How Can Our Club Connect To You?

F

fmttmadmin

Administrator
Staff member
Is it all about pricing? Or is saying thank you very important too.
But what about beyond that, how can Boro make you feel that you are a part of a Boro community again?
Or is this sense of community built from fans and not club in any case?

Am just thinking about this because for me there is no us and them. I was a fan in the 70s and 80s and through the Ayresome years and I remember very little bond with the actual club. We loved the players, we supported their testimonials, or some of us did. But there were very few club events for the Boro masses. Even after 86 there were frequent arguments from fans that the club was too distant and secretive etc. It always seemed to be the case.

What do fans think we can do to make this more of a community feel club? Or is it all down to pricing?
Seriously, how can the football club reach you?

There could be ideas next season - of extending the FanZone for instance or encouraging more indoor bars to open after the game. We could try and ask for more events with players and staff at the Riverside. Affordable not dinner suit dinners.

Or maybe we could build a Boro museum at the Riverside - if the Boro Shirt Museum exhibition is a big success at the Dorman (starting April) - then this might perhaps give us some leverage.

The MFC Foundation (which legally cannot be part of the football club for charity status reasons, but is really) works with all manner of projects and demographics from people with dementia (award winning and heartwarming) to providing a youth service for kids to take them off the streets. And working in schools on mental and physical health and helping with getting fans fit in general.

MFC Women is also seen as a commitment to the community - looking to the future to involve and inspire girls and women but also all school kids in general in the area.

These are examples of community reach. Pretty significant in many ways. But in what other ways, wherever we are in the world, could we feel more connected with our club and community?

Please have a think about this because I think there are significant opportunities for us all to have some say, remove some barriers and be stronger and more united for it. To make it feel like your/our Riverside.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
You'd need sponsorship of any initiatives from the top, and recent history suggests that the club is run the way Gibson wants it run (as is his right as the sole owner along with MON obviously) and that engaging with the fans and been more open isn't high up his agenda.
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Maybe not what you mean but I have posted that Steve Gibson has offered fmttm an event. I haven't had any encouragement to go ahead from fans.
 
Huddboro said:
Not charge hundreds of pounds to be a mascot would be a good start. It’s a business first totally understood, but without the fans it’s nothing.
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I don't know the actual process but we could look into that - I know in the recent past that some of the mascots are reserved for special children. They could be suffering with illness themselves or caring for family members etc. It is often something that doesn't get publicity because they do need privacy. Maybe, something to find more about and how children can be involved as flag wavers at Boro home games.
 
I think the fans should get a big thank you from the chairman for their support. Most of us make large sacrifices, both in time and money to support the club and it’s just nice to feel appreciated now and again. Steve Gibson is the main figure head of the club and he used to engage with the fans far more actively than he does now. There was a regular live radio interview at least once a year with fans getting the chance to ask questions to the chairman but all that seemed to stop after the infamous we want to smash the league interview that he received criticism for. It’s about time SG just swallowed his pride and start conversing with us fans again i think.
 
Merlin said:
I think the fans should get a big thank you from the chairman for their support. Most of us make large sacrifices, both in time and money to support the club and it’s just nice to feel appreciated now and again. Steve Gibson is the main figure head of the club and he used to engage with the fans far more actively than he does now. There was a regular live radio interview at least once a year with fans getting the chance to ask questions to the chairman but all that seemed to stop after the infamous we want to smash the league interview that he received criticism for. It’s about time SG just swallowed his pride and start conversing with us fans again i think.
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I think that is the point, as you rightly say, he said we want to smash the league, not we are going to smash the league. He was so often misquoted I believe it made him very wary for sometime.
He has said this season that he wants to engage with fans a couple of times a year. Would that make a big difference do you think?
 
Just be nicer. The season ticket renewal thing was a shambles. Get Yvonne Ferguson to sit down and explain what customer service means to all the senior stakeholders. She is good at it and should show others how it is done.

From the ticket admin fees to the way the club shop is run, to shirt designs and sponsors, the badge! There are loads of things they could do that wouldn't cost a pretty penny and would make us all feel better.

I don't want letters thanking me for being a fan or any of that. But I do want to feel like they have a clue what they are doing.

Once in a while some offer for non season card holders (I have one) would be a super idea.

They could look into sorting something with Transpennine and Northern for home game travel. That's a huge part of German football - your match ticket includes train fair in the local region. Not asking for free but perhaps some sort of carnet ticket making using the train for games really cost effective. Win for the operator and win for us surely.

Arrange open training during holidays. It would be lovely to feel welcome at Rockcliffe or even one offs at the Riverside.

