Questions to both the season ticket holders and pay on the day supporters

I've not been away this season, a lot of it is down to the cost and I also have an eldest child who I need to see through a minimum of 5 years at medical school. But I have to be honest, our inability to truly compete makes it an easier decision not spend on away games. I had planned to meet my son at West Brom (he's studying in Birmingham) but we both bailed out.

Match day experience for me is mainly about the game. I appreciate mixed views about the fanzone, but there was a demand for it and I don't think criticism of it is justified. I've got to be honest and say that I've never known it so difficult to get to Oakwell by car. I drive as my mate and his son don't drive and I'm their lift. A lot of the traffic and match day organisation isn't down to the club alone, I've even received substantial documentation from the local authority via a Freedom of Information request, I'd got that frustrated. If we were top of the league, I doubt I'd be bothered!

The lack of quality in the squad, the treatment of Stendel, results and the silence from the board all roll into one, and its those factors that really have soured things.

I support Barnsley, have done for nearly 40 years. I'm used to occasional success, giving the big time Charlie's a bloody nose and two fingers now and again, but generally accepting that this success is usually fleeting in nature and struggle is more common. But its that taste of rare success that keeps me hooked.

The board and recruitment team, whether wilfully or through incompetence, have made an absolute shambles of things in a short space of time in terms of our primary modus operandi of being "a football club". Other boards have made bad decisions, I can accept that to a point, error is part of life and work. I don't have any cynical view of any of the board's integrity behind recruitment and transfer decisions, but their judgement and competence to run "a football club" using points as the main currency of concern is questionable to put it diplomatically.

January will be the yard stick time to judge.

My support is being tested, it was during Hill and Johnson's tenure. Then things changed. I've never been embarrassed by our league position or division we play in, but part of me worries about our future as "a football club".

 

I've had tickets for every league game this season, and missed the draw at Wigan because I couldn't get to Barnsley due to there being a train stuck on the track somewhere.

I'll continue to go, home and away, because I'm a Barnsley fan.

Match day experience doesn't bother me. I'm nearly 41, and I'm not interested in the fanzone or whatever else. My experience is I come to the game, watch it, and go home again. There is no financial gain from me if they sell cheap beer, artisan beer, craft beer, whatever. I'm not interested. I go to the game and then I leave the game.

I'm not happy about losing Stendel. I loved him, and last year was amazing. As for the players, they're doing their best. Why should I get on their backs? It isn't ideal, and I wish it were different, but I never get the feeling that they've stopped trying or that it doesn't matter. Recruit a large domestic cat to do astrophysics, and don't feel surprised when the results aren't what you hope for.

I'm unsurprised that the board don't communicate. I'm not seen as a fan, I am seen as a customer. I don't have the right to know what Tesco feel when they change CEO, and so it's understood that I have no right to access the inner workings of the football club either. I wish it were otherwise. I wish there were more emotion and respect for Stendel, but there's not. I'm just a supporter, and the club would continue to exist if I withdrew my £300-a-season.

Would I ever withdraw my support? Theoretically, yes, but we are nowhere near that point yet.

 

Yeah it wa September and it's well worth a visit. Lovely food and not too dear.

 

Pretty much every game this season.

 

There are some superb in depth responses on this thread and they all resonate with my feelings at the moment.

My input is firstly that I have been a season ticket holder every year since I was at middle school in the early 80s, except for the 3 years I was at university, when I had a student ST at Colchester United for 8 quid, just to watch some football with my mates.

Match day experience for me is not too important. Yes, the stadium is feeling a bit unloved and uninspiring but it wouldn't be a factor in deciding my attendance. I do live in hope that the West Stand will be knocked down at some point in my lifetime because it is just an embarrassment now. But hey ho.

The biggest problem from a match day perspective is the awful access and exit from the car park. I made the HUGE mistake of paying for a car park ST this year so feel obliged to use it, but really wish I hadn't. It was the main factor in me missing the last midweek game because I had to travel on to a hotel for work and I couldn't risk being stuck in there until 11pm.

Attendance wise, I have missed 3 or 4 home games this season already. Whilst this was down to work commitments, it doesn't bother me any more when it transpires that I can't make it. In years gone past I would move heaven and earth to arrange my diary around the fixture list. Now I don't even bother to look. And I knocked away games on the head 3 years ago.

This season is pretty much written off now from a football perspective and is becoming embarrassing. It's not the players fault, they can only do their best and some of them will develop into good players. It doesn't bother me that we are crap. We often have been. But it is the general feeling that being competitive as a football team is secondary and our purpose is just to churn a profit on players that really kicks for me and most others. We can turn being crap around. But if we dont intend to try then why am I am bothering. Why do I want to pay money to watch a conveyor belt of players that we can never attach to and who will never grow as a team. Its soulless. The board's actions over Stendel were just disgusting and will not be forgotten. But even that distasteful episode is not my main issue. It's the thought that we don't even have a future as a football team that worries me more.

Will I renew?. Hard to say, I can't imagine not watching football on a weekend. And it is about the only social life I have outside of my family. It would therefore to some extent depend on what others in my group of friends decide to do. But I don't enjoy it much at the moment. It would be conceivable that I choose not to. I couldn't imagine that previously. I have never felt so disconnected from the club and last season I felt more connected than I have for years - how the hell the board have contrived that turnaround in fan engagement in 6 months is breathtaking.

Sad to say, I look on in envy to both Sheffield United and Rotherham at the moment. One is achieving every thing I would want for my club. And the other is a proper club, in a modern stadium, well run and with hope that they are striving to achieve. We don't have that and it hurts.

 

I actually looked forward to the stoke game, which is something I'd not done since the start of the season.

Hoped we'd turned a bit of a corner after coming back from 2 down against Bristol, but sadly it was another false dawn.

I don't fancy us against anyone now. If we do win a game it'll be a bit of a shock.

 

Home games are a chore and away games are pointless at the moment, which is sad as I fancied going to Blackburn when the fixtures came out.

Fanzone you cannot fault the staff, but it's not for me. I think for the live music they have hoarded a bunch of clones as it's always some white male solo artist stood playing a guitar, no variety. It's too cold out and so it's better being still at home or in a warm pub sat at a table.

Owners are doing their best to make the likes of the Oyston family and Venkys look good.

The players are seen like a commodity who will be asking to leave for better money elsewhere the first chance they get. I miss the days of getting attached to the likes of Hassell, Foster and Steele who had been around long term. How sad those days are long gone.

Our biggest home games get messed about with by making the kick off time early and the ground is about 3-4000 short of the capacity it should be. WBA on boxing day at twenty quid, league position, festive game, close by etc will sell out the north stand. I say sell out that will be about 4700 tickets so around a thousand they would sell if they could and no chance of half the west stand. We should be trying to make as much cash as possible whilst we are still in this league.

Dreading January where I expect us to have an even weaker squad and will be shocked to see Woodrow survive it still here.

 

I think our situation could quite easily turn into a Blackpool / Oystens type of scenario.

Selling Woodrow in January will be income neutral for the club because with early bird season ticket sales starting a couple of months later, that would be the straw that breaks the camel's back for a lot of people when deciding if they should renew.

 

I may have imagined it but I'm sure I heard a woman a few weeks ago

 

Laura was her name, using a loop thingy.

 

Must have missed that. Could mix it up a bit to cater for a broader group of fans mind.