General Club/Fan Problems in a Nutshell

[Made-in-Jericho]

I live away from Oxford and drop into the forum occasionally and don't have time to read through all the various and miscellaneous posts so can someone clarify; why is there a feeling of apathy and disappointment around the place at the moment? Is it the descent from 2nd place? Is it Manning leaving? Loyal employees departing? Disjointed and not always inspiring football? (It is League 1 for a reason)... A sense of disconnection? Are we transitioning from a local family club to a more international corporate body? It seems like it should be a really exciting time with the potential for an amazing new stadium, play-off place still within reach...

It's talked about by Nick on RO but I can't really understand all the negativity and infighting - am I missing something?

 

[MustardYellow]

I live away from Oxford and drop into the forum occasionally and don't have time to read through all the various and miscellaneous posts so can someone clarify; why is there a feeling of apathy and disappointment around the place at the moment? Is it the descent from 2nd place? Is it Manning leaving? Loyal employees departing? Disjointed and not always inspiring football? (It is League 1 for a reason)... A sense of disconnection? Are we transitioning from a local family club to a more international corporate body? It seems like it should be a really exciting time with the potential for an amazing new stadium, play-off place still within reach...

It's talked about by Nick on RO but I can't really understand all the negativity and infighting - am I missing something?

It's probably a combination of all of those things, they're all linked.

Something that doesn't get mentioned much is it feels very much that the club has no personality. Most of our players (other than CB) are all quite timid and clearly well versed in dealing with the media. Some may call that professionalism, but to me it just makes them come across as having no real personality. Every player interview I hear is very diplomatic and almost robotic without much substance. They don't give any insight into who the players are as people, what they're like as a group etc. Combine that with a manager who comes across uninspiring and you've immediately got a block between the club and the fans.

Football is as much about feeling as anything else. Can anyone honestly say watching any of our players play, listening to our manager talk etc makes them feel anything? Excited, inspired? That lack of true feeling is always going to be damaging to the fans sense of connection to the club.

Klopp is a really good example of this. Some people hate him, but he has a huge personality both in interviews and on the side line that evidently makes Liverpool supporters love him and get behind him and his vision. He outwardly 'bangs the Liverpool drum' and gets his players to do the same. As I say, this makes it incredibly easy as a football fan to get excited and right behind the club - we just don't have that.

 

[Berliner]

Essentially, it all comes down to poor football in a crap stadium, presided over by a highly questionable trio at the top table (discontent muted now slightly following the fans forum).

 

[Manorlounger]

I have always found the Kasstad to be a dampener on spirits. Three sided concrete wind tunnel. Any enthusiasm is very quickly sucked out via the open end. It takes some real excitement on the pitch to alleviate. The season we gained promotion from League 2 to 1 was when we had excitement at nearly every moment, wins in the league, cup matches, tantalising trips to Wembley (ok, once there it fell flat but, you know what I mean) The season finale against Wycombe had everybody singing Kemar Roofe is magic, SSU included. 5 years of nearly but always falling away under KR were soul destroying and I, for one, firmly believe that he played a huge part in undermining the supporter relationship with the club. The off field issues with change of ownership made for an anxious and disparate atmosphere - who were these foreign investors? What did they want with our club?
Now, of course, we have the vision of a new stadium - it won't be real until that first game, we don't really believe in it yet, do we?
All that coupled with a lack of real success, real winning football, real displays of skill and tenacity on the pitch and having to listen to opposition support telling us, in our stadium, that "it's happening again" just kill any excitement.
For me, it's simple, don't tell us to get excited, show us why we should.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

For me we have been in this division for 8/ 9 seasons now which takes some excitement away.
The Stadium ' experience ' is dreadful , the priory shutting , the Uktras not encouraged, really crappy Stadium .
The support isn't as vociferous as it could be and we seem to be drifting along.
Playing style in the modern way isn't as ' blood and thunder ' as once was and isn't as easy to get into . Big tackles etc .
Move towards a more corporate Club also is a change not welcomed by most supporters but is inevitable.

 

[Essexyellows]

They have forgotten the constant - the supporters.

Happy to divide us, whist we all have one thing that unifies us.

Corporate entities don`t want supporters, least of all with a voice, they want customers who suck up the BS without question.

I`m not sure I have ever felt such a huge disconnect from the club and I am far from alone.

