Fans Forum #1 - Topics, Suggestions and Feedback

[admin]

Last week, the club released a member newsletter highlighting their recognition of lack of crowd numbers at Hindmarsh Stadium.

As initially requested by fans, a Fans Forum will be be scheduled at some stage this year to provide everyone with the ability to voice their concerns, suggestions and feedback of the Club.

After a reply email from Glenn Elliott whom is happy to accept discussion suggestions, this discussion topic can help everyone collate a list of fan forum topics, concerns, suggestions and overall feedback (both positive and negative) prior to and in preparation for these forums.

The importance of the fan forums should not be underestimated.

Fan forums are a perfect opportunity for any fans, members, investors and sponsors (both current and potential) to attend a community event that will allow you to see what direction the Club is taking and be involved in providing suggestions and feedback as to how the Club will move forward.

We would like to ask that you please involve yourself in this topic and provide as much feedback, ideas, suggestions and be as detailed as you can when doing so.

Please keep this discussion as clean and logical as possible - Time to get those thinking caps on!

Excerpt from newsletter is as follows;

Crowds at Hindmarsh

As part of the review process following Season 8 of the Hyundai A-League, we recognise the need to increase crowds at Hindmarsh Stadium next season. To do so will require attention to four critical areas (there is no single ingredient):

Fan Engagement; Fan Forums will be scheduled to listen to concerns and suggestions. The experience of other A-League clubs has been sought in the process.

Advertising/Marketing; Planning has commenced with the various forms of media to create marketing packages best suited to our club and match day.

Community Engagement; Full club and community programs have been planned and will commence in June.

Football Performance; The Club's Mission Statement from the very beginning has been, ‘Leading the way in sporting entertainment’ – ultimately that challenge will rest with Josep Gombau and the players.

[admin]

This post has been reserved and will be updated with all relevant core topics, ideas and feedback as outlayed in discussion by We Are The Reds Forum Members.

Moderators - Please feel free to edit and update this section.

[shinAUFC]

MARKET THE CLUB TO EDUCATED FOOTBALL FANS
-stop trying to appeal to the masses who dont care or understand the game by dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator and being scared of the way things are done in this code as opposed to other codes.

Dumbing it down and trying to put an AFL type spin on things does not fool the uninitiated and turns away the avid football fans undecided if they want to follow the A-league.

Get back to trying to attract football fans to football games, you know... those who have been following the game since they could walk. These people are the ones who will sell out Hindmarsh every week. These are people who are so dedicated to the game that they will wake up in the early hours to watch a champions league match and go to work on 2 hours sleep on a regular basis.

That is passion! tap into it!

THIS IS THE WORLD GAME, PROVE IT!
Now this is the point i am very passionate about and have posted about before and also ties into the above point.

The game is understood by every culture around the world.

Regardless if some people want to admit it or not, there is a very large portion of African, Asian, Middle eastern and central/eastern europeans who are relatively new to this country and city and probably feel like they just dont know where they fit.

They may not understand every english word but i bet they understand football!

Surely there is massive benefit to reaching out a hand of goodwill to these people to let them know this is their city and their club also. Not only does it benefit the club but also the community.

Give new arrivals something to belong to, make them welcome. They may not have the financial clout that other have but you might just attract some life long fans .

Its been said that offering cheap tickets or memberships to certain groups of people cheapens the brand, i agree with this. But do not believe it applies here

If my financial membership went to this .... id buy 5 of them !

[Stuckey]

First off I personally see this forum as a complete waste of time if the club is just going to make promises and break them later on. I feel like we need to be able to hold the club to their word.
Obviously we're not going to get them to commit to everything but I feel we need some promises kept.

[sevengoals]

I'm 100% with ShinAUFC on this.
We got to go back to the roots, the Migrants, the New Australians, (old and new)
They have already got the game in their DNA.
It can only be a win -win situation.

Integration and club growth, duh, "no brainer"!




But I have to admit, I feel that over the years I've been gone words like Ethnic, New Australian, multicultural seem to have become "uncool" in Australia.

[Stuckey]

I certainly feel they are an unutilized group and there are a lot of them!

There are a number of foreign language newspapers made even in Adelaide. Why doesn't the club whip up some ads in foreign languages and print them? I would be sure it would cost very little to place an ad in these papers.

