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Will you be going to the KCOM next season, City fans?

Discussion in 'Hull City' started by originallambrettaman, Apr 18, 2018.

  1. originallambrettaman

    originallambrettaman Mod Moderator
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    Excellent piece by Phil Buckingham...

    Hull City's falling crowds at the KCOM Stadium have to be addressed before it is too late


    The Tigers are balloting fans to decide if concession tickets will return in 2018-19

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    April is the month that traditionally sees Championship clubs up and down the land embarking on those snazzy ad campaigns designed to entice another year of loyalty from its supporters.

    Cardiff City, who aim to follow Wolves into the Premier League, have set the bar high with a beauty this Spring. First-team players are shown mucking in with odd jobs around the stadium, painting lines and washing windows, all while singing the terrace anthem of “You are my Cardiff” one after another. “We are one, we are Bluebirds,” it concludes.

    Leeds United have come up with their own evocative video, too, detailing a supporter’s matchday journey to Elland Road. “It’s about a future we can all believe in,” says its narrator.

    Millwall, this season’s surprise package, have also been busy. The New Den has never looked so inviting than in a three-minute video that meanders through slow-motion replays of a remarkable season.

    Plenty more have set their marketing departments into overdrive this month, all with that perennial remit to attract as many supporters as possible back to their seats in August.

    And then there is Hull City. With less than three weeks of the current season remaining, a decision is still to be made over how the prices will even be set in 2018-19.


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    Empty seats have become increasingly common at the KCOM Stadium for Hull City fixtures
    After an initial ballot of 16,000 supporters was declared null and void when just 18 per cent cast a vote, a second ballot closes tomorrow morning presenting fans with another dilemma.

    Either you cast a vote to keep the current ticket pricing in place and thus block a return of concession tickets for juniors and senior citizens, or opt for a revised model that will see all adult supporters (the biggest demographic) pay either £540 or £612 for an annual pass to watch Championship football. Under-12s could spend a season in either the North or South Stand for just £36 but all memberships, complete with photo ID, would be non-transferrable.

    City will stress how they are giving supporters the power to choose which ticketing model best suits the club, but the most telling point about the two options is that neither is likely to bring back lost fans.

    This, lest we forget, is a club seeing its supporters walking away in worrying numbers. The current average of 15,540 (consistently inflated beyond the real gates) will almost certainly be the lowest since City moved to the KCOM Stadium midway through the 2002-03 season and is 10 per cent down on the club’s previous campaign in the second tier.


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    Hull City striker Abel Hernandez against a backdrop of empty seats at the KCOM Stadium
    Thousands of fans have ceased to visit the KCOM every other Saturday. They have found other pursuits with family and friends and though each will have their own reasons, be it opposition to the membership scheme, the absence of Premier League football or even just plain old apathy, luring them back will not be an easy task.

    History would suggest that crowds will fall again in 2018-19 as City settle back into life as a Championship club and only proactive steps can really halt the slide.

    It does not need saying that the current model, offering no concession tickets, lacks popularity. Crowds have fallen markedly since it was first implemented for the 2016-17 season and you only need cast the mind back to Brentford’s visit to the KCOM Stadium in April 2016 to understand the level of opposition.

    Thousands, not just hundreds, of red cards were held aloft in a protest more powerful than any staged directly against the club’s owners Assem and Ehab Allam in more recent times and the sentiment behind that message projected almost two years ago has not changed.


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    Hull City fans protest against the club's membership scheme in August 2016
    An alternative ought to be readily accepted but the figures proposed in this second ballot have made that difficult. Seniors could enjoy marginal savings if sat in the West or East Stands, the same as fans aged between 19 and 22, while anyone bringing children, particularly those under 12, also stand to benefit. Any fan aged between 23 and 65, however, would have to take a significant hit.

    A 12-month membership in the North and South Stand would rise from £252 to £540 (an increase of 114 per cent), while in the West Stand the leap would be from £468 to £612 (up by 31 per cent).

    The justifiable argument is that those who benefited most from the absence of concessions need to take on some of the financial burden for their return, but by that much? For a wavering 30-year-old, let’s say, who attends with his or her similarly-aged pals, that could prove the tipping point in what remains very much a working class city.


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    How many Hull City fans will return for another season at the KCOM? (Image: Getty)
    Perhaps in the coming days we will learn how supporters have voted. Perhaps not. If an 18 per cent turn-out was considered too low in the previous ballot last month, it is hard to envisage that figure being appreciably higher second time around.

    That will become clearer in the coming days and weeks but one thing is already painfully apparent. While the 23 other Championship clubs are doing everything in their powers to make sure every season pass holder is retained, City are giving reasons for supporters to think twice.
     
    #1
  2. AlRawdah

    AlRawdah Well-Known Member

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    It’s a powerful piece about how Ehab Allam continues his efforts to punish Hull City fans for his own rank incompetence.
     
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  3. balkan tiger

    balkan tiger Well-Known Member

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    Good piece.

    Look out for the next club press release saying it's too late to make changes for next season and prices / memberships will stay as they are.
     
    #3
  4. hu7tiger

    hu7tiger Active Member

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    Good article but can see him on the naughty step with burnsy
     
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  5. Chilton's Hundreds

    Chilton's Hundreds Well-Known Member

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    The fact is the first ballot should have been a simple question of

    "Do you want the club to offer concessions to a group of fans?"

    Then, if the answer was in the affirmative, a reasonable concession model could have been agreed and thrashed out in a few hours with the Supporters
    Committee.

