Supporters Forum Meeting Next Monday

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fmttmadmin

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I have left this appeal for items to take to the meeting until after the Sunderland ticket sales.
There will be an agenda put together this afternoon - but are there items to be added - things of general concern rather than specific for an individual???
We will be looking at Concourses/bars/kiosks.
Membership schemes
Foodbank
End of Season survey

We can throw in Redwurzel's question too - "I would be interested in having a scheme where STs can donate their unused seat to fans whose income is very low (on means tested benefits) for individual games."
 
Here are all the forum meetings and when the agenda is shared.
As you will see I should have pasted this up earlier in the week. Apologies. I was thinking it would be swamped by Sunderland ticket questions.

supporters meetings.jpg
 
Might be too late Rob but regarding concourses etc. I've had great experiences in Belgium. Basically it's cashless. You get a credit card type thing which you load up with credit. When you go to the till you just put your card on the reader and it tells you how much you're spending and how much credit you have remaining. No messing about with cash or contactless payments not going through. It speeds up the whole process immeasurably.
 
fmttmadmin said:
We can throw in Redwurzel's question too - "I would be interested in having a scheme where STs can donate their unused seat to fans whose income is very low (on means tested benefits) for individual games."
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Great idea this.

One of my mates who works shifts, misses on average about 4-6 home games per season and rarely has anyone take his ticket, so this option would be brilliant.

Membership scheme - one of the biggest problems is the fact 'Gold card' & 'Chairman's drink' holders will always start on more points...regardless.

Those two levels are currently a closed book.

These 2 levels of memberships need to be opened up (or reviewed) so new (and current) season card users (over X number of years) can reach these levels.

So far,
Season card holders since 2017/18 will start on 140 points
Season card holders since 1996/97 will start on 150 points
Season card holders before 1996/97 will start on 160 points

Meaning any fan under the age of say 30 has no hope of ever having a chance of reaching 160 points (based on purely being a season ticket holder). The rest of the scheme is pretty much ok.
 
BF - interesting to see and hear how others do it.

Does MFC have a significant problem with contactless payments?

I tend to use my ST card for the free drink and have never had a problem.

When I have paid contactless I have never had a problem.

Thats a very wide concourse in Belgium I would say as big as the new Wembley what capacity stadium is it?

It looks very quiet I would guess that's 90 minutes before kick off?

Bigger screens would be an instant improvement in the MFC concourses. Some of the cost could be met with some more adverts, bigger screens would likely create more interest with advertisers.
 
I assume the membership scheme relates to non-season ticket holders membership and not the priority points scheme? In which case the club really should be coming to the table on this now.

They've put it off for over two years (if not longer?) and previously put the delay down to waiting on university students to complete their research. I get the impression they just don't want a membership scheme in place because it might help dissuade fans from buying season tickets.
 
fmttmadmin said:
I have left this appeal for items to take to the meeting until after the Sunderland ticket sales.
There will be an agenda put together this afternoon - but are there items to be added - things of general concern rather than specific for an individual???
We will be looking at Concourses/bars/kiosks.
Membership schemes
Foodbank
End of Season survey

We can throw in Redwurzel's question too - "I would be interested in having a scheme where STs can donate their unused seat to fans whose income is very low (on means tested benefits) for individual games."
Click to expand...
Apologies for sounding patronising, but remember to sell the idea i.e net benefits to MFC.
MFC officials may think privately this will depress one off ticket sales and it does create work for them, but overall there could be benefits for fans and the club as stated in earlier post. Many thanks for your help.
 
Redwurzel said:
BF - interesting to see and hear how others do it.

Does MFC have a significant problem with contactless payments?

I tend to use my ST card for the free drink and have never had a problem.

When I have paid contactless I have never had a problem.

Thats a very wide concourse in Belgium I would say as big as the new Wembley what capacity stadium is it?

It looks very quiet I would guess that's 90 minutes before kick off?

Bigger screens would be an instant improvement in the MFC concourses. Some of the cost could be met with some more adverts, bigger screens would likely create more interest with advertisers.
Click to expand...
Yes this before kick off. I was down at half time too and it was very busy but still efficient. Stadium holds about 20k and is much newer than ours granted. In Belgium they have no issue in taking your beer to your seat at any point during the game. 33cl plastic containers. KAA Gent may be a one off I don't know but tell you what it didn't half feel civilised (and warm).
 
A couple of issues on here that I concur with:

1. Concourses - too narrow and insufficient food and drink outlets. This means that, particularly during the pre-match period:
* the concourses are very crowded (too many people in too confined an area); and
* the queues at the food and drink outlets extend across the entire width of the concourses, preventing free passage along them.
I appreciate that resolving this issue would probably necessitate extensive, expensive and disruptive building works, extending the width of the concourses outward, beyond their existing footprint, but I don't think that the current configuration is fit for purpose.

2. The season card points/loyalty scheme. Moving up to the next loyalty level should be a rolling process, occurring at specified qualification thresholds. It shouldn't be a closed shop (and I speak as someone who currently benefits from the existing scheme)
 
For season tickets

Gold (anyone over 20 years of continious holding, rolled over every Summer)
Silver (5 years but under 20 - rolled over)
Bronze (1 to 4 years - rolled over)
In your first year you are just classified as New.

Each of the 4 categories has priority points loaded at the start of each season and additional points from the previous season

Example

Silver - 150 points for silver status plus 24 points gained from 2022/3 additional tickets bought.

