All New Bolton Wanderers Supporters Club

[Sluffy]

Think you are wasting your time mate.

You want the club to hand over responsibility of things like the Fanzone to you - have you any experience in organising events, catering, hospitality, etc - have you got legal expertise to enter into contracts - can you get insurance - do you have any funds to pay the caterers, staff, insurance premiums, etc?

The club is not selling out its Season Tickets now - so where is there incentive to give greater discounts on ST's sold via the Supporters club?  If everyone but their ST's via the supporters club - the club in theory would actually make a loss on what it does now!

What is your projected revenue forecasts - I don't really think you are going to be raking in millions of pounds from holding a couple of raffles!  Why would anyone want to sponsor a Supporters club - who in turn plan to sponsor the club?  Wouldn't it make more sense that they cut you out and sponsored the club directly - at least they would see their logo at the Reebok and not yours (the supporters club logo)?

I'm not being funny but I really can't see this working at all.

[traf]

On reflection, I think setting up an organisation to rival the dinosaur that is BWSA is an obvious route to take, but one that is fundamentally flawed.

My suggestion to Matthew Jones is quite simple.

Build yourself a trojan horse: you say the BWSA is outdated and only has 200 or so members. If your numbers stack up (and I've no reason to agree/disagree with you, because the BWSA is an irrelevance to me!), then get yourself an equal (or preferably greater) number of supporters and join the BWSA en masse.

Form your own sub-committee and propose yourselves when the re-elections take place and take over the BWSA from within. They've already got a framework and a working relationship with the club, so you'd be halfway there.

Once you've got it sorted, contact me again and I'll run it for you.

PS Fanzone was my idea, not the club's.

[Big_Sharps]

On reflection, I think setting up an organisation to rival the dinosaur that is BWSA is an obvious route to take, but one that is fundamentally flawed.

My suggestion to Matthew Jones is quite simple.

Build yourself a trojan horse: you say the BWSA is outdated and only has 200 or so members. If your numbers stack up (and I've no reason to agree/disagree with you, because the BWSA is an irrelevance to me!), then get yourself an equal (or preferably greater) number of supporters and join the BWSA en masse.

Form your own sub-committee and propose yourselves when the re-elections take place and take over the BWSA from within. They've already got a framework and a working relationship with the club, so you'd be halfway there.

Once you've got it sorted, contact me again and I'll run it for you.

PS Fanzone was my idea, not the club's.

If the fanzone was you're where is the poledancers?

[traf]

They said no to any "adult-based" entertainment.

In fact, they said no to Fanzone as a concept, saying it wouldn't work.

3 yrs later (quite quick by BWFC standards), they realised it would work and passed it off as their own creation.

[BWSC]

We have joined the BWSA but have been met with resistance to any change, there are less than 60 members and it is a near closed shop, there are a couple in there who I think would like to see things change but are afraid to say so, but the vast majority like things as they are and why not?
they have a nice cosy little setup where the club panders to there whims and needs, but the club know they're not representative of the supporters, which is why they paid thousands of pounds last year organising and distributing questionnaires to all the season ticket holders asking what they thought!
Clubs like Sunderland, Villa, Wolves don’t need to do this, they call in the guys from their supporters club who monitor the feeling of the fans and the forums and can pretty much tell their clubs how the fans are thinking.

Traf, I wasn’t aware you had anything to do with the fanzone, but your obviously someone who is pro-active and could offer a lot to a group like ours, I've been a little surprised by all the negative vibes on some of the forums as the people we've spoken to on a personal level have all been very supportive,

we're not saying we have all the answers or can even run a successful supporters club, but there are fans out there like you traf who can make a difference, and anything’s better than we have now

[traf]

I was involved in a focus group thatmet with Mike Needham from the club on a fairly regular basis.

It was at one of those meetings that I originally pitched the Fanzone concept. It was virtually rejected out of hand, but reappeared 3 yrs later as a watered-down version.

[Big_Sharps]

I was involved in a focus group thatmet with Mike Needham from the club on a fairly regular basis.

It was at one of those meetings that I originally pitched the Fanzone concept. It was virtually rejected out of hand, but reappeared 3 yrs later as a watered-down version.

What was you're original concept then before the clubs brainstorm?  I have never been in the fanzone bit, I imagine it to be quite souless and nothing like a proper pub pre match experiance, a bit like that bit that wigan has inside the ground and it looks like a wedding marque.

[BWSC]

I think its fantastic and I don't think I've heard one negative comment by anyone who's been in there, but I do think its something the supporters should be running not the club,

[traf]

We wanted a room that wasn't laid out as though there wasn't an official function on ie with plenty of room to mill around without the entire centre of the room being taken up with large round tables.

We wanted a reasonably priced bar serving draught beers etc instead of the plastic bottles you now get.

We wanted large screens showing the old Dave Higson/Touchline TV videos of old games, instead of "being treated" to whatever shite Sky were showing on a Saturday lunch like Portsmouth v Fulham etc.

