Offside Set

Rollins · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 491

Start a new non specific oss thread should you feel the need.
Those who have bothered to register on here are more then welcome to contribute, however i feel bumping the oss thread would seem unprofessonal.
I may attend a meeting should i be free.

Daydream · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 756

Good point you make Rollins.

EDIT: Jumped the gun, found the thread by Victoryan that was titleds "where to sit with a young family" and bumped that one.

philip · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 26

I think the whole thing is a bit hard to follow.
I can only assume the club is doing its best to moderate some of these poor ideas.

I like to be able to go to the game with friends.
Sometimes I go down to South End because I can.
With young kids, sitting at the edge of South End is a good learning experience.

I don't go to NT, because I don't want to be part of the problem of it being diluted
by families with kids (by that I mean people not being "Active").
But NT has to be able to grow. "Membership-only" will stifle that.
Stifling passion is not the approach.

When I see people proudly holding up Samsung cards it makes me feel old-fashioned.

Maybe its just me who doesn't get it.

Watt · Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 74

CLMV · Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 720

Got very confused there for a minute - couldn't find my post from yesterday.

Now I have noticed Rollins' new section - good move.

I will take myself to there ...

Daydream · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 756

I am going to take the initiative and go ahead and get in contact with some other people from the forum and in our wider community and see if they are interested in contributing to the discussion or meeting up to discuss. It would be good if others could do likewise. A range of opinions is good for discussion, IMO. In fact I also recall see ing other family types on other A-League forums, but I don't want to go that far at this point.

dechardonay · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 17

halloo, ooh wow, am i the first of DD's invitees!?!??? Very Happy

/me excited

here's my thoughts on home end:

....are we filling 50,000 every week? no. so why implement it?

it just gives me the heebie jeebies all over - allocated seating for a whole season. it also prevents me from that one day when i will finally pop my terrace cherry, because i didn't get a home end ticket at the start of the season (and i have always been a bit nervous about joining a terrace because, well, i don't know the words... Embarassed

some rock singer, huh...)

anyway, enough whingeing, it's coming, it's in the membership options now. so here's my situation (and why it's looking like i'll not actually pop that cherry in version 4 after all...)

our little daughter is currently 3 weeks old, so any given week she may decide she doesn't want to go to the football and will be a grump all day/night. this means that one of either my wife or myself (and probably both) will be staying home along with her. on those occasions when i'm flying solo, i like to bring a mate along with me, and call him my wife. (they're usually wierded out by this, i don't know why...) sometimes, they would accompany all of us (and show relief that they didn't have to play a role as my wife)

so our own personal situation needs flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. only the general admission offers this. i'm interested how a blocked purchase such as what was mentioned above by someone (sorry forgot who) will work.

anyway, if you'll excuse me, i have puke to clean... Smile

i love it

CLMV · Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 720

first of all

no need to make a decision straight away - give it a bit more time for people to formulate strategies, and arguments, and to see what if any concessions we can get out of the club

next
if GA meets your needs, by all means go with it, I reckon
I am sure there will be some people trying to do active support in GA areas, and if it works, you might be able to 'pop your cherry' one day

if you are interested in doing something to oppose HEM, keep watch, and I am sure there will be suggestions made about things you can do

if you are interested in HEM with others
at the moment no-one knows if it is viable, how it would work, who would want to be part of it
and active support in those areas may well be pretty low key this season

your situation, where you need flexibility, is exactly the kind that HEM is bad for

matt · Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 21

If there is very little avenue to protest the new HEM, and there seems to be, then I think the most effective way would be to not buy one. It might seem simplistic but I think that needs to be the first step.

The next step would be to identify which part of the stadium is going to offer you the accomodation that you require. From my understanding "blocks/bays" can only be reserved by actually reserving them so the area chosen would need to be one that accomodated all those who wanted to create this "group dynamic". There may be a non-reserved area which can be indentified as a next best fit.

After that I reckon the next step is to contact those in charge and voice your opinion. This would probably be done best after the meeting/brains torm that DD suggested. That way there is a concensus and a united front being presented. Contact doesn't necessarily have to be face to face although that should be the end goal. If there was 50 or 100 emails of the same subject matter directed to those at the pointy end which outlined grievances as well as idea's that offered solutions that should appease both parties I would think that a certain level of attention would be gained.

I think that the method that was used during the ACL seems to give everybody what they want. Club, fans, tv, FFA. Now the tricky part is expressing this in a way that it is taken seriously.

I had a few idea's of "protests" which I haven't seen mentioned;
It would be worth considering what sort of message would be sent to the club if enough people agreed to not buy a membership. This would of course only have an impact if say a few thousand people could be convinced to hold out until the very last minute. As it stands I would think that due to poor team performance, dissolutionment due to last years dramas with active support and a drop off in the honeymoon affect of the world cup in '06 the club will be budgeting for less than 20,000 members this season. If this figure was hovering around 15,000 in mid July i wonder if they would push the FFA harder. This is not to say that club aren't aware of the drama this is causing and they arent trying to find a solution but surely that is the fans best bargaining chip.

The other idea I had was a little obtuse and on second thought doesnt make a lot of sense so i will erase it from my memory.

slab · Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 6

Like everyone else I am totally, totally dumbfounded by these ridiculous measures that are going to be introduced for HEM. Those of you that know me, will know that my little circle have been absolute nomads this last season due to a number of different issues. But I feel that is a great thing, by having the freedom to choose where you wish to stand/sit on any given matchday. We enjoy the pleasure of catching up with friends from both ends.
These new measures make me feel that our type of supporters are not encouraged to get involved in active support, which really doesn't make any sense to me. Like others, we can vary in numbers from week to week, so bringing additional friends would be out of the question. Another head scratcher.
Will definately not be buying HEM in it's current format, not even sure about GA, as this whole affair has left a very sour taste in my mouth. Will wait and see what unfolds. Hopefully some sort of compromise may be achieved between MVFC & FFA, as I would love to continue to support the club in memberships and so on, but as I said not in it's current format.
Agreed that we all need to let the club and FFA that we are definately not happy with their proposals.
Well done to all in their efforts on improving or trying to improve our football experience.
Cheeeeers.