Quote:
Originally Posted by southernred
Macca,
1. Your wisdom and old post are to be appreciated.
2. However seats on the Clayton End are a very new thought, because as we do this we have to make further ground improvements to keep the 5K capacity.
3.The club have attempted to resist these canges, they have approached the League to ask for an exemption. This has been refused.
4. However we all knew the rules when we applied to join the League, we have to abide by them.
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1. correct. Futher along in the thread I quoted, on page 2, I made
a prediction .....
Quote:
Originally Posted by maccawozzagod
It may not be that far away, and if it happened and if we campaigned against it then the club would give the ultimatum that they either build it (cos there is no time left for alternative plans) or we get relegated for not completing our necessary groundworks in three years. We (the fans) become the bad guys
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.... seems spot on to me. If the Clayton Enders were really that bothered, and could be arsed to sign a petition, would it get anywhere? No, cos time is too short. Build it this way or we go down - it's simple.
2. It might be a new idea in its present guise but its not a new idea. At the time of my original quoted post I had been told that the idea was discussed and was a no brainer really and would probably happen. This has become true no matter who has thought of the idea this time around. It still always comes back to the man in charge. If seven directors, a general manager, a chief executive and a vice-chairman all thought that a new stand was do-able but Eric didn't, who would win?
3. An admirable attempt but 'spin'. It was never gonna cut any ice for reason 4 ........
4. Exactly. We all knew from day one that this was gonna have to be done
if we were still in the league. Maybe we didn't expect to be here and thought that we could avoid doing the work?
To be honest I don't think it will be too bad. We all get to stay in the league for another year at least and the Clayton End will look a little fuller. With the extra seats available we may be able to start doing a lot more promotion around town and give/donate tickets all over the place to fill them up a bit. Liam's little army could be seated directly in front of the Ultras (if the language is cut out) thus adding a shed load more noise and giving the little 'uns a better day out. Kipax is right, the squashed up again feeling will return and will probably amplify the atmosphere for many. The noise will doubtless pick up a touch more. But .....
for me the point of promotion can be better explained with a better word - progress. Its not enough to just keep saying that "we are playing in such and such a league, think yourselves lucky". We should be progressing on and off the pitch in roughly equal measures. Part of the reason, IMHO, that we find ourselves in such a pickle with regards to low attendances etc is that we have never invested enough off the pitch. The roof is great but has less people under it than has been on that end for five years. Why? - cos it came too late. It should have been done in the first Conference season. Many of the new fans we gained that season, and through the great FA Cup run, and the fabled return to the league would possibly still be here. They aren't because they wouldn't pay £10 then £12 then £13 to get wet. New fans aren't hardcore and don't put up with ****e conditions, they expect to get value for money. Now we are trying to attract more families, partially as a drive to attract the 'fans of the future'. Admirable but what do we offer them when they get here? They generally want to sit down but the main stand has more leaks than last years defence. The Clayton End even has leaks in it FFS (because we won't spend a little bit more and get some quality bitumen painted on). But then even the new seats will be right at the front edge of the stand and they will still get wet, and have the wind at their faces.
A new stand will cost a lot more money than we reputedly have money for, but this is fault of those that run the club. I won't beat about the bush and pretend any more that we are doing all we can because we aren't. There are people behind the scenes who put in a lot of effort, there are people behind the scenes that want to push the club regardless. But it still comes down to one man that certain things arenm't done very well. Many folk have vented their spleens at Lee for various reasons to do with merchandise but it isn't his decision whether or not we pay suppliers and be able to replenish stock once it's sold. It isn't his decision whether we build a bigger shop. It isn't his decision whether we take payment now and send you the goods if we ever get them. It's no wonder he sometimes doesn't respond to emails because he is probably embarrassed at having to keep going over the same old story. It's not the fault of the ladies in the beer huts when the beer (cans) run dry half an hour before a game even starts. Its not their fault when the away end only has two crates of lager in it before 1200 Bury fans come for the last game of the season on a gloriously sunny Spring saturday.
Eric banned the word 'promotion' around the club until it was mathematically impossible not to be promoted from the Conference - and we wondered why there was no merchandise available to capitalise?
The point of it all is ...... We have cut corners for years and the fans have voted with their feet. In the current climate we have no chance of enticing hundreds of new fans to come to the FES, but if we had made more effort a few years ago we would be better off for it now. Yes we are in the Football League for probably a fourth year running but we are still a Unibond club in many eyes. Eric and co should not be surprised when a few more people vote with the feet at no longer standing on an exclusively terraced goal end. They should not be surprised when yet more fans of visiting clubs ridicule us for our part 'completed?' stand
If we ever did get to the League 1 and their rules stipulate that you must have x amount more seats in then the excuse will be that we our skint and can't afford to develop Whinney Hill so we'll stick the extra seats on the Clayton End cos we've already got some there. Once they are in they will only ever be added to., never taken out