Tamworthowl

I think the pertinent question is, how patient will the fans be? The OP suggests it won’t take long for questions to be raised of the new owners’ ambitions / plans.

If it’s justified as cover for Afcon, it’ll be inclusive of January.

All depends on what we’re allowed/able to bring in. On balance, I’d keep. As a sub preferably, but he’ll do well in L1 as a started if necessary.

Tart up Hillsborough, carry out essential maintenance, consolidate and away we go. Nice 20,000 stadium for Wednesday Ladies and the U21. Meanwhile, the first 11 move somewhere approaching modern standards.

That’s because they’re out of stock because the players have walked off with them all.

I agree with this. And it’s what concerns me about the administration process. What if the… quick flipper sees a good short term return for modest investment so offers, say, £50m. long term planner sees the need for mega works so offers, say, £40m. We end with the quick flipper as our owner because the administrators have to do what’s best for the creditors. A quick flipper (Mike Ashley type?) could do a good job, up to a point, but it would take longer and they could sell to another DC type (more money than business acumen and understanding of how to run a football club). So I want the long term planner now, not further down the line. Hopefully, the administrators can steer the best potential owners to put in a winning bid, but I’ll be on edge until it’s all done and dusted one way or the other.

We have a difficult away game in midweek. Cooper has (I read somewhere) been training at home. So, playing him on Sunday is asking for a muscle injury. Give him a place on the bench and hope the back three last long enough to allow Cooper 15 minutes at the end as we defend our lead. Then consider a start on Wednesday night.

If we get money in from transfers are we allowed to spend it with the embargoes we currently have?

That applies to a fair few season ticket holders as well. But if you don’t go because you can’t face the possible lows, you miss out on the highs.

The positivity of our entering administration stems from the joy of getting rid of a despised owner. But it’s more than that. I think many of us were coming to the conclusion that the previous owner was going to let the club fold to spite the fans. His reluctance to sell the club (or even talk to anyone) despite his obvious inability to fund it reinforced those fears. So when it happened, a bit out of the blue, it was relief as much as anything. Points deduction and near certain relegation with new owners are massive positives compared to where we thought we were heading. I still don’t understand why he suddenly accepted administration when he’d taken us so close to the edge.

Ticket exchange for ST holders to use does even thing up. But ticket exchanges are only successful where the ground (or a particular area) is sold out. At Hillsborough, for the foreseeable at least, few would use ticket exchange when unsold seats are available. I don’t want to appear negative, my point being that none of the schemes proposed in this thread are as straightforward as they might seem initially. Most need the caveat of “subject to availability” and/or have to be bought well in advance.

These, and a four game voucher pack are fine but must come with a caveat of “subject to availability” otherwise the casual fan gets squeezed out, or would have limited time to buy because seats are reserved for part-time ST holders. Having a big ground that we rarely sell out minimises the risk of this being an issue, but it could happen for big games. Im getting sick of the midweek drive down the M1 so a Saturday ST would be great for me. But the last time we had them they ended in chaos. We had a few cancellations due to the weather and cup games, but the Saturday crowd insisted on going to the midweek rearranged fixture even though it wasn’t on a weekend. Add the number of fixture rearrangements and how do you price a Saturday ST? It’s a non-starter.

I take your word that this is how City operate (some) ticket sales, but it seems to have the potential to totally undermine season ticket sales. You reserve the seat next to me for £120. I pay, say £500. Over the season, you pay match by match to see every game for an additional £380. If you miss a game, you pay a little less. But me, if I miss a game through illness or work or whatever, I’ve paid for it. No refund. Why wouldn’t everyone move onto the reservation system just in case they miss a game or two?

From the club website re Blades tickets. On sale from… “Wednesday 12 November (9:00am): Supporters with a previous purchase history” I.e. to those with zero TPPs. Tickets have been available to all fans for four days.

I think that’s what @gypsyowl is saying. We’ve reached our maximum. That maximum is 31/32000. And a maximum of 32,000 is embarrassingly small for all our talk.

In the current circumstances, one hour seems plenty. But I suspect there was very little push back / questioning from the fan side and no lengthy diatribes from the admin. With new owners in place, I’d expect more discussion over more issues and, as a result, a lengthier meeting.

Agree, except I’m struggling for a maverick amongst the 2005 promotion squad.

I was thinking something similar earlier. I was at the match and dreading an embarrassment at 2-0, but the players put in a performance and the fans were non-stop. It was a good day. I’ve been to away wins that have been less enjoyable. It’s probably because the result isn’t so important (I’m resigned to relegation).

No problem at Reading just now. No applause, only silence.

I agree about moving on, but sometimes you need something cathartic to mark the ending. E.g. As soon as administration was announced, some staff were working on the video for the Oxford match, others set too on the seats. We as fans need that moment, that finality. We’ve missed out on timing, and the authorities may have used their vetoed, but I’d have loved a bonfire tonight on Hillsborough Park with an effigy of ******* on top. As the flames lick up the sides of the bonfire and start to engulf *******, a rocket, strategically placed up *******’s rear, ignites and he shoots 1000ft into the air over the South Stand and bang! explodes into a million sparkles that fade and fall and die to nothing. I feel better just writing about it. Imagine the feeling, the cheers, if it were to happen.

I read this ^^^ as being the lesser of 10% capacity or 2000. So 2000 in our case.

Two points… It’s not winter. It’s barely mid autumn. You won’t need to scrape the ice of your windscreen before driving off at full time. It’s not any old midweek game. It’s one of the most important midweek games in our history. Someone mentioned the 70s: this game could be compared to the last game of our first season in division 3. Pitiful crowds, but iirc 27k turned up for a relegation decider.

A crowd of 27k+ would normally be considered a good turnout, but in the context of “we’ve got our club back”, “I’ll come when he’s gone”, cheap prices, especially for kids and teens, and a call to arms from the administrators, then 27k is pretty poor. We’re all individuals, with our own circumstances, so we can’t criticise individual fans for not going, but as a group, as a fan base, it shows that we’re not as big as we like to think we are.

I can’t remember the event nor the venue, but as a single I recently experienced this problem from the other point of view. Admittedly, I was a bit late booking, went online and saw only pairs of seats in the blocks at my price range. Tried to book a single ticket leaving a single seat next to me. System wouldn’t let me. There were no threes or more that I could take the end of, but plenty of twos. I ended up not bothering.

I never understand the negativity about night matches. I’ve always thought they’re the better experiences. Since a young lad watching us beat Southend to stay in division 3, to Kaiserslautern to more recent matches v Arsenal, Brighton, Peterborough. And we’re crap so I’m not going…but it’s all the better when we’re not certainties to win and we pull it off. And there’s nothing to beat being there. The match might turn out to be a disappointment but the night is unlikely to be. It’s time to be there, make some noise, enjoy the evening and maybe be a part of something special creating memories to last decades.