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Why we should all be concerned about what’s happening off the pitch

Ron W

By Ron W
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Ron W

Ron W

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Hi guys. First-time poster, long-time reader. For anyone who used to post here in the late-2000s, I was a member called Ron who was quite irritating and eventually got banned.

Anyway, I’m now a sports journalist and keep in touch with people at AG both professionally and a fan, but as a fan I couldn’t sit on my hands any longer about some of the rubbish that has come out of Ashton Gate recently. It’s too long for twitter, so I wrote a blog on it... if you don’t mind, I’ll post it here, because it’s stuff I’d like to think we should all know.

You might think some of it’s obvious, taking over old ground or untrue, and that’s fine, but all the conclusions in it are based on facts and I felt it was important to collate them amid all the hearsay you get in football.

Here goes...

There’s nothing wrong as such at Bristol City Football Club, but even from the little I’ve seen of the inside of the club things are changing, and people should know about them to draw their own conclusions.

No one knows about this or has asked me to write this and I may get asked to take it down. These are not facts but conclusions based on fact, which I personally find concerning and think we all should be aware of.

The Ashton Gate redesign was always going to change the way the club functioned. That’s fine. But the core support, the man and woman sat at the back of the South Stand in the cheaper seats, with a glass of Thatcher’s and a replica shirt instead of a glass of wine and an Oxford shirt are being marginalised, and the club don’t want you to know.

Everything around Adam Baker’s departure serves as the latest example of that, and the one which has captured public feeling the most. City are moving away from having a figure to lead BCFC’s media content (exceptionally well, too) because they think it’s more important to build the brand, as a number of people have said second-hand. It’s taking a huge voice who understands the fans and how the club can best serve us, or at least inconvenience/annoy us least, and replacing them with someone who can sell a shiny image. If you think one man isn’t important, then see how the vibe changes next season. A brand manager doesn’t have the man on the street in their mind, other than how to get into their wallet. It’s increasingly clear that a soft, fluffy public image of Bristol City is more important than understanding fans, which is no better highlighted for me than by the fact the most senior remaining media representative at Ashton Gate has only a passing interest in football and once asked me “Who scored that goal?” after runaway-top-scorer Jonathan Kodjia had netted at Nottingham Forest. Didn’t have a clue.

Making that announcement nearly a week after it had already been broken by the Bristol Post was itself astounding, as was the decision to patronise us as a fanbase by expecting us to swallow what was written when it had been so plainly clear what the truth is (which is disgusting in my view, and easily found on twitter or otib) for a long while. One of the main rules of PR is to act quickly and decisively to shut down backlash, something Adam told me himself a few years ago. Snail mail would have been quicker on this occasion.

That leads nicely on into the debacle that was the Season Ticket pricing for next season. Aside from alienating fans further by trying to charge almost £200 for a child to sit in the Lansdown Stand, and blindsiding disabled fans with significant rises, City also claimed the whole farce was down a ‘communication error’. Well yes, there was no communication, but also an astounding tone-deaf approach to the whole idea. Putting up children’s tickets by 200% in some cases isn’t just a big rise, it’s out of touch with the common man yet again, and the fact the people at the top of Bristol Sport not only allowed it to happen but made it happen speaks volumes in my view.

There will probably be more PR disasters next season, with fewer people who understand – or more importantly care – what the little man in the stand thinks, so long as the club is well-branded and edgy. Make no mistake, the direction of the club, and the decisions which have been made recently and longer-term, are viewed as successes by those at the top. It won’t harm the club on the pitch, it will probably bring in more revenue, and you’d have a valid argument to ask, “who cares? Stop moaning.” But if you think a club’s heart and soul is its fans, and that we should be understood or at least listened to, it should at least be a concern that the club is moving away from that mindset and towards a bland corporate utopia led by people who in many cases are increasingly out of touch with the bedrock of this game.

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Guest

Guest

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Pretty well old news really and no doubt worse is yet to come, more fans hopefully will hear the penny dropping  soon.......Business 1st... Bcfc 2nd Bristol Bears 2nd, BCFC 3rd.

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City Rocker

City Rocker

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Good blog Ron. Even I, as a resident of Happy Clappy-on-Avon, am starting to wonder at the direction of Bristol Sport and the disconnect with those of us from the old school that seems to be developing.

