At the recent supporters clubs forum, it was announced that the club would be looking at the tannoy system during the Everton game.
Here are the instructions if you wish to give your feedback, (taken with permission from the official site):
PA SYSTEM – WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Over the last few months we have been receiving feedback from supporters that the PA System is not performing to its best ability.
Therefore at this Saturday’s game against Everton (kick-off 3pm) we have engineers on site to monitor the sound levels to ensure the best possible audio is received in all areas of the stadium. Sound levels vary from an empty stadium to a full stadium so we need your help at the game to rectify this issue.
If you have any feedback about the PA system in your area please approach your nearest steward who will complete a questionnaire on your behalf. You will be asked your block, row and seat number, so please have this to hand.
Last weekend prior to the Wigan game, myself and Aylesburyblue attended the second supporters club / website owners meeting. I felt it was a very positive time, with a real sense that the club want to improve us everywhere and not just on the pitch.
Here are the notes I took:
Supporters Club Meeting
There was an agenda which we kept to pretty well. These are the notes I made during the meeting.
1. Toilets
The club are treating this issue with the utmost urgency. They recognise that the toilets especially in the main stand need sorting.
They have put a working party together to try and deal with this. The ladies toilets are being looked at to try and make them more feminine. Also during the 1st half, all the toilets will be cleaned ready for the half time rush. The problem with the lack of water should be sorted within the next two weeks as there is a new water supply being bought into the club to cope with the flush and hand washing facilities. Hot water is further away, however is also being looked at.
2. Sound System
Again this is another issue that is regularly complained about. During the Everton game, engineers will be in the ground to try and work out which settings will be best to ensure that the overall sound quality is acceptable. The stewards will be primed to take feedback from supporters. Further away, x16 amplified speakers are going into the Kop at the back to give a better coverage which should mean the volume can be reduced. It was mentioned that the main stand speakers often feedback, that was noted as would be added to the information to be given to the engineers.
It was also agreed that we would NOT use celebration music like some grounds do!!
3, 4. Season Tickets / Ticketing – Away travel
(This section is still to be agreed by the board – but is expected to be so)
This was the area we spent the most time on, for obvious reasons! Season ticket holders will not be offered the 10% discount this year because we now know we will be in the Premier League. It was offered last year as it was uncertain at the time if we would be promoted or not.
When ST holders get their renewals, they will be able to see exactly what they are saving as they will see how many category matches there are in each category and how much they would cost for match day tickets. It is thought that the saving over the season will be around 22%. The interest free payment offer will remain, but over 5 months rather than 4. U8 ST will also remain at no cost.
Concessions are also being adjusted slightly. The concession breaks will be for Under 8, Under 12, Under 18 instead of 16. Student concessions will now apply to Under 23’s instead of U21. Concessions will also apply all over the ground.
The only reduced match tickets will be made available through season ticket holders. It is recognised that there is no financial benefit, so there will be an incentive such as a club shop voucher if ST holders get tickets for friends. More on this soon.
It was recognised that the turnstyles can be a problem and this is being looked at to see how it can be improved.
It was decided that the ATC will end at the end of this season. From now ALL away tickets will be made available to ST holders 1st, Then those who regularly buy away tickets. (For the new season the club will look at this season for you). Then general release.
It is essential that when you buy an away ticket that you give your name and address so the club KNOW you have got the ticket especially if you are looking to get tickets for one of the attractive fixtures. If you are buying more than one, ensure you pass the info for the people you are buying them for.
IF we make the Semi-final, the same ticketing process will apply as did for the QF.
5. Away Fans
We don’t rate well with away fans for friendliness, the club want to change this. Away fans bring 1.1 Million into the club over the season. They will remain in the Gil Merrick lower, however the family stand will probably move.
2nd Supporter Meeting 27/2/10
6 / 7 Facilities / Catering
Again it is recognised we need to improve things, especially in the main stand. Next season catering is being bought back internally as the club believe they can do it cheaper and better quality. More about this to come. Also the club are looking at re-introducing tray vendors.
8. Merchandise
The club is currently looking at 2 city centre stores for a new location for a shop. This will be in place for the new season. Once this is established, they will also look at a location in Touchwood. The club are conscious that the store will need to look professional; and they want to improve the quality of the products offered. The deal has been done with xstep for our shirts. Umbro saw us as a small club and we were well down the list often waiting months for stuff as well as having to pay for everything up front. Xstep are more flexible. They offer a 6 week turnaround for our merchandise, and also say that the new shirts will be available before the summer.
The new designs, (all are Blue!), will be made public soon and we as fans will get to vote on the one we like. This will happen around the Everton at home game.