    It really could have been that simple - done weeks ago - and the new packages for next season would have been on sale now.
     
    #5
  6. Deano's Volley

    Deano's Volley Well-Known Member

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    Those bellends really do make it hard to want to watch City anymore, I know i'll miss it if I don't go again at all but this season, more and more ive been finding excuses to not go and do other things and I can honestly say I haven't missed it. That's the saddest thing to me, been going since we were in division 4 and around the bottom in the league and I still loved going. Now it feels like a task supporting us. **** the Allams.
     
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  7. Girt Bucket

    Girt Bucket Well-Known Member

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    Aye 24 hours before the next scheduled game.
     
    #7
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  8. Barchullona

    Barchullona Well-Known Member

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    A good article but the type which should have beenmwritten some time ago. Same goes for Burnsey and RH's questioning of the Allams stewardship.
     
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  9. look_back_in_amber

    look_back_in_amber Well-Known Member

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    Excellent piece, well done Phil Buckingham, and thanks to OLM for pasting the full article rather than just a lazy link to that ultra ****ty HDM website, it meant that I could actually read it!
     
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  10. Arnold_Lane_HCFC

    Arnold_Lane_HCFC Well-Known Member

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  11. City Man

    City Man Well-Known Member

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    All the focus on his disastrous schemes to target fraudsters has allowed him to escape scrutiny for his catastrophic handling of four managers and four transfer windows.

    Truly chaotic and ruinous for our club.
     
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  12. The Omega Man

    The Omega Man Well-Known Member

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    A good article that clearly sets out the reasons why many will not renew.

    For me the lack of desire by both sides to accept compromise meant that I cancelled.

    The first ballot gave a foundation to build on, but that was not accepted by the protest groups and Instead of a chance of continued dialogue the club moves the goal posts.

    I will attend the same amount of games next season, but I will not use a system that requires photo id or any additional id to be carried.
     
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  13. Newland Tiger

    Newland Tiger Well-Known Member

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    The first ballot was not accepted by the club don't you mean TOM ? People voted and the club decided they didn't like the result

    The protest groups ? Pretty irrelevant really
     
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  14. Stan City Rocker

    Stan City Rocker Active Member

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    Good piece by Phil Buckingham. I'm undecided on next season, I may just by tickets match by match then at least if I can't go then someone else can use the ticket. See the flaw in your draconian measures there Ehab? You utter ****ing tit!
     
    #14
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  15. The B&S Fanclub

    The B&S Fanclub Well-Known Member

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    Last minute for briefs. No investment, no way i'll be parting with hard earned.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 18, 2018
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  16. RichardG

    RichardG Well-Known Member

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    Haven't been since the 6-0 thrashing of Fulham. I attended a meeting before that game in which it became clear the depths to which the Allams were going to stoop. And it turned out I underestimated them. The warning signs had been there before then - more in the way they did things, perhaps, as opposed to what they actually did - but their early conduct in the name change did for me.

    Has it done any good? Well, the Allams are still there. They're still making money out of Hull City. And I've been told by a former employee of the club that the Allams would very happily play in front of an empty stadium. They see fans as an inconvenience as much as anything else. So no, my actions have largely been futile. But I know I'm not giving them a penny of my money. And I'm happy with that. The key battle left for the fans to win is that of the Allams' legacy. And if that is a broken football club playing in front of a one-third full stadium, then that's a victory. As hollow a victory as is imaginable, but a victory nonetheless.

    It's been said a thousand times, but this is all so unnecessary. Their ability to pick needless fights that would bring empty victories even if they won is quite astonishing. It's led to the worst atmosphere in the club in living memory. They've stopped friends of mine from going - friends who would think nothing of taking days off to attend midweek away matches at Exeter and Brighton that we were never going to win, friends who would live off Pot Noodles and toast for a week when they were out of work so they could still afford to go to the dreadful mid-90s version of City - in a way that I never thought was possible. How permanent that damage is, I don't know. I hope it isn't. I hope the rebuilding of the club is as fun and exciting as it was 15 or so years ago. Time will tell on that. But for now, I want nothing to do with anything that puts a penny in the Allams' pocket. I want nothing to do with anything that might be seen to giving even the vaguest approval of their hideous regime.
     
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  17. Gone For A Walk

    Gone For A Walk Well-Known Member

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    Its a better article but i wouldnt call it excellent. Still too little far too late..

    And no, not until we have new owners.
     
    #17
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  18. Gone For A Walk

    Gone For A Walk Well-Known Member

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    .... further example of too little too late .... the next article from HDM talks about new lowest average crowd at KC yet fails to mention the known FACT that this seasons attendances are wildly overstated. FFS just tell it as it is, shame them, hold them to account for the despicable ****s they are
     
    #18
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  19. DJBlackandamberarmy(No4)

    DJBlackandamberarmy(No4) Well-Known Member

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    Same old dilemma for me that I am torn between not wanting to give them my money , but don't want to give up something I love doing , plus I really hate Saturday afternoons in Morrisons and putting shelves up
     
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  20. Baldrick's Cunning Plan

    Baldrick's Cunning Plan Well-Known Member

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    Surely the apathy shown by the present owners is a sign a new regime is about to take over very, very shortly. You need to be really stupid to continue making the same mistakes and attract even more hatred towards yourself and your family. Hang on... pause for thought.

    Or am I just a dreamer?

     
    #20

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