The latest assembly of the clubâs new fansâ working group met on Tuesday 2nd December. Hereâs what happened⦠In attendance: James Mooney, Commercial Manager of Hull City AFC Simon King, Marketing Manager of Hull City AFC Henry Crane, catering overlord John W, West Stand veteran Abraham Bill Shirley, for the Senior Tigers Tony Conway, HCOSC Ron Black, HCOSC chairman Rob Harmer, City Till We Die Ian Waterson, City Independent Nigel Edwards, East Stander Phil Dixon, North Stander Ryan Kerr, Not606 Dave White Nigel Hill George Machin, Hull boysâ league coach Peter Gamble, who knows stuff about marketing Andy Dalton, Amber Nectar editor and hooligan Angie Smith, âexiled until this regime clears offâ Ellie Cressey, Ben & Mike Gothard, for the Ulltras Ticket pricing for disabled supporters. Following the previous meeting, James Mooney has spoken with Ann Holland (the Fansâ Liaison Officer) and Ehab Allam, whoâve in turn spoken with the Premier League. âThere will be changes next seasonâ. Overall ticket pricing. â£16 may be too cheap, £50 is too muchâ. Again, costs will change next season. Not necessarily fall, however. After we asked, JM confirmed that the club is factoring in the effect relegation would have on 2015/16 prices, but assured us the club do that every season. Fair enough. West Brom Having taken up (and paid for) their allocation of 2,500, West Brom have only sold 1,300 tickets so far, while City themselves are far from erecting the sold out signs. That rather deflated James Mooney, whose job it is to fill the stadium. On this, he has a point â itâs only £16 after all, and he said the club is spending âabout £6,000 a monthâ on local advertising. He wondered aloud if fans can do more to drive ticket sales, particularly when itâs cheap. Granted, that isnât our job, but weâre all in it together⦠The clubâs twitter hashtag Thereâs perhaps no finer example of low-level aggravation of your own fans than the clubâs banishment of â#hcafcâ in favour of a Huddersfield Town hashtag. James Mooney, somewhat fed up with the issue we suspect, has said that the latter can go, but that the former cannot be reinstated until after the FAâs arbitration. We suggested â#hullcityâ as a compromise. JM wants to see the fansâ verdict, so weâll put a poll on the forums soon. Name change arbitration The club may be in a position to release a date for the final arbitration of its name change idea within the next couple of weeks. The club prefer not to have it during January, for fear it distracts Steve Bruce. The arbitrators have been finalised and City have submitted everything they can (boy, would we enjoy reading it). At this point, Simon King observed that City may still spend during the transfer window, but said itâd be the clubâs own money, not the ownerâs. Safety Advisory Group The club remains keen to have a supporter on the SAG, which governs policing and safety within the stadium. That person may come from its new working group. The SAG will reconvene in January to assess games in the second half of the season. JM cited this and other things as evidence that our monthly gatherings can pay dividends. City of Culture Angie Smith lauded one of the cityâs rugby franchises, Hull KR, for adopting the colours of the 2017 celebrations as a forthcoming away kit. JM said that club officials continue to meet the 2017 organisers, and Simon King said that one of its chiefs attending the Tottenham game as a guest of the Allams. SK believes it to be an opportunity to âshowcase our stadium and our clubâ, while some observed that Hull KRâs approach contrasted badly with Cityâs, who currently do not even feature the word âHullâ on their shirts. Premier League funding The funding that the Premier League offers clubs to make away travel more affordable is not, as previously discussed, going to be spent on Tiger Travel, which conveys only a minority of fans to most away games. Instead, it will be spent subsiding tickets â possibly the upcoming West Ham away game, though a decision has not yet been made. As for what we offer away fans, James Mooney said that the Football Supportersâ Federation has nominated City for an award for the facilities they offer. Tiger Travel Bill Shirley enquired about the cost of Tiger Travel. James Mooney said that he inherited the costs and structure of it when assuming his current role, and that it runs âabout at costâ. FA Cup draw Steve Bruce and Curtis Davies will be at the FA Cup draw in Hull next week. Reduced prices for any home game we receive are inevitable. Commerce Simon King introduced himself and his role. The corporate revenue is approximately £5.5m a year (gross), and prices remain towards the bottom end of the Premier League scale. He spoke of âloyal local sponsorsâ who perhaps became âdisengagedâ during our previous stint in the Premier League. The Cash Converters deal worked out very well for them, having signed a contract with a middling Championship club and ultimately sponsoring a Premier League side in the final year. When City came to renew, the quote was much too high for them. 12Bet now pay the most in the clubâs history, and âjust below midtableâ in the Premier League (itâs interesting how the club always ranks itself in a hypothetical league table of income, isnât it?) 12Bet had a choice of a few similarly-positioned clubs when entering the Premier League sponsorship market, but opted for City owing to our relative success last season. Another sponsor, not named, was