Supporters Consultative Group (5 Viewers)

[kingharvest]

Alright - we've got a meeting coming up next week so given that a few weeks ago there were some questions on here i thought i'd see if anyone had anything they'd like me to raise at the meeting.

Bear in mind, the main objectives are to improve the supporter experience at the club, promote engagement in the community, seek ways to improve matchday experience (increase attendance/atmosphere/etc), and improve the image of the club.

So no - we can't lobby them to sign McGoldrick or anything like that. Its not what its about.

Either post on this thread or PM me.

 

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[wingy]

Move what fans we have to the front of the stadium to improve the dynamics for the players!!Bring back the light /dark stripe kit next season.Pen a new Anthem the old one is dying the death and is outmoded.

 

[speedie87]

Close singers corner and move them all to bottom of telegraph stand.

 

[oldskyblue58]

Thanks Kingharvest

Does the club plan any more cheap tickets days ?

what actually is the clubs marketing strategy, and how is it implemented and has it achieved?

Does the club plan on putting any festive entertainment on in the walkways under the stands or outside the gates ?

Is there a gesture the club could make (a scarf, pen, a voucher for a drink or something) to give each supporter at one of the Xmas games as a xmas present (for all the angst we fans have been through)

just a few ideas

 

[Monkeyface]

How about rewarding loyalty by offering discounts for renewed season tickets, such as...
Not paying more than the previous seasons season ticket price.

15% off when you renew for the fifth consecutive year, 25% for ten years and so on.

 

[Monkeyface]

DO NOT ask them to move fans to the front of the stand, I like where I sit thank you!

 

[Monkeyface]

Tell them to keep the current anthem, in fact we should be coming out to it, I think this clubs lost enough of its identity recently.

 

[Monkeyface]

Don't close singers corner, because whether or not you like it, the only reason there is any atmosphere there is due to the away fans being near by.

 

[kingharvest]

Haha - you can't please all the people all the time.

Good stuff so far, I mentioned last month that we met with the H&S officer about moving the away fans closer to the home fans. Not sure how many have noticed, given that they are still miles away, but the away fans have moved over a block. Its a start. Hopefully we can keep pushing and get them a bit closer again - but at least it shows the club do listen to suggestions. The more strategic suggestions can take time to implement or even consider given the implications. So for example moving home fans - particularly mid season - is more complicated as people have bought season tickets. The Club would also, i imagine, try and get a wider input on something like this and may even try and contact fans directly to ask opinions.

But it doesn't mean i can't bring it up so at least they're aware.

 

[wingy]

Yeah I was'nt talking about roughshod enforcement ,more ask ,but with the implied suggestion, why would'nt you want to do it to benefit the team,instead of the spaggetti effect of fans strung out all over the place cos they're set in there ways.Also i can't remember which game it was probably Notts County and noticed that their fans had appeared to be shuffled over,with the effect that with only two blocks in use they're more behind our goalie ,which could lead to heavier sledging .Given that there are going to be few games where there 1-2 blocks or more ,shifting them next to singers would actually achieve the object of the excercise and keep them from behind our goalie.

 

[kingharvest]

funnily enough we've spoke a few times about closing the back section of rows to compact the fans a bit and get them closer to the front. Might help improve atmosphere and make the ground look less empty. But then again, its hard because a lot of fans love being at the back.

 

[wingy]

funnily enough we've spoke a few times about closing the back section of rows to compact the fans a bit and get them closer to the front. Might help improve atmosphere and make the ground look less empty. But then again, its hard because a lot of fans love being at the back.

Maybe as MR seems to have looked at the situation and appears to have assessed some issues ,he could make an appeal for the good of the team and club ,which before people shoot others down is what the Idea of these suggestions are.

 

[georgehudson]

why can't we have a weekly Q & A session, half an hour, with F & W,
on the weeks topics, it would be communicating with the fans,
& to get more fans to our games,
the answer is perfectly straight forward, WIN,
that always has, & always will put bums on seats,
& while were at it let someone at the club have a word in the ears of the 'orange ones',
i.e. don't persecute our fans, they don't want it, need it, or expect it,
PUSB

 

[Spagbol]

Got to agree with the last poster, in regard to the matchday experience being affected by the stewards, they really do need some kind of customer relations training.

