daored

47 minutes ago, SPAZZA said:

I’ve taken my best mate up at least 5 times (a City fan), the 2-2 draw he was stunned by

The drive home is always peaceful.

Contacted them away fans allowed before game but not after 

9 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Be very surprised if he doesn't get a call-up to the senior Scotland squad in the next 12 months. 

Looks an elite prospect to me. Two quality finishes this evening, and a match winning performance. 

If Scotland qualify for Euros think he’ll be in squad 

4 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Came on just behind Wells and I have a feeling that is his true position

My thoughts could we play James / Williams alongside Knight with Tommy in that more advanced role ?

5 hours ago, YorkshireSection said:

Has anyone got a spare ticket for this. I live in Leeds but couldn't get a ticket, I really don't want to have to sit in the home end. 

Morning @YorkshireSectionand @SPAZZAdo either of you know if the dragon pub is a home fan pub only? Coming in on bus and stops right outside, time limited on Saturday so won’t have time to go into city centre and back out for the game. Otherwise Howard’s it is

35 minutes ago, iamalagerdrinker said:

And chances are they'll sit in the non restricted viewed area 

I assume tickets will have to state restricted view on them ?

5 hours ago, KnowleUtd City said:

Around 1500 sold so far.

City now sold initial allocation 

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I know many find him annoying, but I really like him, especially on these things with Lineker and Shearer.

 

He’s a really nice bloke , lives in the same village as us and often seen him about. Must admit I thought it was a bit of Billy big bollocks but is actually quite grounded and down to earth 

The finances that are being paid especially at such a young age are killing the game and leading to clubs over committing financially 

Thank you for raising @phantom - hopefully makes general sake

5 minutes ago, chinapig said:

Steve could use some of the nest egg to compensate Ipswich for letting us have Ashton back.

It won’t be long until Lansdown is saying we should be following the Ipswich model! Add to Brentford, Swansea, Brighton, Luton and Reading I’m sure there’s other clubs we’ve tried to emulate over the years in between the pillars 

1 minute ago, phantom said:

I didn't realise it's not as simple as saying both clubs agree to charge away fans £35

It also means supporters in equivalent home stands must be charged the same 

So for example if it's agreed the away tickets are £30, then the South Stand for us, and the equivalent home stand for Leeds would have to be the same price too

I didn’t realise that was the case either. Obviously Leeds is a money maker for the club as they will sell out their allocation of whatever we give them. Time will tell

2 minutes ago, phantom said:

https://www.bristolcitysupporters.org/meeting-with-bcfc-13-09-23/

Following a meeting on 28 July 2023, Stuart Rogers, James Nicholls and Mark Newman of the Supporters Club & Trust alongside SLO Jerry Tocknell met with the football club’s Head of Communications Dave Barton on Wednesday 13 September 2023.

CEO Phil Alexander gave his apologies.

Actions confirmed from the last meeting included 30% increases to disabled parking being reversed and confirmation that the away kit will be available within the next 2 weeks.

 

Kits and training wear 

Again we discussed replacing the robin crest with the bird. Feelings are still running high amongst supporters about both the lack of communication, the generic image replacing the badge and the actual design. We suggested that utilising a focus group of supporters in the development of the design would have helped the Club foresee supporters’ views and concerns ahead of release. Last season’s 3rd kit sold out. A request was made for the sales figures for the current kit.

 

Reciprocal away ticket prices 

We previously requested that reciprocal away ticket pricing be considered, especially for the Leeds fixture at Elland Road. Leeds recently charged Sheffield Wednesday fans £47 for an adult ticket. The football club are in negotiations with Leeds about this. It is a complex issue. As laid down by EFL guidelines, the same price applied to away fans must also be applied to home fans in similar/opposite stands. We wait to hear.

 

Fees on away tickets and coach travel

We had previously raised the issue of fees for away match and coach travel, that they should be per transaction and not per ticket. The football club has raised this with Bristol Sport, who are responsible for issuing tickets on behalf of the football club, as a matter of concern and we await a response.

