Some good points there Tim which I'd respond to as follows:Our allocation for Wembley is about to sell out but a lot of points have been raised about the running of the Club during the extended sales period.
Here are my suggestions for improvements, informed by BM posters:
1. The introduction of a cut price season card and £20 match day tickets for 17 to 21 year olds.
2. The Cityzens card reduced to £10 and a campaign to expand membership.
3. The resumption of a real fans engagement forum like Points of Blue with City decision makers.
4. A meeting with / dinner for the fans having to move because of the Tunnel Club, with City legends in attendance. This is once satisfactory alternative seats in the ground have been provided, as a priority.
5. The Club and OSC giving BM dispensation from the standard rules to be a Supporters Club. It wouldn't involve any of the ticket allocation hassle / perks but would reinforce the position of fans attending the engagement meeting with Club leaders.
6. The ticket exchange would give fans (who could afford it) the option to dontate spares to young people and the unemployed if they wanted to.
Just a few thoughts based on discussions across a range of threads. Of course fans would continue to really get behind the team in return and take the piss out if the rags at every opportunity.
Why? The social media guys are hardly gonna pop up with a last minute winner are they?No Facebook, Twitter, app postings from the club during home games. All eyes should be on the pitch
Tim i agree with some of your sentements .the bottom line though is fuck all is going to change till the head sheds at the club realise we are football supporters not customers .there is no engament with the fans at any level any more .the club dont seemed to be arsed there are hundreds of empty seats at home games and fans start disapering with 15 min to go they dont seem intetested the Family stand can be up to a 2 thirds full especialy night games .they are not intetested that loyal fans get abused thrown out and banned from games by show sec just for supporting City .it is of little concern to them that fans have to quee for a ridiculous amount of time just to get in the ground .and i wont even start on about the congestion leaving leaving till a football fan with passion and understanding is employed to sort this shit out i am afraid Tim we will be having the same conversation for years to come
I think the club needs to communicate better. To me it seems as if we're communicated to, but not really communicated with.
I'd have a few people at the club devoted to supporter relations. Any problems, these people are your first point of contact. But they're also the ones going out meeting supporters, talking to them and feeding that communication back to the decision makers at the club.
I'm sure we have plenty of supporter liaison types already at the club so maybe just redefine a few jobs to make them a lot more proactive.
I don't think city voice works, cityzens doesnt go far enough by a long way.
I don't think it would take much to start attracting some of those lapsed blues back to the club. And would ease some of the negativity about the club that seems to be growing.
TBH it seems to be a problem at all the CFG clubs, but I don't think it would take a lot to improve things.
And we could help them avoid that sort of shit as we know what is likely to work and what isn't.Thanks cyberblue. The Club are daft if they don't start taking notice of us after the latest media onslaught.
Some good points there Tim which I'd respond to as follows:
1) Make that 17-25 year olds and let's get the younger element attending regularly
2) Agreed
3) The club urgently needs to re-examine its whole relationship with supporters but we need a formal, representative committee like Liverpool, Chelsea & the rags have.
4) The Tunnel Club is completely unnecessary. I'd suggest scrapping it completely to be honest and letting everyone stay where they were. It was handled disgracefully.
5) Don't agree. I'm not sure OSC's are really still relevant in this day and age but if like-minded City fans want to get together that's fine. Better still, City should rationalise OSC branches and allocate ST holders/members to their local OSC automatically or alternatively to one of their choice. That helps OSC's and fans with travel on days like tomorrow. But the clubs should have no ticket privileges.
6) Nice idea.
I'd add:
7) Working groups on things like transport, ticketing, marketing, atmosphere, other ground issues, etc. This will involve the club, fans and third-parties like Metrolink & GMP.
8) Someone to specifically represent fans on the board. But that should be someone who is capable of acting in that role so someone like David Bernstein or one of the local MP's like Ivan Lewis or John Leech.