“City Matters” fan committee

[CC1]

To bump this thread, for those asking I can expalin as much as I can about City Matters and how it will work.

There are currently 10 of us representing various groups, some of which overlap. We've just had our first proper meeting with the club, where we discussed potential stadium enhancements, which are the subject of about 20 Focus Groups starting next week (12th November) so that's nothing really to do with us as a committee specifically although we had a preview of some potential opportunities and ideas. I'm sure those who attend these will reveal more.

The plan is to have meetings on a 3-weekly cycle, alternating between a full meeting with City representatives present and a committe only meeting. The plan is we stand for 2 seasons as this is the minimum we felt gave us a chance to get something done as a group. Things are still in the formative stage but we're hoping to have something on the club website, together with a full communication strategy, in a couple of weeks. A lot of this relies on the IT department and, understandbly, they're a bit busy at the moment. We're talking about some face-to-face activities, maybe a "Meet The Team" event in City Square or even a Forum at some point. but most of the communication will be online/digital. I reperesnt 40,000 seasoncard holders and I know quite a few but I'm never going to be able to speak to everyone of those individually hence the website and email will be the prime channels. However this forum is a useful way of getting instant feedback and interaction so as long as people are prepared to engage in a civilsed way then I plan to use it as there's some very bright people on here and lots of different experiences.

The plan is to publish minutes after each full meeting, so on a 6-weekly cycle, and then we'll seek feedback depending on the subject. It's very much a two-way process in that the club will suggest things to us and we have things we want to talk to them about. This helps them to see things through our eyes and us to understand their objectives, strategy and limitations. As sweenyuk said above, they often don't really understand what's important to us. I have to stress and people have to understand that there will be some things we can be open about, some things we have to be a bit more cautious about & wait until the official minutes are published and some things we'll have to keep to ourselves as it's confidential information or data the club doesn't want to share. I think we've all been impressed with the way the club are approaching this and that gives us great confidence that we can make the whole business of supporting City and going to matches a better experience.

Last night we talked about ticket points and various ideas were exchanged. Some were a bit off-the-wall but some were very sensible and so we'll wait to see what the club decide to do. I don't know how quickly they will turn the minutes round but I'd expect to see the first draft early next week. Once we're happy then they'll go on the website for everyone to see.

Thanks for giving your time to this. Sounds v useful

 

[Fame Monster]

Last night we talked about ticket points and various ideas were exchanged. Some were a bit off-the-wall but some were very sensible and so we'll wait to see what the club decide to do. I don't know how quickly they will turn the minutes round but I'd expect to see the first draft early next week. Once we're happy then they'll go on the website for everyone to see.

The loyaty points system definitely needs to be reformed. It's the fans' equivalent of FFP, protecting the older fans at the expense of the younger generation hence why the average age at a lot of our away games is like 50. Hopefully change is on the horizon although I think that’s unlikely now with the way the club have tried to get every penny out of matchday fans more recently, and that includes the commercialisation of loyalty points.

 

[cleavers]

The loyaty points system definitely needs to be reformed. It's the fans equivalent of FFP, protecting the older fans at the expense of the younger generation hence why the average age at a lot of our away games is like 50. Hopefully change is on the horizon although I think that’s unlikely now with the way the club have tried to get every penny out of matchday fans more recently, and that includes the commercialisation of loyalty points.

It doesn't just protect older fans though, I'm mid 50's, and 5 years ago I could do basically any away game I wanted, but I always missed some away games due to work, and my points have fallen away very quickly, as the less you can do, the less you can do, so that my son 28, now has more points than me (due mainly to the fact he was willing to stay platinum). It certainly needs a system that caters for all, but that's not going to be easy to implement, and one that prevents people just buying tickets with no intention of ever using them, and just passing them on to mates (who ironically don't get the points either, and fall further behind themselves).

 

[Tim of the Oak]

The loyaty points system definitely needs to be reformed. It's the fans' equivalent of FFP, protecting the older fans at the expense of the younger generation hence why the average age at a lot of our away games is like 50. Hopefully change is on the horizon although I think that’s unlikely now with the way the club have tried to get every penny out of matchday fans more recently, and that includes the commercialisation of loyalty points.

I would have auditions in Mary Ds and guarantee Away ticket priority for 500 fans who sang our songs Loud and Proud!

 

[Fame Monster]

It doesn't just protect older fans though, I'm mid 50's, and 5 years ago I could do basically any away game I wanted, but I always missed some away games due to work, and my points have fallen away very quickly, as the less you can do, the less you can do, so that my son 28, now has more points than me (due mainly to the fact he was willing to stay platinum). It certainly needs a system that caters for all, but that's not going to be easy to implement, and one that prevents people just buying tickets with no intention of ever using them, and just passing them on to mates (who ironically don't get the points either, and fall further behind themselves).

A ballot would be good. If you've got 20000 points, you get 10 tickets in it: if you've got 2000 points, you get 1 ticket in it. Or something along them lines that doesn't exclude younger fans. That's something I've just thought up so I'm sure there's gonna be a few issues with it but I'm sure there are far less issues with that than the current system.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

A ballot would be good. If you've got 20000 points, you get 10 tickets in it: if you've got 2000 points, you get 1 ticket in it. Or something along them lines that doesn't exclude younger fans. That's something I've just thought up so I'm sure there's gonna be a few issues with it but I'm sure there are far less issues with that than the current system.