Anyway, can't discuss now, I'm out getting drunk and pissed up on booze. 

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Steve_C

Steve_C

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16 minutes ago, RonWalker said:

Maybe! I can’t really remember, haven’t been around for a while anyway. Have you changed your name down the years?

Yeah, I’ve been Netherlands Red, Black Dahlia and my real name now. Think that’s all.

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Alessandro

Alessandro

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I'm going to play devil's advocate here, because you've not told us anything we don't know, just dressing it up for effect and or maybe personal gains (you don't have a book coming do you @Michael McIndoe?!) and you've contradicted yourself.

We all know the club is clearly changing. Or you could call is Modernising. As i've said elsewhere this isn't unique to Bristol City. 

But, sorry, maybe our older members can tell me of a time when the fans were consulted on decisions, or put first? I mean, name me one institution that consults 20,000 on every daily business decision. 

Basically what you've told us is the club is looking to improve it's revenue - well THANK **** FOR THAT. Because if it does that it's better for the Bristol City. 

And don't anyone say, well more profits means more money for the Lansdown's, because the yearly revenue of BCFC is about the same as a small Tesco Extra, so if they really only cared about money, they'd knock down Ashton Gate and put the supermarket here after all and making a killing.

You say the club aren't listening to fans...well they listened over season tickets, regardless of the way you paint it, so.....? 

Look i'm not saying every thing is great and rosy, but I think you overestimate how much the average fan cares about a conspiracy, because if all this business sense helps the club develop, they won't be worrying about Ron Walker if we get promoted - and that surely must be their goal.

Otherwise what's the point - BS serves solely to annoy the Bristol City fans? 

 

EDIT - Small detail. Did the BS employee say "who scored?" as in I didn't see? or "What is the name of that player?".....

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screech

screech

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2 hours ago, RonWalker said:

Hi guys. First-time poster, long-time reader. For anyone who used to post here in the late-2000s, I was a member called Ron who was quite irritating and eventually got banned.

Anyway, I’m now a sports journalist and keep in touch with people at AG both professionally and a fan, but as a fan I couldn’t sit on my hands any longer about some of the rubbish that has come out of Ashton Gate recently. It’s too long for twitter, so I wrote a blog on it... if you don’t mind, I’ll post it here, because it’s stuff I’d like to think we should all know.

You might think some of it’s obvious, taking over old ground or untrue, and that’s fine, but all the conclusions in it are based on facts and I felt it was important to collate them amid all the hearsay you get in football.

Here goes...

There’s nothing wrong as such at Bristol City Football Club, but even from the little I’ve seen of the inside of the club things are changing, and people should know about them to draw their own conclusions.

No one knows about this or has asked me to write this and I may get asked to take it down. These are not facts but conclusions based on fact, which I personally find concerning and think we all should be aware of.

The Ashton Gate redesign was always going to change the way the club functioned. That’s fine. But the core support, the man and woman sat at the back of the South Stand in the cheaper seats, with a glass of Thatcher’s and a replica shirt instead of a glass of wine and an Oxford shirt are being marginalised, and the club don’t want you to know.

Everything around Adam Baker’s departure serves as the latest example of that, and the one which has captured public feeling the most. City are moving away from having a figure to lead BCFC’s media content (exceptionally well, too) because they think it’s more important to build the brand, as a number of people have said second-hand. It’s taking a huge voice who understands the fans and how the club can best serve us, or at least inconvenience/annoy us least, and replacing them with someone who can sell a shiny image. If you think one man isn’t important, then see how the vibe changes next season. A brand manager doesn’t have the man on the street in their mind, other than how to get into their wallet. It’s increasingly clear that a soft, fluffy public image of Bristol City is more important than understanding fans, which is no better highlighted for me than by the fact the most senior remaining media representative at Ashton Gate has only a passing interest in football and once asked me “Who scored that goal?” after runaway-top-scorer Jonathan Kodjia had netted at Nottingham Forest. Didn’t have a clue.

Making that announcement nearly a week after it had already been broken by the Bristol Post was itself astounding, as was the decision to patronise us as a fanbase by expecting us to swallow what was written when it had been so plainly clear what the truth is (which is disgusting in my view, and easily found on twitter or otib) for a long while. One of the main rules of PR is to act quickly and decisively to shut down backlash, something Adam told me himself a few years ago. Snail mail would have been quicker on this occasion.

