General A long way to go!

[Steve Gilbert]

I go to a few random games throughout the season, ticking off grounds to complete the 92.
Last night I went to watch Birmingham vs Burnley at St Andrew’s.

It made me think of how far the club have to go on and off the pitch to be at that standard.

Forget the on field issues for now, off it we are a million miles away.
Before the game it was easy to park and walk to the ground. Outside the ground there were plenty of stewards around to help ask any questions, when walking up to a ground we even got a ‘Hi, welcome to St Andrew’s’ from one of them (bearing in mind we had no colours on so they didn’t know which team we followed).
There were activities for kids, a DJ playing music outside one beer tent, another bar that was busy but still easy to get served, plenty of seating, tv’s showing past Birmingham moments on some and the team news and past encounters with Burnley on others.
The shop was easy to find as you walk past it on the way to the bar and there was also a pop up shop by another stand.
Inside the ground, again easy to get food and beer, even at half time everything flowed easily.

It made me think that this is where we as a club want to be and for me we couldn’t be further from it. Obviously some of these things will change due to having a new stadium hopefully but other things like putting more things on for fans outside the ground on a match day?
It has been said before but our marketing is a shambles and needs a whole overhaul. We used to have a pop up shop in the quad where fans could buy shirts/scarfs/hats, do they still do this?

So while we underperform on the pitch and we are all desperate to see an up turn in results and a change in manager (some more vocal than others), I think a major job for the new board is getting the off field things sorted out.

 

[OxfordYankee]

I go to a few random games throughout the season, ticking off grounds to complete the 92.
Last night I went to watch Birmingham vs Burnley at St Andrew’s.

It made me think of how far the club have to go on and off the pitch to be at that standard.

Forget the on field issues for now, off it we are a million miles away.
Before the game it was easy to park and walk to the ground. Outside the ground there were plenty of stewards around to help ask any questions, when walking up to a ground we even got a ‘Hi, welcome to St Andrew’s’ from one of them (bearing in mind we had no colours on so they didn’t know which team we followed).
There were activities for kids, a DJ playing music outside one beer tent, another bar that was busy but still easy to get served, plenty of seating, tv’s showing past Birmingham moments on some and the team news and past encounters with Burnley on others.
The shop was easy to find as you walk past it on the way to the bar and there was also a pop up shop by another stand.
Inside the ground, again easy to get food and beer, even at half time everything flowed easily.

It made me think that this is where we as a club want to be and for me we couldn’t be further from it. Obviously some of these things will change due to having a new stadium hopefully but other things like putting more things on for fans outside the ground on a match day?
It has been said before but our marketing is a shambles and needs a whole overhaul. We used to have a pop up shop in the quad where fans could buy shirts/scarfs/hats, do they still do this?

So while we underperform on the pitch and we are all desperate to see an up turn in results and a change in manager (some more vocal than others), I think a major job for the new board is getting the off field things sorted out.

I agree, but the club simply don’t have enough control of the current stadium to make bring about enough change to make a real, noticeable and sustained difference.

Stratfield Brake is the future of the club. Without it, the future is murky to the point of existential threat.

 

[ECYellow]

I go to a few random games throughout the season, ticking off grounds to complete the 92.
Last night I went to watch Birmingham vs Burnley at St Andrew’s.

It made me think of how far the club have to go on and off the pitch to be at that standard.

Forget the on field issues for now, off it we are a million miles away.
Before the game it was easy to park and walk to the ground. Outside the ground there were plenty of stewards around to help ask any questions, when walking up to a ground we even got a ‘Hi, welcome to St Andrew’s’ from one of them (bearing in mind we had no colours on so they didn’t know which team we followed).
There were activities for kids, a DJ playing music outside one beer tent, another bar that was busy but still easy to get served, plenty of seating, tv’s showing past Birmingham moments on some and the team news and past encounters with Burnley on others.
The shop was easy to find as you walk past it on the way to the bar and there was also a pop up shop by another stand.
Inside the ground, again easy to get food and beer, even at half time everything flowed easily.