So if they renew in the summer of 2023 they start with 174 points. They will gain more points from ticket purchases made in 2023/4. Lets say 28 points gained in 2003/4. So they end the season on 202 points.

Only 1 season (the previous seson) of additional points are carried over.

So in 2024/5 they start with 150 plus 28 = 178 points.

The system encourages long term loyalty but also rewards short term enthusiam (over 1 to 2 recent years).

People tend to remember bronze/silver/gold and tend to think in 5 and 10 year blocks.

Of course the more categories and rules the more complex to understand and for it to go wrong. I have seen more complex involving club shop purchase points.

Having some transferability to fans who can't afford to attend games, may encourage (in a small way) the 10 game a season fan to purchase. If they donate their ticket for odd games for free they could be rewarded with some additional priority points. Some fans may currently not purchase a ST because its £450 and they only use it 10 times. They have the cash (e.g working overseas/rigs, but object to poor value.) With the new set up they help others and gain some extra points for themselves.
 
Redwurzel said:
Gold (anyone over 20 years of continuous holding, rolled over every Summer)
Silver (5 years but under 20 - rolled over)
Bronze (1 to 4 years - rolled over)
In your first year you are just classified as New.
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This is what I think they should do too.

The fact the Gold card status and Chairman's drink status is a closed shop isn't really fair.

And I say that as someone who benefits from this being a 'closed shop'.
 
IME, the problem with payments on the concourses is that a lot of people choose to pay cash. The card-only queues go quickly, but the sole cash queue tends to be long.
 
feedthebear said:
A couple of issues on here that I concur with:

1. Concourses - too narrow and insufficient food and drink outlets. This means that, particularly during the pre-match period:
* the concourses are very crowded (too many people in too confined an area); and
* the queues at the food and drink outlets extend across the entire width of the concourses, preventing free passage along them.
I appreciate that resolving this issue would probably necessitate extensive, expensive and disruptive building works, extending the width of the concourses outward, beyond their existing footprint, but I don't think that the current configuration is fit for purpose.

2. The season card points/loyalty scheme. Moving up to the next loyalty level should be a rolling process, occurring at specified qualification thresholds. It shouldn't be a closed shop (and I speak as someone who currently benefits from the existing scheme)
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Totally agree with 2 and I am a Gold Card holder.

1. The cheap option is to reduce the price of season tickets and drop the free drink, say knocking £50 off a adult season ticket for people with a chairmen's drink season ticket. This would reduce the queues in the concourse and reduce standing in the concourses as you have to drink alcohol in the concourse.

Can fans use their ST to get a free drink in the outside fans zone? If they could in future and couldn't at present it will take a bit of pressure off the concourses.

Widening the stadium would cost millions and probably cause other problens with lack of space outside the stadium.

Football stadia are evolving - in the 1970s you went to a game to watch the game, now the culture is more have a drink and something to eat too like popcorn in cinemas. The Riverside was a half way house to me. It was not built for food and drink consumption in the concourses and was built for £22m. If each fan paid £2 a visit for stadium construction - it would be have been fully paid for around 5 years ago.
 
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I know it's been touched on before, but can you make another request for better publicity for youth team games please? U18s are playing in Fleetwood tonight: I'd have gone if I'd had more than 24 hours notice.
 
The main issue with the concourse service is training. If someone looked at it from a training perspective they would rip it up.

Too many people doing the same thing or stood around. They need people serving and people getting.

They need and in/out system to stop people blocking the tills waiting for 8 pints to be poured and passed around their mates.

There should be kiosks doing just hot drinks away from the bars - this is so simple and would reduce the queues.

Open up the outside pie stands created during COVID. Just put fenses and a couple of stewards to stop people sqeezing in. Replacing an indoor stand with an outdoor one would free up space too.

Loads of simple ideas that could be tried in different areas to see what works from a time and revenue perspective at a couple of games.
 
clay said:
I know it's been touched on before, but can you make another request for better publicity for youth team games please? U18s are playing in Fleetwood tonight: I'd have gone if I'd had more than 24 hours notice.
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OK. I remember them saying they were short staffed as far as covering them for commentary - but also I recall them saying about sometimes actual venues are confirmed very late. That was regarding publishing a fixture list.
 
edinboro said:
The main issue with the concourse service is training. If someone looked at it from a training perspective they would rip it up.

Too many people doing the same thing or stood around. They need people serving and people getting.

They need and in/out system to stop people blocking the tills waiting for 8 pints to be poured and passed around their mates.

There should be kiosks doing just hot drinks away from the bars - this is so simple and would reduce the queues.

Open up the outside pie stands created during COVID. Just put fenses and a couple of stewards to stop people sqeezing in. Replacing an indoor stand with an outdoor one would free up space too.

Loads of simple ideas that could be tried in different areas to see what works from a time and revenue perspective at a couple of games.
Click to expand...
There has been a big problem with recruitment numbers since covid. As experienced right across hospitality. And retention of staff. Remember this is a fortnightly job. I know those issues still hold. And these issues impact on training etc.
It has been confirmed that Peter Hall Bar and Concourse Manager will be joining the meeting on Monday so we can find out from him regarding his thoughts and what new systems have been trailed etc. It is clear to see there are big queues this season across concourses before and at half time in games.
 
Could they not create a “sideways” queuing system at the bars by putting up a few barriers, rather than everyone queuing straight outwards and practically up the stairs.

Just have a single winding queue, then you just get called to the next available till. Could also have 3 tills at each outlet without the congestion at the bar

It would certainly ease congestion and make movement around the concourse easier
 
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