Feedback from SLO meeting 27/03/14

[Linz]

I haven't got my notes on me... taken them out of my bag... so this is from what I can remember and will fill in any gaps later. These aren't verbatim minutes - but a rough gist of what was said.

Present from the club and guests:

John Garrett (SLO)
Mal Brannigan (Managing Director)
? (Commercial Manager) - Forgotten his name!
Stuart Lee (Compass)
Chris Mitchell (South Yorkshire Police)

Representatives from: Here, Bladesmad, Sheffield United Disabled Supporters, Official Supporters Club, Senior Blades.

Points raised:

Ticketing: - Responses from Emma Wylie.

* Wembley Allocation – Around 500 people on +40k loyalty points. No tickets were going to sell out on the first day so the allocation was split purely to manage demand. Could have made the upper bracket higher, but wanted to use the ticket office opening hours to their full capacity.

* 2014/15 Season Ticket Prices - In discussions at the moment but currently prioritising Wembley. There will still be the same length of early-bird renewal discount, even though the tickets will be available later in the year than usual.

* Telephone/Online System - Telephone. They KNOW the premium rate number pisses people off and they KNOW the hold music is crap. It's all up for review.

Online - There's a major upgrade of the online ticketing system in progress. Going to introduce the ability to print tickets at home to address the problem of queuing up at the ticket office on the morning of a game. Foxy asked if we could have a "collect at ticket office" option added - a good idea - told to put the suggestion in an email to ensure it is actioned.

* Loyalty Points – Follow up - Open to suggestions but the priority is for current members and the feeling within the club is that the current system is the fairest it can be. Replaces the "season ticket/member + stubs" priority so there is no change in that regard re. active membership. Appreciate that it should be communicated better about membership/ST being needed to keep points active and will factor that into the offer for the new season. Having points on a rolling basis will eventually mean a lot of people on the same points.

Will continue to take feedback.

* Catering:

There is (yet another) Compass manager!

* Issues around the Kiosks - Advised of issue re. chip butties on Kop. Told me to pass his email address on to shorehamview to raise issues with him directly.

Promotion Dept.

* 125 Celebrations - Went well. Will look at doing a Fan Zone offer for selected game in future with more pumps outside.

* Promotional Shirt/Kit Feedback - More shirts ordered. As for playing kits - we're tied into a contract with Macron until June so unable to discuss the new kit manufacturer until that time.

* Brick In The Wall: Latest on Developments – Aware of issues. Builders on-site today (Friday) to start addressing the problems. Please contact Mick Rooker with any concerns.

Fans Segregation – "Dead" seats down to fire safety capacity regulations as advised by Safety Advisory Group - not segregation. Not ideal for club who want to sell as many seats as possible. Maximum capacity for sold seats is around 30000.

Public Forum/Meet the Manager - Nigel Clough wants the football to do the talking and will not be doing a Meet the Manager even this season. Perhaps pre-season.

AOB:

Meeting attended by Chris Mitchell from South Yorkshire Police. Advised that there are plans for a conference call with the Met Police and Wembley officials and asked if the meeting reps would like to attend to bring questions forward from the wider fanbase with regards to anything to do with the day. Hull City fans have been asked the same. Will post a thread up.

Barriers - the Police know that they appear unwelcoming, but comments from the Charlton fans were positive. Asked if they could advertise the use of the barriers and which roads would be closed in advance to allow fans to make alternative arrangements for parking etc. and point acknowledged.

Have I missed anything Foxy?

 

[SwissBlade]

Thanks Linz!

The point about the barriers is a joke. I would far rather hear the police stating that the Charlton fans welcomed the chance for integration with Blades fans.

If the police attend in future you might want to mention that the idiots (with flares/ fireworks, entering the pitch and causing problems with opposition fans) are in the minority. The rest of us are well behaved and are not animals. Heck some of us are even able to drink in the same pubs as opposition fans without being unwelcoming towards them - win lose or draw

 

[Linz]

The point about the barriers is a joke. I would far rather hear the police stating that the Charlton fans welcomed the chance for integration with Blades fans.

According to their Police chap, the Charlton fans welcomed the opportunity to get away from the ground quickly and without anyone taking the piss about them losing.

But Chris admitted that there wasn't any previous problem with Charlton (he's a bobby on the ground, not the one with the final decision-making say) and they they had received numerous complaints against Forest and left it at that, to draw what inference one will

 

[SwissBlade]

According to their Police chap, the Charlton fans welcomed the opportunity to get away from the ground quickly and without anyone taking the piss about them losing.