 

Catering

Both of the recent surveys for the men’s and women’s teams supporters identified issues with the cost, quality and choices available for food and drink at Ashton Gate. In addition, it now costs £2.90 for a bottle of water, making it quite expensive, especially for families in addition to other matchday costs. Once again, this is a Bristol Sport provided service and we have asked for this to be raised directly with them.

 

Match commentary

An exiled supporter advised that following a recent update, the RobinsTV app no longer has the facility to play audio commentaries, for which fans pay £40 a season. This is something that can only really be tested on matchdays. In addition, the person involved will be put in touch directly with the football club to try and resolve this issue.

 

Rewards scheme

It was noted that the loyalty programme has a large dependency on retail, some not accessible to all ages. There is also a sense that there is little engagement in it, so some statistics on this would be helpful to prove/disprove. Charlie Lincoln, Group Head of Marketing & Ticketing, has been invited to the next monthly Supporters Club & Trust meeting to understand this better.

 

Finally

The theme running through what we hear regularly about digital ticketing, catering, loyalty schemes, car parking, engagement with exiles and Ashton Gate becoming cashless is that they are not always very inclusive. There are some really good initiatives that fans love and engage with, so all credit to those. However, it seems to be that some of the most basic elements of being a Bristol City fan like ticketing, kits, accessibility, eating & drinking cause the most upset and frustration. Just as importantly, the provision of these services are effectively outsourced to Bristol Sport, which includes the complete management of the stadium. So, the decision-making is controlled by a whole different board of directors, through which the football club has seemingly less and less influence.

More follow up meetings are planned, albeit getting to the bottom of these issues and influencing change could be an arduous process.

Thank you @phantom, I suspect the delay in ticket details for Leeds game could be seen as a positive 

Watch out for the youth 

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

I just think Southgate has gotten lazy. It's like he cannot be bothered to scout or make new friends or something. Just call up the old boys each time. Much easier.

Henderson should be out for both football and non-football reasons.

Maguire...I mean the mind just boggles.

I personally think it sets a poor example of be a squad player or take the money in a poor league and be selected. If Maguire knew he wouldn’t be picked for England being a bench warmer for Utd would he have gone to West Ham?

3 minutes ago, maxjak said:

Henderson should F O back to the desert............ha!!

The minute Henderson took the $ he should have been excluded as not playing in a competitive league as for a Maguire FFS how can he be picked ?

Hi @phantom, thank you for raising ticket prices.

Below are the ticket prices Leeds are charging Watford , which to be fair is very reasonable and I guess shows what can be agreed. 
 

he club has agreed reciprocal pricing with Leeds United, meaning adult ticket prices for those following the Hornets to Elland Road are just £20, with adult concessions at £10.

We have also arranged with Leeds United that tickets for all those aged 18 & under will be only £5, so this match has been selected as another Junior Hornets Away Day. Please see below for more information.

10 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Surely increasing robins tv prices would make more people watch on vpn streams?

7 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

On that basis to watch the club stream across the season - currently £170? - would cost 46 x what? £30? I'm not sure there would be many takers for a Robins TV subscription at that price.

I'm not sure that increasing the revenue is the club's challenge at the moment. It's the investment of the revenue we have.

5 minutes ago, CodeRed said:

Decrease revenue more likely.

Charge POTD/£35-40  for a stream? All that will do is drive even more people towards IPTV or the unofficial streams. Don't forget for many people it's not a choice between strolling down to AG or watching on RTV, people live away, live abroad, can't make the journey etc. Lots of reasons.

Acknowledge all of the above points , my thoughts are if the cost of watching via Robins TV or at the ground is similar you may see people choosing to attend rather than stream? I accept it’s not easily accessible for everyone to attend games be that health, costs or location.

@exAtyeoMaxcompletely agree about the business model , an easy option is to increase range / quality of merchandise 

13 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

Maybe Steve has looked at OTIB and thought....

Hmm, people flying VPN Airways instead of buying season tickets and there are people importing a fake shirt (that everyone hates) and not putting in their cash, I'll do the same.

