Kopped
Member
Here are the notes from the Meeting/Forum held with Richard Batho.
Feel free to add your comments.
Q. There's a strong rumour from within the club that Loyalty point maybe scrapped?
A. I have discussed this at length with the person you have mentioned and there will be no such plan to get rid of the Loyalty Points scheme.
Q. Will the £10 Junior Blades Season Tickets be extended to next season?
A. This has been looked into at length and there seems to be a gap where people walk away from the club when they reach 13-16 years old. So we are going to restructure the pricing scheme so that we don't lose as many of these people. The proposed prices are:
Junior supporters either £79 (Kop) or £89 (South & John Street) and that I hope will make it more affordable to our teenage supporters.
Q. Will the 17th April Dead-line be extended?
A. No, is the short answer. We need to maintain our commitment to the people that renew before deadline day. Gone are the days where people that come forward early get treated as mugs.
What I would like to do is take all the names and addresses of the people that renew early and reward them with some sort of reward in the future . . .
Q. Are Ticket prices going up for a match day?
A. This has not been decided yet, but there will be very few £10 and bring a friend type promotions. Mini-Season Tickets/Flexi-Tickets will not be offered this season.
Q. Do United accept fund-raising?
A. United accept fund-raising if put forward properly. I will pursuit your idea's with the person responsible.
Q. Every game, if you look at the boxes on the John Street Stand. You will see lots of empty boxes! Is it possible to raffle these off to existing Season Ticket holders as a bonus, if they are not filled?
A. Good idea but companies do buy season tickets for these and it would be up to them whether they are going to use them first. I don't think it would be feasible with time scales involved. Shame though as it would be a potentially a good idea.
Q. With the changes and drop in the Quality of service at Radio Sheffield, is there any chance we could take advantage of this and broadcast our own Radio commentary or extend the Blades TV/player to a subscription service?
A. Our own commentary could be costly but it is not impossible. If we could do it we would. TV however requires special permission from the FA is it's their brand. It may bear our name but it is copyrighted to the FA. So as a short term answer, it isn't possible. Unless we do what Leeds did and buy out of the contract football league contract.
(light humour from 1 member: will we not talk about Leeds in a favourable light please?
)
Q. Do you think that the £15 charge for renewing your season ticket over the phone is a bit steep?
A. The £15 charge has been scrapped, I don't think we should be making money in this way from the fans. I can also reveal that plans are underway to get rid of the premium numbers also. There is no need to have premium numbers to a ticket line.
Q. Bearing in mind the time of year and that they were voted in last October/November time, When will the new kits be available to buy? The reason I ask is, people like to buy them for their holidays.
A. We have again run into problems with Macron about the shirts. This is because we sell a lower number of shirts than some other clubs. The deal we have means in the past we have ordered a nlarger number shirts as a starting order. We are trying to reduce it. The problem with Macron is that they also supply Leeds and they buy 100K shirts from their club shops, which is a phenomenal amount compared to ours. So they may prioritise some other clubs before us sometimes.
We do have ideas that we may go into a non-named shirt where we make our own (due to our links in China). We will then have our own designs and get them out at a fraction of the cost therefore the saving being made to the Customers/Fans.
(Great Idea imo)
(more light banter: Ok Leeds are being mentioned far too much in this forum )
Q. Why couldn't we take advantage of one of the big name brands?
A. Do you want Ajax's shirt design last season as the first team shirt this season? That is what big brands do. They pass off big name designed shirts to smaller clubs, just change the badge and sponsor.
.Q. Tongue in cheek question: Can you ask the player, during negotiations during the summer, to NOT wear Blue Boots? The player goes way down in my estimations when they come on with blue boots on.
A. Blank look!
Q. A burning rumour is: There has been lots of training ground bust-ups, is this true?
A. Do people who are grouped together argue at times when there are about 40 of you? I think that speaks for itself.
Q. The Superstore: Why is there a delivery charge of £6-7 for delivery on products that take 2-3weeks to turn up?
A. Send me the details and I'll follow this up as it seems far too poor to the normal practices in the club shop.
Q. Kyle Walker has been called up to the England Squad a couple of times, is there any clauses where we receive any money?
A. NO, I don't think so.
*Richard states that he would like to go on the record as he will NOT answer Forums, if anyone has any burning issues, either turn up to these open forums OR email him for a personal response. He answers all emails.