But Chris admitted that there wasn't any previous problem with Charlton (he's a bobby on the ground, not the one with the final decision-making say) and they they had received numerous complaints against Forest and left it at that, to draw what inference one will

Well we know that neither the FA nor the police care about Fans getting off home early as the kick off was at a daft time on a sunday morning.

Its nice that the Police decided to take action against the fans as a whole against both Charlton and Wolves rather than a) sort their own inept policing out for Forest and b) targeting the trouble makers

 

[Selly]

Fans Segregation – "Dead" seats down to fire safety capacity regulations as advised by Safety Advisory Group - not segregation. Not ideal for club who want to sell as many seats as possible. Maximum capacity for sold seats is around 30000.

if these are fire safety regulations, have they made similar (albeit unapparent due to lack of sell out crowds) restrictions at the Sty?

Are the MASSIVE now restricted to 30k gates?

 

[Linz]

if these are fire safety regulations, have they made similar (albeit unapparent due to lack of sell out crowds) restrictions at the Sty?

Are the MASSIVE now restricted to 30k gates?

As I understand, it's based on the upper tie capacity and exits (with the corner exiting into the South Stand). Steve Hicks is working with the SAG on an on-going basis.

 

[metalblade]

Is the Safety Advisory Group made up of pig fans, totally ridiculous if you ask me the place is burning down and they worry about opposing fans fighting each other as they evacuate the ground FFS you couldn't make it up.
I'm not sure it would be wise to introduce a print your own ticket at home facility, this would make it easy for dodgy characters to forge tickets to sell on for big games.

 

[shorehamview]

What's laddo from Compass's's's's email address please Linz? I'll see what the new, new, new, new man has to say. If he's still there next week.

 

[Linz]

Is the Safety Advisory Group made up of pig fans

I asked the same. Apparently not.

 

[jt64]

Online - There's a major upgrade of the online ticketing system in progress. Going to introduce the ability to print tickets at home to address the problem of queuing up at the ticket office on the morning of a game. Foxy asked if we could have a "collect at ticket office" option added - a good idea - told to put the suggestion in an email to ensure it is actioned.

While printing tickets at home is a welcome addition, I do hope that they think pretty carefully about how they implement this - while this has worked fine when I've used such tickets overseas, that's because they've often got a separate entrance that they can use for the whole ground with print at home (and you then show your ticket again to enter the relevant stand) - I don't think having the tickets come with origami instructions to fit them into the existing turnstile scanners would be that feasible, so with the segregation we have in England you're probably looking at having a dedicated turnstile(s) for each stand - which if the numbers aren't worked out right could create some queues either way around

 

[Linz]

I don't think having the tickets come with origami instructions to fit them into the existing turnstile scanners would be that feasible

It's how they do it at certain airports. I think even the average football fan can fold a piece of paper 3 or 4 times.

 

[diplomat]

Has fire safety law changed since we built it , and filled it, with no problems?

 

[billyblademan]

While printing tickets at home is a welcome addition, I do hope that they think pretty carefully about how they implement this - while this has worked fine when I've used such tickets overseas, that's because they've often got a separate entrance that they can use for the whole ground with print at home (and you then show your ticket again to enter the relevant stand) - I don't think having the tickets come with origami instructions to fit them into the existing turnstile scanners would be that feasible, so with the segregation we have in England you're probably looking at having a dedicated turnstile(s) for each stand - which if the numbers aren't worked out right could create some queues either way around

I printed my ticket at home for the Rotherham match on Saturday. Was dead easy, and beat queuing up on the day to buy or collect. They only had OAP or Adult tickets, so none for U16s, Student etc., but other than that, seemed a decent system.


Having said that, there's hardly any collection queues at all at BDTBL, so is probably just as easy (if not easier because there's no chance of losing it!) to do that.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Thanks Linz!

The point about the barriers is a joke. I would far rather hear the police stating that the Charlton fans welcomed the chance for integration with Blades fans.

If the police attend in future you might want to mention that the idiots (with flares/ fireworks, entering the pitch and causing problems with opposition fans) are in the minority. The rest of us are well behaved and are not animals. Heck some of us are even able to drink in the same pubs as opposition fans without being unwelcoming towards them - win lose or draw

Plod - "We've got these barriers so that those horrible thuggish Sheffield United fans can't get hold of you and kick shit out of you. What do you think."

CAFC Fan - "I think that sounds like a very good idea, officer."