Sheffield Wednesday Steering Meeting - The Minutes

[toppOwl]

15 minutes ago, torryowl said:

now ive never heard of this bloke but if he's going on line writing about the club and giving an opinion then he must realise that not everyone is going to agree with him and he may well cop a volley  from those that like dishing it out . matters not if the abuse is justified or not you know your going to get some .whats the saying" if cant stand the heat" ........he should tell em to shove it and just carry on .

 

Malcolms a good bloke and is 100% Wednesday, he attends the meetings and asks prior to them if any fans want to Tweet him any questions, he then asks these at the meeting - this is surely the correct thing to do, if he was then singled out for just being the messenger then thats poor form.

[@owlstalk]

4 minutes ago, HirstWhoScoredIt said:

Why are people actually arguing about whether the fans wanted Rhodes or not????

 

it is irrelevant.

 

It doesn't matter if every single fan wrote a letter to the Chairman requesting it.

 

It would be total fookwittery of the highest order to base your transfer policy on what the fans said.

 

And to actually admit it, is quite frankly embarrassing.

 

 

THIS

[matthefish2002]

1 minute ago, Frazzlebeak said:

There’s been a massive clamour for a decent CB but we’re still waiting.

 

Also been a massive clamour for cheaper ticket prices and stripes back but doesn't seem to be listening on those.

[codrowe]

Im glad they are tackling important things like the brightness of the advertising screens. I think they must be making our left backs unable to tackle or even mark someone. I guess the glare off the screens makes everyone run so slow. Please DC when recruiting get some decent defenders and players with pace

[alanharper]

A slightly easier version to read of the OP (it was a bit cluttered on the mobile site), thanks to @Whitechapel Owl for making the effort to initially compile the tweets

 

 

 

DC confirmed that he is 100% behind Carlos and the length of his contract is not important he also confirmed that Carlos goes to the board recommending which positions he wants to improve and then the agency/scouts go looking

for players that fit that position to recommend to him with 8/9 clubs enjoying parachute payments it is difficult to compete in the transfer market so first choices are not always within our reach DC realises fans expectations

 

Steering Meeting have risen over the past 2 years and still believes we have the squad to push for promotion this season DC said hey had on a couple of occasions taken note of fans desires to signed certain players

 

The club confirmed that as this is an informal meeting it will not be reporting back to the fans what has been discusses that is down to us attending the meeting to feed back to the fans

 

DC takes full responsibility for the club both on and off the field he again raised the issue of social abuse both to his family and to the players on Twitter and Facebook if the fans have something to say about the club they should email him direct and he will answer all points raised he has received over 400 emails regarding the “Ask the Chairman” and he hopes to have responded to everyone by the end of October beginning of November if he doesn’t respond to your email please send it again so he can address your points

 

DC wishes to apologise to fans who cannot afford a ST or a match day ticket but he says needs must with regards to generating revenues to help contribute towards keeping within the FFP rules he believes in his pricing policy and confirmed that if we want to continue attracting better players and not go backwards he has to raise as much as he can in areas of tickets sales and the retail his idea regarding 1867 Membership has not taken off so he is looking for other ways of generating income he hasn’t ruled out naming rights for the stadium

 

The launch of the 150 year third kit will hopefully take place in November the delay in the home/away kits was explained in more detail stocks of the home kit did arrive in September however the club felt that the numbers delivered would have meant a potential sell out within days so held these back until further deliveries arrived it is the same situation with the away kit once further stocks have been delivered these will go on sale the infant and Juniors only have shirts available currently as insufficient stocks were delivered to put out the full kits the shorts and socks will be available at a later date the infant kits do not have embroidered badges and logos as they believed this would cause irritation to those wearing them the club confirmed that they are to continue dealing directly with the manufacturer and plans are already in place regarding next season’s kits it was confirmed that the quality will be even better next season than this and they had learnt a lot of lessons from this season’s issues DC said that returning to a striped home shirt wasn’t out of the question but wouldn’t be drawn into whether that was going to be a possibility the club are to use a different manufacturer for next season’s kit and we were given the impression companies like Nike and Adidas use the same company

 

DC confirmed that we hold these meetings because the club wants to engage with the fans for us to share opinions in return the club will try to do as much as possible to action points raised but admitted they can’t do everything two major concerns raised from fans have been addressed one being the catering which to a significant cost to the club they ended the contract with the supplier and have gone in house they asked the fans to be patient while they got things right and are aware of many teething issues however things are improving and sales are up and the club will continue to look at ways of improving the service extra kiosks are being looked at for both the kop and the North however space is very limited on the North and the club are looking at the spiral stairs area for a possible location the second area the club has responded to following fans comments was the removal of Sondico as the shirt supplier the decision to go in-house allowed the club to better dictate the quality improve the delivery times and to not have to pay a third party so retaining more profit to the club