9. Board of Directors / Club Finances
It was said that we are likely to see some players leave the club in the summer, and there will definitely players coming in to strengthen the side. We are looking at forwards.
In regard to January, MD revealed that the wage differential between top and bottom earners in the main 1st team squad was low by Premier League standards. He said a fee was agreed for one player, and close for another on transfer deadline day but the wages asked for were so out of sync with the rest of the squad AM didn’t want to do it for fear of upsetting the dressing room. Alex made it clear to the board that he wouldn’t be held ransom for players – and although they didn’t name names, it was said that we were messed about in January. Alex is in total control of the players.
Someone asked who the other investors were. Who are those behind Grandtop / Birmingham International. MD said it isn’t something the Chinese talk about. There seems to be a cultural thing, that business is private. Basically MD said he didn’t know – but was absolute that the money WAS there for the development of the club and the team.
10 AOB
Museum
The club have bought a large collection of Blues memorabilia and have decided to open a museum, (the old subway shop). The intention is to open it one day a week initially coupled with a stadium tour for around £5 for adults and £2.50 for kids. They were very excited about it!
Pre-Season Tour
The club will be going to Hong Kong and China in the summer for two weeks for a tour. This will obviously help to promote the club. The club will be doing travel packages, however we were warned that they won’t be cheap!
Here is Dale’s latest article, this week about us achieving the magical 40 point mark!
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Birmingham City have secured another season in the premier league! All seems a bit of an anti-climax though doesn’t it? No last day heroics, no depending on other clubs results and no pitch invasion to get at the owners of the club! Nevertheless, to have reached this points tally quickly and quietly, almost assassin like will be the much preferred method for most fans and I say this with a certain degree of certainty! I know it may seem a bit premature but my thoughts of reflection have begun on what has been nothing short of the most amazing season to date. Some may argue that such a remark is exaggerated and sensationalising a merely “successful” season but I urge to those who do, look at the facts. Birmingham City was hanging onto 16th place and looking over our shoulder at the gaping relegation zone ready to swallow us up! We lost four games on the bounce and won just one game in six. Fans began the “4-4-2” chant after a somewhat shambolic display at home to Bolton, patients were wearing thin towards Alex McLeish and all fans were geared up for the usual dog fight at the foot of the table!
But no such fight was needed and most defiantly was no managerial dismissal necessary! The team of “old boys” and “inexperienced championship players” has produced the leagues success story of the year. McLeish’s men have shown that organisation, spirit and a touch of Lee Bowyer is enough to surpass any expectations that a know-it-all pundit may place on such teams. A shared similarity of most players in this year’s squad is the need and determination to prove a point. If to nobody else but themselves. Joe Hart’s ability to emerge as a possible England keeper and challenge Shay Given as Man City’s number 1. Stephen Carr digging out his boots from under his bed after retirement and returning to have an outstanding season. Agent Ridgewell and his broken leg – enough said there! The two “Championship” centre halves that have been nothing short of colossal! Our two “Bad Lads” in the centre of the park. Their temperament? Age? Ability to play at this standard? I think all has been answered there by Bowyer and Ferguson.
Is it possible that the effects of the Italian match fixing scandal that propelled Canavaro and his pasta slurping team mates to the heights of World Cup glory in 2006 has been replicated right here in Brum? Controversy breeds Togetherness? Or is it simply that McLeish has assembled a squad of winners, troops who seek the adrenaline rush of the battlefield. One thing is for sure, nobody can deny the achievement that the gaffer at the helm of these over-achievers has brought this season. To take a team on a 15 game unbeaten run in any league in the world is an accomplishment to say the least. To do it with the Blues is a near miracle. Or is it? Are these signs to come, is this article outdated and has the tide changed somewhat down at St.Andrews? Has the fortune inside those Chinese cookies found its way to Small Heath and has that evasive F.A cup got out name written on it? Only time will tell but can I personally say congratulations to everybody connected with Birmingham City football club for a season that NOBODY anticipated.
Now let’s give the likes of Gardner and Michel some playing time, see how high up that league we can get and maybe, just maybe engrave our names on that F.A Cup. A Sight that even the most optimistic of fans never expect to witness. Congratulations and Keep Right On!
Dale Moon
Here is a personal article from Margaret, one of our regular forum contributors. I met Margaret earlier in the season prior to the Bolton game. She is a lovely person, and a very popular member of the forum. I hope you enjoy the article.
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I’m now enjoying my third era attending games. The first era started around 1950 when my dad first took me to St Andrews and ended in 1959 when my heart was broken, not in the usual way Blues breaks fans’ hearts by losing games and relegation but by the death of my hero, Jeff Hall. The second era of attendance was from 1991 to 1995, while I was back in Birmingham helping to care for my Mom. After she died, my American husband and I went to live in sunny California and I became a long distance supporter again.
