Fuming!

[Skashion]

Obama?

Actually laughed out aloud. I'm going to miss Silvio. Maybe him and Blatter can form a comedy duo.

 

[allan harper]

Well it was a mod so I'm sure they know.

Could well be someone who's banned many times but I don't think it's BlueNowhere. Maybe it's a well tanned individual... ;-)

Obama?

Tanned, Got to be Clayton, i say ban the Rag.

 

[SWP's back]

Obama?

Actually laughed out aloud. I'm going to miss Silvio. Maybe him and Blatter can form a comedy duo.

:-)

To be fair, I'd love to go an orgy hosted by those two.

And to think they control(led) a country of 60 million and the largest sport I'm the world. Crazy.

 

[Skashion]

You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till Balotelli retires and buys his own country.

 

[machiavellian]

Incorrect.

That's partly true, but the loyalty point system has always been the club's way of separating the most 'loyal' fans from the fair-weathers in order to allocate the tickets to the most deserving fans for the correct matches.

Which is why it's wrong to undermine the whole system with such examples as individual games earning ten times as many points as they would under normal circumstances, and the pretty shameless alterations to the seaconcard holder's points in the summer.

That is when the loyalty point system became about money. And that is why its days are numbered.

And this is symptomatic of initiatives the club are introducing which revolve around money, at our expense, and are not particularly subtle in that fact.

Which, believe it or not, concerns many match going blues.

I've just received a pm with regards to this thread from another poster, who feels uncomfortable posting about his circumstances in this thread publicly, because, I imagine, of the potential reaction of some of the more vocal apologists among the forum's loud mouth contingent.

You won't get any joy out of this lot mate. They're too busy taking trying to be funny and slagging other blues off to see what's happening here.

I didn't join the CL cup scheme for financial reasons- baby on the way, made redundant a while ago, and trying to start my own business. Had a s/t for 25 years but don't even get a chance to get my regular seat for the CL, they automatically allocate it to a scheme member apparently. By the way, I haven't missed a home cup game for donkeys years, I just cannot allow the club to have access to my account.

The club now think none of those 25 years matter as I can't give them free access to my bank account. It stinks as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers

Pretty sad when someone is made to feel a lesser blue, or is labelled a 'moaner', X Y Z, because he voices his discontent towards something which has a negative impact on his attendance to games.

Incorrect, why because you say so?

Your definition of fair-weather simply assumes anyone who didn't go didn't go through choice rather than financial or life circumstances. Funny thing is that you imagine you're on some moral high ground and can't see the irony in your own argument about it now being about the money.

The loyalty points system is now about money... and that's why its days are numbered... How does that work about in your wonderfully self-contradictory mind? So, the club, greedy loss-making bastards that they are, are trying to get money out of us with the loyalty points system... which they're going to do away with - thus losing their money-making ploy.

Too busy slagging off other blues? Nah, you're too busy slagging off the club and dismissing people who don't go home and away as fair-weather fans. Oh, no, poor anonymous PM bloke, he can't afford it now, what about those who couldn't afford it when loyalty points were reserved only for the decent non fair-weather blues.

I think it's fairly obvious we've always had fans who pick and chose games (irrespective of finances), for example those who evaporated during the wilderness years under Stuart Pearce, by a lose definition I used the term 'fair-weathers' and you jumped all over it.

You understand the crux of my point but have misrepresented most of it. You've also made some pretty bold assumptions and put numerous words in my mouth.

I believe the loyalty points system is doomed to be replaced as there's only so long it can be undermined, until then club will continue to use it as an avenue to squeeze more from fans concerned about losing their place among the hierarchy in the points ladder.

But I do believe it will be eventually replaced, with what, how the fuck would I know?

And with regards to ironies and contradictions, how could I be "dismissing people who don't go home and away as fair-weather fans", while in the same breath defend someone who can't afford to attend as regularly as he'd like to?

Also, I don't believe the club are beyond criticism, if you do then that's your prerogative. Criticising those in charge of the decisions which impact us in the pocket, and have direct repercussions for our fan base, is something I'll continue to do, regardless of what that makes you think of me. If it helps us to avoid the demographic of our crowd changing to the point where I don't recognise City anymore a la what happened at Stamford Bridge, then I'll continue to highlight initiatives City employ with are symptomatic of such a model.

But that's because I'm on my high horse and I consider myself a superior blue to others who can't attend as regularly, isn't it?

 

[Tattooedcityfan]

hope its not block 111, row r seat 282, ahem.....

 

[Skashion]

I think it's fairly obvious we've always had fans who pick and chose games (irrespective of finances), for example those who evaporated during the wilderness years under Stuart Pearce, by a lose definition I used the term 'fair-weathers' and you jumped all over it.

