I would agree with that. Overall not a huge problem (I enjoyed my trip to Wembley) but the club could be more open about where we are. Tired of fans of other clubs coming on here and saying I hear it will be December/February/August and we can't really say they are wrong. I bet Chris Cowlin feels like a fool now being very vocal about the Pool game being at THS.
Life is imperfect. This spring we had 2 options. Either we committed to a full season at Wembley and all the dissatisfaction that brought or went for broke and completing the stadium on time. Neither was without its down side. We opted for trying to return home and if most fans had been polled, I am sure that would have been the strong preference. As it is, we're going to get in there mid-season. I'm still pretty sure that would have been the winner of the only 2 possibilities. So, we're going to be a bit creative for a few games? Maybe switch a cup tie or use another stadium? It's not ideal another season at Wembley would have been worse, in my view.
Playing at Wembley a little longer isn't a disaster, but the communication between the club and the supporters has been. We're being treated shoddily as customers, never mind fans. Levy's done a very good job during his time at the club and this doesn't change that, for me. His failure to put out a clear and simple message about where we stand right now is his lowest moment, though. Sacking Martin Jol during a game comes a close second.
If more than half a season at new WHL is achieved, that is fine by me. Of more concern is that the squad do not have their "bearings" when it comes to playing for real on the new pitch (we discussed last season that players do attune to "reference points" in the home stadium when judging long passes etc) .
They probably don't know how long the fix will take yet. Do you want to play at Wembley for more matches than necessary? I would expect match by match updates which is what we are getting.
I've had a very clear statement emailed me to me with my options. I get a better seat for the same price or my money back. I'm not sure what more I could expect really.
To be told what the situation was before buying a season ticket, perhaps? Getting updated on the stadium not being ready before it leaked to the media, maybe? The communication between the club and the fans has been terrible. We don't even know what the problem is now or how long it's going to take to sort it out. Either the club knows and isn't telling us or they don't know either. I don't know which is worse.
I've been in a similar situation in my own company. If you find a possible delay then the last thing you want to do is to announce it as that takes all the pressure off every sub-contractor. You don't have any option but to tough it out until the deadline is definitely going to be missed or you end up with a self-fulfilling delay. There will also be confidentiality clauses to protect the reputation of the contractors from partial information leaks. I suspect that what has happened is that there has been an major installation cock-up with the wiring such that it is failing tests but it isn't yet clear what the cause is or how much it will take to fix it. There is really nothing that can helpfully be made public about that.
The difference is that this is not just another company and people were leaking information anyway. Levy failed to inform the supporters of the situation and also failed to control the narrative. Now the club looks amateurish, the companies involved look even worse and our schedule is a shambles.
Being a high profile company with a big project just makes it even harder to manage. Any announcement at the time Season Tickets were being sol to the effect that the stadium might be delayed would have had the certain result that it would be delayed. That would have been amateurish. Some problems have no solutions. The only way to complete on time would have been to have 6 months contingency which would effectively meant opening next August. Mace won't have much reputational damage. Everyone know that that 20% overrun is par for the course in this sort of project. They look gutsy for trying.
For reasons best known to very few, the club operates a PR policy that the less they say, the better. I think it's wrong but it is consistent. Whilst ENIC remain in charge, it won't change.
Their lack of transparency has long been a pain in the backside considering how it applies to pretty much everything to do with the club. Case in point, the Retain/Release list is the only way anyone can know if a youth player has been offered a new contract as the club only bothers to announce when players sign professional contracts.
It’s not the way a club should be run imo. I know we are in an age where money is power but football clubs are all about love and emotional with fans so to just treat us like consumers is wrong.
More than anything else, we live in the information age, so no news can be spun into bad news with remarkable speed and efficiency.
This is bordering on farcical now!... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...cs-1bn-stadium.html?__twitter_impression=true
