I saw the queues when walking to Atyeo, could not believe it. I would expect at least a free ticket for a game and a sincere apology for treating fans so badly. Steve Lansdown runs a very successful business so why can't he bring his business model to City. We are customers as well as supporters and should be treated as such. The scanning should have been sorted out way before Saturday. I have also found that you can see numbers of staff behind the perspex windows willing to tell you that they are not open, but not keen to open early. It's unbelievable that members of the board/managment were not aware of what was going on. It's bad enough being a joke on the field let alone off it as well. What the **** must Bradford supporters think of us as a club? what a welcome to league one for some of them. Or are we saying we are set up for crowds of no more than 10,000???????
Unfortunately there's too many people at the club that don't have a clue, and management that seems to think that pleasing people on twitter is the way forward. I bought a ticket at 11.50 and strolled into the ground about 2.30. So I seem to be one of the lucky ones. I expect the usual "its everyone else's fault" from kev smith, with Jon Lansdown writting a message in crayon to people that complain.
I think a genuine public apology on the club O/S should be given and somebody should get a hefty boot right in the rear, it was shameful to see the struggle to get into our own ground......
After selling fanzines got to Atyeo gate just before kick off. Bag searched then into turnstyle, only to see it gaffa taped up, as was the next one to it.both myself and the bloke next to me walked out to go to next gate only to be told that have to hand card to attendant. Common sense would suggest that one of the three or so stewards checking bags could have passed on that information when checking my bag. Doh! whoops sorry shouldn't use the term common sense when discussing anything to do with City administration should I?
They had 4 turnstiles not open in the Dolman when I arrived, they then opened 2 and just checked your card. I never understand that in those situations we have shown our season tickets to get into the Dolman bar so just let people through the doors that way.
The ONLY bit of authority that appeared to be in evidence was when someone made the decision to send the Bradford fans to the away end which meant that they hadn't travelled hundreds of miles for nothing and in fact, they probably only missed 10 minutes or so of the game. Clearly someone made this decision (which was the right thing to do) but I wonder why Bradford fans were sorted whilst OUR OWN FANS just had to lump it. Totally unacceptable and like I said, there are NO EXCUSES as I was asking for management to come and sort it out from 2.30pm onwards so if I hear anything even remotely like "the printer didn't work, there was nothing we could do", I am going to go ballistic I thought I would have calmed down a bit by now but in fact, the more I think about it, the angrier I get - the staff on the ground were obviously given no direction/instruction: Why did the head steward (who knew about the problem) do nothing..? Where was the stadium manager and why did he do nothing Were senior management/the directors informed..? - if not, WHY NOT (as I was begging for this for nealrly an hour) if they were, WHY DID THEY DO NOTHING..?
Just looked on the website. plenty about the game, nothing about the cock up, perhaps they think if they don't deal with it, it will go away???
You're not on your own Prem, a load on OTIB agree with you except for the usual few... http://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?/topic/156223-i-wont-be-going-again/
When I rocked up early doors stewards I asked didnt even know what time tbe ticket office opened. The disdain for fans has been a long term thing from the club, unlees there is money to be made, or a photo opportunity. Dont get me wrong, it's a business I get that, but they seem more bothered about the community than the actual fans.
Listen guys, no axe to grind here honest - this is not an inter-club issue. Do you not think that the problem here lies at the top? Ultimately, the structure at any business, and a football club is just that, is put in place to enhance its' image as well as profitabilty, not draw criticism from its' customers. Failure to recognise deficiencies in companies at all levels is poor governership, particularly when it's a broadly customer dependent business. Maybe SL is too far removed from the nuts and bolts that are required to build it, and his son Jon just not the right guy to organise it. Pushing through change is an uneasy task for some who are charged with the resposibility. Maybe you need a new CEO to stamp some business professionalism at the club? You know far more than us about your own club, but from outside looking in, it doesn't look good when you hear about this sort of cock up.
Reply to redexile's comment about the official website not mentioning the screw up at the turnstiles. They treat the fans in the same way and if they don't address them then they will probably go away as well, but perhaps having supporters is just a nuisance to the top brass and they would like to play to an empty stadium. Message to management "keep up the commitment to your supporters as you did yesterday and you will be playing in front of poor crowds". You could have added revenue yesterday but you chose to do your usual lousy job of running Bristol City and it will come back to bite you just like it did last season. Apologies and positive action is needed if you wish to appease the angry supporter base you ticked off yesterday and ignore it at your peril you bunch of no-brainers.
Sounds like a right c*ck-up Will be interesting to see what they say. They have to start treating people like customers (who vote with their feet if things are wrong) rather than fans (who put up with virtually anything to support their team). I bought a 10-year debenture seat about 8 years ago (we were near the bottom of League 1 - Tinman had just gone). It was not cheap (and I am not rolling in money), but decided to go for it as because I live so far away, I always get to the ground before 2pm, so I have somewhere to go. However, when I'm in the ANC Lounge I constantly get the feeling that they are more worried about the one-off corporate people than me.
Positive would have been to open the gates at 3pm and let people in for nothing. That would have been great publicity and ensured fans returned, rather than penny pinching for a few hundred and pissing loyal fans off. Time will tell if City learn anything from this???????
As much as I agree with what your saying, so please don't jump down my throat on this next bit. But that is one of the major factors that caused the Hillsborough disaster. I know we don't have fences no more but you can just imagin what would happen if they done that and someone got injured the fine would probably ruin us now.
Until City get Pay on the Day sorted I won't be attending any games at Ashton Gate I can't stand for hours in the hope of getting a ticket in fact I find it difficult to stand for more than 15 mins. Also due to the injuries I have to my legs I can not buy in advance as even deciding the day before sometimes backfires and the next day I can't drive let alone walk. I doubt if I am the only City fan who lives far from the ground and has to make decisions about going on the day.
Sums city up this. Yesterday fans were waiting for the EE bar to open. It didn't. No explanation no signs **** all
The BASIC function of the club aside from the football is to sell tickets to punters. They cant even manage that, so you really expect them to manage to open a bar that isn't run by the catering company.
