The Club as part of the Community

This thread is a follow on from the previous thread " Does the town of Barnsley Deserve a Championship Football Team" which has become too long. I enjoyed most of the contributions to that debate. I didn't enjoy being called condescending obviously, but nevertheless, I have read the contributions by every single contributor and they have opened up my eyes to the relationship between the club and the community that it serves. There is clearly a huge problem. The community feels alienated to the club, and that is not just the fact that on the field performances have been so poor. The point made by Mr C, that Don sees himself as an administrator is a good one. The point about lack of leadership by Super Tyke and others is also valid. It seems that the club may have taken the support of its community for granted, that it may need to re-establish those links.

This thread is not about performance on the field. It is about how the club can re-establish its links with the community. I'll start:

Clearly the details of individual wages should remain secret, but why is it not possible to publish the detailed accounts?
Why can't the club be honest about its strategy and policies on pay.
As some others have said, why don't the players go out into the community more often (a hospital visit once a year is not enough).
Although the meeting between Don and members of the BBS is a good idea, the fact that the details of that meeting are shrouded in secrecy simply alienates those who did not attend. Minutes of the meeting with the community need to be published.

 

Did you not get all the Xmas presents you were hoping for?

 

People have voted...by lack of bums on seats, that it will take a little bit more than a rallying appeal to peoples sence of local pride to come back and support there team..
An affordable..inspirational, marriage is needed between club and town..

 

I've said it before but I think it goes beyond just what the club can do now, in the past when the older end couldn't afford it or get there for other reasons any more and other natural wastage (people losing jobs moving away etc)there was always the next generation of football mad kids to fall into their place, which kind of kept attendances stable and up when things were going well.
The thing is I don't think there is that depth of back up anymore (at one time there would be kids kicking a ball about everywhere but there isn't now) there are lots of other (cheaper/comfier) distractions now and unless the club and football in general comes to terms with this (back to pricing and convenience I suppose) its going to be well and truly fked.

 

Why can't the club make it cheaper/more affordable for fans to come and cheer them on?

 

Both my kids are football mad, young lads been playing Junior football for 6 years (now age 11) and my daughter (age 9) is also playing junior football. Both have season tickets at Oakwell, but since the start of the season they have lost interest in Barnsley Football Club.

When they have gone to a game, they're chomping at the bit to 'go early' as whats being offered just isn't entertaining. Hardly any goals to celebrate and no atmosphere.

Today, so far the young lad says he's going and daughter is still 50/50. If they both feel the same at the end of the season, then that'll be 3 less ST sales next time round.

And this isn't about pricing us out of the game, this is down to 'entertainment' and the lack of.

 

yre probably right there Wizz far too many matches in the last few years where people have been sat there (if they are honest with themselves) thinking why am I here I'm not enjoying this

 

The Club needs to engage with it's fanbase but has instead spent several years driving a wedge between it's decision makers and the supporters that will take years to recover fully from (I've mentioned in previous posts, it's similar to the ill-feeling during the miners strike that drove many fans away, some permanently, when the club were accused of not supporting the striking miners).

The current run of poor form is just a catalyst that's accelerated this, as everyone is looking for someone to blame at the moment, but the underlying problem has been there for a while now and each poor decision (e.g ticket pricing, categorisation system, club shop outsourcing, latest marketing ****-up, bad transfer business, etc) just increases the frustration levels, and yet the Board continue to act as if they're oblivious to this and continue to repeat the same mistakes. Consequently, it's no surprise to me that people are voting with their feet in increasing numbers (and the failure to attract more fans than Rotherham on Boxing Day should surely be a wake up call as to the scale of the problem, but I have no confidence that it'll make any difference to the blinkered thinking at BFC).

I don't think it's an issue of making more financial information available, as anyone can pay £1 and download the published accounts, and we're all aware of the general situation of where we sit financially vs other Championship clubs (even Peterborough have shelled out £500k, rising to £750k, on a player this week which I can't imagine happening here anytime soon). My frustration, and I'm sure many others, is down to the ongoing failure to maximise whatever potential we do have by repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Thanks to social media, there have never been as many ways to engage with the fanbase as there are now. Unfortunately, BFC manage to prove time and time again that they're extraordinarily inept at doing so in a positive way and, sadly, I don't see this changing anytime soon.

 

What sums it up really is that the football in the community scheme at my sons school is Huddersfield town! Even though the school is in Barnsley!

 

The club and the community trust are totally seperate, the clubs sole focus is on football, this blinkered view is half the problem. From my personal experience there are some very bizarre decisions made from those with power on the football club side that hinders the community trust, decisions made with very little logic at all. Those club side need to realise the impact there decisions have on things, linked to their very own fans.