THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

What do you reckon?

Summary:

- Club chose Castore as it's a "premium brand". Delays with store largely down to UEFA taking over the stadium for the Euros. Says all the missing bits (junior sizes etc) due to various factors including supply chain issues and Castore taking on a lot of business this year.

- The bottle tops off thing on Saturday won't happen again, was a miscommunication following on from Euro 22 where it was UEFA policy

- Club have relied heavily on agency staff, 20% of agency staff not showing up, using different agency staff each week which has caused issues with service.

- Says they'd love to revamp the food offering but financially it's not doable at the moment

- New training ground still in the works, new plan being submitted next week, sounded frustrated about it

- Reason club haven't marketed heavily and don't have any city centre presence is because they've tried it twice and the shop never increased our fanbase so why bother

- Only club with such a large car park that didn't charge previously, will be doing so now

- Says ultimately only getting to the Prem and Championship will create and sustain a larger fanbase

- Mentioned a potential Red Bull takeover years ago was blocked by UEFA

- Low season ticket prices didn't attract or increase fanbase. Even though season ticket prices have increased, club have higher amount of ST holders than last season already

- Perks like season ticket discount being removed, he mentioned it be didn't really explain why other than "companies usually say what you do get rather than what you're not getting anymore"

- Will go into more detail at fans forum

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Things he didn't address:

- Food price increases
- The lack of tribute on the screens on Saturday
- Box office delays and season ticket delays
- Pricing of replica shirts

Didn't think he came across well in all honesty.

Once again really leaned into the business side of it, didn't really offer any concessions other than the bottle top thing. Defended the business, defended Castore, blamed UEFA for a few things.

When he said "it hurts me when people say we don't care" - then why does it still feel like that? That's the main issue here overall for me, the club are too corporate and too heavily invested in the business aspect rather than supporter perception, the matchday experience and promoting the club. The balance is skewed.

No mention of any real change or improvements or concessions, mainly on the defensive.

I think you are misrepresenting him there. He said he is trying to spend more money on the team in order to get into the Championship. You also missed that if we get into the Championship there will be diferent vendors in the stadium. Surprised about Red Bull.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

I don't think I'm misrepresenting him, I listened to the whole thing. I may have missed one or two small things that weren't important but the main points I've included.

I think it was good to have decisions explained. Would be nice to happen proactively, rather than reactively.

I am getting pretty sick of people moaning about ticket prices this season though. The club made it very, very clear that last season was a one off due to Covid. You can't come at the club accusing them off increasing ticket prices out of the blue.

I bet the club regret even lowering the prices last season, as if they didn't there wouldn't be any complaints about ticket price increases.

So as I understand it, his basic argument was something like this:

They tried different things to market the club and improve supporter experience. None of it increased the fanbase. Ultimately, the one thing that grows the fanbase is promotion. So now they're looking to maximise income on things they previously gave away for free or at a discount, in order to increase the playing budget and chance of promotion.

I think that makes sense. But I do think there's a danger of focussing too much on the people who aren't in the stadium, at the expense of those who are in the stadium and have been for years. Tough balance to strike.

Thanks for the summary. I didn't tune in myself but knew that the good folk on here would have it covered!

Very, very suprised - but happily suprised - about this news. Again, why not be more proactive about this excellent news.

Or do you think he means paid STs (ie discounting the ones that were free last season)?

Wonder what UEFA's issue was with Red Bull? Maybe they thought we were already hated too much and that RB buying a stake would take us into a new level of hatred.

I thought Pete came across well as always! Maybe he does need to be more present in these types of thing and more media presence from him! I think he’s consciously taken a backseat since the neilson and tisdale era but if anything maybe that’s why fans feel heightened disconnect and discontent. If Pete was seen to be more present like the robbo days maybe fans wouldn’t question the care. Deep down we all know he cares but the self imposed media embargo 90 percent of the time can perhaps make us forget that! I don’t want him to mention the p word in pre season like days past but I would like it if he was at the forefront a bit more again and more present as the face of the club.

Overall listening to that it cleared up a fair few things and put a different light on why we perhaps needed perspective and that some things are out of our control and it’s not just us inside this bubble it’s the world we currently live in. Up until February this year I was a head chef in a successful, award winning restaurant which has since had to close its doors due to the impact of brexit and covid so I know all too well how hard it was to hire new staff or cover shifts, sometimes serving 150 guests as the only chef in the kitchen. I had been head chef at this restaurant 5 years and the difference from year 1 pre covid to year 4/5 post covid is remarkable and was a real challenge to navigate! So I for one will remember what that was like, and cut them some slack. Furthermore, my new career is head of logistic operations at a company that sun contracts for Toyota, Nissan, Land Rover, jaguar and as a reaction to the pandemic landscape now also supplies cleaning, sanitising and ppe type products as well as sun contracting for Aldi so also see first hand supply chain issues being in close contact with china and the shipping container crisis etc etc. I hadn’t really given the club the benefit of the doubt on just how many issues are a worldwide thing that hospitality and supply and manufacturing are experiencing. I now work with a conveyor belt of sorts agency recruits and can confirm 90 percent are lucky to be alive I really do not know how they have lucked their way through life, I can assure you there’s stories to support that! Si I sympathise with the club having to rely on what is notoriously unreliable agency staff.

Obviously the things that were a complete lack of compassion, common sense with the Lucy Dawson tribute are inexcusable and heads need to roll on that.

The club need to get a grip on the box office team to start getting the teething issues with ticketing sorted once and for all, no excuses!

Overall though mentally I feel at peace a bit more than I did at the weekend! I’m prepared to give the team a bit of time to gel, I’m going to reserve any judgement till Christmas for the most part as we know what a fantastic manager Liam manning is and I think I’d forgotten that in a moment of short sighted amnesia and panic.

Not much more I can say despite always finding a way to waffle on.

I hope Pete is ok as well as his family! I hope those full time members of staff behind the scenes that don’t get the plaudits are ok in what can only be a tremendously stressful time to work in hospitality, catering and event management!