Boycott the Southampton game

I shall be outside before kick off but won't be go through the turnstiles at kick off. I am also not renewing my LUTV and programme subscriptions, nor shall I spend another penny in the club shop while Bates remains. I will also not sign myself and my kids up for membership next season. This unambitious chairman will not get any more money from me, this is the only way to stop him, even if it means losing all our best players (happening anyway) and getting relegated again. Bates, like Ridsdale, does not deserve a place in football. The thing is, fans struggle to be strong and rally together until it is too late. Snodgrass will be gone in July, Clayton will follow, and then it will simply become a procession with players like White, McCormack and Lees not renewing contracts due to a total failure by Bates and Grayson to build a strong squad at a club that has the biggest turnover outside the Prem (excluding parachute payments of course), and has a bigger turnover than most Prem clubs (excluding the Sky money). How we can't pay decent wages is beyond me.

 

Well said sir. I've been preaching this since the start of the season. Pity we can't get through to the thousands with their heads in the sand

 

I witnessed the protests yesterday, quite a healthy turnout, a couple of thousand, & fairly vociferous. Then I had a look in the club shop, absolutely mobbed with fans lining Bates' pockets.
A real divide amongst the fans is developing, those who are vocal in their hatred of Bates, & those who are apathetic about the whole situation, & unfortunately it's the latter category who will continue to outnumber any protesters.
I honestly don't think people can be bothered anymore. They'd rather just bury their heads in the sand & live in hope that we'll be promoted on a shoestring, & it's because of this apathy that Bates will continue to do just as he pleases.
He knows he can get away with it.

 

I'm actually starting to hate those people, and I'm not pleased with myself for it. Leeds fans should be equals and comrades, but at this time, these scabs are chucking money at Bates. The analogy of paying a rapist for buggering you comes to mind. I hope we can picket the club shop and point out that these pathetic-minded scabs aren't doing their duty as Leeds fans by boycotting the club's income streams.

NO MORE DOUGH TO MONACO

 

Hope you didn't buy a program then 18 or you would be talking through.

 

I've not bought anything from the club since my season ticket, and I'm giving that up at the end of the season. It's only the fans' money that keeps Bates in his job here. Remove that and we can remove him.

By the way, the programme is crap judging by the free copy I got before the Newcastle friendly. The Square Ball is more fan-friendly, cheaper (1.50 not four bloody quid!), more interesting and more entertaining. I buy that instead.

 

not paid a handling fee for away tickets then.

 

Yes, but that's where I'd draw the line. An indirect payment in order to watch the team which only gives Bates a quid is minor, I think. I know it's subjective to draw the line there, but I think that if we have, say 20,000 fans who watch Leeds away from home next season and they register with the club, that still won't give them a lot of cash. Luxuries from Elland Road itself, on the other hand, like home match tickets, programmes, beer, replica shirts, merchandise, food etc. can be cut out quite easily and will hit Bates very hard.

I'll be getting my away tickets from the ground whenever possible next season though so I don't put more money in his pocket. Take all the money Bates gets from away-going fans as opposed to home-going fans and it is tiny in comparison. The Elland Road income stream needs to be severed.

 

so a fan who goes 10 away games and gives ken 10-15 pounds in ticket fee's is ok.But the dad who buys his son a present in the jan sales is a scab.right got it.

 

I said I'm not happy with thinking of it as scabs per se, but that's the way it's going. Like I say, think of the overall picture.

20,000 fans buy away tickets - Bates gets **** all - one players' wages for two weeks. Or factor in memberships and it would be around 650,000. Which would be one player's wages for one season. Still not a major contribution.

20,000 fans buy programmes, shirts, scarves, beer, pies, home tickets, merchandise - in excess of 20m quid. Can pay for anything Bates wants it to.

Like I say, it's subjective and I know it's not nice, but we can't keep lining his pockets with the Elland Road income stream; the second one I mentioned. That's where his financial support from fans comes from. Cut that off and we cut him off. Cutting out away tickets won't make a difference, but I admire those who will do that. It's the final sacrifice - only a small one with little effect - but one I don't think many will dare to make.

 

If you don't want to support the club then don't,but don't tell those that do how to do it.ken wont go till he's ready or dies.even if no fans went they would still be plenty for kens pocket out of the tv money.The only thing you would succeed in doing is giving him more of an excuse to sell players.

 

I know I'm agitating to try and get a point across, and I could be more diplomatic with my points, but we have to be together as a fanbase if we truly want Bates out. Not just to be together, but to work together, in fact. He's old and frail, not the strong paragon of resilience that he'd have you believe, and if he's intimidated and financially starved enough (even after player sales, TV money - which is about 7m in the Championship, so not much at all - and wage reductions), he won't have the funds to keep running the club and he won't be inclined to either.

He'll look for a buyer. That could happen within ten to eighteen months if people are willing to give up their STs and their input to the Elland Road income stream. I'm not physically forcing you not to pay Bates, I'm just suggesting it. And I will always support the club - supporting the club means doing what's best for it. And what's best for it is to have Bates out. And to get Bates out... that's right... you have to stop feeding him cash! But unfortunately supporting the TEAM on a HOME MATCHDAY contributes to this Elland Road income, the income that is keeping us in this situation.

No pain, no gain. This is the way it's got to be if we value the long-term future of our club over a few crap games at Elland Road in the short-term which keep a tyrant in charge.

