Rob1742

It will all come crashing down in the end. The desire to be linked to a club and the desire to go to a game will all diminish when things get more difficult. And once you stop going, it becomes easier to stay away. I think the number of home matches I missed for like 30 odd years were very very few. But then I missed the odd one and it then becomes easier to not go as the link between you and the club becomes a little less. Whatever brand you run, you need to take your customer with you and taking them for granted comes with consequences. I recall having all the detail in place to order a new car, it was just a question of paying for it, but they messed me around so much on a service on the current car that I rang them and told them to stick the new car up their arse. At the moment there are people ready to take your place wig season tickets, but the harder they make ticketing and the further away they get from their customer the more the customer will move onto something else.

1. Communications are poor. The club should come out and sympathise with the fans at the very least, stating it’s not their choice to implement this. 2. If by going down this can be avoided, then they should avoid it, again showing the support for their customers who in general don’t want it. Take your customer with you, don’t go against them. 3. If it has to be implemented, the club should turn a blind eye to customers getting around it until the PL pushes new measures through. It just ensures less friction between the seller and the customer. 4. The lack of noise from the club supporting their customers highlights a big issue that we have. 5. 100% this is going to have a huge impact on season ticket sales and revenue for next season. My big concern is the shoulder shrugging that appears to be going on with nobody at the club grabbing the issue. When issues arrive it appears we just sleepwalk through them. 6. My personal view is the club is much bigger than it ever was, it’s now a very different business to pre winning the PL and there isn’t anyone above anymore that is noticing the issues and putting them right. Probably a structure issue as the club has got bigger, but it’s clearly a very different club and set up to what it used to be and our PR is firmly in the gutter. 7. This really is a game changer. We could be down for a number of years and showing the lack of support or at least sympathy to their customer base will impact on the customers decisions for many years. The “ why should I go on Saturday when they did this to me” mentally can stay with customers forever.

I’m not worried about an apology, I’m more concerned that they don’t know how to restructure the business and manage it differently to how it is now.

Another error, whether it’s forced or not is the digital cards. I think this alone will result in up to a 10% reduction in season ticket holders. Last time we went down the club were lucky to keep their loyal base, but after this season I think it could go down towards the levels of when we were down there just before the recent wonder years. Taking away the cards and so taking away the customers flexibility will cost them 5/10% of their ticket holders at a time they really should be trying to keep them. I used to have a spare ticket under my own name to distribute to friends. They stopped allowing me this a good few years ago. I really don’t know why they are following the narrative of knowing exactly who is in the ground all the time.

You can’t go around confronting people, Jesus. They don’t want to be harassed by oiks when they are out with their families. Generally ballers are just lads who have a genuine desire to do well in the game. They have been playing and competing since they were kids and are conditioned to perform. At certain times it doesn’t happen, like in this case an extremely weak squad in comparison to our competitors and it’s all going tits up. But they are just human beings doing a job.

Are tickets on general sale? You’ll find the information on the ticketing website. If they aren’t on general sale you won’t be able to buy any. That’s the first thing to look at. Edit - just read on the site and you have to be a member to be able to buy any, so not on general sale.

I had two hair transplants and can’t be more pleased with the results. After years of trying to make something out of nothing every day I took the plunge. Had the front done two years ago, then the crown last year. What do I think about it? Id say it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as I’m absolutely amazed at the results. Looks natural, actually enjoyed the procedure and seeing the results come. Its all about understanding what can be done, having confidence in your doctor and realising it will take a bit of time. I wouldn’t go to Turkey, I looked at the best options in the UK and I honestly can’t be happier. It’s really worth doing, but like I say you need a good doctor who will be open with what can and cannot be achieved. Nobody would think I’ve had it done because of the natural look, but I’m that proud I tell everyone.

Another one for Nige here. The ending to the 14/15 season showed the togetherness, the bond and everything that Pearson built up. Claudio had everything in his favour, plus some money to build on what was already achieved. i really don’t think Pearson got the full credit he deserved and I’d love to see him back in some capacity as he was an absolutely huge part of our success. He even got us out of league one remember