 

[Osei Yaw]

If you did a straw poll of the more engaged fans (for example, those that post on here) then I would expect more are feeling distanced from the club than they were a year or two ago.

It's also something Radio Oxford and The Dub have referenced on more than one occasion.

Likewise, it's clear that OxVox have been frustrated by the lack of communication from the club.

But if you ask the Senior Management at the club then they'd paint a different picture, which is part of the problem. If they are serious about improving the connection between the club, the fans and the team, then they need to realise this is an area where they can't mark their own homework and that they need to listen to what they are being told. The fans forum last week is a start, but that's itself was way overdue and is a part of the reason they've put themselves on the back foot.

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

So it seems the lack of positive, forward momentum (attractive, attacking football) on the pitch but also behind the scenes at the club (not proactive coming forward - 'passing the ball back to the keeper') is causing a rift between the club and fans?
I'm not sure if social media and traditional media (RO and OM) is helping the situation but relevant and open communication must be the key here.
More fans forums. More clarity. More honesty. More passion.

 

[Matt W]

We have many reasons all mainly laid out above, I would also underline the aging fanbase. Lots of singers are no scattered across the SSU ( I've noticed) and the tremendous work done by the ultras which the highpoint was the banner at home to Swindon has been completely undone and a generation seems to be pissed off with the club, or was it stadco? What the hell went on there and why must it carry on? Do current administration know what happened?

 

[Yellow River]

I don’t think it’s any one thing but in my opinion at the crux of the disengagement, disenchantment, call it what you will is the transition the board is consciously making from ’family’ club to ‘corporate’ club and they for a variety of reasons are struggling to take the fans with them on that journey.

First and foremost we have always been a traditional family club, with our characters, our traditional funny way of doing things, with a lot of heart, and in fairness a little bit inward looking too. The current board are clearly on a mission to change to a much more corporate, efficient, business like way of running the club. With that, it appears long standing supporters are being marginalised and pushed to one side.

Customers ‘not supporters is something I suspect Tim Williams wishes he had never said, but it is how I suspect he and Adam Benson view us, Williams’ tetchiness on the FMFF when pulled up on it didn’t help either, a small thing perhaps but these communications problems keep cropping up as we have continued to see since.

There are few other situations that have occurred which haven’t helped.

The off field shenanigans of Kar Robinson did not sit well with many supporters, the way it was handled and allowed to drag on whilst the team, performances and results suffered was poor leadership. I believe many supporters lost a bit of faith and respect in the board in not sorting that particular situation out sooner. Perhaps the club were trying to save severance money? Either way a clash between family and corporate club.

It was good to finally have a fans forum after 14 months, but the board gave the distinct impression they would rather not have one. In fact I suspect it I hadn’t been for our independent supporters trust (OxVox) it might never have happened. Another clash between family and corporate club.

The way Sue Trafford and Michael North have been shabbily treated by the club, again a clash between family and corporate club.

Was part of the reason Chris Williams decided to leave the club after many years of service because of a shift from family to corporate club?

@Manorlounger mentioned at the fans forum, long standing supporters (1893club?) were not attending matches any more. Now I don’t know the history behind that situation, but is that another clash between family and corporate club?

To answer the opening post, as I said at the beginning, not the sole reason but a big contributing factor in my view. It feels like the club is losing its heart and soul and that is why some supporters feel disconnected.

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

Good responses any solutions?

 

[Oxford57]

The football is boring , there is nothing to get excited about, which generates nothing in terms of atmosphere, which makes it easy for the casual supporters not to go, the board keeps communication to the bare minimum, there is no real feeling of the fan base being valued ,yes it's great that a new stadium is on the cards, but the board have never really explained why there are here, and what in it for them, which makes the future uncertain, I cannot see how they will make any money,£150 million being bought by a 'debtstack '?

 

[Oxford84]

I think its because people dont really think we are good enough to get promoted so really we are just making the numbers up. To keep going back to Long at right back or Mcguane in midfield that havent proved they are promotion capable players or the usual 3 or 4 injury prone wide players season after season. It reminds me of some of the Wilder years were we didnt really improve season upon season. Get a good enough and robust enough squad together and people will start to believe in it more.

Also the stadium, the one we are in is crap, theres nothing to do in and around the ground but if we dont get the new ground then there is no OUFC. Im not sure too many people are going to get excited when the club could be be gone if it doesnt get the new ground.

