Exeter Blue I am here
Well-Known Member
It wouldn't be unreasonable, all things considered, to suggest that we have the best owners in world football. They've invested huge sums of money in the squad, bought out the club's debt, regenerated the local area, built a fabulous academy, and despite the best efforts of the rag and dipper filled media, who have been ever ready to sneer, successfully raised our profile the world over.
17 years ago I was traipsing out of the ground at Wycombe in the mist and rain, cursing a truly shit City defeat and farcical transport infrastructure that would see me stuck in traffic for what seemed like a lifetime on the only road in or out of a glorified industrial estate, and last week I was in the Bernabeu. Alright, we had to endure farcical access difficulties at the latter venue as well, and of course City were shit again, but you get the picture. What an overall journey.
What's starting to become a cause of concern though (and I'm an instinctive whinger, so feel free to have a pop if you think what follows is OTT), is the creeping sensation that as supporters we don't matter, and that there is an increasing disconnect between the fans, the team and the club. Undoubtedly things beyond City's control have served to fuel this feeling - the calculated last minute volte face by UEFA over the stadium ban in Kiev, which left most City fans, who would otherwise have gone to the game, unable to do so at such short notice, and those that could still go facing enhanced airfares, being one such example, and the behaviour of Franco's thugs last week being another (€110 for a match ticket, which entitled you to be beaten up and miss the start of the game courtesy of those supposedly entrusted with your safety).
There was a Deloitte Touché study in 2013 I think (although there probably is every year) which revealed that of the 20 teams in the Premier League, City fans had the 2nd lowest level of disposable income behind only Wigan, and whilst that study is not wholly relevant to the debate, it should perhaps serve as a guide/reminder to the club, that there is only so far that we, as a fanbase, can be pushed before economic necessity reveals itself in, dare I say, such things as empty seats.
Anyway, the little things that have pissed me off this season.
1. Club surveys including questions designed to establish what I would be prepared to pay for a season ticket/hospitality etc etc. The reasoning for such loaded questioning is obvious.
2. The £60 CL tickets for the PSG game. To a degree, I could understand the club's stance on this. It was the QF of the most prestigious club competition in world football, and they (our owners) are trying to make us a global brand. Setting the price at a level most (and I stress 'most', not 'all') fans could just about afford, guarantees a seat for 'most' of our traditional support, but with plenty left over for new overseas fans buying 'packages'. The problem though, and I refer back to the Deloitte Touché study, is that whilst 'most' people could afford it (QED, the ground was full), many could do so perhaps only with difficulty, and as such it left a bad taste.
3. City in the City. A great idea for long distance Blues like myself. A chartered train out of Euston for CL nights and a chartered train back after the match, which was marketed with an arrival time in London that would have enabled passengers just about sufficient time to make the last tubes home. Barely 3 days before the Kiev game though, the train's first running, passengers received an email notifying them that the arrival time back in London would be an hour later than advertised, long after the tube network had shut, leaving everyone with expensive taxis as virtually the only option to get home. Given that the train ticket was already £60 and included VAT that should only have been applicable to those who had purchased train AND hospitality packages, this wasn't exactly a welcome development. Even less welcome was the unjustifiable price rise to £72 for the Madrid game, and again with VAT levied when it should not have been.
4. The Madrid ticket debacle. Yes there was a short time frame for the sale, yes the logistics of hiring and training additional temporary staff and/or reconfiguring webpages to accommodate additional traffic, are probably more complex than people might imagine, but regardless it was a fucking shambles. Two windows open at the ground, a permanently frozen website, and an absurd wait on the phone. Whatever, it was the club's decision to make 2 tickets available to each CL scheme member, it was the club's decision not to set specific sale times in line with loyalty points and it was the club's decision to rig the phone lines so they could take up to 1000 callers on near permanent hold. This latter option cost me an additional £30 for the call on top of the price of the ticket, and nearly 5 hours on the phone. I wrote and complained, and duly received a generic 3 line response to the effect that there had been 'unprecedented demand', and, er, that's it. Again, it was the glib expectation that fans should have to shoulder this additional financial burden when the fiasco was not of their making, that rankled.
5. Having queued up to present my letter and get my wristband in Madrid, and been advised that I should not be admitted to the ground without both said wristband and my passport, I was duly allowed in with checks on neither, and found myself sat behind a group of well heeled Spaniards, who had no wristbands and probably no passports.
6. The decision to delay a lap of honour against Arsenal by 15 minutes after a shit season. Understandably everyone pissed off home, leaving the media free to portray us all as a bunch of spoiled ingrates.
Going back to the Wycombe game, at the end of that season, that group of players became legends. We loved them and they loved us. Kevin Horlock regularly attends City matches in London with his kids, as does Paul Dickov. Andy Morrison turned up in the Plaza de Real in Barcelona last year and was mobbed. The Goat is one of the greatest City heroes of all time. Maybe the passing of time is making me misty eyed, but I couldn't imagine them doing what the City players (bar Joe Hart and Jesus Navas) did at Leicester this Christmas when led by 'captain' (and I use the term in its least literal sense) Ya Ya they fucked off straight down the tunnel without so much as an acknowledgement to the travelling support.
Like I said at the start, I might be being over sensitive and I'm certainly conscious that I might also be guilty of making a mountain out of every little molehill, but I feel increasingly like we're being taken for mugs, and that gimmicky shite of the 'We play for you' variety is no substitute for genuine interaction. Maybe the visual debacle that was Pellers farewell speech will start to bring that home to the people running the club, who knows?
