AUFC Fans Committee meets

[Jessesdad]

So fellow Reds, it's been a long time coming but the fans committee finally met with Matt Rossi for the first time last night. A range of things were discussed, some of which I can tell you about and some of which I can't - yet.

At this point it's fair to say that (as you've probably figured out!) things are moving pretty slowly at the club and that big news is hard to come by. The over-riding factor in all things is that money is tight this year with the club really working to make sure that it's viable this season - and for many more. The owners and the new regime are, without doubt, absolutely focused on making sure that Adelaide United survives longterm.

So, what little bits of news can I tell you?
1. There will be three levels of seating at Hindmarsh this year. Red will now be the north and south ends and the eastern stand will be 'blue' seating. Still unreserved. And gold for the young and rich!
2. The club is working with the Red Army to ensure that 'active' support is catered for as well as possible.
3. Ticket prices are going to be pretty stable I'm told. The big difference will be that we will now be able to buy a season ticket without membership.
4. Membership will be a separate option and the club plans to allow members voting rights on a 'members board' of some sort. Ideas are not finalised yet but the whole idea is to get members more involved than before in talking about the direction of the club. It's part of really positive push to make sure that more fans are part of what goes on. My feeling is that the new ownership really wants AU to be accessible.
5. The final design for the jersey for this season is still not formalized but a few options are being made up as we speak and we should see the final decision within a month.
6. Our media man is in Mexico, asked by the FFA to go and help cover the U17 World Cup. Nice gig, eh? But that means AU isn't really present in the press at the moment, hence the sometimes unconfirmed reports of trial matches that we're hearing. The full pre-season trial game roster is still a work-in-progress.

That's about it folks. There's more but it'll come out soon. The first meeting was pretty much a 'getting to know you' session with a report on where things are. You can be assured that we asked some fairly pointed question and that Matt did his best to answer. The reality is that a lot of stuff is simply not finalised or decided at this stage. And of course they're not going to tell us everything we want to know. It's a business too.

What is clear is that the Reds are walking the fine line of trying to run a successful club while trying to be financially responsible. It's not about saving money. It's about being sensible and ensuring that we are here in ten years. There may be decisions that some fans will be annoyed about but - in my humble opinion - this is going to be a year to hang tough with the club as it gets the money stuff sorted.

There's a great chance that we're going to be highly competitive on the field but that's going to depend on making sure we don't go broke.

I left the meeting feeling very up about the Reds again.

Feel free to leave comments here that I can take to the next meeting. But keep them short and (relatively) realistic. The club has started to make sure that the fans have a voice - let's use it well.

[RedsUnited]

Thanks for the report, Stephen. Good to hear at least a bit of what's actually going on behind the scenes there.

[shinAUFC]

I like the seating plan,

Id assume the north and south ends may be slightly cheaper this year if the eastern stand is a new category, very fair i beliieve.

Thanks for the update mate

[Jessesdad]

Not sure if the 'red' section will be cheaper or the 'blue' section a little dearer. Season tickets have been pretty stable for years now. I guess it'll be in the post sooner or later.

[supsup]

No, ofcourse the North and South end won't be cheaper. These will be the new 'Red' with Blue priced somewhere between Red and Gold. It's a smart way to maybe make a few more bucks and I think it's fair. The view from the wing is better than the ends and should be priced as such. Even though I'm not stoked to have to pay more it's a prudent move.

Hurry up season!

[shinAUFC]

Well yeah i think we are all saying the same thing, maybe i didnt explain myself best.

I always wondered why a ticket in the eastern stand in the middle of the pitch cost the same as behind the goals. The important thing is the eastern stand is still unreserved which is a great thing about our little slice of heaven we call hindmarsh

[General Ashnak]

I will just pull over my comments from 442 to here to start with:

My first thought reading that was, bloody fantastic!

OK after that initial rush of blood thanks to the wonderful news that we have a ownership focused on the success of the club and a definitive move towards the club actually being a club - the concept of membership being different to ticketed for example I will throw my initial reactions to you.

Having another tier of ticketing is frustrating though keeping it un allocated seating is not. The extra cost of policing this concept I think may make it less desirable, however it will increase the number of people at each end of the ground. I hope that the home end will become exactly that and will not be allocated as general admission but as active support (standing room only).

What is being done to further connect the club to the grass roots and is there any way that we can tell the FFA to get stuffed with regard to our academy not being able to take part in state competitions. The sooner we can stop the academy being a fee for service and it to be part of the basis of our club the better off we will be.