Lineker was paid by Walkers, who if you want to use the moral high ground are responsible for millions of plastic wrappers finding their way into the ocean and countryside every year. Shilton is an interesting one, he left our club in the 70’s as he wanted out, never to be seen again until he was desperate for cash and so came back to “ his” club only when there was some money on offer. I don’t think that money is on offer anymore so his tune has changed again. Yes I understand after his much publicised gambling addition that he would be against the sponsorship, but his problems were years ago and not caused by shirt sponsorship. If I was him I’d look at what actually caused his issue rather than pointing to something that didn’t cause it. On the gambling front I am not against advertising myself, gambling will always be around so companies have to fight each other for share of the market. I would however put controls on their marketing schemes where free bets are given every week to potential clients trying to hook them into gambling through constant targeting of free bets. if it was my club I’d take the companies money. Or should we blank out old pictures of Ind Coope shirt pics etc just incase it causes the odd person to become an alcoholic

We could ask Walkers Crisps to sponsor us again, who at the time I think used high saturated oils, and the obvious huge amounts of plastic in the packaging. They are part of PepsiCo that for years fed us huge amounts of sugar in their soft drinks. I do think the way things are changing that if we did get an offer from Walkers we would be getting people complaining. Just crack on, gambling has been around forever in one form or another and will be for as long as the world carries on. In the meantime the Foxes Trust gets further away from the club and the divide wont be mended and so will be a useless vehicle, if they are not already.

Too many options has made the market difficult to fathom out. I used to buy a new car every two years and once I went four years as I couldn’t be bothered to work it all out. It just got too complicated. Most companies like to reduce their number of items sold to cut costs, but for some reason the car manufacturers have been hell bent on increasing them but this has just brought confusion. Saw a lovely Audi yesterday, but there are so many variants of them that you will struggle to know what they are unless you take a picture and go on their site. The days of the Fiesta, Escort, Sierra and Granada have gone. Easy to identify, easy to know what you liked and then it was just about the trim levels

For a Trust or whatever it is to be called to work, they need to have the ability to connect to the football club. Sounds simple and obvious, but it isn’t and the Foxes Trust haven’t been able to do this and from what I hear they are seen as an irritation rather than a vehicle that could help with customer communications. A very good example of someone who is excellent at connecting between club and fans is Jim in the ticket office. You cannot underestimate how good he is at being able to communicate between two parties. The Foxes Trust seem like a group of accountant types who don’t have the ability to connect two parties. They speak up every so often but don’t really have a voice. A reform of the organisation I think is a great idea, but those currently in control of their empire won’t want this as it won’t fit their agenda. The chances of succeeding in communicating with the club are remote as you are basically questioning them and so there is instant resistance. However there is a chance that with a reform in the trust a great communicator is put in place who has the ability to communicate effectively between two sides. But it will be a tough ask. The Trust can’t see how ineffective they are, but stepping aside and letting someone else have a go under the same trust branding gives a small chance of enabling better communication between club and fans.

I think the decision will be reversed. They need to look at it and see the error here. I think it’s down to the club being much bigger than it was previously and so certain things get through to the supporters that perhaps shouldn’t. Bigger club, more staff, less control, more mistakes and harder to manage from the top. My money is on someone above grabbing this and realising it shouldn’t have gone through to press and reversing the decision.

The thing is it’s not about the money. They are using the £25 to try and get you to move away from the card. They just want to rid the customer of a card for some weird reason. Whether it’s a control thing so they know the movement of everyone I don’t know, but the £25 is just to make us make the move, not for revenue purposes

The work load this has created for the ticket office is crazy. So if you want to pass your ticket on nowadays you have to inform the club and they have to go through a process. Lets say every match they have to do 1000 transactions for changes at least, many more when the season card is ended. So why would you want to create all this work when the old method was much easier for the business and the customers. This screams of someone new coming in and creating a system that isn’t needed and has created work for everyone

So could someone answer me this please. If you get a non plastic season ticket, so use the mobile version, can you pass it on between friends and family? I am just thinking if the missus doesn’t for a match can you put your season ticket on someone else’s phone and then transfer it back after? just wondering how this works

I don’t agree. The people I have half conversations with ( I say half, because I tend to quit half way through) moan about what we do and always expect more and more. You have only got to look at a good percentage of fans reaction at Bristol City. Anything other than winning and or spending huge amounts on players is regarded as negative and not having the ambition to move forward. Also if they openly say that we need to cut the cloth, players and agents would give us a wide berth. It’s really difficult for the club to communicate as most take it out of context. I know that if they came out with “ we need to cut the cloth” fans would have been raging and it would just have been the trigger needed for the Rudkin and Whelan out brigade and brought instant instability. Most fans don’t look at the detail, they just look at the result and the transfers and if they don’t like what they see they instantly start spitting. It’s not everyone, and many on here won’t be like that, but you just need to see how unsettling it is when one thing goes wrong and the spitters come out. Communicating from any clubs point of view is very hard when it’s bad news

