Another item for the Prince's 'to do' list

[finlaytheblade]

I really hope you send this to the CEO of our club (BTW havnt got a clue who it is)

Yes it's the CEO that can put this right !
Another embarrassing situation

 

[XM657]

Bert put his in the slot and it worked.

Innuendo?

 

[Sean Thornton]

Innuendo?

No. In the slot.......

 

[Blade.com]

For season cards, you need to swipe not insert it in the slot (that is for paper tickets)

Opps, lm one of the inserters with my season card, always have been. Might try a tap and go next time.

 

[metalblade]

I can sympathise with the OP's thoughts on catering especially but yes things didn't run too well last week turnstiles opened 10mins late so there were queues and quite a few rejected tickets. My new card (changed seat) worked fine. Getting a pint was a joke the beer pumps obviously or not marked for those serving the bloke in front of me asked for a IPA the young lad started to fill the glass with cider until the bloke stopped him half way, this bloke the told him what he wanted again and pointed to the correct pump. The fucking idiot serving then topped the cider up with IPA making a snakebite before his mate told him to pour it away and start again at which the kid just stood there looking bewildered, he had no clue how to pull beer,when to tilt the glass or anything looked like he was straight out of a classroom. And all this was before the hordes descended on the bar FFS train the kids up before throwing them in at the deep end.

 

[Rodders]

The people in front of me couldn’t get in last week and I had trouble too, using the old scan method - tried the next turnstile along and obviously must have put it nearer the scanner.
But if it’s a new technique, what struck me was that none of the stewards seemed to be aware of this or said to try waving not scanning. I imagine lots of pointless journeys to the ticket office were made then.

 

[Danetheblade]

The people in front of me couldn’t get in last week and I had trouble too, using the old scan method - tried the next turnstile along and obviously must have put it nearer the scanner.
But if it’s a new technique, what struck me was that none of the stewards seemed to be aware of this or said to try waving not scanning. I imagine lots of pointless journeys to the ticket office were made then.

One of the stewards on the Westfield upper said it's contactless, plus I'm sure it had the contactless logo on the scanner

 

[Cruyff Turn]

This has reminded me. My season ticket card took ages to work last week.

Was going to nip down the Lane to get it checked as it's probably on the way out.

If you are using it on the way out that could be the problem. You are supposed to use them on the way in!

Sorry, I agree. I need to get a life!!!

 

[JohnDenver]

I had a struggle last Saturday - it turned out my season card needed to be presented to reader above the slot, rather than pushed into it, as I have done since 2007.

They’ve updated the turnstiles so they can accept phone screens, which is great. But it isn’t in use yet and there’s no signage (that I saw), to say how cards should be read.

The bigger issue is the fact the IT currently doesn’t let you charge your card for matches, which is a big step backwards, even if temporary.

 

[PrestwichBlade]

No. In the slot.......

This made me chuckle more than it really should have. Ta.

 

[diplomat]

I really hope you send this to the CEO of our club (BTW havnt got a clue who it is)

There’s a fan liaison officer isn’t there? I emailed them once and they fobbed me off with a one line email without even saying ‘hi’

 

[diplomat]

Thought you were persona non grata at the Lane Kev?

Joking aside, just how would you increase catering takings by an extra million?

It would have to involve some kind of hostage situation surely? Lock everyone in until all the really expensive crisps have been sold. Unless a seven figure number is a number with a seven in it, like 700.

 

[Skooskoo]

In regards to the OP concerns, I have a thought about the bar/catering at half time. Having pints queued at the bar ready to go - like they do at festivals, would be a simple and effective start that could be in place for next Saturday.

 

[Bladezz]

The prince is signing players for his Belgian side. He doesn’t care about us.

 

[bromtom]

The prince is signing players for his Belgian side. He doesn’t care about us.

With their budget, because they haven't pissed a load of money up the wall paying the English tax on signings.

 

[Bladezz]

With their budget, because they haven't pissed a load of money up the wall paying the English tax on signings.

We all know the Prince isn’t an incredibly wealthy man. He is a smart business man. He’s using sufc money to fund the Belgian club.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

We all know the Prince isn’t an incredibly wealthy man. He is a smart business man. He’s using sufc money to fund the Belgian club.

Unless I’m missing something—and I could be—there is zero evidence of this in the recently published accounts?

 

[Bladezz]

Unless I’m missing something—and I could be—there is zero evidence of this in the recently published accounts?

