I liked getting the pin badge, I put them all on a red cap that I wore to the matches, It got a bit heavy and I lost a couple of the badges, so stopped wearing it, but I am now getting the Annual Poppy badges for each year instead.
I don't think the money saved from not sending out a pin badge to each of our ST holders will come anywhere close to even a weeks wages for a new signing
What annoyed me is he started by saying: some teams are spending big… Now I thought he was going to ask if we planned to match that ambition. But all he wanted to know was how spending worked with PSR. Sheesh.
I’m with the club on this. The fan experience has been improved dramatically with the new fan zones. Once we start winning games and looking good again the atmosphere will just get better and better. At the end of the day football is a commercial business and you can’t succeed by giving everything away at a discount. It’s a huge leap to suggest that the club doesn’t care about fans because they are not giving this or that discount or blooming pin badges!
The fan zones are a pain in the backside. They make it difficult to get back to the car and more stressful if you are on a meter. Would be really impressed if the club would pay for any parking fines !
And it’s really inconvenient for me having the stadium in St.Marys. The club should pay for my Uber. Or move the stadium to Shirley.
We'll have to agree to disagree mate. I'm against the fan zone concept and don't like the new stadium layout either but that of course highlights that you'll never please everyone. Those things weren't done for the fans though, they're money makers. Nobody is saying give everything away though. Literally nobody. The point is that as a very rich business with a loyal customer base then it would be nice to have the occasional token gesture to show gratitude to those people rather than constantly thinking of more ways to squeeze more money out of them. I don't think it is a huge leap, the club previously used to do things such as the occasional free scarf or drink or whatever. These cost absolutely minimal in the grand scheme of things but can make a huge difference in improving that relationship between club and fans. £150k on just one gesture is problem less than one month of Lallana's wage from last season and he didn't play a single minute for months - I know where I think it'd be better spent. I suppose it comes down to whether fans want success at any cost or whether they value other things highly too. But I certainly don't feel valued by the club having a £15 season ticket discount after our worst season ever and being punished for the minority of people who chucked it in last season.
I actually didn't think that was that bad after the first few games, was a nightmare at first but they managed it quite well in the end. My issue with the fan zones are that they damage local businesses and in my view provincial clubs like ours should complement those rather than compete with them.
It was just part of the package received with the physical ticket, a promotional thing and a link with Club itself, at one time we got a CD of the previous season. With the advent of Digital you don't get a pack or a physical ticket and so no badge either. It's only dinosaurs like me that can't handle the digital thing.
I know things are bad at the moment but I am still capable of enjoying the good times from the past, some of that is on those CD's.
Fans who attend games are regularly being conned. Some are aware and still go because of love for their club, I understand and respect that. But what does get under my skin is telling the supporters "you are our greatest asset", "we are nothing without you" "we march on together" etc etc. And at the same time fleecing those same fans for every penny they can squeeze out of them. Tickets Replica shirts Refreshments Hospitality Merchandise All of the above are expensive, some are understandable but would it be be too much to give, for example, discounted refreshments to home fans* or cheaper replica shirt prices**? A relatively small but worthy gesture to the fans. *I don't know if you can have different pricing for home and away but a loyalty scheme of some sort could get around that. ** I don't know how much income the club gets from shirt sales, as I think the suppliers get the bulk of it and it is they who set the prices. But the club must be able to influence the costs somewhere down the line. Also, when you consider how good the away support was for one of, if not the worst seasons in the club's history then maybe recognising them would be a valid gesture. That could be in any number of ways such as discounted travel, discounted away ticket prices or a spending coupon or something similar.