We wanted regular appearances from old favourites like McGinlay, Walker etc and appearances from current first-teamers.

We wanted maybe some entertainment from local bands and/or comedians.

We also didn't want some retard on stage going through the teamsheet who couldn't actually pronounce the players' names.

There are more, but that's the main bits.

[traf]

I think its fantastic and I don't think I've heard one negative comment by anyone who's been in there, but I do think its something the supporters should be running not the club,

If you like the sterility of modern day football: then fanzone's your thing.
However, since it is inside the stadium, it can never and should never be run by the fans.

[Diana Prince]

BWSC, I've been in the fanzone and it's shít, really shít.

[BWSC]

If you like the sterility of modern day football: then fanzone's your thing.
However, since it is inside the stadium, it can never and should never be run by the fans.

I think it is fantastic, but the things you've stated you wanted are the very reason I think the fans should run it, because they're the things that would make it fan friendly and less sterile,
just because its in the stadium shouldn't have a bearing on whether the fans run it or not, most clubs provide amenities for their supporters to meet etc

[Diana Prince]

I'm not being funny but BWFC is a business and we don't own it. I suggest you alter your attitude to rather than 'we want' to a polite 'hows about' and you might get listened to.

[Big_Sharps]

We wanted a room that wasn't laid out as though there wasn't an official function on ie with plenty of room to mill around without the entire centre of the room being taken up with large round tables.

We wanted a reasonably priced bar serving draught beers etc instead of the plastic bottles you now get.

We wanted large screens showing the old Dave Higson/Touchline TV videos of old games, instead of "being treated" to whatever shite Sky were showing on a Saturday lunch like Portsmouth v Fulham etc.

We wanted regular appearances from old favourites like McGinlay, Walker etc and appearances from current first-teamers.

We wanted maybe some entertainment from local bands and/or comedians.

We also didn't want some retard on stage going through the teamsheet who couldn't actually pronounce the players' names.

There are more, but that's the main bits.

All sounds a good idea to me that, it does seem a bit costly though I would have thought which is maybe why you get the watered down effort on show which is the fanzone.  I think the fanzone is what it is supposed to be, the family club wet dream that phil gartside seems to want us to be.

[traf]

I don't actually think the costs would be too prohibitive. The main expense is the room hire and the staff, but this would be more than covered by the bar takings.

[Big_Sharps]

The Dave Higson and old games idea is a very good one, have you pitched that idea to them again? It might be something the manager although it wouldnt be his decision might throw his support behind being a player from a very memorable period in the clubs history. Is their anything at the club that is actually named after Dave Higson?

[Howfen White]

BWSC, I've been in the fanzone and it's shít, really shít.

It's not shíte but it needs a few amendments. Good points:

- Lot of space, not crammed in like you are in a pub
- Get served quickly
- Cheap drinks and reasonably priced food
- Big screen

Bad points:
- Choice of drinks is crap - warm Fosters or warm Bulmers, that's about it. Why don't they serve the tap drinks?
- The tables are rubbish and they should set out more smaller ones than the big ones
- That announcer pisses me off

[Diana Prince]

It's not shíte but it needs a few amendments. Good points:

- Lot of space, not crammed in like you are in a pub
- Get served quickly
- Cheap drinks and reasonably priced food
- Big screen

Bad points:
- Choice of drinks is crap - warm Fosters or warm Bulmers, that's about it. Why don't they serve the tap drinks?
- The tables are rubbish and they should set out more smaller ones than the big ones
- That announcer pisses me off

I think it's shite, thanks, so to me it is.
My reasons:


Those tables, is there any need? It's not a wedding, it's a prematch drink
Kids. I don't need to say anymore on that.
That announcer, as you've already stated.
The lack of any atmostphere
Basically, it's sterile and not what I want from a matchday experience.

[Howfen White]

It's just like any other bar. And do you mean no tables at all? What about the people that want to sit down? Bolton fans are notorious for wanting to sit down so tables are essential. The kids thing isn't great but it gets more people in.

[BWSC]

when I was a kid my dad used to take me into the king bill and that was just like the fanzone but smaller, we need to start looking at the positives and how we can make the fanzone a better experience for the fans, at the moment its season ticket holders only, I know loads of supporters who are not season ticket holders but attend all the matches and can't get into the fanzone.

all the things being pointed out on here are the very reason we need a supporters club and one that is more proactive in the running of things like the fanzone.

[traf]

Fanzone is neither anything like the King Bill, nor is it exclusively for season ticket holders.

Your posts seem to be riddled with inaccuracies.

[DaveBWFC]

when I was a kid my dad used to take me into the king bill and that was just like the fanzone

That's just made me laugh. Nice one mate.

[traf]

It's true, the fanzone is chocka with hardcore hooligans.

[Diana Prince]

when I was a kid my dad used to take me into the king bill and that was just like the fanzone but smaller,

Which King Bill are you talking about here?

[Sluffy]

The one that used to face Burnden Park I would imagine.