Oakwell Fan Park BBC

Just because thrive ignored those groups, doesn't mean they haven't listened to other groups

 

Does that extend to outer fanzone then with Molson Coors providing the offering

 

I think its good that the club are looking at this. They have to make space somewhere so car park i also get. Maybe there are other alternatives but im not sure the logic of 200 unused spaces makes sense. Isnt the objective to attract more people earlier?

The bit i question is the open air part. I dont understand why we can’t have it fully enclosed, maybe a prefab style rather than bricks and mortar for cost reasons. If i was going to the expense, saw potential additional revenue and improved the game day, surely a closed enclosure would be better? Anyone know why they took this approach other than pure cost?

 

What about something like the St James Stack? Looks decent and covered. But if its £6/7 per pint then i think it will put most off

 

You do realise the price of everything has gone up everywhere, right?

The prices at Barnsley are pretty comparable to most stadiums now.

For context, you go to an arena show and pints are over £9.

 

Exactly this, signing a loan keeper is wrong, the coaching team is too big and now the price of drinks is too high. Some are not happy unless there is something to moan about

 

Just a thought to all you tight unts lol went to watch iron maiden in Manchester it’s was 9 pound a pint , and a solution to these high prices . Get a wife/ gf with big jugs so she can smuggle 2 hip flasks inside lol

 

£7.70 for Guinness at Headingley for the Test at the weekend. Tetley's was £6.80

 

What a patronising reply, I don't live in a cave, regularly go to gigs and I'm fully aware of prices in terms of Oakwell vs town centre hence I've highlighted our pricing isn't in line to attract fans to start spending more money.

 

The town centre isn't really a fair comparison, comparing prices to other football clubs/sporting events would be a far better way to look at it.

 

You are missing the point, we aren't trying to attract supporters to the fanzone by comparing to other sports venues, we are trying to draw fans from the town centre to the fanzone to increase spend, why would fans pay more to drink in the ground if they can get a better/cheaper environment 10 mins down the road.

 

Don't be such a bloody optimist.

 

The better environment is very much open to personal taste, I find a lot of town pubs far too overcrowded on Saturdays and having the fanzone as an alternative would be far more appealing.

It's always going to be more expensive than most of the town centre pubs, I think it's unreasonable to expect it to be £3/£4 a pint given the financial state the club is in.

 

Most of, if not all of, the fanzones I've been to are open air. A Wembley box park thing would be nice, but I guess there's a reason most clubs at our level have them outside. £?.

 

Each to there own I guess, 650 people crammed into a cold space paying more doesn't get me leaping up to come and spend more and with every sip thinking that's cost me more thanks to Watters, Cosgrove, Dallas, Shaw, Lembikisa, Craig, Rodrigues, Lewis.
Good luck with marketing that strategy to a disgruntled fanbase.

 

I mean with that attitude, why even go to games at all?

I could flip it around and say I know my drinks are going towards DKD, Russell, Roberts, Connell and all the promising young players we've tied to long deals recently. The thing is, if we don't continue supporting the club those signings will only get worse and worse.

They clearly got it horribly wrong in January but holding that grudge against Mladen/the owners six months later ain't going to do anyone any favours.

 

The thing that bugs me a bit with the "we don't have the budget" argument that we seem to hear a lot at Barnsley when it comes to the fan experience is that other clubs crowd fund things. We just shrug our shoulders and say "meh, can't afford it so we'll do it on the cheap". It's why much smaller clubs than us have really good scoreboards and we've got that useless thing and why some smaller clubs have proper fan zones and we're getting an half arsed effort.

I guarantee that if the club had asked fans to donate money directly to fund a fan zone that they could have raised a substantial amount. Same goes if they'd asked one of the many local businesses to sponsor it and add that income to the pot for building it.

But it seems their default answer is meh, too expensive. Can't be arsed to look for alternative funding methods. You're getting a cheapo instead.

 

Not spoke to the council as why would I.

But I contacted the club mid season and made a few suggestions.

One was a traditional semi permanent wedding marquee, rated for 60mph winds. 60m long and could house 1500 people.
Another was an insulated inflatable dome. Two of them could face each other and house 700 people each (standing). I actually suggested that a few years ago too when Chelsea's former fan zone was up for sale.
A third was a modular warehouse building.

I also suggested crowd funding the project to save the club having to foot the entire bill