Massive own goal by the club imo.
Turned up for the game last night..not expecting much, other than a summers evenings kick about, and a chance to get a feel for how things are shaping up for the big launch of City Square on the 23rd.
Took my brother with me, who's not been in the best of health, so parking near to the stadium was a must.
I was gobsmacked when they asked for a tenner, but didn't see much point in having a rant at the person on the gate, who was clearly readying himself for a night of abuse.
Got in the car park, and the vibe was definately one of disbelief /anger and disgust..you could see it on the face of every driver arriving. It really felt like a rip-off, because you can't exactly refuse to pay and turn around, once they ask you for your cash, you've got a queue of traffic behind you...easier to hand over the cash and feel pissed off that at no stage had the club made mention of this in advance.
So essentially my upbeat mood of optimism, and warmth to the club, had immediately been tinged with cynicism. The fact that the programmes were the same price despite being a 1/3 of the size, didn't help my mood..Once we got in the food and drink prices were, to be fair, as expected, the place had been spruced up a bit, and City Square looks like it could be great...but that one issue with the car park sowed a seed of doubt that ruined the whole night.
You see, what has been playing on my mind is the fact that since our owners have taken over COMMUNICATION has been the buzz word, and they have been first class at communicating positive messages. This is arguably the first decision they have taken that has the potential to upset fans, and rather than, in an open and honest manner, comunicate to us that this will be happening, they chose to sneak it in, and hope for the best..or at least that's how it looks from where I'm standing.
The irony is if they had come out 2 weeks ago and said "sorry guys, it's going up to a tenner", people might not have liked it, but they could have accepted it, and planned accordingly...this stinks of pulling a fast one at our expense...not good. :(