So we received 250m
We didn’t sign anyone in January.
We are nearly 1 year in from a permanent signing.

Belgium team have found money all of a sudden?

 

[bromtom]

So we received 250m
We didn’t sign anyone in January.
We are nearly 1 year in from a permanent signing.

Belgium team have found money all of a sudden?

If we received £250m
We spent £120m on players
We spent £100m on wages
We got a mortgage on the ground for £60m which we will have paid some of.

 

[Bladezz]

If we received £250m
We spent £120m on players
We spent £100m on wages
We got a mortgage on the ground for £60m which we will have paid some of.

Year 1 we signed all those players and made £17m profit!! Profit in the Premier League. Sufc actually we’re profitable !!! It’s unreal our budget wasn’t 100m let alone additional 100m

 

[ThatJa]

I noticed that the badge had been taken off the back of the corner stand on John St. Looks shit now with just a smudge on the white background where the badge used to be.

Were we renting the badge out and couldn't afford it anymore? Where's it gone?

McCabe probably owned it.

 

[bromtom]

Year 1 we signed all those players and made £17m profit!! Profit in the Premier League. Sufc actually we’re profitable !!! It’s unreal our budget wasn’t 100m let alone additional 100m

Our wages first year were £78m, if the second year was similar we've spent £150-160m on wages for the past two seasons, so that's most of the money we got from the Prem, before the big money signings.

Nothing points to Beerschot or Châteauroux spending "our" money, and it's probably not legal for them to either.

Our management and recruitment people just bought a load of players at a massive premium who no-one else wants to take off us for the same money so we're stuck with them, and we can't really risk any big permanent signings with our reduced income.

 

[Ceasefire]

I had hoped that, after many years of lurking on this forum in silence, my first post would be a positive one. But after yet another complete shambles with season tickets not working last Saturday I just had to have a rant. I could have put this on to the Season Tickets thread, but it seems to me that the whole malaise goes much deeper than that one incident, it is symptomatic of the apparent disinterest the club has in making its ‘customers’ experience’ a pleasant one (disregarding the events on the field of play!)

Like hundreds of others I turned up in reasonable time and tried different turnstiles and putting the card in the slot, waving it in the general direction of the green light etc, much to the annoyance of others queuing, but to no avail. The stewards are totally uninterested and treat you as if you’re trying to do something dishonest, so you trudge to the ticket office and see the huge queue of other cheated supporters. At that point you have to decide whether to join this queue which is moving at its usual glacial pace and looks like you might get in mid way through the second half or go home and watch the match in comfort and with a decent chance of getting half time refreshment.

The galling thing is that the club (like us) knew this was going to happen; they could have asked people to bring email proof of purchase, they could have put staff at each corner of the ground with links to the club system (haven’t they done this before?) After the event a competent organisation would have apologised, said they were going to put it right and offered, say, a free ticket to the Carlisle game, but no, like the stewards, they shrug and ignore the utter frustration they have caused.

You’d have thought that lockdown and Premiership money was the chance for the club to get its ‘customer-facing systems’ in order. That side of the club has had nothing to do for the past 15 months except make the buying of tickets a painless experience. What happened at the start of the season? – everything crashed. Of the 20/30 people I’ve spoken to about renewing season tickets, around half said they finally got the web link to work (I still can’t – error key 500?), but half said they had to resort to the phone or the office. But the ticket office is woefully understaffed, so you phone and get the engaged tone, you try again and still get the engaged tone. Eventually you might get through to an automated voice saying you’re 32nd in the queue or whatever, so you wait on hold. After an eternity you’re down to about 18th in the queue when the phone suddenly goes dead. So you phone again and get the engaged tone…..

So you traipse down to the Ticket Office and wait in a long and painfully slow queue. The guy next to me last week said he worked in retail and that if he offered the same level of service to his customers that SUFC do, he’d be sacked on the spot. There were only a dozen or so people before me, but it still took over half an hour before I got out of the rain and into the office. There were several staff milling about but only two serving supporters – I’d love to know what the others actually do. For many people, the whole experience of undertaking any transaction with SUFC is such a depressing and negative one. With any other organisation, or indeed football club, you just pop in or phone up and get yourself sorted. With SUFC you have to take a day off work just to make the most basic of purchases. None of us would put up with this from any other organisation we deal with, we’d take our custom (and money) elsewhere.