You understand the crux of my point but have misrepresented most of it. You've also made some pretty bold assumptions and put numerous words in my mouth.

I believe the loyalty points system is doomed to be replaced as there's only so long it can be undermined, until then club will continue to use it as an avenue to squeeze more from fans concerned about losing their place among the hierarchy in the points ladder.

But I do believe it will be eventually replaced, with what, how the fuck would I know?

And with regards to ironies and contradictions, how could I be "dismissing people who don't go home and away as fair-weather fans", while in the same breath defend someone who can't afford to attend as regularly as he'd like to?

Also, I don't believe the club are beyond criticism, if you do then that's your prerogative. Criticising those in charge of the decisions which impact us in the pocket, and have direct repercussions for our fan base, is something I'll continue to do, regardless of what that makes you think of me. If it helps us to avoid the demographic of our crowd changing to the point where I don't recognise City anymore a la what happened at Stamford Bridge, then I'll continue to highlight initiatives City employ with are symptomatic of such a model.

But that's because I'm on my high horse and I consider myself a superior blue to others who can't attend as regularly, isn't it?

Yes, I'm sure it's the fair-weather fans now getting to the high-profile away games that suddenly the hardcore awayers of yesteryear can no longer afford. Alright, let's assume it's true, and my opinion is that it isn't because there weren't many people below early to mid-twenties (with a majority being over forty on a rough guess) that I could see in the The Swamp for the Sick Swan Massacre. Let's assume it though, why is that any more of an argument than those who couldn't afford it in yesteryear but can now?

I think I was entitled to jump on it.

With regards to ironies and self-contradictions, that's actually one of those I was pointing to. You're accusing people of being fair-weather fans on the basis that they can't afford to be a hardcore awayer. How do the costs of being awayer stack up against £50 for Platinum plus cup schemes? Yet you're criticising the people who can't afford the bigger cost by labelling them fair-weather fans. I think pointing that out is fair game.

£95 for kids. Value Gold, was it £230; City, oh so Stamford.

 

[oakiecokie]

Well that changes everything, poor fucker can't sit in his "own" seat in the champs league through personal circumstance though he's not so poor as to not be able to have a season card or still go to £35 games.

I take everything back. I can't think of anything worse than sitting in a seat I'm not used to.

By the way, I just received a pm saying this:

Ignore that twat. He's been banned before god knows how many times, as his username alludes to.

Edit: "feel less of a blue" pmsl. As if anyone can be made to feel that on a forum. Talk about mountain out of a molehill. Now I know you're on the wum.

Fooking great that SWP.
About time he shut the fuck up over "his seat" etc.

 

[BTH]

I can't quite believe the reaction or the size of the reaction to my original post.

Just to put things into perspective: this isn't about loyalty (mine's been resolute), nor money (I chose not to buy a platinum card in the way I wouldn't want Bupa), nor is it about points, although I don't like the way it's gone. The points scheme was about loyalty, not about buying loyalty or loyalty points. I should know. The points scheme was my idea, even if the club weren't remotely interested in it to begin with and it took me two or three years before they'd even consider trying it out. I wrote to Gary Cook about this issue, but didn't get a reply (maybe that email was intercepted too?).

There seem to be a hell of a lot of smug people on this thread who've read the smallprint and good luck to them. I didn't, and because I didn't read it I didn't realise the system had changed. It's not the crime of the century, but it does represent something of a seismic change, so I don't know how I missed it, but there you go.

I do think it's out of order that season ticket holders can ring up on the day that tickets go on sale and not even get "your" own or usual seat. I also think it's out of order that buying a season ticket year in, year out brings you nothing in itself, but spending an extra £50 on a platinum card gets you extra points and in the club's eyes presumably makes you a better supporter.

I've never been in any cup scheme, although I think it's a great idea. I knew I might have to miss a few this season and I missed the Napoli game - so one in almost 30 years. It made even less sense therefore to go on the scheme. I normally ring up and most of the time sit in whatever seat I'm given if my own has gone. I don't even mind. However, and this is the rub: I usually get one a week or two after they go on sale rather than a few days.

Some good points have been raised in this thread, such as the reduced capacity due to UEFA's hoardings and the rehousing of away fans meaning some people can't get their normal seats, but it's come to something when people begin to get abusive because they don't happen to agree with another opinion, whether it's mine or anyone else's.

I lament the passing of the old Manchester City in the days when we didn't win anything but your loyalty was valued a damned sight more than it is today. Long before the petrodollars, the razzmatazz and the so-called "new supporters" came along there were some things - not everything, I grant you - but some things that we did a bit better than we do today.

Ditto BlueMoon. As Dave Gilmour said: "It doesn't have to be like this..."

 

[gouldybob]

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