looking at City with a clutch of other sides and opted for someone else based on League position. SK put forward the contentious assertion that a change of name could have garnered an extra £1m. Really, we wondered? Was this a firm bid? JM described it as a âHeads of Termsâ. SK was convinced that the clubâs tigery heritage is a huge draw in Asia, which no-one demurred. JM said that sponsors are âlooking for something differentâ. That got the meeting a bit tetchy, as often happens â itâs an impossible situation for James Mooney and Simon King really, being confronted with the dissatisfaction of the fans but having to represent their boss loyally. But it is still a silly idea. Luckily we moved on⦠Player sponsorship Tony Conway had the neat idea of restoring the advent of sponsoring a playerâs kit, or parts of it. Amber Nectar used to sponsor Brian McGintyâs socks, or something, and all we ever got was a weekly mention in the programme. Tony thought it a good way of re-engaging local businesses and fans, and indeed it could be. SK promised to look at it. Asia Trophy No news yet. Hurry up City, thereâs a lot of flowers and chocolates thatâll need to be bought if weâre going. Yorkshire CCC City are looking at ways of working with the reigning County Champions, Yorkshire CCC. As the countyâs only Premier League side and cricket in the region obviously on the up, more partnership makes sense. A few YCCC players may be at a future City game. Catering We like Henry Crane, his enthusiasm for the clubâs catering is quite splendid. This observer prawn-sandwiched it up recently, and was struck by the genuine quality of the offering. The club has now launched an app that you can use to pre-pay for half-time refreshments, and that is âmoving forwardâ and feedback is good. He wants to introduce a wider range of items too, including pizza. Sadly, offering concessions stands outside the stadium for mucky smokers isnât viable, as sales are low and it presents stewarding issues. Should our catering staff wear the colours of visiting clubs, asked Phil Dixon. Itâs not club policy, we were told. Though not club policy not to, either. Brightonâs offerings were praised â they have real ale, stay open after the game, and so on. It was therefore a little deflating when Henry told us that while their service is good, financially itâs not so hot⦠Yorkshire Teaâs link-up with the club is an example of the club linking products with advertise. Henry wants more of this. Simon King nodded along. After persuading the police that we are not, after all, a bunch of hooligans (wherever did they get that idea?), catering staff can now sell bottles to City fans in all areas without first decanting them. Moderately insane that the police once regarded an open bottle in the Upper West as a step towards civil insurrection, but at least City have made them see sense. They hope to extend this to away fans, too. Henry is âproudâ of Cityâs offering, and pointed out that beer is cheaper than all but Burnley in the Premier League (those imaginary League tables againâ¦) â and most people around the table noted that improvements are being made. Abraham asked whether an alliance with the mighty Hull Pie is feasible. As occasional patrons of that store weâd be in favour, however Henry thought that issues with volume could make it unfeasible, at least for now. Banners The Ulltras and another group involving Dave White are both busily created visual displays of support for Steve Bruce. The Ulltras have already ordered theirs, and the club has agreed to pay for it. The second one may also receive assistance from the club. JM said heâs keen to back this sort of thing, providing they are ânon-controversialâ. Standing John W asked about standing at away games. Man Utd was particularly horrific, and the club really urgently needs to look at how it keeps apart those who want to stand with those whoâd rather not, because quarrels at more fashionable grounds are a common occurrence. Itâs probably hard for City to sell an explicitly standing ticket to an all-seater ground, but there may be ways of doing it â City will think of something. We hope. We asked whether safe standing itself is something the club is currently thinking about. Not the mechanics of converting parts of the stadium to standing, more the need to change the legislation first. Simon King said it hasnât been raised at recent PL meetings. Perhaps it could be, we suggested? James Moony promised to minute that for discussion at an upcoming club meeting. Programmes City have seen a slight increase in programme sales recently, now up to around 2,700 per game. North Stand Rob Harmer complained about mouthy stewards in the North Stand causing difficulties. âReport themâ, was James Mooneyâs concise advice. PA attendance announcements Should we stop announcing them, it was asked? As one of the Premier Leagueâs smaller clubs, it only ever causes delight among traveling fans. Thatâs understandably something the club have never even thought about, but will do so. They were also asked about reading out away teams before kick-off. As veterans of Adam Pearsonâs FLC, we knew why â it was to stop away fans getting pumped up by cheering their heroes just before kick-off. Probably best to keep it that way. Second halves Why donât we kick towards the North Stand in the second half, queries Phil Dixon. That not only sends City towards their most partisan fans, but away sides away from their own. James