The other thing is, where are the advertisements for the games??? They don't need to send me details of games I am a Season ticket holder, but they certainly could get posters up in sports shops, Tesco's etc....and why can't you buy kits/merchandise etc from shops apart from the Ricoh? No wonder the kids wear Man City, Man Utd etc, thats the only strips they can get !!

 

[TrakiaPlovdiv]

Ask the club to lobby ACL to provide a better match day experience. I sit in the Telegraph stand and over continuous weeks experience;

1. TV's on concourse not switched on so cannot enjoy the televised match without having to chase round to get them switched on.
2. Told by Bar Staff that draught beer is not available inside the ground when attending the recent Cup Game against Aresley, when we have draught Tetley
from the bar by Block 31 every game.
3. Stewards not lock the Toilets 10 minutes before the end of the game as they also did at the Arseley match.

We may be Football Supporters but afterall we are also most importantly, CUSTOMERS!!!

 

[SBS]

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but please, please can you ask them to stop playing Chelsea Dagger at every possible opportunity! Personally, I'd turn the goal music off completely. There's nothing better than scoring, going mad and the customary "Who are ya?!' chant. We don't need some shit outdated song to dance to. I know Robins didn't like Mr Blue Sky, but something by The Specials or even The Enemy, music that relates to us.

 

[LJC_CCFC]

1) Make Twist n Shout either the walk out music or goal music.

2) Try filling the ketchup etc dispensers up now and again

3) Stop the casino from charging for hot drinks on a match day, when they are normally free (Fair enough if they want to ask for a charitable donation, but let's face it they make enough money as it is)

 

[skybluejelly]

How about this ( although it will probably never happen)

put too sisu that if we as supportrers promise to sell out the ricoh twice this season they guarantee to put all the money towards signing david mcgoldrick..could work both ways firstly a packed ricoh and secondly 2 extra full houses with an extra 20,000 on each gate would surley be enough to fund his wages ,and if we play good football might persuade stay away fans to come back,Would also prove to goldie how much we as supporters want him to stay

 

[speedie87]

I think there is more chance of sisu buying mcgoldrick than us selling out!

 

[skybluejelly]

I think there is more chance of sisu buying mcgoldrick than us selling out!

but thats the point ..we could make a huge thing of it (facebook..twitter..cwr)...and prove to sisu that if they re-invest the money the fans will turn up..your not asking stay away fans to buy a season ticket your asking them to attend 2 matches

 

[Greggs]

Sky Blue Sam is too fat

 

[ashbyjan]

Meeting is tomorrow - any more suggestions, concerns, observations for us to take to meeting?

 

[We'll_live_and_die]

Is this the Sky Blue Trust?

 

[ashbyjan]

No this is the Supporters Consultative Group - 2 Trust members attending. Just bumped up the OP's thread to see if there were any further issues people wanted bringing up

 

[We'll_live_and_die]

So how many groups are there that represent me (the fan) to the club?

 

[ashbyjan]

Cannot remember exactly which groups are represented so apologies if I miss anyone but the Sky Blue Trust is there, the Irish supporters, the London supporters, disabled supporters, JSB's, diamond club, block 15 fans and some others so there is a fair cross section. Hard to say if anyone represents you (the fan) as the Trust has always maintained that it doesn't claim to represent all fans but with 700+ members we do represent a fair cross section of the support so can lay some claim to representing the average fan. Our main concern about the make up of the representatives is there is a distinct lack of youth among the delegates and we are trying to get one of our younger representatives to attend.

 

[We'll_live_and_die]

What sort of crowds were the club pulling in the old days? 40/50,000. Not sure that 700 currently active supporters represents a fair cross section of stay away fans. There are tens of thousands of people who look out for the scores and read the back of the Telegraph daily, but they don't and won't go up the Ricoh. The Trust can't claim to represent them and to be honest they are the people that need to be represented as they are the ones who can make a huge difference to SISU's club.

