The next meeting is 17th December. I'll post the Agenda items once agreed by the Group. Listed below are the questions raised from the BBS last month. The club's responses are also listed. The late posting is my fault not the Club's. Will the club be bringing in discounted alcohol drinks in the ground? We will continue to assess this; however we have seen from the price reductions in previous games that sales do not increase. Food and beverage is part of the match-day experience and we understand that. Can the club look at some incentive for fans who live further away from Oakwell as a season ticket is pointless now due to internationals and Sky moving the games; something like a 5 or 10 game season ticket would be great as the club have done something similar before? This is in operation now with the flexi ticket. We will look to introduce this from the start of the season next year. A season ticket will always be the cheapest way to watch matches at Oakwell. Will there be fan consultation/involvement in the design and content of the proposed Fanzone? Yes and it is ongoing with FAB. Re car parking, can we do anything pre match to stop cars coming down Grove Street towards Pontefract Road. Most weeks there is gridlock as cars continue to drive towards Pontefract Road against match traffic coming up from Pontefract Road, We do it after the match so can it be done pre match? ie. Block off at top car park entrance as we do after the match and block off the bottom of Coniston Road to stop cars onto Grove Street. The problem is exacerbated by cars parked either side of the road. This is a contentious area. However we will look into this idea pre-game. While the comms ideas are great going forward, not everybody watches videos; eg the pre match conferences. Why is there no write up now to go together with the video? More and more media consumption is occurring in video form; however we have listened to this and where resource allows, we will also produce a written summary. Could you get an update on the Safe Standing initiative, with particular regard to timescales? We are about to start the consultation stage with supporters in the area of which the safe standing is going to be installed. Once this has been completed, we will continue with the installation. We aim to get this installed before the end of the season. Whilst we are grateful to the board for the financial support they continue to provide, are they actively looking to attract new investment into the club? One to discuss at the next FAB meeting. Are the club thinking about using the VW Corner for safe standing? Currently the safe standing area will be in OR1 for home fans. We will await the introduction of safe standing in this area before we consider other areas in the future. Please pass thanks on to John Bird and team who have been sorting the accessibility and alterations to the toilets, I'm impressed so far. Thank you for the feedback. We will continue to work on the accessibility of the stadium. If anyone has any questions or suggestions for the next meeting please post on here and we'll take them forward.
Are there any plans to get more fans into Oakwell? Home Attendance was pretty dire again on Saturday. How do the club get the 'stay away fans' back?
You say this...when has it been discounted? If you're talking about an hour before kick off, of course sales aren't going to be boosted - I and my group would certainly get a beer just before kick off or at half time if it was a reasonable price though, like at Wrexham, where it was £4.60 for a decent locally brewed lager. £6.50 for a Madri is absolutely scandalous. Same goes for the £3 or whatever it is now for soft drinks.
The consultation stage sounds a lot like the We're going to rip your seats up and you can either stand or move stage.
That's really helpful. Thank you. Just a point on the Safe Standing consultation. I can see why the fans in the proposed area deserve special consideration in terms of the consultation but I would have thought the issue is a wider (positive) one - so the consultation should be wider. Cheers.
Thanks for the updates - much appreciated. There are a few "woolly" replies to some of the questions. Can we ensure that they stay open questions until they have been fully considered, actioned or answered?
Thanks for the update @55&counting, really appreciate them and good to see that the engagement is potentially leading to improvements all round
Or is the intention to just put a white surrender flag up as we usually give up at home these days anyway.
can the catering staff be better trained on how to use the equipment, tills etc, saturday it seemed there was a lot of newbies who were clueless, also if turnstiles are meant to open at 130 why does it not happen til 140-145ish some games, a couple of the stewards on saturday got abuse because of this even though its not their problem. also FAB meeting minutes on website, no update since 21st august
1) Reduce ticket prices 2) Do something about the West Stand 3) Get a team playing good and winning football 4) Install safe standing, preferably on the Ponty (I noticed yesterday that one end at Spurs was safe standing and judging by the way it emptied after Chelsea's 2nd penalty, it was the home end) I reckon that would do it. In fact forget points 2 and 4.
Please could you ask why/how the outsourced kiosk at ESL 4 continues to trade without displaying any prices at point of sale.
From top to bottom the club is amateurish at best. It’s as if no one’s got a clue what’s going on nor do they seem to care either.
The only real issue worth pursuing is what happens on the pitch. Catering, car parking, fan engagement etc etc are all sideshows. Not saying people have views and want lots of things improving but unless they're critical issues (for a few they may well be) they're not that important in the big scheme. We've had crap catering etc in the past but when the footy has been good fans have supported the club and turned up in spite of a lack of world-beating facilities. Address the footy on the pitch first. Build a team and they will come...