 

the club believe that the 150 year celebrations are going well so far and that there is more activities to come however they didn’t disclose what these were going to be

 

plans are still in progress with regards to the shop the question was asked as to way when the ticket sections was busy why the retail side couldn’t help to reduce the queues both sides work from different systems so they are unable currently to help out during the busy periods

 

the club are aware that the prints had players names in the wrong order and this is being addressed I apologise at this present time as I don’t know if those who have already bought one can take them back and get a replacement

 

the topic of fans behaviour at home and away games was raised following the incidents at Derby on Saturday there is a text number in the programme for you to use immediately if you see anything of that nature when we are at at Home game the club will then monitor CCTV and act with immediate effect

 

a number of fans complained about the brightness of the advertising boards at the last home game and this will be addressed at the next home game

 

Access from the 1867 lounge direct to the South Stand has been looked at and a turnstile would need to be fitted to the entrance/exit door to allow this to happen no action is planned at this moment in time

 

the club are looking at ways to raise our profile globally but until we reach the PL this is difficult the club are looking at an International Facebook page and are looking to establish links with Universities in the Far East to raise it on the club website is a “Community” section that talks about all of the things the club are doing in both the UK and abroad

 

Stadium Development didn’t get it usual long discussion Capacity for this season currently sits at 34,234 with talks on going with SAG to get this increased the on going comments about the Presto sign still being visible on the West Stand was raised and the club are looking into repainting the roof however due to scaffolding issues this can only be done ore season

 

other discussion points included ifollow where the club are continually working to improve the service season ticket sales this season were close to 21,000 the three year season ticket of two seasons ago at this moment in time isn’t planned to be made available again

 

Between 200 and 300 tickets are given away to schools for every home game to attract the youngsters to S6 and a junior season ticket holder is chosen each game to be a mascot

 

With regards to decision making at the club DC confirmed that it has 10 Managers all given the authority to make key decisions within the club and that he does hand control to them

 

for personal reasons this will be the last meeting I will be attending I hope someone from the group takes over the baton and feeds back to you all of the items discussed at the meeting

 

 

[theowlsman]

Who do we want to support Hooper up front from January onwards? I’ll get the thread going.

 

Well presented minutes by Messrs Fox and Staton. Thank you.

 

As for the content / results of the discussions though. Meh!

[WatfordOwl]

To be quite frank I feel very, very let down.

 

If the club are taking into account fans clamour to sign players that we tout on social media, then why have the tight bstards never gone in for Messi or Ronaldo?

 

Choice of those 2 v Jordan Rhodes - it's laughable.

[owlmanc]

Hang on... Fine... blame the fans for Rhodes but who is to blame for 

Nuihu (new contract) 

Hirst (no contract)

Matias (2.5m)

Abdi (£3m) 

Van Aaken (£3m)

Reach (£5m/£7m)

then you add up all the ageing players on silly money 

Emanuelson 

Boyd

Wallace

 

 

 

 

[sheffield_dave]

After two failed attempts at promotion we are now 16th in the league, our form is awful, we've been embarrassed by United at home..

 

And apparently we give a round of applause to this manager staying while asking the real key questions about the brightness of the advertising hoardings.

 

Disheartening. These people are fine to support their Sheffield Wednesday, I'll carry on supporting mine. 

[Guest Quist]

49 minutes ago, Grandad said:

Reading through Malcolms feed it seems he was singled out quite a few times by the Chairman, throughout the night

 

That would suggest the Chairman is also feeling the pressure at the moment. This pressure can only be released as and when we start putting together some better results - and the Chairman has clearly backed Carlos to do that. The best thing we can all do as fans (unless you really do want us to implode) is to accept the Chairmans decision on the manager (even if you dont agree with it), and ensure we are fully supportive of the manager and team from Saturday onwards.

 

 

I believe you are correct in DC feeling the pressure. Think this also cleared up the garbage about CC not being responsible for selecting players he gets the say so on signings. You could take this as the Directors vote of confidence which is usually beginning of end for any manager. i think we have all been behind the team all the time but many have questioned tactics and expressed dissatisfaction I can not see anything wrong with this aslong as it is not abusive. The only concern i have is that the management appear to be taking a view on what fans think. I presume these were McGugan and Rhodes. mcGugan had played for the club and done well under a previous manager so you can understand this. the clamour for Rhodes mainly came from social media sites and think many who go to games realised he would not fit with team we have. none of those who sit near me could understand why we had signed him when other areas of the team required strengthening far more. If he listened to those views the concern regarding CC is far more widespread amongst fans and in the longer term will have a far more adverse impact on the club. If you bottle up feelings things eventually go pop so i think it is feasonable to voice reasoned argument if the performance justifies it.