 

[ashbyjan]

Like I said the Trust does not claim to represent anyone but its members but among 700 people you will get a fair cross section of opinion much of this will reflect general opinion, also many members (myself included) have friends and family who have stopped going so realise many of the reasons people have for not going. When we first moved to the Ricoh there was a group of 19 of us this season this has dwindled to 6 and I think thats fairly typical. Who do you suggest represents the stay away fans? Are you one? If so do you want me to ask if you can attend future meetings to represent the stay aways?

 

[Lord_Nampil]

I have a few points:

1./ This Season The Ricoh has been a massive disadvantage this season PLD 9 W2 D3 L4. We need to make the stadium an intimidating venue, but with 20K + empty seats this is very difficult! One suggestion is to cap the stadiums capacity to 20,000 + the added tier of the Lloyd stand! The sections should be closed off at the back of the stands bringing all fans closer to the pitch! In return the sections closed off could be rented out for match day sponsors and bring in extra funds to the club! An example of this was Swansea pre Prem days! In doing this we then have the core of the fan base in a more filled bowl the atmosphere will be increased and small away followings will not look out of place! This could then benefit players who are suddenly playing in a stadium that looks full rather than empty, and could help them get better at home!

2./ We are one of the few citys in the country who have 2 university! We should be taking advantage of this and trying to encourage students to games! Ok they may not be fans of the club, but if they start to come to games because they see offers they may become fans of the club, Sheffield United do this at Sheffield Hallam university, i know this as i took up a few of there offers during my time there! Yes i was never going to become a Blades fan (and never will) But i went to watch local football that was near where i lived at the time! Its something i think we as a club do very badly at!

3./ JSB days before a match used to be the norm when i was growing up! Ray Gooding used to have a morning of football every saturday for JSB members at one of the schools in town, 500+ kids used to get a training session and lunch and a ticket to the game, does this still happen? If not why not!

4./ Why aren't the stands we have at the ground now named after people who have something to do with the club? We have 3 stands that we could rename to past legends of the club, this is something i feel we should do! If it means eventually they rename them a sponsor so be it but North stand or East stand isn't that advertising! The Tommy Hutchinson stand or Ian Gibson stand or something like that would be better! The ground will never feel like home if we cant do changes like this! Even Shrewsbury have banners up in there stands as we have none!!!

There's 4 ideas please Jan put them forward there only ideas i have come up with in a few mins i could come up with more if given time!

 

[ashbyjan]

I will raise yr points your Lordship. As far as I know the JSB mornings still happen but I will check.

 

[Lord_Nampil]

Thanks jan!!!

 

[CJparker]

Jan I think the problem with the SCG is that many fans don't know what it does, and more importantly do't know what it has done.

Can you point to some examples of initiatives that have been proposed by the SCG and implemented, which have made a positive difference the matchday experience of the average supporter?

Not being critical, I genuinely think it would help ignite more support for SCG if you can shout louder about your achievements

 

[ashbyjan]

Cj - I totally agree w you and that is why thevTrust is pushing for more openness and awareness of the SCG. At present the minutes of meetings are not published - we are pushing for this and will be publishing our own notes on meetings on Trust website and on forums such as here and GMK. Also the link on the clubs offal is not only well buried but currently doesnt even work, The SCG's latest "win" has been to get the safety officer to allow the away fans to be moved one block closer to home fans - still not far enough but it's a start.

 

[CJparker]

Fair play - I know that the issue of "concentrating" the fans in the lower sections of the stadium has been put to the club by the SCG, but apparently this couldn't happen for some practical reasons (health and safety, season tickets?) - do you see this happening realistically?

 

[ashbyjan]

I was at the meeting when the clubs health and safety officer attended and he trotted out all the usual excuses but in the end it essentially boiled down to money. Having the fans closer together would mean the police would raise the category ratings and therefore cost club money. In the end anything is possible but as long as we are penniless then it's not likely.