17 years ago I was traipsing out of the ground at Wycombe in the mist and rain, cursing a truly shit City defeat and farcical transport infrastructure that would see me stuck in traffic for what seemed like a lifetime on the only road in or out of a glorified industrial estate, and last week I was in the Bernabeu. Alright, we had to endure farcical access difficulties at the latter venue as well, and of course City were shit again, but you get the picture. What an overall journey.
What's starting to become a cause of concern though (and I'm an instinctive whinger, so feel free to have a pop if you think what follows is OTT), is the creeping sensation that as supporters we don't matter, and that there is an increasing disconnect between the fans, the team and the club. Undoubtedly things beyond City's control have served to fuel this feeling - the calculated last minute volte face by UEFA over the stadium ban in Kiev, which left most City fans, who would otherwise have gone to the game, unable to do so at such short notice, and those that could still go facing enhanced airfares, being one such example, and the behaviour of Franco's thugs last week being another (€110 for a match ticket, which entitled you to be beaten up and miss the start of the game courtesy of those supposedly entrusted with your safety).
There was a Deloitte Touché study in 2013 I think (although there probably is every year) which revealed that of the 20 teams in the Premier League, City fans had the 2nd lowest level of disposable income behind only Wigan, and whilst that study is not wholly relevant to the debate, it should perhaps serve as a guide/reminder to the club, that there is only so far that we, as a fanbase, can be pushed before economic necessity reveals itself in, dare I say, such things as empty seats.
Anyway, the little things that have pissed me off this season.
1. Club surveys including questions designed to establish what I would be prepared to pay for a season ticket/hospitality etc etc. The reasoning for such loaded questioning is obvious.
2. The £60 CL tickets for the PSG game. To a degree, I could understand the club's stance on this. It was the QF of the most prestigious club competition in world football, and they (our owners) are trying to make us a global brand. Setting the price at a level most (and I stress 'most', not 'all') fans could just about afford, guarantees a seat for 'most' of our traditional support, but with plenty left over for new overseas fans buying 'packages'. The problem though, and I refer back to the Deloitte Touché study, is that whilst 'most' people could afford it (QED, the ground was full), many could do so perhaps only with difficulty, and as such it left a bad taste.
3. City in the City. A great idea for long distance Blues like myself. A chartered train out of Euston for CL nights and a chartered train back after the match, which was marketed with an arrival time in London that would have enabled passengers just about sufficient time to make the last tubes home. Barely 3 days before the Kiev game though, the train's first running, passengers received an email notifying them that the arrival time back in London would be an hour later than advertised, long after the tube network had shut, leaving everyone with expensive taxis as virtually the only option to get home. Given that the train ticket was already £60 and included VAT that should only have been applicable to those who had purchased train AND hospitality packages, this wasn't exactly a welcome development. Even less welcome was the unjustifiable price rise to £72 for the Madrid game, and again with VAT levied when it should not have been.
4. The Madrid ticket debacle. Yes there was a short time frame for the sale, yes the logistics of hiring and training additional temporary staff and/or reconfiguring webpages to accommodate additional traffic, are probably more complex than people might imagine, but regardless it was a fucking shambles. Two windows open at the ground, a permanently frozen website, and an absurd wait on the phone. Whatever, it was the club's decision to make 2 tickets available to each CL scheme member, it was the club's decision not to set specific sale times in line with loyalty points and it was the club's decision to rig the phone lines so they could take up to 1000 callers on near permanent hold. This latter option cost me an additional £30 for the call on top of the price of the ticket, and nearly 5 hours on the phone. I wrote and complained, and duly received a generic 3 line response to the effect that there had been 'unprecedented demand', and, er, that's it. Again, it was the glib expectation that fans should have to shoulder this additional financial burden when the fiasco was not of their making, that rankled.
5. Having queued up to present my letter and get my wristband in Madrid, and been advised that I should not be admitted to the ground without both said wristband and my passport, I was duly allowed in with checks on neither, and found myself sat behind a group of well heeled Spaniards, who had no wristbands and probably no passports.
6. The decision to delay a lap of honour against Arsenal by 15 minutes after a shit season. Understandably everyone pissed off home, leaving the media free to portray us all as a bunch of spoiled ingrates.
Going back to the Wycombe game, at the end of that season, that group of players became legends. We loved them and they loved us. Kevin Horlock regularly attends City matches in London with his kids, as does Paul Dickov. Andy Morrison turned up in the Plaza de Real in Barcelona last year and was mobbed. The Goat is one of the greatest City heroes of all time. Maybe the passing of time is making me misty eyed, but I couldn't imagine them doing what the City players (bar Joe Hart and Jesus Navas) did at Leicester this Christmas when led by 'captain' (and I use the term in its least literal sense) Ya Ya they fucked off straight down the tunnel without so much as an acknowledgement to the travelling support.
Like I said at the start, I might be being over sensitive and I'm certainly conscious that I might also be guilty of making a mountain out of every little molehill, but I feel increasingly like we're being taken for mugs, and that gimmicky shite of the 'We play for you' variety is no substitute for genuine interaction. Maybe the visual debacle that was Pellers farewell speech will start to bring that home to the people running the club, who knows?
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