THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

A thought just crossed my mind.

Supporters have been faced with price increases or removal of discounts/offers in season tickets, matchday tickets, replica shirts, drinks and parking (and possibly other areas I'm not aware of). And of course, the club is facing increased costs just as much as supporters are.

But then the club has generated at least £8million in player sales since the start of the calendar year. Of course some has gone back into the squad and some, I imagine, is covering other financial commitments

However, it's not a good look to rake in millions in selling players, and then push a lot of the increase in operational costs onto supporters.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

That needs to be viewed in the context of many years of financial losses.

Depends. If you squeeze the fans too much (or even if you're just perceived to be doing so) that they cut their Dons spending right back, you can make that problem worse.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

It may do, but I honestly doubt it.

I understand the criticism of communication and fan engagement, but surely everyone understands that the club has to balance the books.

They've got to balance their own books too, especially this winter.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

There’s also the perception that we were lauded as wonderful supporters when we left our season ticket money with the club two seasons ago but now we’re back to being cash cows that the club will milk for everything it can.

We're a football club as well as a business though, and it does feel as though the "club"/supporter side of things has been too heavily neglected in favour of the business side.

They need to get the fundamentals right, and at the moment they're starting to alienate people. We really can't afford to lose supporters, and I can see more people simply not bothering to turn up because the club haven't addressed certain issues. They're completely out of touch with reality at the moment, the £50 Castore shirts being the icing on the cake.

As Dan said, with £8m+ in transfer income, plus add-ons from previous deals, the concerts, big away allocations for visiting teams, Euro 22 etc we've had more revenue in recent years than most L1/L2 clubs. Some of the increased costs could have been absorbed by the club rather than passing it on to supporters across the board. I can't see any area - season tickets, food, drink, parking, replica shirts - that hasn't seen either a price increase, or some value taken away.

As some have also said on Twitter, that's just the start. They club need to do more to attract and retain new fans as well but that's a whole other discussion.

Just hope whatever Pete comes out with tomorrow isn't just a token gesture/trivial resolution and we can't wait for this "fan board" to come about in October.

Winter is coming. This is when we play the White Walkers.

They'll have to change their kit though when they come here.

Assuming they play in white it won’t clash with our new ‘white’ kit.

I have often thought this for the last couple of years. There's a real commercial feel to the club and I really dislike it. The recent issues raised on the forum have only highlighted it. Everything they seem to do just lacks a personal touch and that the commercials are the only consideration. A football club isn't a typical business and for me, we aren't just "Customers" but the life and soul of the club. It's things like removing the food and drink discount for season ticket holders to really silly things like scheduling tweets and not announcing signings straight away to maximise coverage etc. I wouldn't say it's fundamental things, but lots of annoying things, which suggest theres negligence and a lack of awareness from a fan experience perspective.

It's clear that there's a real lack of focus in this area and Pete needs to plug the gap, otherwise he's just going to keep alienating people.

The fan representative piece seems like a load of bollocks if I am really honest and I can't see why the MKDSA can't fill that gap. For it to be a success, it needs to be truly independent of the club.

The club need to cut their cloth accordingly, but there's a balance to be had and a right way to go about it.