As of 10am this morning, the minutes for the meeting held on December 22nd have been made available for public consumption.
They can be found here, down at the bottom of the page, but I wanted to address a couple of the issues we discussed, only on the points freely available in the minutes, to add a little clarity to some of the pertinent issues.
This was by far the most constructive meeting we had with full attendance and a lot of very interesting and divisive issues. There are some points within the minutes it is worth picking up on and maybe clarifying.
Please remember, we’re not making decisions as a group, merely discussing the wider issues as a cross-section of the fan base to give the club an indication of what we’re thinking. We don’t claim to represent any one in particular, we are just a broad range of people able to debate the facts and remain respectful of the information we’re given.
Ticket Prices & Kit
I’m not going to go into season ticket pricing, child’s tickets are anything like that in any great detail.
It’s fairly explanatory in the minutes, as is the signing off of the new kit. Some of the finer details are, quite rightly, not in the public domain just yet and therefore it would be remiss of me to go into further detail.
All I will say, in line with the minutes, is that I fully support both a rise in ST costs. The home kit put to us is one I’d buy too, making it one step up from this season!
iFollow
The iFollow debate is one that has got a few people riled and as you can see in the minutes, we have to be responsible as to how we approach it as a fan base. I know a tempting live stream on Facebook seems like a good idea, but it isn’t. It costs the club possible revenue and could be the difference between a new player or no new player. I don’t want to be dramatic, but if you want to watch the games that are available on iFollow, buy a pass just as you would buy a ticket for the game.
I won’t comment too much on VPN’s and all that, I’m not going to lie and say I’m not guilty of the odd discretion on that front. The difference is of course, my money has gone to the club. I won’t be doing that going forward, it makes me a hypocrite because I am firmly against 3pm streaming.
What I would suggest is picking up on the numbers in the minutes when forming a decision on iFollow. Most people who use the service are Imps who are away from the ground and therefore it does, to a degree, offer a viable option. The club is clear that they do not support 3pm kick off coverage on iFollow, but my own opinion is that whatever happens right now, in ten year’s time it’ll be the norm.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to have a firm moral standpoint, both as a blogger and as a football club.
Ticketing Partners
There’s plenty of moaning and groaning about Eventbrite when there’s a big game on, not so much around matches like Bury but I guess that’s the nature of the game. The minutes state we have one more year with Eventbrite before accepting tenders on a new deal. This clarifies the situation clearly and is once again a good indication of the attempted transparency shown by the club.
Stadium
This one might be an emotive issue, but as you can see we were asked to discuss whether the club should sell the naming rights to the ground and to the one stand we currently have that is unnamed. The outcome of our discussion is there.
I don’t care if we’re the Gelder Group Stadium, the Selenity Bank, Running Imp Arena or whatever, it’ll always be Sincil Bank to me. Sell it off, stick whatever logo you want on it, but I will always be going to Sincil Bank. If there’s decent wedge involved for the club, do it.
We were very, very firm on the issue of the Stacey West and without breaching any confidentiality I’m fairly sure the club were too. I suppose they have to ask the question but as far as I’m concerned if we get a new ground, there should be a Stacey West end. Those two words are as much a part of this club as Andy Graver, Keith Alexander and Graham Taylor. Those two men deserve to be remembered until the end of days.
Sell that stand’s naming rights and we sell our soul. Looking at the minutes I suspect you can see it won’t, nor was ever going to happen.