A ballot is one thing where my views as an individual and as a seasoncard holder representative are completely different.

As an individual, who used to go to the majority of (but not all) away games before 2012, I’d love a ballot as it might give me a 50% chance of getting away tickets. But in my role as a seasoncard rep I think about people like Sean Riley and the people I know on here that go to every, or pretty well every game, at home or abroad. That includes people like Bill & squirtyflower (not that there are many like them two!) who also go with their wives. I couldn’t support a system that might deny them a ticket if they wanted one or would stop them going if they couldn’t get two. It would keep me awake at nights.

 

[squirtyflower]

A ballot is one thing where my views as an individual and as a seasoncard holder representative are completely different.

As an individual, who used to go to the majority of (but not all) away games before 2012, I’d love a ballot as it might give me a 50% chance of getting away tickets. But in my role as a seasoncard rep I think about people like Sean Riley and the people I know on here that go to every, or pretty well every game, at home or abroad. That includes people like Bill & squirtyflower (not that there are many like them two!) who also go with their wives. I couldn’t support a system that might deny them a ticket if they wanted one or would stop them going if they couldn’t get two. It would keep me awake at nights.

Thank you PB
As you know we’ve been going together for years and if there was a ballot its highly likely that one might get a ticket but not the other.
And that would happen to a number of people, couples, friends, parent/child etc
It’s not as straightforward as a single person buying a ticket, as City’s ticket website has proved this year lol
If something like that happened I’d just stop going as there’s little point in ‘seeing’ if you are successful when there are so many other things we could be doing.
I also think it means more games would go unsold.

Look at this year’s champions league fixtures, none have sold out.
Those who want to go buy cheap deals as soon as the fixture is announced. If you weren’t sure of that you wouldn’t bother going even if you were successful in the ballot.

And you’re right, there’s no one like me or Bill

 

[Fame Monster]

A ballot is one thing where my views as an individual and as a seasoncard holder representative are completely different.

As an individual, who used to go to the majority of (but not all) away games before 2012, I’d love a ballot as it might give me a 50% chance of getting away tickets. But in my role as a seasoncard rep I think about people like Sean Riley and the people I know on here that go to every, or pretty well every game, at home or abroad. That includes people like Bill & squirtyflower (not that there are many like them two!) who also go with their wives. I couldn’t support a system that might deny them a ticket if they wanted one or would stop them going if they couldn’t get two. It would keep me awake at nights.

I’m sure other clubs that use a ballot-style system don’t preclude the winner of the ballot from buying a ticket for a plus-one so I’m sure there could be a similar allowance if one was used at City. Also, it only works now at City if the group who want to go to the game have a similar number of loyalty points.

But anyway, like you say, there’s not many people like Sean Riley among season-ticket holders so surely your loyalty should be to the majority of seasoncard holders and whatever is in their interest and not the minority? Even if you or the club don’t agree, surely it should research fans’ opinions on this (I don’t know if this has already been done) to see whether they think the present system serves and protects the few and makes it difficult/impossible for the younger fans to get the same opportunities that an older fan gets in terms of being able to attend priority games?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I’m sure other clubs that use a ballot-style system don’t preclude the winner of the ballot from buying a ticket for a plus-one so I’m sure there could be a similar allowance if one was used at City. Also, it only works now at City if the group who want to go to the game have a similar number of loyalty points.

But anyway, like you say, there’s not many people like Sean Riley among season-ticket holders so surely your loyalty should be to the majority of seasoncard holders and whatever is in their interest and not the minority? Even if you or the club don’t agree, surely it should research fans’ opinions on this (I don’t know if this has already been done) to see whether they think the present system serves and protects the few and makes it difficult/impossible for the younger fans to get the same opportunities that an older fan gets in terms of being able to attend priority games?

It’s not just Sean though. I can easily think of over 25 people I know, probably a lot more if I thought about it long enough, who would be at 28 out of 30 games as a minimum. Someone reckoned that there are maybe 1,000 people who are in that category. If Southampton beat Leicester, those people will be there at St Mary’s on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. They’ve got to have first crack at tickets. It’s only right. But I agree that we also have to make it easier for other groups to get tickets as well. I think that even the club agrees the system isn’t right as things stand which is why they wanted our ideas. What I expect (or at least hope) will happen is that they will propose a number of potential solutions that they’re happy they can implement and then we’ll open those up for fans’ opinions.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

It’s not just Sean though. I can easily think of over 25 people I know, probably a lot more if I thought about it long enough, who would be at 28 out of 30 games as a minimum. Someone reckoned that there are maybe 1,000 people who are in that category. If Southampton beat Leicester, those people will be there at St Mary’s on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. They’ve got to have first crack at tickets. It’s only right. But I agree that we also have to make it easier for other groups to get tickets as well. I think that even the club agrees the system isn’t right as things stand which is why they wanted our ideas. What I expect (or at least hope) will happen is that they will propose a number of potential solutions that they’re happy they can implement and then we’ll open those up for fans’ opinions.

I understand what you are saying in regards to loyal fans, but something has to change in my opinion. Unless you know someone it’s bascially impossible for younger fans to get tickets to away matches. The answer from some always seems to be ‘ Swansea away wasn’t full or that midweek away wasn’t full... when in reality most people can’t go to those games. Its very much becoming a closed shop imo and lots of younger fans won’t ever get that away game bug.

Maybe a certain number of tickets go to ballot ? Or maybe all the cup away games go to a ballot at first. It’s a difficult one