Improve variety of food and drink in and around the ground. Look at other clubs and how busy the areas around the stadiums are on match days.

Do monthly shows with Tees and interviews with Gazette and Echo with folk like Scott, Carrick, Bausor etc just to talk to us about what is going on.

Make a stand on away ticket sale dates so we have a chance of booking reasonable price travel. Get everyone signed up and hold them accountable.

I would love it if away coaches to games down south stopped at York! But I know that is just asking too much. But perhaps try to arrange fans in certain areas to get together so we could arrange transport home and away? Create a website we could sign up to and share our details.
 
edinboro said:
Just be nicer. The season ticket renewal thing was a shambles. Get Yvonne Ferguson to sit down and explain what customer service means to all the senior stakeholders. She is good at it and should show others how it is done.

From the ticket admin fees to the way the club shop is run, to shirt designs and sponsors, the badge! There are loads of things they could do that wouldn't cost a pretty penny and would make us all feel better.

I don't want letters thanking me for being a fan or any of that. But I do want to feel like they have a clue what they are doing.

Once in a while some offer for non season card holders (I have one) would be a super idea.

They could look into sorting something with Transpennine and Northern for home game travel. That's a huge part of German football - your match ticket includes train fair in the local region. Not asking for free but perhaps some sort of carnet ticket making using the train for games really cost effective. Win for the operator and win for us surely.

Arrange open training during holidays. It would be lovely to feel welcome at Rockcliffe or even one offs at the Riverside.

Improve variety of food and drink in and around the ground. Look at other clubs and how busy the areas around the stadiums are on match days.

Do monthly shows with Tees and interviews with Gazette and Echo with folk like Scott, Carrick, Bausor etc just to talk to us about what is going on.

Make a stand on away ticket sale dates so we have a chance of booking reasonable price travel. Get everyone signed up and hold them accountable.

I would love it if away coaches to games down south stopped at York! But I know that is just asking too much. But perhaps try to arrange fans in certain areas to get together so we could arrange transport home and away? Create a website we could sign up to and share our details.
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Some great ideas here.
The Forum has asked for open training days again and again - it seems the coaches can be reluctant with this rather than the club. But there must be some way around it.
 
Ticket giveaways to schools/grassroot football clubs.

They currently offer grassroot teams opportunities to do flags / half time penalties / walk outs, which is great. But they charge full price for the kids and parents to attend. Would it hurt to make these opportunities complimentary? One of the teams I run consists of 12 players. We were on the waiting list for a few months to do the flags. When it eventually became their turn the club told us the costs and 3 of the families said they wouldn't be able to afford the £50+ at short notice to attend. We ended up covering it out of our team account with funds that were supposed to be ring fenced for kits/equipment then having to replace that with a bit of fundraising. I just feel like that's something the club doesn't need to charge for. As a team we didn't want them to miss out. Those 3 kids had never attended a match and probably never will again so it was a great experience for them but they could have easily missed out on that due to cost.

Opening up the training ground for spectators and autographs/photos etc. I know this has been discussed before and it's not something the club are keen on. Could they do the odd open day or a pre-season open week where people can go and watch them train and potentially do a bit of meet and greet?
 
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fmttmadmin said:
Some great ideas here.
The Forum has asked for open training days again and again - it seems the coaches can be reluctant with this rather than the club. But there must be some way around it.
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Sorry I had posted my post before I got chance to see this
 
First of all it's about making sure football is accessible for all. The working man that lives in Teesside and supports the club should be able to attend. If we have empty seats, and lots of them, but we have a town full of people wanting to go then something isn't working. We live in an area that isn't swimming with money so stop pricing things as if it is. If a one off ticket offer brings a list of fans in for a week that never come back again then that's fine. It's giving people a chance to attend.

I don't mind paying the prices they charge for the merchandise but I don't want the quality to be the utter dog tod that it is. I have bought merchandise for things like NFL teams, golf events etc which are quite expensive but are great quality so it isn't bad value. I've seen other clubs selling good quality merchandise as well. Either charge premium prices for premium products or budget prices for budget products. Stop ripping us off with cheap tat at premium prices. Stop the ridiculous delivery charges as well.

Same in the concourses. Why do we still not have a system that can get people served quickly enough to make it worthwhile? They charge such high prices to cover the costs when they could generate more revenue by selling more for a lower price of they were better at it.

Treat staff well. I'll happily pay the prices we do if I knew it was because we were paying people a decent wage. Maybe doing this would improve some of the other things anyway.

Make decisions that put fans interests first, ahead of profit. The aim should be to fill the stadium while generating the most revenue, not just generating the most revenue regardless of how many empty seats we're left with.
 
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