Offside Set

CLMV · Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:19 pm OSS position on home end membership

The club has asked for feedback on ticketing, including the idea of a home end membership.

I would like us to consider responding as a group. (Of course we can all do so as individuals at any time.)

My reasoning on home end membership is this:

As the OSS, we need to be based in a GA area so that we can invite new people to join us.

We would not buy home end specific memberships ourselves, as we could not be based there.

We would like to be able to go into the home end area. We are considering an edge of that area (aisle 4) as our base for next season. However, we would not be able to access that area if it were only open to those with home-end membership.

While we spend much time in our group, we also like to be free to move around the stadium as individuals. We prefer as much of the stadium to be general admission as possible.

We do sympathise with the need to ensure that no area in the stadium becomes dangerously over-crowded. However, we do not support home end membership as a mechanism for achieving this.

*****

do people agree with these points?

If we have agreement on this - at least from our core members - I will write this up as a reply to the club to advise them of our views.

CLMV · Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:21 pm

whoops

I also added a poll option for qualified support, but it did not come up

please feel free to do so in your reply

Rollins · Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:02 pm

I agree with all those points from OSS group position.

Daydream · Tue May 01, 2007 9:48 am

I haven't thought about this properly, but in my opinion the home end is not OSS's to get involved with. IMO, it is up to the home end supporters group to decide. I have reservations about the home end regulars controlling the home end, as I can already see issues arising, it is exclusionary and has put many offside (pardon the pun). I've spoken to a few ACTIVE supporters who have gone down the south because of draconian demands and **** treatment by a FEW BWB core (not all BWB core, many BWB core are well loved and respected by most. few rotten apples and all that)

Anyway, I have not given this much thought and am loathe to throw OSS into the debate without careful consideration and I'm not in the position personally at the moment to think this through carefully. I'll also say I haven't thought out my above comments carefully, so please don't hammer me for them, they're just spontaneous musings.

CLMV · Tue May 01, 2007 10:23 am

the trouble with saying that is does not affect us, DD, is that it does

we have been in the home end - for both finals

we have tentatively decided to base ourselves there this season, in aisle 4
- not in the heart of it where the BWB and the crowds are, but the area we have picked out is in the area that would be affected, so we would not be able to go in there

I think we need the freedom to move around the stadium until we find the right spot, and this would lock us out of a big chunk of the stadium

it would reduce the number of areas we have access to if we have GA tickets

and it would mean we would be competing for space with all the other people with GA tickets who can no longer get into the home end

it affects us a great deal

Daydream · Tue May 01, 2007 10:33 am

As I've said before, I still don't want to be in the home end. I want to be close to the corner flag and I don't want to have to deal with the sexist chants in the home end.
I went to the Richmond home game, and the HBC are the same, still singing about tits and fanny (but in German) and about German women. I choose not to be part of that, don't want to fight against it, don't want to surround my son with it, or seen to be tolerating it. This has always been my position and still is. This is why I wanted something like OSS, or otherwise I would have always stood on the outer of the home end. The home end is not something I want to be a part of while it's in it's current form.

This is not an ultimatum on my behalf, but if the OSS go to the home end, I'll consider whether I want to follow. Of course I want what is best for OSS as a group, and for it's growth and success into the future, but I also don't want to compromise on why I have tried to seek us out in the first place

GweedsOSS · Tue May 01, 2007 10:49 am

There are advantages and disadvantages.

An advantage of a 'home end membership' is that it will remove the possible confusion of what it is expected there. Hopefully people who would buy a 'home end' membership would know that you expected to stand chant etc.

However while this may be OK for a groups like BWB it is not that good for a group like us who is small and relies on inviting people on a possible 'one off' basis.

So at this stage I think that OSS would benefit from the status quo.

CLMV · Tue May 01, 2007 11:03 am

Daydream wrote: As I've said before, I still don't want to be in the home end. I want to be close to the corner flag and I don't want to have to deal with the sexist chants in the home end.
I went to the Richmond home game, and the HBC are the same, still singing about tits and fanny (but in German) and about German women. I choose not to be part of that, don't want to fight against it, don't want to surround my son with it, or seen to be tolerating it. This has always been my position and still is. This is why I wanted something like OSS, or otherwise I would have always stood on the outer of the home end. The home end is not something I want to be a part of while it's in it's current form.

This is not an ultimatum on my behalf, but if the OSS go to the home end, I'll consider whether I want to follow. Of course I want what is best for OSS as a group, and for it's growth and success into the future, but I also don't want to compromise on why I have tried to seek us out in the first place

DD
you are confusing standing with the NT group - which no-one is suggesting - with standing in the area at that end of the ground that might be designated 'home end' for ticketing purposes if the club went down that path

I assume a home end ticket would cover the whole area behind the goals from bay 36 or so to bay 4
ie from one race to the other
so it would cover the area we discussed at our meeting

that area is well away from the NT
but it is still within the home end area, and I am pretty sure it would be affected by a home end ticket
it would either require a home end ticket to enter, or be full of all the people who had GA tickets who could not get into the home end area
so it would be that much harder for us to mark out a spot

if there is a home end ticket, we could find that we are squeezed out altogether as the home end ticket areas meets the reserved seating area, leaving us with no space in between

GweedsOSS · Tue May 01, 2007 1:10 pm

Just a couple of things:

Quote: As I've said before, I still don't want to be in the home end. I want to be close to the corner flag and I don't want to have to deal with the sexist chants in the home end.

I think that is what we agreed. Looking at the ground

We discussed standing around area 2 which is basically on the corner flag, but still within an area where people around us may not throw a tanty if we decide to stand (especially if we are not right at the back).

But that follows on the whole discussion of our position on the 'home end membership'

It is still up in the air. If the club is proposing what CLM suggested to make the whole of the 'north end' as a home end members area (which would mean the bays between the two gaps/vehicle access corridors). Then we would be squeezed out. We could then spill into areas 1 but are going to make them Gold like they did in the Sydney game?

Again it is all very uncertain.