1894 Group supports City Matters reforms

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

The 1894 group and certain members of city matters do a brilliant job of sticking up for our fans.

On your last point I think that we need a supporters trust either way. We don’t really have a way of challenging the club on any decisions, whether that’s ticket prices or forcing fans out of seats. Other clubs and supporters have that voice, which we are missing.

We have all of these various groups who need to be brought together.

 

[Damocles]

Sorry to be a dick but there needs to be an independent proof reader for these statements. A more professional tone would go a long way to these things being taken more seriously. Capitalising certain words for emphasis is particularly poor judgement, as it makes it come across a bit ranty and amateurish.

I argue the exact opposite.

This isn't a corporate entity, it's a collection of passionate supporters of a local community institution and it shouldn't sound like it was drafted by a PR consultancy. Without authenticity, nothing can represent a football fanbase

 

[Gone for a Burton]

Now is the time to use fan power as the 'snipers bullet' to influence the club and hold it to public account on the most important issues.

Our expanding fanbase must have, and deserves, a world class organisation and structure to represent it and to have tangible influence at the highest executive level within the club.

The club & our executives are world class, CM now has to be at the same level.

Enthusiasm & good intent now have to be fused with specialists,professionals, experts and a hard headed approach.

Independence of CM

Members of Board

Transparency of agenda's / minutes

Ticket prices

NS seating plan/transfers

Relocation of away fans to ES1/SS1.

A few very important decisions in the next few months will have long term implications...positive or negative !!

 

[One Fan Clapping]

She passed my email onto a " forum " when my seasoncard wasn't working,whatever the fuck that forum was.
Not heard anything back from her now from several week ago.
I sorted it out on my own.

She doesn’t work for City. Not sure what you expect her to do when she doesn’t have access to your account. The obvious thing is to contact the ticket office not a fan representative.

 

[nmc]

When the SC representative, Angela Worrall, refused to sign the statement by CM objecting to the latest price rises as she was happy with the price of hers then that was the death knell of CM in its' current format.

Maybe she didn’t agree with the statement. She’s entitled to her view and if we disagree we don’t have to vote for her next time she’s up for election. Personally I think in the context of club finances we could have a 5 year freeze on ticket prices given the growth in income from other sources.

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

Maybe she didn’t agree with the statement. She’s entitled to her view and if we disagree we don’t have to vote for her next time she’s up for election. Personally I think in the context of club finances we could have a 5 year freeze on ticket prices given the growth in income from other sources.

Clearly she didn't and as she's apparently happy with the cost of her seasoncard then it's all good....

I'm sure the club would be delighted with a CM committee full of people like Angela. Less so I reckon if they were all like Alex.

Regardless, CM is a meaningless box ticking exercise by the club in its current format.

 

[blue44]

She doesn’t work for City. Not sure what you expect her to do when she doesn’t have access to your account. The obvious thing is to contact the ticket office not a fan representative.

which is what i had been doing,along with contacting her as she is the season ticket city matters rep.
and like i said,i sorted my problem out on my own without any help or assistance from her,cheers.

 

[Eccles Blue]

Sorry to butt in but I am just (practising) playing Devil's Advocate here:

@nmc is correct when (s)he says that Angela Worrall might not have agreed with the statement and is entitled to have an opinion.

The whole point of a committee/group of this kind is to get opinions not for them all to follow blindly like sheep.

Whilst the CM and the 1894 group appear to be adopting a role representing the fans I am not 100% sure how this came about.
I know how the CM representatives were chosen and elected although 1894 seem to be disagreeing with how this is done. How were 1894 group elected?
If we have CM, 1894 and the OSC why do we need another group?
Who would elect/choose/decide on how the other group is made up?

Maybe most of the fans are quite happy/resigned to the way things are run. Maybe they just want to go to the match and enjoy the football. Yes they might have little moans about transport, food, seating (although the club have explained the seating of the away fans over and over again) and the atmosphere but it's not the end of the world if they don't get it the way the fans want it.
This is not the City of Maine Road any more really, we love to think we are a family club who look after the fans and to be honest (this may be where my DA falls down a bit) I think they do an ok job. Not perfect but ok. If it were perfect they would have nothing to strive for would they?

Basically what I am wondering in my DA voice is what is it the CM people and 1894 want?
Do they feel that they should be running the club? Do they feel that they should be the ones making decisions on pricing etc., not the club who have poured millions, if not billions, of pounds into the infrastructure and the building and the players/coaches/academy etc.