*Runs away before someone gets on their high-horse and pretends to take offence*

I’ll join you in wearing the tin hat, believed for a while the club should charge more than £10 for Robins TV and should be linked more to the POTD prices. Secondly for away games should be the cost of the away match ticket. Would be one way to increase revenue 

6 hours ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Now that would be dramatic. I would be surprised if NP walked and  if SL threw him out. But I can see where your coming from 

There appears from the outside to be a strained relationship between Pearson and the club hierarchy. Pearson is now becoming more outspoken about the finances of the club and quite rightly saying to media ask others within the club. We know SL doesn’t like criticism and this all to me has the feeling of SC at the end 

Have a feeling by the time we play West Brom , Pearson won’t be manager of city 

33 minutes ago, Stortz said:

Exactly, they still do- any issues and it's pointed out.

People will say 'Hearn would say that', especially as Hrgovic is mandatory, but he's spot on here imo:

I don't think anyone is going to change their minds now anyway haha.

Usyk clearly doesn't like it in the body- maybe the universal realisation will convince Fury to take the undisputed fight at last, he's been waiting for Father Time long enough!

Nope!

I'll be watching Aphex Twin on the Downs, so will miss it anyway.

Eubank struggling to make weight apparently 

3 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

February v March. Pre Man City was February.

A pertinent q might be, what changed between February and March?

Or is it later and Luton getting promoted and now the model to follow ?

1 minute ago, petehinton said:

I’m losing track on it all to be honest. There’s so many contradicting statements/comments. 
 

Put in the other thread, but Tinnion said pre Man City (I think, might’ve been later actually) that we had a list of targets for if Alex stays vs an additional list for if he goes. Pearson says the players signed pre season were signed to play alongside Alex, quote Knight isn’t a replacement for Alex, he’s here to play with him. After Alex js sold, SL says in his Guernsey chat that we always knew Alex was going to be sold, so we preemptively spent some of that money on the incomings that came in before he left. 
 

Tinnion made those comments on RB pre Man City cup game and as you mention certainly seems as though those brought in on Jan / pre season were from Semenyo sale, with a further plan should Scott leave 

24 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

If we look at the accounts, the football club wage bill (not just the players) was:

20/21: £30.251m (peak)

21/22: £23.807m (Nige first full season / influence over wage budget) net £6.4m

22/23: not published, but say it was £22.000m - net £8m on 20/21

23/24: not published, but say it is around £19.000m - net £11m on 20/21

That means he’s saved £25m over 3 seasons.  The wage budget is now in the realms of 2016/17 season.

That is hardly conducive to gearing up for a top 6 challenge is it.  In fact based on historical accounts it puts us around bottom 6-8…Luton territory!  The trajectory of Luton’s spend was upwards, ours is downward.

Yours sincerely,

Worried of Downend 

Let’s have two worried Downend residents - this for me seems a calculated gamble by SL to cut the requirement on him to keep the club financially stable to the scheme he has done in the past. Let’s hope it doesn’t backfire because relegation would be financial disaster 

24 minutes ago, Ivorguy said:

Guess this is the owner shutting the wallet.

Seriously fear a tough season ahead, and Nige not wishing to extend his contract in such a situation

I hope if this is a decision to cut the funding , it doesn’t result us going as that would be far more costly than releasing some funds for our current shortcomings 

Pearson’s recent comments about us effectively being at our maximum for our wage budget, is a concern on two fronts; firstly in terms of bringing players in now to fill gaps within our squad (short / longer term) and secondly tying down our better players onto longer deals.

As a club we must have significantly reduced our wage bill with the loss of Kalas , Palmer, DaSilva, Bentley and reduced terms for Weinmann and Wells.

Our squad is currently made up of players from our own academy plus lower league players (Sykes, Mehmeti) who you’d suspect would be on relatively comparable low wages. With the exception of some of the older pros how are we still at our max on wages? How can we tempt the likes of Conway, Vyner etc into new contracts with such perceived small headroom or attract new players ?