 

If you think a few thousand not going would make a difference to ken your deluded.And that's all it will be.How do you know its not the few thousand that stopped going,that's the reason howson didn't get the contract he wanted.or the same with Max,johnson etc.?.I didn't join the membership this season,because i refused to give my money to ken,that was my choice,everyone will make there own.To try to dictate what others can or cant do just shows you have more in common with ken than you would like to think.

 

Don't be silly. Dictating is ordering, and I never ordered anyone personally to do anything, just suggested it. In the same way, I'd suggest Leeds fans didn't wear jester hats to games, didn't sit down when the stewards haven't gone round to them yet and didn't do the 'ahhhhh' on the end of 'you **** bastard' for about an hour! But I wouldn't order anyone not to do those things, and that's where me (and all sane people) and Ken differ in our styles.

How do I know that the few thousand not going wasn't enough to sign Howson? I don't. But I do know the club's just made 750k from the Arsenal game, as well as ****loads from TV money throughout the season which could no doubt finance a 7-8k wage rise for Howson if necessary. We also lost 5m in our last accounts for 'other costs', nearly a million on Yorkshire Radio and even more on court cases and lawyers. That money could have been used to sign Howson as well. No, should have been.

But like I say, if we have to feel the pain to get Bates out, and that involves losing some players, then it still has to be done. Think of the long-term future of the club. Bates could live for another 15-20 years if he really whacks on. If we boycott effectively, yes, we could lose three or four players now, but still get a new owner and rebuild over a season or two. Alternatively if people keep lining Bates' pockets, we could endure another decade of stagnant transfer policy, failed contract negotations, insults from Bates, flat home atmospheres, rip-off prices, poor football, building projects and lack of communication.

I know which I'd prefer. Football's a big part of my short life, and I don't want 10 years of it spent under this arsehole.

And the aim is to make it more than a few thousand who stop going. Let's face it, all but around 40,000 people max have stopped going to Elland Road on a regular basis now. The scum game proved that. We'd have sold that out any other year, especially after selling out for bloody Spurs. The boycotts will continue to gather pace as will the protests. The only people keeping Bates at the club are those who keep subsidizing him, and that's why I'll be cutting my Elland Road contributions down to zilch as of next season, and have stopped paying for extras as of the start of last season.

 

What makes you think the new owner would be better.?.The 1 before bates wasn't,maybe the glazers family would like another club,give ken 50 million and put the debt on the club like man u.anyone could do this.was reading earlier about Ipswich.cowboy bought their 20 mill debt for 4.5 mill and now charges interest on the 20 mill.
The other guy wanting to buy Leeds when ken did went bust a couple of years later,so if we had been sold to him we would have gone into admin twice now.

 

I can't think of many people who'd be worse than Bates.

I'll reiterate the charges against him: promised to rebuy ER and TA - failed, promised to get us Premiership football if we paid Premiership prices - failed, promised to find investment - failed and slagged off investors who come to him instead of him actively seeking them, called fans morons, said he wanted to kill the club, charged the unfairest prices in world football, failed to invest properly in the team, relegated us to the lowest point in our history, sold Delph and failed to reinvest the fee, paid 750k into a failing radio business which means we can't listen to our team on public radio and are forced to hear **** cmmentary, paid his lawyer mate Taylor 500k, took 5m out of the club in unexplained 'other costs', building a 70m hotel scheme which will fail even worse than his one at Chelsea and will burden us with debt for years to come, killed off our home atmospheres with pricing which incentivizes non-singers to go in the most passionate stands and Nazi stewards, watched good players leave with a shrug of the shoulders, tried to deflect blame onto fans and manager when he knows the buck stops with him.

*Phew*

Whoever takes us over after him, are you seriously saying they could do worse than that to our great club?

 

yes anyone with no money,spends 10 million on players on big wages,fail like Leicester go into admin and league 1 and start again.Go on tell me it can't happen again.

 

It can't happen again. There, I said it. Happens almost never any more in the game, and if the prospective owner has no money, where would they get the 10m? Bankers would be extra wary considering this is Leeds United, and wouldn't give them finance if they couldn't show anything for it.

At least 99.999% of people with any experience of running a business would be a better chairman than Bates. The football club pays for itself at this level - we don't NEED investment, it would just be a boost. We can buy players for ourselves, pay wages for ourselves, not have exorbitant ticket prices. As long as the owner didn't pillage the club and misplace its money like Bates has, we'd be fine. And almost no-one would do that. If the new owner failed to rebuy TA and ER, there'd be issues, but I think they'd be the first things on their list of acquisitions.

Ultimately, I'd rather take the tiny risk that we get a worse chairman than Bates than spend another decade under his jackboot. There's no way we'd get anyone worse though, so I don't even factor it as a risk.

 

Kill the patient to cure the cancer?

 

We need a new owner with the resources to finance a squad capable of winning promotion to the Premiership. All any of us want is an end to the devious disappearance of monies received from transfers and the pathetic players contracts on offer from the present owner. He needs to be removed as quickly as possible using whatever means available to us before the remaining half decent players we have are discarded as well. Leeds18's argument is the only logical way of forcing bates out. Starve him of finance, after all its all he cares about, and he will sell up. Make no mistake about it, we can never get a worse owner. To be honest, at the moment, this feels as bad as when we were in administration.