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Do Clubs Care About Their Fans

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I suppose this is a little like being outside looking in but round these parts (South Yorkshire) we have been hearing things about our neighbours, and rivals, Sheffield Wednesday which a lot of us don’t think is being fair to the fans.

And I’m not just picking on the Owls because other teams are also guilty of this – in fact probably more teams than we think about.

Recently the BBC asked football clubs whose contract with them was up for renewal to take a ten per cent reductions in fees. Seemingly sixty-two clubs agreed with the only exception being Sheffield Wednesday. This now means that local radio won’t be allowed to comment on the games from Hillsborough. Which for a lot of our local teams who all call Radio Sheffield rightly or wrongly ‘Radio Wednesday’ will probably mean more coverage. Radio Sheffield will however be able to commentate on games involving the Owls at other grounds.

I say unfair to fans because there are some fans who can’t, for various reasons, get to Hillsborough or can’t afford other ways of listening to their team so this commentary was their football lifeline. This is also the same club whose ticket prices are amongst the top in the country and who charge a penny less than £60 for an adult home shirt.

In my opinion, and it is only mine, I don’t think the people at Hillsborough are running a family club.

Now, I say this but I don’t know if Rotherham United’s contract at the BBC was ready for renewal so maybe I shouldn’t even be commenting on this. But I do have a couple of Owls fans who have both expressed that they are upset with Dave H saying he spent most of the weekend shaking his head at what’s going on at his club and GS telling me ‘the Chairman really needs to get his head out of the sand and look around at what he’s bringing this once great club to.’

I have another friend (yes, more than two!) who is a Bolton fan (he’s shaking his head at the pitch at his stadium being used for rugby league at the moment!) who said, ‘Hang on a minute. We are quick to trash this decision by Sheffield Wednesday but should we not, in fact, be applauding them?’

Oh! Really?

He went on to say that perhaps the Owls are doing right by making a stand against the BBC and might have been hoping others would follow in their footsteps. He also said, for him, it’s a bit like moaning about the price of football shirts – if nobody bought them then they’d have to re-think the price.

Well, that’s as may be my Bolton pal but all I see and hear on local radio is the Owls fans who are very upset by this decision while also thinking that owner Mr Chansiri has cut his nose off to spite his face because, as it stands at the moment, his club are getting nothing at all from the Beeb.

What do you think? Who else thinks their club, whichever it is, are selling the fans short?

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6 comments

  • Neilhayz says:

    Your article appeared on a Sheffield Wednesday feed so I hope you don’t mind me commenting.

    My view of Chansiri is that he is everything that is wrong with football. High ticket prices, £90 Membership (£90!!), 60 quid shirts, and now the radio commentary. I met him at a fans forum in January which is basically just an excuse for him to say that he owns the club and if we don’t like it tough!

    It’s like having Donald Trump as chairman. A selfish egotist with no grasp of reality who has split the fan base. Many, in thrall to the power of his wallet think he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Others like me feel pushed away from the club. I have a decent job, earning well in excess of £30K a year but I look at the prices and think “No!”. It’s cheaper for me and the wife to fly to Valencia on Ryan Air and watch CF Valencia than to get 2 tickets for a Cat A game at Hillsborough. And we get a morning on the beach!

    My guess is that Chansiri is tiring of the Owls. The promotion to the riches of the Premiership hasn’t happened, and he’s losing money hand over fist with a succession of poor signings and a bloated squad. We the fans don’t tug our forelocks enough for his taste.

    Where we go from here is anyone’s guess, but my guess is another foreign owner, and worst case scenario another Sunderland. Fans are effectively the “golden goose”, whom the owner rely on not to question, however Chansiri has opened up the golden goose, and is slaughtering it by degrees. I will be surprised if we survive in our current form.

    This makes no odds to me. I support Wednesday as I’m a Chap lad, and they’re my team. I’ll support them in the Unibond League if necessary.

    Good luck Millers for the season, if karma was a fact you would be owed some against us!

    • LincsOwls says:

      Great comments Neil and its a sad state of affairs at S6 presently & I feel too disillusioned with the club’s ownership and general manner towards the fans.

    • Herringthorpe says:

      I just think all you are all saying is so sad. I feel that a lot of problems these days in football are down to owners who have no football knowledge and who come from too far away to understand what football means to the fans of the club they are taking over. I don’t think the Owls are the only club that things like this are going to affect in the future. Let’s hope something sorted. Me, we’ve had our problems in the past with owners and I’m just thankful we’ve got Rotherham born Tony Stewart in charge – we might be small fry but we, as far as we are aware, don’t owe anybody anything.

  • LincsOwls says:

    Chansiri, has a lot to answer for tonight as a wide spread of the fanbase are feeling disillusioned with the club presently. However, many knew a transfer embargo was pending & even hinted at in Jos’ first press conference with the “bring through the kids” comments he made.

    The shops and commercial functions of the club are an embarrassment been discussed by many over the last two years. Then we have their only form of communication is via the official website with a poorly worded statements on shirts, memberships, the Mansfield incident, fan behaviours etc….. Social Media is at an all time low in terms of engaging fans, just look at how much @England /FA did across the all social platforms during the World Cup as this how it should be done correctly reaching a wide audience.

    My biggest fear is that its the affect on current fanbase, casual fanbase & of course the future generations who simply cant afford and it will only benefit clubs around from Hallam right upto United and the Millers.

  • Dave Robinson says:

    I already commented on a previous thread, that while Chansiri continues to run our club into the ground, Wednesday are dead to me. I have been a supporter since 1956 when dad took me as a kid and I’m an Owl through thick and thin, but this clown has set about destroying us with his attitude to fans, attitude to tradition and his poor man management right across the board. Poor choices of staff, players, pricing & pathetic PR. His thre BIG mistakes, making Carvalhal boss, sacking David Hirst and causing us to lose George and appointing the Belgian nightmare. All of his actions point to him not knowing anything about Sheffield Wednesday or the fans values, as well as knowing nothing about football on general.
    We are a toy in his eyes and he is wrecking years of tradition here. The sooner he goes the better.
    He is everything that Milan Mandaric wasn’t.

  • Herringthorpe says:

    That is such a shame Dave – but I can understand. The words ‘knowing nothing about football’ says it all to me. As local neighbours I hope it all gets worked out soon.

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