Last night, James Mooney held the second of his Fan Group meetings, there were a lot of last minute cancellations, so there were actually only six of us, along with the three people representing various aspects of the club - James Mooney(City), Henry Crane(Catering) and Pete Curry(SAG). Most of what was discussed has already been detailed on the previous meeting report by AN and by PLT's report on here, so I won't repeat it all, but my thoughts... The new food - pies, hot dogs(two sizes) and burgers(I believe there's also two of these, we just got the premium option) - were a vast improvement on the fayre on offer previously, as long as the food can be served to this standard on the concourses, people should be much happier. There are some other options being discussed, including some Indian street food, but these were not available for us to try. We had a discussion on getting a more local slant on the food and I suggest the local delicacy of pattie and chips should be available in the ground, but all the fryers have been removed due to fires and burns when we had them previously, so this isn't an option(but having this option outside the ground, as part of a fan park is a possibility) - A fan park is something that is being investigated, it would involve food, drink and live bands etc in West Park. Following on from the discussions held at the last meeting, a lot of time was spent on expanding the discussion on the role of the SAG and the policing of games. We stressed that we thought it was very important for there to be fan representation on the SAG and this is something that is going to be investigated. There are some aspects, such as tactical policing etc, that the fans could not be involved in, but there was a feeling that on other aspects, fan involvement would be beneficial and hopefully something will come of this. A fair bit of time was spent on the resentment caused by the filming of fans inside the ground and the police treatment of visiting fans from foreign clubs at previous matches, something that everyone agreed needed to be avoiding during our current Europa League campaign. There was a general feeling that policing within the ground was completely disproportionate to the risk at a modern day football match and that this needs to be addressed, not least because our policing costs are ridiculously high. The police decide the segregation numbers and there was a general feeling that the segregation has traditionally been excessive, it's hoped than only four rows of seats on each side of the away fans will be left empty this season. Personally, I'd like to see that reduced further, plenty of other grounds have nothing more than a row of stewards and I'd like to see that implemented at City. Season tickets - There has been a fair bit of confusion about season ticket numbers, so to clarify - We've now sold 15,700 season tickets, along with 3,000 corporate seats, so a total of 18,700, which is roughly 500 down on last seasons 19,200. There's a significant amount of new season ticket holders. New appointments - We have a new press officer, Stewart McCullough, who has joined us from Newcastle Falcons. The meeting was cordial, the elephant in the room reared it's head occasionally, but obviously wasn't going to go anywhere, so wasn't particularly pressed. It's obvious from recent releases, the Twitter name change(hope Facebook to follow) etc that 'Hull City' is being used more often, please keep this up City. The aim for these meetings to become a monthly event, with the same group attending each meeting and I hope to remain part of that group.
Cheers OLM. Although I know you were elsewhere last night. http://news.sky.com/story/1316975/disruptive-passenger-forces-london-jet-u-turn
Any idea why a friend of mine who wanted to buy a (new) season pass was yesterday told the club weren't selling any more?
From the reports of the 2 meetings of the fans groupt it seems a positive OLM / PLT. why do we need police inside the ground ? The KC stadium on match days must be one of the safest places in Hull, I bet there's more arrests in the city centre during a footy game .
Did you ask why that prat Mooney thought it would be a good idea to swear in a photo for the kits being stocked?
They were only on general sale for a week (as was clearly published on their website), presumably to give them enough time to process them and send them out before the first home game. After the current order of season passes have been processed and delivered I imagine they'll re-open the sales and he'll be able to get one then.
Without a doubt. ^^^^^ this. As for the segregation, ONLY one row of seats either side of each gangway should remain unsold and occupied by stewards. The club should not let this drop. Whilst the clueless fuzz(in charge) continue there stupidity then we should deduct lost earnings from the bill. These meetings IMO should be open to a new group each time. The club needs to hear as many differtent opinions as possible. The fan park outside is a great idea without a doubt. Can we have the Ming City Rockers as the first act please ? Great local band. Crazy not to. As long as people want them then sell them.
Yeah you would hope so, I think they probably should have given new pass holders longer to buy them, a week isn't that long, especially when people we're given 3 months + to decide if they wanted to renew or not.
I have no idea why he was told that, but I'd assume that once all the current applications have been processed, passes will be on sale(I believe there's a plan to put half season passes on sale too).
One thing I forgot, there was actually nothing in the stadium rules about fans in the home end wearing away colours, so there was little the club could do about this issue. This has now been addressed and new stadium rules state that anyone wearing away colours in the home stands will be asked to remove those colours, if they do not do so, they will be ejected. This is to be rigorously enforced from now on.
What is an Elephant in the room if you don't mind me asking??? I don't get it or is it American office speak for something objectionable
"Elephant in the room" is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed. The name change.
That and the Fan park idea is probably the most productive out of these two meetings. Hopefully the stewards are going to enforce it all