That leads nicely on into the debacle that was the Season Ticket pricing for next season. Aside from alienating fans further by trying to charge almost £200 for a child to sit in the Lansdown Stand, and blindsiding disabled fans with significant rises, City also claimed the whole farce was down a ‘communication error’. Well yes, there was no communication, but also an astounding tone-deaf approach to the whole idea. Putting up children’s tickets by 200% in some cases isn’t just a big rise, it’s out of touch with the common man yet again, and the fact the people at the top of Bristol Sport not only allowed it to happen but made it happen speaks volumes in my view.

There will probably be more PR disasters next season, with fewer people who understand – or more importantly care – what the little man in the stand thinks, so long as the club is well-branded and edgy. Make no mistake, the direction of the club, and the decisions which have been made recently and longer-term, are viewed as successes by those at the top. It won’t harm the club on the pitch, it will probably bring in more revenue, and you’d have a valid argument to ask, “who cares? Stop moaning.” But if you think a club’s heart and soul is its fans, and that we should be understood or at least listened to, it should at least be a concern that the club is moving away from that mindset and towards a bland corporate utopia led by people who in many cases are increasingly out of touch with the bedrock of this game.

Welcome back Ron, I do remember that you were indeed an irritating shit back in the day. :D Haha, no problem, who wasn't when they were young. 

There is plenty to be concerned about at the heart of the club, every fuc*** is winging it and hiding behind buzzwords and repetitive soundbites. Nobody will take responsibility for their actions and they have surrounded themselves with tiers of the same kind of people who buy into the mumbo jumbo.

Try getting a straight answer out of anybody as to who is responsible for the garbage recruitment, you'll find no takers, we have spent crap loads on rubbish and everybody can see it bar those that don't want to. 

Anyway, Adam Baker was never going to work in that setup, he was competent at his job and would make the rest of them look bad, it's best he was to leave to save face.

 

 

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phantom

phantom

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1 hour ago, Steve_C said:

Welcome back Ron, were you also Ronnabe or similar?

Was trying to remember his name yeah it was Ronnabe, I will admit I used to be critical of some of @RonWalker posts many years ago. But we've a mutual friend (he now works at a certain premiership rugby side in London) he spoke to me previously about how you were progressing as a reporter etc. 

Have to say that the above is a powerful and very honest assessment of what is happening around us. 

 

Ps welcome back to the forum 

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Ron W

Ron W

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1 hour ago, Alessandro said:

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, because you've not told us anything we don't know, just dressing it up for effect and or maybe personal gains (you don't have a book coming do you @Michael McIndoe?!) and you've contradicted yourself.

We all know the club is clearly changing. Or you could call is Modernising. As i've said elsewhere this isn't unique to Bristol City. 

But, sorry, maybe our older members can tell me of a time when the fans were consulted on decisions, or put first? I mean, name me one institution that consults 20,000 on every daily business decision. 

Basically what you've told us is the club is looking to improve it's revenue - well THANK **** FOR THAT. Because if it does that it's better for the Bristol City. 

And don't anyone say, well more profits means more money for the Lansdown's, because the yearly revenue of BCFC is about the same as a small Tesco Extra, so if they really only cared about money, they'd knock down Ashton Gate and put the supermarket here after all and making a killing.

You say the club aren't listening to fans...well they listened over season tickets, regardless of the way you paint it, so.....? 

Look i'm not saying every thing is great and rosy, but I think you overestimate how much the average fan cares about a conspiracy, because if all this business sense helps the club develop, they won't be worrying about Ron Walker if we get promoted - and that surely must be their goal.

Otherwise what's the point - BS serves solely to annoy the Bristol City fans? 

 

EDIT - Small detail. Did the BS employee say "who scored?" as in I didn't see? or "What is the name of that player?".....

I don’t think anyone would argue changes are necessary (I guess this is where the contradiction comes in?), but I saw from the thread about Adam’s departure you are seeing this as a binary choice. The everyday fans should still be at the heartbeat of the club, as well as the corporates. It’s an increasingly small amount from column A and an overload from column B now. Hence why things like the ST debacle come about, when the people in the club who speak sense are shouted down or gradually moved on. Things won’t lessen under the current regime.

And no, she really didn’t know who it was.

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Wrongagain

Wrongagain

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Not going to repost the whole thing, but I complained to bristol sport about the season ticket and parking hikes for the disabled fans and got the most disgusting reply!