[darklord]

10 minutes ago, Frazzlebeak said:

There’s been a massive clamour for a decent CB but we’re still waiting.

 

Why do you think we signed Rhodes? It wasn't to play up front. He's Warhurst in reverse!

[Sonny]

7 minutes ago, codrowe said:

Im glad they are tackling important things like the brightness of the advertising screens. I think they must be making our left backs unable to tackle or even mark someone. I guess the glare off the screens makes everyone run so slow. Please DC when recruiting get some decent defenders and players with pace

 

We could turn the brightness up in order to show how far down the priority list it is (or just sort out an easy fix).

[rob1601]

If that comment about 10 managers is true then for someone who has put millions in, he's not running a business very well. I wouldn't have put up with some of the mistakes made by SWFC which makes me believe the 10 managers aren't actually in control, they are told to action what he wants and that is it. He's had nearly 3 years to start improvements and nothing has happened really off the pitch. Bringing the catering in house isn't a massive success because all the usual problems about stock and queues remain.

 

He'd be better off starting to understand the true financial state of the UK and especially Sheffield. It might help him in the long run. Not everyone is as well off as him, the people he'll mix with and those in the areas of London he stays in.

He also needs to employ more proven football people to run player recruitment, retail and corporate sales and marketing.

[Emilianenko]

The steering meetings are as expected. Clappers only allowed in from now on. They are not listening or even interested in what fans want. Lip service.

[gypsyowl]

4a #swfc Steering Meeting DC wishes to apologise to fans who cannot afford a ST or a match day ticket but he says needs must with regards to

4b #swfc Steering Meeting generating revenues to help contribute towards keeping within the FFP rules he believes in his pricing policy and

4c #swfc Steering Meeting confirmed that if we want to continue attracting better players and not go backwards he has to raise as much as he

4d #swfc Steering Meeting can in areas of tickets sales and the retail his idea regarding 1867 Membership has not taken off so he is looking

 

This for me lays the problem.

 

Chansiri is right, for us to realistically win promotion (which is the only reason he bought us) then he has to charge these outrageous prices, but for me personally I feel embarrassed every time I walk through a turnstile & see how much it is for POTG. Some people find it funny that we rip of fellow football fans who work all week then pay their hard earned money on a Saturday to watch football. But I am ashamed.

 

I know it gets discussed a lot but it’s shameful. 10 years ago on cross you couldn’t walk to the edge of your street on match day without seeing floods of families in Wednesday shirts leaving their houses to walk to the ground. I don’t live on Cross any more but whenever I go back & speak to old mates, they all say the same, love Wednesday but can’t afford to take their family, the worst thing is there’s a few pigs knocking about round here as well, that never used to happen when I lived there.

 

Luckily I can afford a season tickets & my son is in the forces so when he can go he’ll go with his mates.

 

My twin daughters have never been bothered about football luckily for my wallet, they are 11 now so would cost me a fortune to take them both.

 

Any way getting back to my point, I like Chansiri, I believe he will do everything to take us up but you have been badly advised my good friend. Sheffield/South Yorks may have some wealthy parts but there’s still some proper working class areas, money is tight, most people will sacrifice doing normal social stuff so they can afford to go to football (I’ve been there!), now it’s impossible to afford £42 for a Cat A game or £39 for a cat B, that is a lot of money as it’s not just about the match ticket, it’s the pints before/after, the beres pork sandwich, bookies, it’s all a part of the match day experience I used to love but it all adds up cost wise. Sheffield people need football, when you’re working your arSe off all week, football keeps you going, the thought of that Saturday morning when you wake up, cook breakfast, clock watching until 11am when you make your way to boozer, meet up with pals & sink several. Some of the best laughs I’ve ever had have been sitting around a table at mid-day on a Saturday hearing all your pals stories of the last 2 weeks, reminiscing of the years gone by watching Wednesday.

 

But all this is not possible for a lot of people.

 

If the below were 2 realistic options moving forward (they’re not) then there would be no competition, from the people I know anyway.

 

1. US fans pay through the roof for all merchandise, match tickets, season tickets the most expensive they’ve ever been, probably most expensive in the league? – in return we will be competing top 6 & have a star named line-up. (supposedly..!)
2. Pay what you’d expect at this level. £400 season ticket, £26 - £30 match day ticket. £40 shirt, £20 for young’uns, in return our squad will be a mix of premier league loans, free transfers & maybe the odd transfer fee paid for, because of this we’ll more than likely be around mid-table.

