Guaranteed some will be unhappy no matter where they go, there's so much more development around the ground planned and in progress that what ever location they choose there will be issues. The club did say the family zone was moving to the PC next season, so logic would say that's the best time to do it as there is a naturally free area for season card holders to move into, if the away fan location is moved down
I am a member of RAWA Chunk and appreciate they have done some good things in the past but at the moment they are in danger of becoming the political wing of RTG. People like me are to blame for that because we are happy with the direction the club is moving and don't ask pertinent questions, we leave that to the more extreme members who are not and will probably never be satisfied with the club and constantly criticise them. RTG have a member of RAWA posting regularly, and takes questions from there and submits them to the meetings. Nothing against this particular poster, who in my opinion is very good and level headed, but it would be more representative if the more moderate Not606 could also have an input and have our questions forwarded to the meetings. I know that I could submit questions directly but they would represent my thoughts and not those of this board.
All forums should be allowed an input into questions being proposed. I'm not sure how many safc forums there actually are? I'm aware of 1 more other than here and rtg? I will send the Rawa lad a message on rtg and see what he says about popping over
I won't put this on your RAWA thread, Chunk as its not what you're looking for, but my only question for KLD would be "can you promise to ignore all of the negative bollocks and continue to run the football club as well as you have been?" I know that's not helpful but it's the way I feel.
The main questions are really, will we be signing in January, what are the club's ambitions. Answers will be 'hopefully' and promotion. We all want the same thing.
PS apologies in advance for the long post, just typed it and thought "****, should put a disclaimer at the start!". Feel free to ignore it, it's not very good anyway!! While I'm on and struggling to sleep, I just thought I'd give a reply to this one! When questions are asked it's certainly ideal if the asker has a potential solution. Not always easy though. For example one of the main things people contact me about (and one of the reasons why it's good to have a group like rawa who can contact the club) is when they try to get in touch with Chris Waters and don't hear back because he's got too many other queries. Where there's urgent things (like the lads who contacted me 2 days before the derby because they had bought their seats but the club had covered them up with the segregation, which affected around 300 fans) I can reach out to the club and try to help them get an answer (in this case they moved the segregation and all was well). The solution is pretty obvious, have more than one person to take supporter concerns, given the number of fans we have. But of course that ultimately comes down to budget and resource so we could suggest it, but it's not any use unless the club are happy to implement. In terms of solutions one thing I'd like to propose at the meeting is the idea of getting a working group(s) set up for some of the off field stuff. There isn't time in the meeting to bring up everything, discuss it in detail and get a resolution, and then you wait months for the next one. Take BCB and hospitality. A few people have said they were unhappy in the BCB even prior to the mags match. Simple things like the food being taken away, the replacement "funky street food" that you could purchase now just being pies from the concourse, not being able to go to Quinns bar after the match like they could before. Not necessarily major stuff, but some might stop going if they don't think it's good value. So I'd like to see the club get people together. Not just the same old faces that attend the meetings, but invite some fans in those areas to discuss the issues, say what works, what doesn't, what they'd like to see by way of improvement. One rep from the club (doesn't have to be someone senior), a few affected supporters. The ideas could be costed up either there and then or the club could do it after. Then elements could be approved (presumably by a COO with budget from the owners) and genuine improvements could be announced. Some of which wouldn't cost a penny, others would pay for themselves. Cost of living is a huge thing at the minute, rightly so, but equally some would be prepared to pay a bit more if the service was good enough, so it could help slightly boost revenue. The owner doesn't need to know or address the nitty gritty, just commit to people finding time to discuss issues with fans to hopefully improve things. In terms of asking questions, rawa don't actually claim to be the voice of all sunderland fans (no one could be). All they claim to do is try to represent their members. So aye, raising questions at open meetings or via email etc is the best way to submit one. Equally rawa wouldn't do anything major (like plan protests or owt) without polling the membership, to ensure they're behind it. This is where they differ from fanzine and the likes, if a few lads running WMS, RR or whatever wanted to kick off and start a KLD out protest they could just do it tomorrow. RAWA wouldn't. In practice though, anyone can raise a question for consideration without being a member. I'll try and pop on here before meetings to take any questions from people on here, members or not, and I do the same on the smb. Even if people think rawa are a bag of ****e I'll still happily raise a query for them
Whenever I see people asking for money to be spend on 'this and that' it reminds me of the Short era with 'pot plant fiascos' etc. It's clear we are trying to run a pretty tight Championship club without the benefit of parachute payments. But improvements people think should be made immediately like the tannoy system, big screen, away supporters, etc, could quickly add up to the cost of a signing. Something I've wondered about is the use of volunteers to help things like Chris Waters, ticketing, club shop, etc. There are some very sensible and reliable people, some retired, who have time, experience and technology. Rather than taking ages to explain I'll give a possible scenario. Let's say a 'helpline page of the club website' is staffed by volunteers, very easy. A virtual office, even real eventually, could be created and helped by more volunteers. For example ... An enquiry comes to Chris Waters by email but passes through the website. Chris responds by email but the response also goes on the website. Any further questions, on the same issue, can be handled by volunteers who can direct people to Chris's response or reply by email themselves. Ideally it would save Chris answering the same question 100 times and means everyone everyone would receive an answer. In many cases there could be a rolling FAQ so people could get an answer to a current issue just by looking at the page. One of the biggest gripes seems to be ticketing and also supporters not being able to speak to anyone at the club. I'd imagine it's a very time consuming job dealing with SC enquiries, matchday tickets, etc. If accredited volunteers were involved it could free up a huge amount of time for club staff and ensure supporters receive a response. I'd imagine they'd have to deal with whoever the ticketing agency is. This is all of the top of my head, so not thought through, but it's virtually cost free so worth people considering it perhaps.
To be fair, you can join for free and attend their meetings. There was a Zoom call last week for people to ask/suggest questions
That's true, but it's quite likely some people. on here, don't even know they exist. I don't think there's any harm in RAWA popping the same info on here as elsewhere.
It would be good to have a single voice of the fans, although I don't know what difference it makes as this ownership group are dogmatic to the point of pig headed stubbornness. Not saying it's all bad, but 3 years later we still have a PA system that doesn't work in all parts of the stadium, terrible service at the kiosks, horrific wifi, away fans in the upper tier, no netting and a scruffy stadium
All good suggestions, but possibly fraught with data and privacy issues etc, especially when dealing with volunteers and access to ticketing etc. Happy to be corrected on that though. I don't think it would be a great look for the club either to have what are essentially face to face customer services being managed by relying on volunteers
My concern with the stadium is the roof and the paint flaking off the steelwork. The roof especially is over 25 years old now and probably reaching the end of its serviceable life, I know we are "managing repairs" but at some point soon it will need major works. The coating flaking off the steels is also a concern as at best it will speed up the corrosion at worst its intumescent paint and potentially a fire risk (would need to see the specs to confirm though)
May all be true mate, no idea about the legalities but a simple disclaimer might solve. People would always have the current option so we wouldn't be relying on volunteers, just an additional resource. And that resource is extensive imo. I love seeing people ranting about finances, etc, then seeing Grumpy Old Man shoot the 'facts' down with a single line or a link to the reality. I'd think it would attract a lot of people, who'd want to be involved, and take a lot of weight off Chris Waters, etc. I roll my eyes when people are asking about something totally trivial and someone will inevitably say 'message Chris Waters ... ... then moan the following week when he hasn't waded through all the chaff and not responded.
