Not on that open day. The North stand had just been built. Took him to a few open days late 90s early 00s. Might have got the shirt wrong because I bought him one every open day.
Misread your post to be fair, thought when you mentioned Liverpool you were referring to Premier League season, particularly when you said Wilson and Redfearn. Apologies.
Wait till some on here come and defend the club! Honestly nothing should surprise us with BFC anymore but we just meander from one **** up to the next.
u18 were on showcase pitch, ladies game called off because sheffield could not come for some reason or another, lots of people around by 4 and an anounsement of new striker and a quick interview with him.
I think it's important to highlight some of the positives from today as well as the negatives. It can't just be one size fits all feedback, and for every kid where we've missed the chance to engage them early, there were other kids that were massively engaged. I'm not long home after leaving the house at 9am this morning to be involved in setting up, and didn't want to counter various replies as a lot of them are fair criticism. Think we finally put the van back under the East Stand Concourse at 9:15pm. Positives It was busy. And busy early. We had a record-breaking day within the FanZone and will be able to make a significant donation towards repairing the Barnsley Pals memorial with Barnsley Museum and Heritage Trust. Lots of new faces, old faces, friendly faces, of all ages, and even 100 or so Forest fans all behaving themselves. I liked the easing of restrictions around the FanZone, in that there weren't any, so you could buy things within it and then walk around Oakwell to be involved in Reds in the Community activities or the games taking place earlier in the day. The live entertainment was top class, in my opinion. Dave Cooper never disappoints, live player interviews with Charlie Winfield, Kayode Odejayi, and the live announcement of new signing James Norwood. The official Barnsley FC Podcast team were involved, and I thought both artists (a jazz duet with a female singer and a young female solo artist) were extremely talented and played songs that suited the weather, occasion and audience. The addition of a home friendly with season ticket holders attending for free was a nice added touch, and the games on the other pitches were both 'sold out' and well attended. I also thought we played pretty well against Premier League opposition, with all new signings showing promise. After the game, the whole squad (minus maybe Styles and Kane, but inc. Helik) came out for photos, autographs, etc. Dozens of youngsters absolutely lapping it up and around 200 stayed after the game. Think I saw Duff, Patterson and Khaled as well at that point speaking to supporters. Negatives. Or room for improvement as a more productive phrase The fun fair element was lacking and needed to be more impactful. However, there was a last minute spanner in the works there which I believe was out of the club's control. And by last minute, we're taking 10:30am. Barnsley Ladies had their opponents pull out late yesterday which was disappointing. However I think the club rallied on that one and allowed, or brought in, some young/female supporters or players at local teams to get involved and take part in a mixed game. Saw most of the Pogmoor girls team walking around in their kits (U12s or around that age) The issue with shirts is obviously far from ideal. You'd want all three available from today for supporters to buy. I'd love to see a 'Barnsley Village' on Open Day at the back of the East Stand. Lots of local businesses, lots of sponsored stands, very similar in scale to the Pontefract Liquorice Festival last weekend in town. Asking Cannon Hall Farm to pitch up somehow, other 'free' pop-ups for kids to do things/be entertained as well so it's not all rides and competitions for x amount of pounds. So much under-utilised space. There was a lack of a food offer outside today. Just Pukka Pies and doughnuts. We can and should do much better here. The 200 supporters who stayed to meet the players afterwards could have been 500-600. Huge opportunity there in terms of the FanZone being setup and ready as people were leaving Oakwell, making them stop in their tracks, with better announcements around the players coming out. 30 minutes of interviews would have been nice - perhaps hearing from the CEO and the new management duo. Overall though I think there were far more happy people than unhappy people. And from a purely selfish perspective, outside of a 30 minute spell about 4pm where the line was insane and heat meant the bar struggled, it was an enjoyable day to be involved in. The frustration from my side, as someone who's involved in events and hospitality as my day job, is how amazing our Open Day could be.
Nahh it can't be, I thought he was sleeping with the fishes lol. And seeing as Chien Lee has chucked a sickie lol, it must be all down to Grace Hung!!.
Thought the offering in the East stand car park was mediocre overall, although I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of pints of Brewdogs pale offering, very refreshing on a hot day! Just to counter that. Were people not aware of everything that was going on in the RITC building? My son and my mates kids were in there most of the afternoon! Playing footy, taking pens against Toby, playing basketball, playing on the various inflatables. They had a ball. It was advertised on all the paraphernalia / website etc. I understand people being underwhelmed by the East stand car park stuff but I had a decent afternoon overall and the boy had a top time.
Was mentioned in detail by Dave Cooper as well a couple of times. I referenced it too in my post on the overview of the day as a positive. One for the club to review as I think it did skip a lot of people by.
No fella played guitar today, unless you know something we don’t? There was one playing saxophone, although I know they’re easily confused with guitars…
took grandson and partner down , neither had been before , under 18ns on showcase pitch was ok , then we went to funfair , that was dissapointing ,no access to ground for them to look at stadium , a couple of portable toilets , couldnt even get a cuppa , left after half an hour .
Just had a quick look, roughly about £2k for a days hire for a funfair ride. So could have had a decent set up for <10k
It's still not an "Open" Day by definition though without free access to the ground. It needs to be called summat else otherwise it's simply fraudulent.
From reading all this it sounds like an opportunity missed when it really shouldn't have been. The Open Day is a focal point of pre season and, this year in particular, was a huge chance to bring as many on board as possible. Instead it gives the conspiracy theorists the oxygen to tout the Conway won the election and will be reinstated in the next few weeks after a military coup type nonsense. If I try to look at things with a level head... The dealings in the transfer market look as good as could be hoped. The lack of a sponsor is worrying. The Open Day has been fumbled. Khaled still has an awful lot to do to convince.
Sounds like it's not much different to other open days except there were no tours on the actual day ( I know these are being run at other times) and matches to watch instead of training. I suppose it's down to what your expectations are, my kids enjoyed going when they were younger.
Personally I thought the addition of the home friendly was a mistake. OK for grown ups but it meant that the Open Day was actually a closed day. No access to stadium or changing rooms for the kids which has been a nmassive plus in years gone by. 200 or so staying behind after the match to meet the players was poor when you consider 1 000s attended. Your positives are basically from an adults point if view. As I said, we left early and had a great day in town instead