It made me think that this is where we as a club want to be and for me we couldn’t be further from it. Obviously some of these things will change due to having a new stadium hopefully but other things like putting more things on for fans outside the ground on a match day?
It has been said before but our marketing is a shambles and needs a whole overhaul. We used to have a pop up shop in the quad where fans could buy shirts/scarfs/hats, do they still do this?

So while we underperform on the pitch and we are all desperate to see an up turn in results and a change in manager (some more vocal than others), I think a major job for the new board is getting the off field things sorted out.

Luton manage it ok it Kenilworth Road.

 

[Manorlounger]

From all that I have heard, read and seen, there is a definite move by the club to improve. Whether that happens in the coming season or gathers some sort of impetus leading up to Stratfield Brake, I don't know. However, in my opinion, it is imperative that the club sorts out the marketing, retail and hospitality areas to at least a point that gives a tangible improvement. The club, presently, is being amateur at best in it's efforts and that is all too plain to see. Even something as simple as giving supporters a time limited 10% discount on some goods in the store gets handled with such incompetence that many supporters are still unaware that it actually happened. The degradation of the off pitch set up within the club started back in the last days of Eales and has never been addressed since. Even with this latest offering supporters are directed to the ticket office in order to notify the lack of an email regarding a retail offer from the club shop. So amateurish and embarrassing.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

From all that I have heard, read and seen, there is a definite move by the club to improve. Whether that happens in the coming season or gathers some sort of impetus leading up to Stratfield Brake, I don't know. However, in my opinion, it is imperative that the club sorts out the marketing, retail and hospitality areas to at least a point that gives a tangible improvement. The club, presently, is being amateur at best in it's efforts and that is all too plain to see. Even something as simple as giving supporters a time limited 10% discount on some goods in the store gets handled with such incompetence that many supporters are still unaware that it actually happened. The degradation of the off pitch set up within the club started back in the last days of Eales and has never been addressed since. Even with this latest offering supporters are directed to the ticket office in order to notify the lack of an email regarding a retail offer from the club shop. So amateurish and embarrassing.

It’s ironic that we seemed to be more interactive and professional when we were a league 2 club than we are now where the ambition is to be a championship side.

Even the handling of season tickets was amateurish.

As good as Tiger has been with regards to the improvement of training facilities and the player trading model, it seems that he wasn’t the best at keeping up with other clubs when it comes to marketing and interaction with the club.

Social media is massive now and most fans will get a lot of their news from the club on the various platforms.

We have got a SLO and a supporters panel but nothing seems to be getting done very quickly.

It took this forum to push 10000 attendances last season.

Many want a open forum from the board and I think that needs to happen, putting the manager issue to the side, so they can listen to what fans want from a match day experience.

I know it our hands are tied somewhat with our dearest owner of the stadium but I’m sure there are things that could be done to improve things.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

On an operational level away from the playing side, the club has been virtually rudderless for the last few years. A side effect of having distant and almost entirely absent owners.

Tim Williams will be looking at all of this as well as what happens on the pitch. He’s got a lot to do.

 

[Essexyellows]

Social media is massive now and most fans will get a lot of their news from the club on the various platforms.

We have got a SLO and a supporters panel but nothing seems to be getting done very quickly.

It took this forum to push 10000 attendances last season.

Many want a open forum from the board and I think that needs to happen, putting the manager issue to the side, so they can listen to what fans want from a match day experience.

I know it our hands are tied somewhat with our dearest owner of the stadium but I’m sure there are things that could be done to improve things.

That is because one was put in as a deliberate obstacle to reach the other, as part of a box ticking exercise after the Crouch report.

As it is the result of said box ticking it serves no useful purpose, function or otherwise to anyone going to a game or spending their hard earnt money.

Fully understand that SB is the "line in the sand" from which we can have nice things, but until then, we don`t need unaccountable groups getting in the way and when we do get there everyone`s view should be equal with a direct line to their Club.