Oh, and also even with our media man being away with the FFA I note we are still getting good coverage by Val - I assume we have improved our relationship with the 'tiser again.

Some more thoughts.

Active support needs to be given similar levels of support as they receive in the MLS, we are a similar market in that active support is generally a foreign concept to Australians. The better that the Red Army can be allowed to be with regard to tifos and displays the more invovled the rest of the crowd will get. Frankly it would be a dream come true to have the 'marsh a sea of active Reds support, doing 4 stand tifos and the chants coming from every side.

With that there has got to be some way of getting the Red Army chants diseminated to the rest of the crowd, there is nothing more brilliant than the whole of the 'marsh calling together to get the boys over the line.

[Stuckey]

Agreed General. I think the Blue section maybe focused on families and the red to be for the 'hardcore' fans.
Its frustrating that things move so slowly and i think the club really needs to work on its communication to the fans.
Which bring me to my question. Could AU have a presence on a forum? I know Glen Elliot said he's not a fan of them and i can understand his feelings. But if the fans could submit genuine questions to someone at the club and receive genuine answers back that would be awesome! I just feel there is so much happening at the club that we hear next to nothing about.
- trialists, who are they, where'd they come from?
- what happened to the Asian tour?
- is the Handmarsh upgrade still a plan?
- what happened to Carl Veart?
- AU's plans for a FFSA team?
- AU's plans for the new womens team?
- why aren't we playing at Adelaide Oval this season?
- sponsorship agreements?
- AU's plans for improving relationships with other FFSA clubs?

There are many more questions that i have and i don't expect you to submit these as this is just an example. But hopefully we can start asking questions and actually get answers.

Thanks for the update!

[shinAUFC]

I hope your right stuckey that the north and south ends are promoted as a place to be exuberent and the sidelines family areas, ofcourse without breaking any laws or rules.

Tbh i dont think au can make itself much more accesable then it already has, its the off season and we get regular news. Its not their job to tell us every waking detail and honestly i dont think many people need that anyway.

I think we need to remember what jessesdad said originally about not trying to chnage the world, im quite happy to leave it in the hands of the club as it seems they really have their heads screwed on ,and instead busy myself just being a fan and pretending like i know something about the game while sitting in the outer

[blahblah]

Thanks for the report, it is encouraging to see formalised and sensible fan engagement.

I am very pleased with the notion of a separate members fee. I've felt in the past we haven't done enough to engage members and as someone who has paid for non-ticketed memberships I've wondered what the point of it all is. With a separate members fee I can pay for my membership and hopefully be treated as a member of the club, rather than just another revenue line.

[Stuckey]

So could i be a member without being a season ticket holder? I won't be able to go to any matches this season

[blahblah]

So could i be a member without being a season ticket holder? I won't be able to go to any matches this season

That's my only option every year, until we are back in the ACL at least

[General Ashnak]

Seanason needs to post in this thread his take as well, putting himself up for a battering on FootballNews is pretty pointless.

I love the idea of Membership being enitrely seperate from Season ticket holder as they are different concepts.

[Shane]

I just wish they would do away with this whole 'roping off' behind the Northern Goals.

It's a sure-fire way to stop the increase of active support if people who want to be involved can't get into the bay because it's monitored by Weslo and roped off.

In my opinion, the club *really* need to start focusing on how they can increase the active support and target this area.

You only have to take a look at the hundreds of people we had marching through Rundle Mall / King William Road to see what sort of attention this can attract.

Take a leaf out of the Portland Timbers book, or at least look at it.

Edit: Just realised you said this GA

Active support needs to be given similar levels of support as they receive in the MLS, we are a similar market in that active support is generally a foreign concept to Australians. The better that the Red Army can be allowed to be with regard to tifos and displays the more invovled the rest of the crowd will get. Frankly it would be a dream come true to have the 'marsh a sea of active Reds support, doing 4 stand tifos and the chants coming from every side.

With that there has got to be some way of getting the Red Army chants diseminated to the rest of the crowd, there is nothing more brilliant than the whole of the 'marsh calling together to get the boys over the line.

^^ This.

[shinAUFC]

I think maybe its up to the fans to prove they was a greater active support area.

As shane said look what was achieved for the adelaide oval games.

Watr and ra promoted the hell out of that march in and really helped set the mood for the night, there is another thread called " what can we do for the club" , well why not promote every game in similar way , get the numbers and i think the club will listen