There really does need to be a change of emphasis if the club is going to grow. At present the message to any off-the-cuff supporter is you're going to pay more than anyone else for the worst seats and get packed in somewhere...anywhere...like sardines. It doesn't matter if you can see **** all or you get soaking wet through. A seat's a seat. I'm beginning to think the club hold the match ticket crowd in the same regard as some people in this thread and site in general do. They need to step outside their season ticket bubble for a bit and start putting themselves in other people's shoes. The Reds Pride thing is more than a big disappointment, it's a bloody insult to be honest. It shows they neither understand nor care. I've got news for them, people aren't stupid. £1 off isn't going to attract anyone and the 7th game isn't free, it's already been paid for.
Hmm I agree with the first half of your post and really think the club needs to look closely at the home capacity issue - it would appear that the home capacity is just over 14000 at the moment and we are getting close to that in L1 at the moment. Next season may be tricky to judge - if we struggle home attendances will probably not increase but if we are doing OK we will be having this problem more often. As you say if part time fans can only get the worst seats - behind the corner flag or under no cover in the West it is going to put them off - especially when there are loads of much better seats unsold. To me splitting the North Stand seems an obvious solution and I fail to understand why many clubs do this but we cant. If we are in the Championship there may be a few games we cant do this - eg Leeds and the Fowls - in which case we should have a plan to use the whole west stand should the need arise. If we slip up and find ourselves in League 1 again the problem probably is much less and with the possible exception of Sunderland there should be no issue to split the North stand. We did it when it was first built so I fail to understand why it cant be done now. Regarding the Reds Pride I cant agree - basically the club is saying to any fans that expect to attend half a dozen games there is a free membership scheme that gets them a discount and priority - seems a fair initiative to me Id sign up if I was in that position
Surely you cant expect the best seats in the house if you try to get them sporadically and late. Same would happen at the theatre or any other sporting event.I really don't get the angst
Agree I'd like to use the North stand but I think some folk on here are making mountains from mole hills.
This will cause a bit of " I've stood in the ponty since I had to sit on mi dad's shoulders" but when the North stand was built why couldn't/ or didn't they have that as the "new" ponty end. I dont know ( I may well be wrong) another stadium with a bigger away end than ours, tbh I am happy as it is but on business/ financial side it could have worked, anyway COYR,,plus our team walking out to our supporters in the North stand.
The North Stand was designed to accommodate the larger away followings that being in the Championship/ Premiership would require. Meadow Lane's away end is the same.
Surely the wealthy owners are looking into this problem.... aren't they ? We used to be able to get crowds over 20000 into Oakwell. What's changed?
They have said they will make more capacity available when we have a demand problem. Saturday was the first time in a long time that this was the case.
It's really not a mole hill for those like me who have, on many occasions, not known til the day of the game if they could go or not then turn up in the certain knowledge that we're going to be allocated a crap seat. As has been said, fair enough if the ground is full but not when the North stand is sitting half empty.
7 I've no interest in buying priority, I'm only interested in affording more games. The flexi ticket worked better and it could easily have been adjusted for League 1.
It's only a mountain from mole hills for the people it doesn't affect. It's impossible for anyone to say with any certainty how many people are put off by the way we do things.
I've sat in the North Stand as a home fan before so it has happened. It was a long time ago, can't remember when, but sometime shortly after the North Stand opened I suspect.