Feel free to add your comments.
Q. There's a strong rumour from within the club that Loyalty point maybe scrapped?
A. I have discussed this at length with the person you have mentioned and there will be no such plan to get rid of the Loyalty Points scheme.
Q. Will the £10 Junior Blades Season Tickets be extended to next season?
A. This has been looked into at length and there seems to be a gap where people walk away from the club when they reach 13-16 years old. So we are going to restructure the pricing scheme so that we don't lose as many of these people. The proposed prices are:
Junior supporters either £79 (Kop) or £89 (South & John Street) and that I hope will make it more affordable to our teenage supporters.
Q. Will the 17th April Dead-line be extended?
A. No, is the short answer. We need to maintain our commitment to the people that renew before deadline day. Gone are the days where people that come forward early get treated as mugs.
What I would like to do is take all the names and addresses of the people that renew early and reward them with some sort of reward in the future . . .
Q. Are Ticket prices going up for a match day?
A. This has not been decided yet, but there will be very few £10 and bring a friend type promotions. Mini-Season Tickets/Flexi-Tickets will not be offered this season.
Q. Do United accept fund-raising?
A. United accept fund-raising if put forward properly. I will pursuit your idea's with the person responsible.
Q. Every game, if you look at the boxes on the John Street Stand. You will see lots of empty boxes! Is it possible to raffle these off to existing Season Ticket holders as a bonus, if they are not filled?
A. Good idea but companies do buy season tickets for these and it would be up to them whether they are going to use them first. I don't think it would be feasible with time scales involved. Shame though as it would be a potentially a good idea.
Q. With the changes and drop in the Quality of service at Radio Sheffield, is there any chance we could take advantage of this and broadcast our own Radio commentary or extend the Blades TV/player to a subscription service?
A. Our own commentary could be costly but it is not impossible. If we could do it we would. TV however requires special permission from the FA is it's their brand. It may bear our name but it is copyrighted to the FA. So as a short term answer, it isn't possible. Unless we do what Leeds did and buy out of the contract football league contract.
(light humour from 1 member: will we not talk about Leeds in a favourable light please?
)Q. Do you think that the £15 charge for renewing your season ticket over the phone is a bit steep?
A. The £15 charge has been scrapped, I don't think we should be making money in this way from the fans. I can also reveal that plans are underway to get rid of the premium numbers also. There is no need to have premium numbers to a ticket line.
Q. Bearing in mind the time of year and that they were voted in last October/November time, When will the new kits be available to buy? The reason I ask is, people like to buy them for their holidays.
A. We have again run into problems with Macron about the shirts. This is because we sell a lower number of shirts than some other clubs. The deal we have means in the past we have ordered a nlarger number shirts as a starting order. We are trying to reduce it. The problem with Macron is that they also supply Leeds and they buy 100K shirts from their club shops, which is a phenomenal amount compared to ours. So they may prioritise some other clubs before us sometimes.
We do have ideas that we may go into a non-named shirt where we make our own (due to our links in China). We will then have our own designs and get them out at a fraction of the cost therefore the saving being made to the Customers/Fans.
(Great Idea imo)
(more light banter: Ok Leeds are being mentioned far too much in this forum
)Q. Why couldn't we take advantage of one of the big name brands?
A. Do you want Ajax's shirt design last season as the first team shirt this season? That is what big brands do. They pass off big name designed shirts to smaller clubs, just change the badge and sponsor.
.Q. Tongue in cheek question: Can you ask the player, during negotiations during the summer, to NOT wear Blue Boots? The player goes way down in my estimations when they come on with blue boots on.
A. Blank look!
Q. A burning rumour is: There has been lots of training ground bust-ups, is this true?
A. Do people who are grouped together argue at times when there are about 40 of you? I think that speaks for itself.
Q. The Superstore: Why is there a delivery charge of £6-7 for delivery on products that take 2-3weeks to turn up?
A. Send me the details and I'll follow this up as it seems far too poor to the normal practices in the club shop.
Q. Kyle Walker has been called up to the England Squad a couple of times, is there any clauses where we receive any money?
A. NO, I don't think so.
*Richard states that he would like to go on the record as he will NOT answer Forums, if anyone has any burning issues, either turn up to these open forums OR email him for a personal response. He answers all emails.
British management at its best fookin useless ! ....... I've said it before and i'll say it again the whole ethos at BDTBL stinks.