THE PRICE HIKES FOR THE DISABLED ARE DUE TO THE POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION OF ABLE BODIED FANS!

What a crock of shit

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Wrongagain

Wrongagain

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1 minute ago, dave36 said:

Not going to repost the whole thing, but I complained to bristol sport about the season ticket and parking hikes for the disabled fans and got the most disgusting reply!

THE PRICE HIKES FOR THE DISABLED ARE DUE TO THE POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION OF ABLE BODIED FANS!

What a crock of shit

Paste from email- The way that we have operated our pricing structure previously has actually been positively discriminating towards non-disabled fans and it's only right that we rectify this.

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phantom

phantom

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35 minutes ago, dave36 said:

Not going to repost the whole thing, but I complained to bristol sport about the season ticket and parking hikes for the disabled fans and got the most disgusting reply!

THE PRICE HIKES FOR THE DISABLED ARE DUE TO THE POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION OF ABLE BODIED FANS!

What a crock of shit

A close friend of mine (of many many years) will be missing his first season of (Bristol City) football next season for the first time since the 1980's due to the increase in disabled pricing. It's these supporters that are being kicked in the teeth by the club.

But Bristol Sport are clearly not worried as they'll no doubt cover his shortfall by selling an extra prawn sandwich or two, to someone who doesn't give a shit about what happens on the pitch!! 

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phantom

phantom

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39 minutes ago, dave36 said:

Paste from email- The way that we have operated our pricing structure previously has actually been positively discriminating towards non-disabled fans and it's only right that we rectify this.

@dave36 I'm sure a few publications (local and national) would be all over a statement like this! 

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Davefevs

Davefevs

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I’ve tweeted a few things today and Gregor McG is gonna look into it.

I Phoned Cardiff today (tough call!!!)  - their disabled parking is £149 next season.

Wolves have provided additional Blue Badge parking (as they have too many to fit into the official car park) at £5 per game on a first come first served basis.

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red panda

red panda

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4 hours ago, RonWalker said:

.... 

Making that announcement nearly a week after it had already been broken by the Bristol Post was itself astounding, as was the decision to patronise us as a fanbase by expecting us to swallow what was written when it had been so plainly clear what the truth is (which is disgusting in my view, and easily found on twitter or otib) for a long while. .....

A breathtaking level of ignorance, even for a so-called journalist

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reddoh

reddoh

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5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’ve tweeted a few things today and Gregor McG is gonna look into it.

I Phoned Cardiff today (tough call!!!)  - their disabled parking is £149 next season.

Wolves have provided additional Blue Badge parking (as they have too many to fit into the official car park) at £5 per game on a first come first served basis.

Its quite sad that people who have a problem are victimised even more.

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phantom

phantom

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7 minutes ago, dave36 said:

I have invited comment from the conjecture experts at bristol post and in 24 hours they have not replied.

perhaps too busy digesting bristol sport spin

Am sure they will, they have a habit of getting many of their stories from on here. 

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cidersnotjustforbreakfast

cidersnotjustforbreakfast

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Surely the OP is correct in his observations , That is true of any ambitious club , An indictment of the game today , We are left with two choices , Accept , Adapt , Embrace the changes , Or walk away , Football is changing faster than at any time , Hold on tight or get left behind , At this time my beloved Bristol City hold sway over my emotions .

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cidered abroad

cidered abroad

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1 hour ago, phantom said:

A close friend of mine (of many many years) will be missing his first season of (Bristol City) football next season for the first time since the 1980's due to the increase in disabled pricing. It's these supporters that are being kicked in the teeth by the club.

But Bristol Sport are clearly not worried as they'll no doubt cover his shortfall by selling an extra prawn sandwich or two, to someone who doesn't give a shit about what happens on the pitch!! 

They won't sell too many prawn sandwiches when we hit League Four or Two, whatever it is called now!

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phantom

phantom

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Improve and adapt to changing times? 100% agree 

But to lose the clubs identity and alienate large amounts of it's loyal fan base? There is no excuse for that! 

Don't get me wrong there are people now employed by Bristol sport that are MASSIVE improvements (and personally know them as approachable and decent people - which we never had) to what we had before, but as a whole package there seems to be an underlying problem that is affecting more and more people 

 

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