Mooney promised to ask Curtis Davies about this, while SK said that Steve Agnew had spoken about this and he (SK) wasnât sure why it wasnât done more. Atmosphere That led in to a more general discussion of atmosphere. There do seem a couple of grassroots movements to improve things, with the Ulltras involved in many. Nigel Hill was unhappy about the switching of fans for this season, though most seemed in favour. JM was sceptical about why CTWD are getting involved in the debate, but said heâs happy to speak to anyone about the issue. Meanwhile, Caravan of Love before kick-off has been quietly dropped⦠Kids football George Machin, the local ladsâ Sunday League coach, said that Cityâs âruthlessâ approach to taking on young kids and then discarding them had left many of them deeply unhappy and reflected badly on the club. Both JM and SK spoke highly of Tony Pennock, who now oversees this sort of thing, and said it should no longer be happening, and that City will aim to keep kids on longer at the club. Crest With the 2015/16 shirt having already been signed off and a decision required fairly soon about its accompanying crest, the likelihood is that the un-named variant we see now will remain for another season, particularly as the FAâs arbitration is not expected yet. JM took the opportunity to stress that Assem Allam really will walk away if things go against him. Well, weâll see. And that concluded a 3¼ hour meeting. The club are aware that they need, in their own words, âsome winsâ to come from these â and if people are to still attend them, so do we. Movement on the hashtag, admittedly the ultimate example of a first world problem, is encouragement, though meatier subjects such as disabled pricing, safe standing and pricing continue to exercise many. And of course, the name change remains the elephant in the room, and will continue to be so until the FA finally says âNoâ. Again. But weâll continue attending, and letâs see how it grows. Unless the FA do something silly next year, of courseâ¦
Makes sense to kick towards the North Stand in the 2nd half now , I wonder why we don't , just habit ?
On the subject of quality local food being on offerat the ground, and problems with volume, it could perhaps be a way to turn two negatives into a positive. I understand the club are wanting to get people into the ground earlier, well perhaps a low volume of quality food on a first come first serve basis could help entice more people to get in earlier, particularly as there's nothing decent to eat close by.
Great that we are spending on local advertising, I've seen the advert on the floor of Paragon Station as passengers come through, thats great but the city centre presence isnt maximised by our store tucked away in the failing Princes Quay. Don't know about rents but why not try a pop up shop in a more prominant position over Christmas?
JM took the opportunity to stress that Assem Allam really will walk away if things go against him. Well, we’ll see. ARF! Was that meant as a threat?
We suggested “#hullcity” as a compromise. JM wants to see the fans’ verdict, so we’ll put a poll on the forums soon. It's the name of our club James. You ****wit.
Down here in Leicestershire there's often club staff round all over the place giving out flyers or whatever but just creating a presence. I was at a flaming Christmas lights switch on do the other day and there was a bloke from LCFC handing stuff out and chatting to people, persuading them to go along. It's not difficult, why can't our club do things like that? Specially targeting areas where people will take their kids, once you've got the kid sold on the idea then that's usually at least two seats sold.
It was suggested that it was initially possibly trialled in just one stand to see how they got on, this is being looked into. There's also a concern about cost, we had the option of a very posh pie that a local supplier makes for Marks & Spencer, but they would have to be triple the price of the current ones and it simply wasn't realistic.
He had no objection to the suggestion of #HullCity, he just wants the fans to confirm they're happy with it, so they stop getting the grief they're getting over #UTT.
Where has the democracy come from ? thought we were run by a dictator. No one tells me, read my CV, Bla Bla bla.
on the subject on Manchester United and Standing, despite getting smashed 3 nil and not having a bloody look in the atmosphere was one of the best away games I've been to this season. I wonder why....
The fans were perfectly happy with #hcafc. Can't he go all "rock 'n roll" and make an executive decision?
Atmosphere - JM was sceptical about why CTWD are getting involved in the debate, but said he’s happy to speak to anyone about the issue. I said it at the time and still think their involvement is unnecessary. Get the trust sorted, keep one eye on the name-change and let other groups sort the atmosphere - by all means participate as individuals, but not as CTWD.
Why? They are a fans group, run by fans for fans, they have as much right and qualification to get involved as anyone. The more perspectives included in the debate the better.
Some of us prefere it the other way...after all more City fans sit in the south...worked pretty well for us up to now !
Correct, seemed really quite noisy to me though or did it not carry as much as I thought it was doing. There was a pretty good effort of chanting singing going on for pretty much the whole game.