Just a few random thoughts. Sorry if I offend anyone, that is not my intention I am just curious and want (like all of you) what is best for the club I love, the club I have supported for many, many years. :-) :-)
Apologies also if it is just a ramble but I feel that all this is taking away from our football enjoyment.
JMHO

 

[Manchester33]

Sorry to butt in but I am just (practising) playing Devil's Advocate here:

@nmc is correct when (s)he says that Angela Worrall might not have agreed with the statement and is entitled to have an opinion.

The whole point of a committee/group of this kind is to get opinions not for them all to follow blindly like sheep.

Whilst the CM and the 1894 group appear to be adopting a role representing the fans I am not 100% sure how this came about.
I know how the CM representatives were chosen and elected although 1894 seem to be disagreeing with how this is done. How were 1894 group elected?
If we have CM, 1894 and the OSC why do we need another group?
Who would elect/choose/decide on how the other group is made up?

Maybe most of the fans are quite happy/resigned to the way things are run. Maybe they just want to go to the match and enjoy the football. Yes they might have little moans about transport, food, seating (although the club have explained the seating of the away fans over and over again) and the atmosphere but it's not the end of the world if they don't get it the way the fans want it.
This is not the City of Maine Road any more really, we love to think we are a family club who look after the fans and to be honest (this may be where my DA falls down a bit) I think they do an ok job. Not perfect but ok. If it were perfect they would have nothing to strive for would they?

Basically what I am wondering in my DA voice is what is it the CM people and 1894 want?
Do they feel that they should be running the club? Do they feel that they should be the ones making decisions on pricing etc., not the club who have poured millions, if not billions, of pounds into the infrastructure and the building and the players/coaches/academy etc.

Just a few random thoughts. Sorry if I offend anyone, that is not my intention I am just curious and want (like all of you) what is best for the club I love, the club I have supported for many, many years. :-) :-)
Apologies also if it is just a ramble but I feel that all this is taking away from our football enjoyment.
JMHO

You make some fair points.

Couple of replies…

1894 has a membership of a few thousand City fans. We have a group of core volunteers who run different aspects of 1894 (from displays to campaigning).

We allow our members to elect people to these roles yearly (via newsletter/email).



1894 was originally set up to help improve the atmosphere. We were never meant to be a pressure group. We found (over the past decade) that there were various things we could campaign for that would improve the atmosphere (20’s plenty/rail seating for example). We have become a pressure group on behalf of fans because there is not independent supporters trust/no-one else speaking up.


I personally do not want to ‘run the club’. I accept that HHSM wants to see a return on his investment. But football is more than business. It’s culture, heritage, tradition. The ownership and boardroom are TEMPORARY custodians. We the fans have and will always be the true, ever-present ‘owners’ of our club. All I want to see is that we’re treated not as an afterthought. Ticket price rises are unnecessary. Charging disabled fans to park is unnecessary. Selling champions league semi-final tickets to tourists with no previous purchase history ahead of fans with decades worth of attendance is wrong. Don’t even get me started on the Super League bollocks!

I think it’s absolutely right that we demand a better deal. I’ll still be a City fan in 10/20/30 years…. Will Soriano still be sat in the boardroom?

 

[H_Blue]

Just to correct one inaccuracy in the statement. The disabled rep election was not shortlisted by 6 club representatives. The shortlisting committee was made up of 4 members of the Disabled Supporters Association committee (not myself though, as a candidate!), Alex, the CM chair, and one club representative, who waived her vote, to allow the DSA to decide without interference. So we were comfortable with the shortlisting process. Although I ultimately got elected, I, and the DSA committee have made clear that I am only accepting election, on the condition that the DSA AGM, on 10th October, has the right to overturn the result and either rerun the election or decide on an alternative solution democratically. This is because the club announced that the election was only open to DSA members to vote, but then just put a "Vote Here" button on the website, allowing any fan to vote. They then told us that they only counted votes from people registered with the club as disabled, which meant that, for example, parents or carers of disabled fans would not have had their votes counted, even if they were DSA members. All 3 candidates have agreed to the DSA line on this.
I don't want to comment too much on the rest of the statement, as I haven't yet attended any CM meetings, but I do think it is unfair for anyone to think that CM members don't criticise the club, as I know many current and former members who have never been afraid to criticise.
Howard Cohen (Chair of MCDSA and disabled rep on City Matters {subject to decision of the MCDSA AGM})