Bournemouth Fans today, huddled in the corner of the North that borders the East will be paying £45 adult £25 child's. 1 adult and two kids will cost £95 yet at their ground 1 adult and 2 kids will pay less than £500 for the season, 19 games.
The reason for pointing that out is to try show that even for the smaller clubs success costs and in reality it costs the fans more than any other sector in football, and then we come to today's ticket prices for kids, if you listed the 19 other premier league into our banding system, the top seven in Band A we know who they are , same every season, then you have the band B games and then you have the special games, Community, academy, KIDS FOR A QUID. Now if you was listing today's game, where would you put it, well for me this would be kids for a quid, all day long. first time in a league game we have faced them since the early 90’s in the championship, add to it that they are the weakest team in stature overall in the league how on earth is this not a kids for a quid game. What then amazes me is that our next home game is against the Geordie's, its on Sky, its on a Monday Night which means school night as well, oh yeah, its KFAQ. Night games are hard enough for kids as many parents may be working in London and may not be able to get back home, pick the kids up and then get to the game.
The only reason I can see is that those that run the club, The Chief executive and Vice Chairman are milking this last season for all its worth. Bournemouth being a Saturday game they knew it would sell out no matter how much it costs, Geordie's on a Monday night live on telly, possibly not as many away fans as well, better make that the cheap game. That is not a club run by fans for fans, that is business at work, our owners forever bang on about being fans, they do it for the love, not for the money. Well action speaks louder than words and the ticketing policy of this club Screams, Fcuk You. How many times on twitter has David Gold said “wed love to reduce prices, but we cant alone”, and don’t be fooled by the OS discount, its bollocks as well, the big discount is Band 5, problem is if you’re an existing STH you cant downgrade for a start and many I have spoke to are so fearful of the views behind the goals, they are looking to upgrade to the middle, so in real terms they will pay MORE at the OS not less. Karen Brady is getting thousands of season ticket holders to pay more money next season while getting the outside world to think we’re paying less, its marketing genius and shows why she got a million extra on her wages for securing the stadium, not only that, her crony side kick Tara gets a seat on the board as a director of the club. Tara the Coventry fan now sitting on the board with the Arsenal supporting Karen Brady a board supposedly run by fans for the fans, don’t make me laugh.
I tell you who are fans though, the stewards that patrol inside the ground showing the lost to their seats, some have manned their spot for years, where I sit I've had the same steward for at least 7 years and he is a fan, but how have the club run by fans for the fans repaid their loyalty, with the old tin tac at the end of the season that’s how, no move to the OS for them, unless they want to take minimum wage off OCS who have the stewarding contract, still at least West Ham can still claim to pay all their staff the London living wage, remember that big claim by Brady last season. West Ham was the first football club to do that, of course safe in the knowledge that all the low paid are now outsourced so don’t work for the club, and the stewards that do, will be gone as well. Another pat on the back for Brady. Still at least we know who to blame for last weeks debacle of the claret n blue streamer’s, the SAB of course, as it was in conjunction with the SAB that the club have come up with themes for games this season. I sat on the SAB, also I with 12 others specifically looked at the farewell to the Boleyn.
We met in Feb 2014 in the club, the lovely Tara was there to guide us and help with Ideas, a form was put together, that was put out to the wider fan base asking what they would like to see as themes for the 19 games, 903 fans took part and the response was varied, the top choices were
1. Bobby Moore tribute game. 6.88%
2. 80 Cup Final 6.88%
3. 90’s hammers Legends. 6.19%
4. 60’s legends 5.96%
5. 75 Cup Final & a vote for the Top 5 players 5.28%.
In fact there were listed 37 different themed games suggested by the 903 that took part, but yet Claret and blue day was not mentioned once, not 1 fan asked for that as a theme, but yet the club run by fans for the fans came up with Claret n blue day, obviously the YTS kid put in charge of buying the streamers must of slept in Saturday Morning, because he must of forgot the claret streamers so off he run down the Market, “ Got any claret streamers mate, no son, sorry, ive got purple though, Ok They will do ill take 2 thousand” and so off he ran back to the ground, hoping no one would notice. That has to be what happened because surely a club run by fans for the fans would of noticed that the streamers WERNT FCKING CLARET. If your going to do something so cringe worthy, cheesy and fake the minimum you would expect is at least get the colour of the club right in the streamers. Just look at the Palace fans, they managed it, and the fans themselves organised that not the club, perhaps that’ is where it went wrong, it wasn't organised by the fans.
God knows what other themes are planned but if they say it was in conjunction with the SAB then I'm afraid there’s a good chance its all Bollocks, the reason for my anger is that the SAB gets so much bad press by other fans, rightly so in some circumstances, but the farewell to the Boleyn was possibly the 1 area where those 12 fans could of made sure the club got it right., sadly it was not to be, just like my request to have a sponsor clean shirt front with the sponsors name on the back, they didn't like my idea to call it “The End” either, choosing instead the pony, Farewell to the Boleyn.
Perhaps I'm just bitter, in fact, thinking about it, I am bitter, I don’t want to say farewell to the Boleyn, as each game passes the bitter I get, the club is has died and all that is left is the funeral and the wake.
While I'm here I might as well mention the on pitch shenanigans, I must admit that I enjoyed the Leicester game, mainly that in the 2nd half we came out and showed that we have fight about us and we didn't need to resort to the negativity of the previous managers style. We are still a work in practice, Slaven needs to be given time to build his own team around how he wants it played, so im happy with any place this season above 17 as long as the football is played the same way we have for the 1st 2 games of the season.
Enjoy today anyway, there’s only 17 left after this one.
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