 

[uptheus]

They have forgotten the constant - the supporters.

Happy to divide us, whist we all have one thing that unifies us.

Corporate entities don`t want supporters, least of all with a voice, they want customers who suck up the BS without question.

I`m not sure I have ever felt such a huge disconnect from the club and I am far from alone.

But Grant said at the fans forum that he doesn’t think the apathy is linked to the club/board etc, but I think it’s one of the main contributors along with the stale football. Get both those working together e.g. make the fans feel part of the club and play attacking attractive football and the atmosphere will return.

 

[PotterToWrapItUp]

I know this is an older issue, but given a fan claimed this at the forum last week I’d be interested to know - are there any fans actively not attending because Kassam owns the ground we play at?

 

[LeftSideLarry]

Aah, the return of the mythical 2k.

Worry not, once we move, they’ll find another reason to stay away.

 

[ttg17]

Honestly I think a huge part, pretty uninspiring football and lack of organised and committed fan group in the mould of the ultras aside, is this sense of existential anxiety over the club’s future at the moment. I know I certainly feel it. It’s quite difficult to get too excited about anything on the pitch when there’s this pervasive knowledge that the club will essentially not exist post 2026 if this stadium doesn’t get approved, and/or our billionaire sugar daddies get cold feet and lose interest in funding the club. It makes it worse that it’s all almost entirely out of our control and that, regardless of how loud we are at matches or whether we get promoted this season, our future is basically in the hands of whatever body of the local counsel approves planning applications.

The long time periods between nuggets of good news, while not entirely the club’s fault, contribute, too. It’s the nature of the process, but it allows anxieties to fester and grow in the interim. I think we’re all watching with one part of us knowing that, until shovels are in the ground at the triangle, the future of oxford United is very much in the balance, and that’s a pretty distracting and depressing influence.

 

[Pgyellow]

I think it's a perfect storm of all the things mentioned above. Anxiety about the future of the club pervades everything and failure to get the new ground would be such a wasted opportunity for us to move forward. It's the hope that kills you

 

[LowerSouth]

If planning is refused and we lose the appeal - that’s when I’ll start to worry .
Until then, I just want us to sort out the playing side and see some good results .

 

[christenedinjericho]

The atmosphere at the K*ssam has been f*cked for years.

I'm in my sixties and even I've started to accept defeat in getting up from my seat and volleying a tirade of support and in equal measure any acceptable dog's abuse towards our learned friends to my right in the North Stand.

I do however, look around the Stand I frequent at lads in their 20's/30's and 40's and generally hear f*ck all from them all game and this I believe is where the generation of noisy-ness has been lost. Why is this?

To me it's not just the acoustics and the stadium's well being that is the be all - as I've been in plenty of shittier grounds than the K*ssam but I think it's to some extent some of the older generation in their sixties/seventies who frown at fans who actually dare to get out of their seats and show at times some heated passion and remember I'm in my mid sixties and I'm all for hearing passionate support for my club!!!

We seem to have lost as well a generation of characters who used to lead with quite unadulterated verbal passion that will probably never ever come back and for some of the material that used to be used it probably is for the best in some instances lol.

But, the generation lost could/would be I think replaced if we could only get out of this damn dour and stale league. Nine seasons of much of the same :- Oxford v Fleetwood, Oxford v Shrewsbury, Oxford v Burton really does f*ck all to wet anyone's eyelashes or pants. Now, if you all take a look at Oxford v QPR, Oxford v Millwall, Oxford v Brizzle City, v Watford, v Middlesbrough, v Cardiff, v Stoke, v Birmingham, v Norwich v Sunderland etc etc this might just rekindle our home matches and bring in a much younger element who could associate themselves more with the bigger named clubs that would be on offer regularly. I would take a yo yo season in a heartbeat to help the fan base re-group and market accordingly.

As a poor example, the biscuitmen grew in support by playing championship football (then the Prem) and of course the new stadium they had to boot helped their crowds prosper enormously. However, we have a 24/30 month wait for new premises and I fear the club and the atmosphere will wither further if we stay in league 1 for much longer. To me, its imperative that the club gets promoted this season or at worse next season because the stagnation is like rising damp and will only get worse if we stay rinsing with the likes of some of the above mentioned lge 1 clubs.

With my crumbling knee's I don't mind anyone in the least standing up in front of me shouting with gusto anytime in support of my club.

Anytime.

COYY'S.