiculous missed on quite a few away game because of it

 

To be fair the club had always dumped joe public who stood on the terraces week after week when someone came along once a season and was willing to pay more money.
Back in the Fish and Dol*n days when Simon Cawkill was the commercial manager getting matchday sponsors was nigh on impossible. He had a very small list of regulars, Gary Milner at Coniston Arms, Roy Lee at Cavalier Club, A waste paper firm, a bit later on Trade Frames joined the list, is it Brenda and Pat Betts ? Point being there were no regular big hitters involved for the bread and butter lower league stuff.
Simon used to ring me on a Friday and ask if I could muster up as many names as possible and pay what we could to be matchball sponsors, sometimes we were actually the official match ball sponsors but more times then enough we were binned at the last minute for a someone who had been dragged on board at the last minute and was willing to pay a bit more. But we weren't that bothered because were only chipping in £10-£20 a game each, they liked groups of 10 and we could muster that many for most games. Big Ozzy (RIP) was very much part of this recruitment from the fans side. For Huddersfield one Boxing Day we virtually filled the directors box because it was an early kick off and the pubs were shut. The attraction for us was the use of the 'cans only' bar and the knowledge that we were doing our bit for the club. We did the same at virtually every sportsmen's dinner too, always at least one table of 10.
We did this week in week out without question of cost or opposition until one week we drew one of the big boys in the League Cup and we were ditched completely. When the call came the following week for Torquay at home we told Simon to shove it. Likewise the sportsmens dinners, we supported every one, then George Best came and our two 'main tables' who were had been to every single one previously were shunted out of the main room into the farthest corner of the room. Selling the tables was never as easy for us after that.
Seems loyalty is a cheap commodity at this club and always has been.

 

I got my own tix for FACF 2017 no probs, but was asked to try and get some for a family member living away when any spare ones went on sale - which they did.

Took my place (with collapsible seat) in the queue one teatime for the 0900 sale next morning. Said family member rocked up around 2200 hrs and took the place I'd reserved for him in the queue and duly bought his 2 tix the next morning.

I would not describe all the people in that queue as long term fans or die hards, but the point here is that if you wanted a cup final ticket you could get one (or two).

A lot of people complained there were no away tickets to be had in 2008/9.

I remember at Goodison one Sunday dinnertime that season, we had plenty of empty seats in our first trip there in 50 years.

 

They’d probably suggest their actions, at the time, were right as you’re still going & still contributing. Business & money, to that kind, will trump everything.

They have no idea, no understanding & no sense of loyalty.

Fair play to you.