All very true, and it works both ways - there's not everything the club has done that is wrong or detrimental to it's "customer base" including those of us who have been here for donkeys years. And there's not everything that the club does that is right...
To my mind, the things that have not worked, some of which they have addressed are:-
1) Flexi season tickets - my biggest gripe - they've taken what would have been a very good idea, and beneficial to both fans and club and wrecked it by the £150 fee they initially charged. Imagine a season ticket in your name with your guaranteed seat, which you could pay for in instalments and the club asked x number of days or weeks before to confirm if you were coming. Brilliant for everyone's cashflow, brilliant if you know you'll miss some games and not have to pay for them, brilliant for the club in knowing in advance which seats would be available for resale. I "think" they've gone too far and wont retrieve the view that flexi tickets are not real season tickets, but in reality, they could be welcomed and very acceptable without the £150 fee...
2) ST transfers - yes, we know it says they are non-transferrable. It says so in the ST books I have from Maine Road bitd. But it's football culture to treat these as our tickets and in our gift to give them to whoever we want. In theory the club dont lose out as we've paid for them. They should drop the draconian rules for a bit of reconciliation with fans, at the expense of a few who dont transfer or resell. Combined with a revamped flexi, that would be pretty minimal loss... fwiw, I spoke to Danny Wilson about trasnsferring tickets to STs to allow them to take friends/family as one off and he really doesn't get it..
3) The new stand - hopefully not as bad as it sounds, but there really hasn't been the engagement to make it a blue wall and allow transfer en-masse for our singing fans at the expense of others. If the exec areas are small and not in the way, it'll be ok.
4) Pricing of matchday tickets - I think they've got this about right now having pushed it far too far in the past. I think we need to be realistic that, despite all recent success, we will struggle on midweek nights to fill the stadium with local fans unless the opposition is hugely attractive.
Hopefully, with 6000 new seats to fill, the draconian approach before will peter out, and the club wont rigidly enforce attendance rules and so on. We'll then see a more sensible approach to fan relations and more cordial from both sides - inevitably some people just want to moan (especially on here) - but lets hope they can get it right.