At first I relied on my subscription to the Sports Argus for news of my team, which was very unsatisfactory as the papers took one or two weeks to arrive. Then one day in 1997 I went to the California Museum of Photography and my life was changed forever. There was a computer displaying the museum web site and an invitation to explore. So explore I did, and found my way onto the World Wide Web and to a Blues’ fan site. That’s when I knew that I had to get connected!
From then on, my computer upgrades were driven by the desire to improve access to news of Blues. I started by wanting to know game results and ended up finding so much more. For the first time in my life I was exposed to fans’ dialogues/debates/arguments/battles as they discussed players, tactics, managers and other fans. I was amazed at the animosity some of them displayed when they disagreed. I really shouldn’t have been so surprised because the passion is what I had liked about the game from the start. When I stood with my dad at the Railway End I didn’t understand much about the tactics but I loved the roar of the crowd and the excitement when Blues were attacking.
I have followed games by watching online text commentaries, which is probably the worst way. Online audio commentaries were better but potentially frustrating. It was terrible when the commentary cut out just as Tom Ross’s voice was rising to a scream and I was left staring at a little message saying, “Net congestion”. I even saw some games on American TV, which was great once I got headphones so that I could listen to the commentary without waking my husband at 4 a.m. in the morning or some of the other crazy times the games came on. Relegations were disasters for me because my cable company showed only Premiership games.
After my husband died, I decided to return to England and Blues were one of the factors that made me want to come home. I’d seen the pessimism on fans’ message boards but dismissed that as just coming from the moaners. I couldn’t understand why some fans were saying they didn’t want to go to games any more; supporting Blues has never been easy but surely true fans would always go to games if they possibly could?
When I arrived back in December 2008, I was looking forward to attending games with great anticipation. But I was disappointed. It wasn’t because of the bad football and the losses, as a Blues’ fan I was used to that. What I found depressing was the air of despondency; the crowd didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves anymore. I had never before experienced such a depressing atmosphere at St Andrews. I’d seen Blues lose to Walsall and Kidderminster Harriers; I was there when the Kumars went bankrupt and Blues were in the hands of the receivers. And through all those bad times, the graveyard humour continued; when the situation got worse, the jokes seemed to get better.
That’s what I’d been anticipating when I moved back here and that was what was missing. 2008-09 was the most miserable promotion season imaginable. One friend didn’t even want us to be promoted; she said it was just awful in the Premiership, watching us get beaten nearly every game.
I did want promotion; I wanted to see some of the big teams. I thought we might get relegated again but I couldn’t suppress the hope that rises at the start of every season. And halfway through the season, Blues have exceeded my wildest hopes. Though there’s been a great atmosphere in recent games it’s too early to say whether the crowd have lived up to my hopes. Supporting a winning team is easy; the test will come when we have some poor performances and bad results. If we can support them then I’ll be content, whatever our position in the table.
Margaret.
Continuing with our focus on the different supporters clubs, this time we speak to Marc who is involved with the Netherlands Supporters Club.
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Merry Christmas one and all, and greetings from the Blues Supporters’ Club in The Netherlands. The Club kicked off seven or eight years ago, and is based in The Hague. Several of us Bluenoses live here, mostly working for international courts and the like. We also have some members who live elsewhere in The Netherlands, but still come to The Hague to watch games together. I’ve been here for ten years, which is probably about par for the club.
We meet at The Shillelaigh Irish pub at Javastraat 94. The landlord keeps a very nice pint, and it’s a good friendly place. As we’re been going there for several years, the Blues game is almost always on live, regardless of which other Premiership games are being shown. Last Tuesday, for example, Blues-Blackburn was on the big screen, while Man U against Wolves was relegated to a small tv above the far end of the bar – despite the fact that the landlord is a Man U fan.
We arrange trips to see Blues in England a couple of times a year, usually to away games. This year we went to Wigan – what a good time that was! – and we’re looking at going to the game at Sunderland in March. People also go over to Brum fairly regularly; one of our members is a season ticket holder.
Netherlands Blues Supporters Club
Needless to say, any Bluenoses who find themselves in or around The Hague on match days are more than welcome to join us!
Marc J
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If you have a supporters club that you would like us to plug, contact me here. Tell me about your club where you are, where you meet etc. Tell me something about you, and if possible a photo.
We have spoken to a number of other supporters clubs, the links to these article are below.
Kev
The Redditch Supporters Club.
The French Supporters Club.
The Dublin Supporters Club.
The Norwegian Supporters Club.
The Middle East Supporters Club.
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