LET’S BE HAPPY AGAIN
8 POINT CHARTER – REBUILD AND MAKE HULL CITY UNITED
As Christmas appears on the horizon and Hull’s stint as UK City of Culture is almost upon us things are tough for Hull City supporters in terms of events on the pitch, but their many years of suffering at the hands of our current owners must surely and hopefully be drawing to a close.
The 3 years and more of Allam mischief and off pitch mayhem and now the protracted takeover saga have tested the patience of most Hull City fans. The serious point here is that it has been damaging and there is a lot of repair work to be done. It may be too late to do it in time for Hull City’s current spell in the Premier League but we need to plan for the next era and do our best as fans to make it a glorious one. But how good it would be if for that future we could move forward united as one, with the local community, commerce, industry, council, owners, staff, manager, players and fans all pulling in the same direction
Angry, sad, disillusioned, determined in exile, anxious to protest, pushed away for life, or simply not enough money to go to games, these are some of the vast range of emotions suffered by our fans for a long time now, none of which are good for our Club. Many youngsters have been denied the opportunity to start a new generation of Hull City fans, and for some, particularly the elderly their attendance at matches has been prematurely brought to a halt by the most ridiculous and ill planned sporting membership scheme ever to see the light of day. Some fans will never return, football has no divine right to secure everyone to be a lifetime fan. The empty seats at the KCOM for high profile fixtures are as strong an indicator as any that something is badly wrong and change is needed and needed fast.
As soon as the HCST and other fan groups including my own Tigerlink group are able to work with the Club again I suggest we need a blueprint to restore goodwill, and make the fans feel part of the Club again and restore Hull City as part of the community. We need to work with the Club and as a project, work specifically to undo the damage of the present regime. Our house is damaged and looking scruffy it needs a full and thoughtful refurbishment.
Here’s a suggested plan which I hope might assist the Hull City Supporters Trust to start things off in terms of sorting out off pitch matters.
1. SCRAP THE SCHEME
The current Membership Scheme should be scrapped and a new one planned to be introduced for 2017/18. A new scheme should be planned with input from fans and appropriate stakeholders.
2. LET THE FANS HELP AND INFORM
The Club need to return to fan consultation, and meet with the Hull City Supporters Trust and other fans groups and individuals. These meetings should be regular and minuted.
3. TALK TO US
There should be a total revamp of marketing and communications and an immediate review of ticketing, away travel and other problem areas. The Club should recognise the varying nature of the fan base and agree a strategy to expand it, to include recognition and specific measures for those who attend games and others who largely follow games via social media across the world
4. TALK TO THE COUNCIL
The apparent friction between Club and Council needs to be removed. Ownership of the stadium and its environs need to be discussed and a clear strategy agreed.
5. MAKE FANS FEEL VALUED
Pricing of admission and leisure goods needs to be carefully reviewed but specific measures are needed to make fans feel valued. The Club needs a much stronger presence in schools and colleges and the local community and more innovative public events. It needs to work to give something back in PR terms to our long suffering fans, to appease them and re-establish the goodwill
6. MAKE HULL CITY HIT THE HEADLINES FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
We are UK City of Culture 2017 and regularly the focus of national and international attention. We can use this to make a vast audience look at our Premier League football Club for all the right reasons, not to pity us or ridicule us but to see how far sighted and innovative we are
7. RECOGNISE OUR HISTORY AND HERITAGE
The Allams just didn’t seem to appreciate the importance of our history to successive generations of Hull City fans. Just because Hull City had a very modest first 104 years we shouldn’t forget it. There is huge scope for further work here and we really most give a higher profile to Ebenezer Cobb Morley. The man who wrote the rules for modern day football and first secretary of the FA was born a stone’s throw from Hull’s History Centre and yet you wouldn’t know it. Football is watched by billions across the world, a game invented by a man from Hull
8. APPOINT A CHIEF EXECUTIVE
A strong leader for largely off pitch matters needs to return to the Club’s new hierarchy and to work with the new owners and to take responsibility for the issues outlined above and perhaps help smooth relationships with the FA and Premier League which may have been severely tested by recent events.
It’s not a list covering everything, but this would be a start.
Peter (Tigerlink) also blogs on www.tigerlink.co.uk.