[RedsUnited]

Invite the press (Val), stadium management, security. Be as transparent as possible.

That's what I hope for.

[ChillyPhilly]

Invite the press (Val), stadium management, security. Be as transparent as possible.

That's what I hope for.

I second this, and would also invite Gallop, de Bohun and possibly Foster too - all to keep the board accountable on the day.

[Schultzy]

Invite the press (Val), stadium management, security. Be as transparent as possible.

That's what I hope for.

I second this, and would also invite Gallop, de Bohun and possibly Foster too - all to keep the board accountable on the day.

with them doing a fan forum in perth now, surely this would be on the cards.

[KvP]

First off I personally see this forum as a complete waste of time if the club is just going to make promises and break them later on. I feel like we need to be able to hold the club to their word.
Obviously we're not going to get them to commit to everything but I feel we need some promises kept.

This. Even if its just a little thing to begin with. The board have about 1-5% credibility with most fans that have been around longer than 2 seasons.

[Terence]

I would like to see this season being a season of action, building on what has already been discussed not planning for more discussion. Hundreds of ideas have been thrown around last season, it's time to consolidate and create now. A fan forum will contribute something but that is likely to be ideological, not practical or pragmatic. Sitting back and waiting for some external entity to come into the organization and fix everything has not worked very well, neither has "submitting ideas".

The club has experienced some pain last season. Have they learned from that and made concrete adjustments? Have they pushed forward with the ideas on the table already before them? The answer seems to be no at the moment but there is still time before the season begins.

There are 3 areas that the club has struggled with, Marketing, Event Management and Public Relations. The problems in all these areas seems to be structural and physical.

What Organizational/Job description changes has the CEO implemented to improve the clubs capacity in Marketing, anyone employed?, job descriptions changed? Marketing services are outsourced to an external contractor, has this budget increased? The answer is no to all three, so why will this season be different from last season? The club has the same limited capacity as it did last season to implement marketing ideas.

Similarly with Event Management or if you like Project Management, what structural changes have taken place? someone employed? job descriptions changed? external contractor identified? The answer again is no. So why would anyone expect a different performance in this area from last season?

Also for Public Relations, no change from last season.

And what of the AUMC Inc, any action here? where's the web page, the document of objectives and rules and other administrative requirements. These requirements are lawfully required upon the organization becoming an incorporated association but nothing has happened and nor is it scheduled to happen.

Really, how much work is it to buy a domain name on the internet, $12.00 and 10 minutes work, then hand it to the committee to do a simple page. There are options available, I've checked.

How hard is it to employ a marketing student or even work experience student to help out with event management and marketing. This should be a revenue neutral position given Adelaide United's media profile. That is, a marketing person should be able to cover their own wages at least through the money they bring in from the plans they implement.

Won't even go into Project Management because that is just a bridge to far for the club at the moment.

The Football Department is looking quite good now with the new structure, new coach and hopefully Petrillo playing a stronger media role. The club has obviously not put the razor through that, the personnel on deck is similar for other clubs and although our budget is small, we seem to be punching above our weight here.

But the Administration department is lagging far behind with no evidence of improvement for this season. If there was a member association functioning then it would be possible to put some pressure on or even use the association to fill in some gaps that the club has problems with but even that association is floundering. Glenn needs a PA (Personal Assistant), even part-time would do it. He is probably the only CEO in business who doesn't have one. I really hope the board do not believe that he should cover so many areas by himself, that is just another disaster waiting to happen.

[Interloper]

I'd like them to explain the retracted drunken-rant letter.

Something for interstate supporters would be nice too.

[redmum]

I'd like them to explain the drunken-rant letter.
.

Which one?

[KvP]

First off I personally see this forum as a complete waste of time if the club is just going to make promises and break them later on. I feel like we need to be able to hold the club to their word.
Obviously we're not going to get them to commit to everything but I feel we need some promises kept.

PR flacks love the term ‘consult’, because it sounds like you are doing something when you might just be saying: tell us your opinions, we will ignore them and do what we planned to do anyway, but at least we listened to you.

[KvP]

My first and only question would be:
I signed up in good faith for membership of AUMC in the last 2 seasons. Can you please list one tangible benefit I have received for my money besides the coffee mug last year?