Another thread on here talked about how we might grow the fan base and particularly nick new supporters from across the city, but this won’t happen if we make the experience of getting to BDTBL such a difficult one.

And this malaise is not just limited to the ticket office. In fact the catering is worse. Last Saturday my eldest went down to the Kop bar area ten minutes before half time and got served five minutes into the second half. The service is so lethargic and laughably inefficient that there were fights breaking out in the increasingly frustrated queue. I know its a concession, but it would be worth so much more to the club if it maximised its income and the atrocious service does huge reputational damage to the club, particularly at events like the boxing when new punters are in the Lane. The club shop is is similarly inept – if an item is popular (the green kit?) they are just not able to get the right quantities in the right sizes at the right time. (‘It will be in after Christmas!’)

All this is not just rude and unprofessional, it loses the club millions a year in potential income. My fag packet calculation was that a half competent catering operation alone could bring in an extra seven figure sum per year. People not giving up in frustration trying to buy a season or match day ticket, would generate yet more; a Superstore which was actually super, these would all bring in significant and much needed cash. Why oh why is this multi million pound operation so reminiscent of a badly run 1980s local authority. We aspire to be a Premeirship club, but the operational infrastructure is still barely at League One level. Alongside the new left sided centre back and a midfielder that can actually run, can we not also bring in someone to the back office who has just a modicum of commercial nous, understands the demands of the 21st century and makes the club at least look like it gives a shit.

Rant over…..and in answer to the other question – John Harris by a country mile!

Thanks Scoips this is so true and well written. I queued for tickets for the Carlisle match - a painful 45 minutes and at least half a dozen people exited the line due to painful speed with which it moved. Lost sales !
Please copy and Paste or post this to Stephen Bettis. He needs to know.

 

[Bladezz]

Our wages first year were £78m, if the second year was similar we've spent £150-160m on wages for the past two seasons, so that's most of the money we got from the Prem, before the big money signings.

Nothing points to Beerschot or Châteauroux spending "our" money, and it's probably not legal for them to either.

Our management and recruitment people just bought a load of players at a massive premium who no-one else wants to take off us for the same money so we're stuck with them, and we can't really risk any big permanent signings with our reduced income.

CW has not been here for 6 months and we haven’t signed a player for 12 months.

We need to talk about now and moving forward. The Prince has found money for his Belgian side but doesn’t seem to want to spend on the SUFC side.

That is an issue.

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

CW has not been here for 6 months and we haven’t signed a player for 12 months.

We need to talk about now and moving forward. The Prince has found money for his Belgian side but doesn’t seem to want to spend on the SUFC side.

That is an issue.

Is that why 2 are due in this week?

 

[Bladezz]

Is that why 2 are due in this week?

Belgian side are paying fees and wages.
We are 2 weeks in and still no players in.

The Prince tenure needs to be judged from the moment he got here.

 

[LJBlade]

CW has not been here for 6 months and we haven’t signed a player for 12 months.

We need to talk about now and moving forward. The Prince has found money for his Belgian side but doesn’t seem to want to spend on the SUFC side.

That is an issue.

Has the Prince personally funded those signings? Or were they made with money which was already in those clubs?

I thought your original argument was that he’d used United’s money to make signings for those other teams.

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

Belgian side are paying fees and wages.
We are 2 weeks in and still no players in.

The Prince tenure needs to be judged from the moment he got here.

One new player has been self isolating so came over before the 2 weeks quoted. The other is hopefully due after negotiations with a PL team that don’t need to rush players out and notoriously are slow at this .

 

[LJBlade]

Belgian side are paying fees and wages.
We are 2 weeks in and still no players in.

The Prince tenure needs to be judged from the moment he got here.

And yet you’re judging him purely on what we’ve done in this transfer window and forgetting what we’ve done in previous ones.

 

[Bladezz]

And yet you’re judging him purely on what we’ve done in this transfer window and forgetting what we’ve done in previous ones.

Are you forgetting one season showed a £17m profit. We await the results on the second one but one would imagine it’s similar seen as though we spent less and then spent £0 in January.

I’d expect a healthy return of circa 30m.

Past signings are irrelevant. The Chariman is here to run the club now and further forward. CW and Chariman did not get on. No problem. Move on.

He recruited for 4 months his main target of SJ. Signings should have been in place way before season started.

If you want to blame a manager from 6 months ago then that’s your Perogative. Right now it’s the potential start of a crisis and the owner doesn’t seem anywhere to be seen.