I'll very briefly and very mildly defend Geraghty - he made this contribution to the No To Hull Tigers campaign: “My own personal view is that I'm against any change of name. I first went to see City play in 1946. It was City then and it should be City now. Back in the 19th century, our forefathers fought for city status for Hull and I think it would be an insult to them if this was allowed to happen. More recently, we have fought tooth and nail to be the UK City of Culture in 2017. If the club stays in the Premier League then surely it will get all the worldwide publicity and exposure it needs without having to change its name”
Although it would have been a nice touch to give their fans a welcome of some sort, I'm not sure it's necessary. Going by the word of a Lokeren, the main reason their council put on the food and drink stalls is because the town didn't have enough pubs to accommodate our fans. Hull already has the facilities; pubs, cafes, restaurants etc to give them a good day out or three. And if you're saying we need to put on special entertainment in order to encourage them to come back in the future, then that's a pretty damning verdict on the city. Let the city and it's people speak for itself.
At least Visit Hull & East Yorkshire have got people at the ferry terminal, giving Lokeren fans details of local attractions... please log in to view this image
This will do more harm to the city rather than the football club. The lack of welcoming by HCC will leave a bad taste in some Lokeren fans' mouths, and only HCC are to blame. That prick Geraghty will do anything to punish football fans, but it's the city that will suffer the most and continentals will bad-mouth us (and rightly so) for this massive blunder. When 1,400 tourists come to the city en masse; you make a f**ing effort.
That goes a little way to a 'welcome' , I wish I was in a position to do more for them I wasn't at the last away leg but have read all about the welcome you guys got Hopefully see some of you tonight Mike
From where I am, it would appear that both Geraghty and Allam need their heads knocked together. Seriously and severely. Whilst there may be very little in the way of funding available, a statement of "WELCOME TO ALL LOKEREN FANS", made jointly by City and HCC, would not cost much. It'd be to the benefit of both bodies. And, who knows, it might possibly lead to an end to the short-sighted, nit-picking attitudes of both principals.
Radio Humberside have interviewed some fans as they got off the ferry and some were NAC Breda fans who said they'd come to support Lokeren. It was NAC Breda fans that bottled us, which is a bit of a worry.
Steve Brady has said that the council now have some people at the ferry terminal to welcome arriving fans. Better late than never.
That picture was actually taken last night, seems like they're all gathering in Admiral at 3, should be quite some atmosphere tonight.
Tweeters can follow what's going on by following/searching @HCAFCinEurope and @KSCLokeren, there's plenty of fans talking to each other.
To be fair how would a tent selling beer encourage people to visit Hull? They need to see the City not be herded into a small area to drink. I barely spent any time in the beer tent in Lokeren, if I had I wouldn't have seen how nice the rest of the town was. I get that it would be nice to have a communal area for fans to gather but that's not how to increase tourism.
