Why? You wouldn't listen and would make up your own answers

Will Ryan be working the bar?

Aye, god knows why a club would consider season ticket holders their most important/loyal fans to keep happy. That's just crazy.

ST sales provide a vital cash injection before the start of the season, and I guess if the going gets tough financially the ST holders are the ones most likely to "pledge". So you can understand additional privileges being attached. However having been to a number of these forums they are not exactly packed out so not sure why you would exclude ( if current ST sales numbers are to be believed) the majority of our fans?

Yep that's it in a nutshell. Clearly, non season ticket holders must meekly accept being sneered at by the increasingly self-righteous people that hang out on our boards, but there are a myriad of ways of punishing them rather than deny them entry to a fans forum.

Discounted merchandise, cheaper beer, prize draws. But fans forums? Nah.

In all seriousness, whilst I agree that not letting non ST holders into a fans forum is a little OTT with the "Season Ticket Holder Perks", I also think it's a little OTT for non ST holders to get annoyed or feel slighted by the club for not being able to get in.

It really makes little difference either way and isn't a big deal in the slightest. But as usual, why let an event's insignificance get in the way of pretending to be offended by it.

is that it cuts the bar takings....but, speaking as a season ticket payer, I agree with Pumpety and don't think the club should differentiate in this way. It's just plain wrong, however it's dressed up and it sends the wrong message to what is a large section of the fans.

You say "annoyed", I (as the person writing most of it) would say "bemused and mildly irked". I've described the many ways you can reward STs and simply posed the question of why a fans forum needs to be one of them.



Well that's a nice attempt at a thread killer isn't it. "Opposing points are automatically invalid" kind of hinders debate.

How are they going to police this when the 2014 STs haven't even been distributed yet?
Are they really going to scan a list of names on the door? Could take a while to get everyone seated if that's the case.

I'm not going, does anyone want to pretend to be me for the evening

Not at all. I agree with you in that it's a daft thing to penalise non-ST holders in this way (and you're right in other ways you reward ST holders, rather than this). And it wasn't you I was referring to there anyway, as you've said before, you're mildly annoyed by it, but don't seem to have gone overboard. It's the ones who go ridiculously over the top and make out they're being outcast by the club that I'm referring to. Crazy overreactions to a minor thing that makes very little difference.

By all means discuss it, but I'm suggesting those getting all uppity about it are taking things a bit far.

According to the T&A that is [iexactly[/i the plan.

Isn't it really the same call as Ryanair made recently - about there being no point in unnecessarily ing people off?

Definitely. It seems a slightly pointless exercise, especially as has been mentioned, because the forums are not "packed to the rafters" anyway these days. And you'd think the bar takings would be part of why they do these in the first place.

It seems very much to me that someone at the club has tried to emphasise that they should always try and make season ticket holders feel special, and then whoever has organised the forum has taken that ethos a little further than they needed to.

They probably didn't think it would p*ss people off though in fairness, and it shouldn't really. But it inevitably will, so it's difficult to understand why they're being as strict as checking on the door.

I am not a season ticket holder, but am a sponsor, does this mean i can't go ?

I handed over more than a grand last year in one form or another to the club, and would have liked to have gone to see what they had to say and maybe responded to it.

Not such a good call

Why don't you contact the club and ask them?

I'd expect a sponsor would be able to make an appointment and have a one to one with the chairman at a mutually convenient time, to be honest - but I agree with your point.

Well that’s not fair now is it. You’ve gone and written a measured response to my bad tempered post. What am I supposed to do now?

Conspiracy theory time! Just make sure you throw in some imagined amounts of money, something about our Directors being sh*t and us getting relegated to Championship 1 (or even the Pennine League if you really want to push the boat out) and you'll be fine

Sponsors get what their sponsorship package says they get. this is for season ticket holders not sponsors so if you want to go, just stump up for a season ticket and job done.

the only gaffe (a big one, and the latest in a long line) is announcing it as a Fans' Forum". Everybody is used to what those are and being able to attend and I have no clue why they stuck with that description. On the club site it states:



that all makes perfect sense. And if they had marketed it as a Season Ticket Holders' Meet-the-Board Night" (which is what it is) or some such, instead of a "fans forum" (which is what it's not) then none of this flak would have fired off.

A reasonable idea in principle, but just handled remarkably badly.

That's really just a question of semantics though, isn't it? I mean, are you really saying that season ticket holders don't count as fans? And it's not like the club has announced a fans forum but kept it a secret that only season ticker holders can go until people turn up at the door. The club has been straight forward in their marketing of the event and are clearly using it as another attempt to drum up some extra season ticket sales

How is it? The Bulls organise all sorts of events. An event to reward season ticket holders by having the chance to personally meet and ask questions of the new board is just one more type of event.


Of course not! Just that the event is for 2014 paid-up season ticket holders specifically, and is expressly part of the additional benefits which you are entitled to if you pay for a season ticket.


I doubt that very much. If any more than a handful of people "buy" admission directly just so they can attend then I would be amazed. They would be a million times more likely to still not buy a season ticket, but instead whinge on here about it not being fair they can't attend a season ticket holders' event, even though they aren't season ticket holders.

I'm not quite sure whether there's a pejorative note in your remark "attempt to drum up some extra season ticket sales". "Drum up"? Unfortunate wording. Is it a bad thing for a business to "drum up" sales, if it does?

,
I suppose that the Directors now are in the position to outline plans for the coming season? And like a normal members club you present these details, as a matter of good sense and courtesy, to your members, who in this case, are being established as season ticket holders! I expect that sponsors will be invited to their own particular meetings. It will then follow that they will have open days and Forums for all supporters in the coming season.
Sounds like a plan to improve the "Meet the Supporters" in a better structured way for 2014?

Is this one of those events that Mr Moore meant when he said he wanted the Coral Suite used more? Good stuff

So this loyal fan who makes 10+ games a year buys a shirt every year and other merchandise isn't important or loyal OK fair do's.

I can see what the club are trying to achieve in adding incentives for people to buy a season ticket. Perhaps the club should simply of allowed free entry to ST holders and charged for non ST holders. So those who don't purchase a ST (for whatever reason) still have an opportunity to put their opinion over to the board. And the club achieve their objective of adding value and encouraging the purchase of a season ticket.