The key issue was when Brendan came back in the summer and being told the financial situation. We had a manager with the raving hump on a massive contract who we couldn’t sack as it would have put us in a mess financially. But what I don’t get is why we were in such a financial mess that June upon his return from holiday? It was as if it was a huge surprise. What created the impending financial disaster and could that have been stopped? It’s tricky as Brendan was a great signing at the time and it worked, we won the FA Cup, we had Puel, so we pulled a trigger and backed a big manager. In my opinion we have tried to be something we aren’t. We have maybe the best training ground in the world, paid huge wages to keep the likes of Vardy. We got players like Tielemans ahead of other clubs, but in the end we are little old Leicester with a little old Leicester budget. Im not bothered though. Vardy, Maddison, Tielemans, Fofana, Evans, Cambiasso, Kante. We got and saw players that were clearly above our station and we went on a great journey with them. Think we over did it, well we must have done but we did things I never thought were possible. I suppose it’s like living like a millionaire when you don’t have the money, then get everything repossessed. But you have some great memories and a couple of amazing trophies.

At 57 I’ve seen the City change massively. From vibrant stores like Lewis’s, loads of record shops and shops you’d actually buy your clobber from for a Saturday night. Then larger stores came in, The Shires and smaller stores disappeared but were replaced. It seemed to have a more upmarket feel to it. Then disaster struck, the internet came in and the town changed. Was walking through it yesterday and we looked at what great stores were about, where we used to go and what has replaced the stores of yesteryear. It was always evolving but moving forward, but without question it’s a shadow of what it used to be. It’s not even 20% of what it used to be. Market Street was a high end street, good quality clothing shops, wedding shop, it was absolutely thriving. It’s now littered with awful places with a few decent places propping it up. We have suffered more than a lot of the Cities, but towns like Northampton and Banbury are far worse. The council are doing what they can, creating squares and making it better, but they can’t take the internet away and bring retail back to life. I just find it really sad that I saw great transformations in our City both retail and also with regards to nightlife. The late 80’s transformation in nightlife was insane, but unfortunately that has dropped like a stone too. It’s sad that it’s all gone pear shaped, which I didn’t think it would as for decades I just saw positives and loved the positive changes

It’s all down to what stocks they have left. No need to knock them out for a tenner if there isn’t much stock left. Also think of the possible play offs, these will be sold at full price within days of the final being announced. Thats if we got there. The quantities ordered vary per season, and so maybe they cut back massively on their premiership quantity orders

This three kit per season situation needs to change. I get the thought process, it’s greed by the clubs and it gets instant revenue at the beginning of each season. However, it doesn’t give the fans time to relate to it, to relate it to players, games etc and so it then becomes a vague memory a few years later rather than a piece of history. I used to look at a kit and relate it to certain players, the Matty Fryatt kit, Tony James, Rooster etc, but now they come and go so quickly you can’t really relate them to anything unless you’ve had a great season. They are bringing out all these retro kits, which must be selling as they have a great deal of space in the club shop. But in years to come these modern kits won’t become icons because nobody will end up recalling them to a season or player. It’s short term gain at the moment, but long term it won’t be good as these won’t be reissued and sold like the older ones are currently.

You Sir are a genius. Thank you

I get that, but I think the rule needs to be looked into and challenged as it’s ridiculous. I understand it can be worked around, but this stuff were away tickets needed to be picked up and now this needs to be stopped. What about families who have tickets but don’t always go to the games so they share them with other family members? What if a family of four buy two tickets and they decide late on who goes, they basically share two tickets? It’s a ridiculous rule that needs stopping as it could stop those that follow the rules to decide not to take up season tickets. I think it’s best challenged rather than accepted and just breaking the ruling.

I wonder if this big brother approach is a Leicester City thing, or nationwide? I find it incredible that you buy a ticket, but you are the only person allowed to use it. I find it quite bizarre. I understand the issues if it is across the age ranges, but surely this is an issue for families where as an example one of the family can only go to certain games or they share the ticket between family members. Hopefully it’s not just a Leicester City initiative, but if it’s nationwide I am not keen on the fact that you literally can’t give your ticket to your brother for a match without having to inform the club. Yes I know people will unofficially do it, however surely this ruling needs to be looked into as I just think it’s a step too far.

We have been sponsored by FBS online trading for two years and I haven’t a clue what it actually is. Crap marketing if they are going to spend all that wonga on advertising but don’t put any plans in place to engage with their consumers at the same time.