Hi everyone, As some have seen their is a supporters collective meeting on Thursday and RAWA are canvassing for questions. I have messaged the rep on rtg and suggested I start a thread and then PM him on RTG if there are any questions posters on here would like to put forward. Can I ask that if you do have questions, you make them obvious and not in a wall of text as I will have to cut and paste between 2 forums
There is a clear gap in ability between safc and clubs at top of the championship and in premier league. When does the club think it will be able to seriously challenge for automatic promotion?
Does management understand the need for experienced leaders and professionals to complement the young talent and is there any flex in the recruitment model to improve that balance?
I am a season card holder living 40 miles away from the stadium, I have no issue with digital ticketing, but sometimes errors occur. With ticket office staff mostly unavailable to answer telephone enquiries or respond to e-mail, please explain the options open to me in the event of a ticketing issue?
If the new fella is there who we've got in from the MLS I'd like to hear what he has got planned for the next 6/12/24/36 months to maximise off field revenue.
Couple of things, firstly, cheers to @Chunksafc for the message, and @Smug in Boots I do take your point about it being good for rawa to take opinions from here as well as RTG. I was intending coming on here prior to the meeting but tbh I've been busy what with work and being tagged and PMd a good few times a day over the road since the fa Cup draw was made (and spending a bit of time on some rawa stuff/ joining the meeting they had, looking after bairn etc). I don't think anyone at rawa has an inflated sense of self importance, which I've seen mentioned previously. Just normal fans who want to try and ensure there's communication between the club and the fans. There may have been meetings previously but I personally never saw any minutes or owt. Under EFL rules the club have to meet with RAWA twice a year (rawa are in that position due to being the registered supporters trust, but the club also invite other groups to get a wider feedback) and the challenge is to try and make sure it's as productive as possible when it happens. I certainly don't want to put across a "doom and gloom" perspective at the meeting. RAWA ultimately represent their members and, as you'd expect, a lot of the members that have been in touch are very unhappy with things off the field. The ones who joined the meeting a couple of days ago were all pretty decent, measured fans, not reactionary types as far as I could tell, so the club do need to know how much people want to see improvements. If others on here have a more positive outlook then I'll happily feed back that there are more positive fans than maybe you'd expect if the main contact is from RTG, twitter and a self selecting group of members who are angry enough to join a meeting. I have my own opinions on how things are being ran, but the meeting isn't my chance to bang on about what I think, it's purely to pass on the overriding feeling of the RAWA members. I think it's good that KLD has agreed to meet with supporters. That in itself is a positive sign. Anyway, if anyone has any opinions etc to pass on I'll drop in here as much as I can before the meeting. People can also feel free to email rawa ([email protected]) if they're worried that their opinion isn't considered
can you ask if jobe has in his contract he has to start games, cos it doesn't make any sense now like him starting every game
Where is the data to make managerial appointments or bring in players pulled from and what is it checked against, ?
There will be a few more questions about the process of appointing the new coach and why it took 2 weeks to appoint someone who was already out of work I'd imagine. Just on the off the field stuff; still no official announcement of the new bloke taking up his position, which is strange in itself imo. He seems like a real coup.
Thanks for all that mate, it's much appreciated. I hope you're well and wish you a happy 2024. I think you're way above the people who really wind me up and claim, without any justification, to speak for the fans ... you know who I mean. My message to the club would be thank you for the massive transformation and all the progress we've made ... ... but try to cut out the errors, like ticketing, that wind people up and give them a way to attack the club. All the best mate.
Cheers mate, hope you're well too. I'll definitely pass on that a lot of supporters are very pleased with the turnaround since KLD arrived. You're right that the off field stuff definitely has to improve though. As much as anything people will have a lot more confidence if they see us acting like a thoroughly professional club at all times. The investment needed to get additional staff answering phones, or helping Chris Waters with his role etc wouldn't be huge and hopefully having additional resource would also give them the chance to properly think through decisions and have someone challenge when there's suggestions of letting mags have a decorated BCB and the likes. Its good that KLD is fronting up and is prepared to listen to the issues. There's a chance he's unaware of some of the issues, as I doubt people at the club are desperate to tell him when fans are having problems so this, tied to his statement where he's said he wants improvements, should give him a good idea of exactly where the issues are and hopefully he can quickly address some of them and try to quell any disquiet I've seen some suggesting KLD should sell up, but I certainly don't think it's anything like that bad at this stage. What he does need is a more dynamic COO who understands the club and the fans, gets improvements made, and generally stops the owner from having to get involved like this again
I'm good thanks mate, good to see you're still around on here, you're a miss over the road. Need to grab a pint sometime and chew the fat about the club!
TBH I'd be appalled and amazed if our owner was spending his time checking on the table & chair arrangements in the BCB for a game. And, as you say, people unsure on making decisions or doing stupid things, won't be running to him holding their hands up. KLD has a club to run, serious issues to address and huge finances to govern ... ... but some want him to be checking to see if we have XXL away shirts, whether the seagull poo has been cleaned up in the South Stand or if all the hand driers are working in the Premier Concourse toilets. Of course the buck stops with him, in every respect, but I wish I could be at the club every day sorting this stuff out ... I'd jump high and make sure everyone jumped with me
That's the thing, all they need is a COO who can do the job and who understands the fans. As you say, if any of us were there we'd be making sure the standards were high and would never have taken some of the decisions that have happened recently. I think a lot expect Bruce to eventually take over Davisons role. I haven't met Bruce yet (just heard him speak at the recent rawa talk in) but those who have say he comes across really well and seems to "get it" in a way that Davison simply doesn't. Davison is a canny bloke, and definitely a sunderland fan, but he's just not been half as proactive as he should have been in terms of making sure things are running as they should. But aye, KLD definitely shouldn't be directly overseeing every little thing personally and I'd be very worried if he was! If things don't improve, and get worse on the pitch, then he'll naturally get criticism, but at the minute we need to make sure he's actually aware of the problems people are having and give him the chance to sort it