 

It's an absolute no brainer for me because Wednesday is a family to me, I’ve always lived amongst Wednesday fans, I don’t care how bad we are, some of my early memories of watching us was late 70s, I saw the highs of the early 80s, the 90’s & they were great memories but some of my favourite memories watching Wednesday were during the bad times, because me & my mates went to football & that’s what it’s all about.

 

What I would love to see (not going to happen now DC is so heavily involved but I’m going to say it anyway), is go back to affordable pricing, get rid of all this modern rubbish Doyen Sports, Head Coach titles, signing foreign players for them to sit on the bench? Not giving youth a chance! One of the best prospects we’ve had in a while won’t sign a new contract & will more than likely leave for peanuts… Give a MANAGER a job, Mr Warnock would have been perfect back in 2013 after Dave Jones left, but there’s other alternatives, Mick McCarthy, Arry Redknapp & just give them a project to work with, weeling & dealing in the transfer market & football is so huge nowa days you’d still get the 28k average if the pricing was right.

 

I’m not sure how many people will read this but I feel better for typing but my main point is -----------------------à Pricing out working class football is shameful.

[matthefish2002]

I know I wasn't at the meeting last night and I have never run a football club.

But I do come away after reading Malcolm Fox tweets and this thread about it with the feeling lessons that mistakes made by the club in last 18 months have not been learned.   

[alanharper]

Just now, sheffield_dave said:

After two failed attempts at promotion we are now 16th in the league, our form is awful, we've been embarrassed by United at home..

 

And apparently we give a round of applause to this manager staying while asking the real key questions about the brightness of the advertising hoardings.

 

Disheartening. These people are fine to support their Sheffield Wednesday, I'll carry on supporting mine. 

 

It's odd that these people have got time to go to steering groups but have obviously only bothered to go to the Leeds and Forest games this season.

[gypsyowl]

41 minutes ago, vulva said:

1. of or relating to the Pharisees. 2. (lowercase) practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit; self-righteous; hypocritical.

 

 

 

WTF 

[@owlstalk]

3 minutes ago, gypsyowl said:

4a #swfc Steering Meeting DC wishes to apologise to fans who cannot afford a ST or a match day ticket but he says needs must with regards to

4b #swfc Steering Meeting generating revenues to help contribute towards keeping within the FFP rules he believes in his pricing policy and

4c #swfc Steering Meeting confirmed that if we want to continue attracting better players and not go backwards he has to raise as much as he

4d #swfc Steering Meeting can in areas of tickets sales and the retail his idea regarding 1867 Membership has not taken off so he is looking

 

This for me lays the problem.

 

Chansiri is right, for us to realistically win promotion (which is the only reason he bought us) then he has to charge these outrageous prices, but for me personally I feel embarrassed every time I walk through a turnstile & see how much it is for POTG. Some people find it funny that we rip of fellow football fans who work all week then pay their hard earned money on a Saturday to watch football. But I am ashamed.

 

I know it gets discussed a lot but it’s shameful. 10 years ago on cross you couldn’t walk to the edge of your street on match day without seeing floods of families in Wednesday shirts leaving their houses to walk to the ground. I don’t live on Cross any more but whenever I go back & speak to old mates, they all say the same, love Wednesday but can’t afford to take their family, the worst thing is there’s a few pigs knocking about round here as well, that never used to happen when I lived there.

 

Luckily I can afford a season tickets & my son is in the forces so when he can go he’ll go with his mates.

 

My twin daughters have never been bothered about football luckily for my wallet, they are 11 now so would cost me a fortune to take them both.

 

Any way getting back to my point, I like Chansiri, I believe he will do everything to take us up but you have been badly advised my good friend. Sheffield/South Yorks may have some wealthy parts but there’s still some proper working class areas, money is tight, most people will sacrifice doing normal social stuff so they can afford to go to football (I’ve been there!), now it’s impossible to afford £42 for a Cat A game or £39 for a cat B, that is a lot of money as it’s not just about the match ticket, it’s the pints before/after, the beres pork sandwich, bookies, it’s all a part of the match day experience I used to love but it all adds up cost wise. Sheffield people need football, when you’re working your arSe off all week, football keeps you going, the thought of that Saturday morning when you wake up, cook breakfast, clock watching until 11am when you make your way to boozer, meet up with pals & sink several. Some of the best laughs I’ve ever had have been sitting around a table at mid-day on a Saturday hearing all your pals stories of the last 2 weeks, reminiscing of the years gone by watching Wednesday.

 

But all this is not possible for a lot of people.

 

If the below were 2 realistic options moving forward (they’re not) then there would be no competition, from the people I know anyway.

 

1. US fans pay through the roof for all merchandise, match tickets, season tickets the most expensive they’ve ever been, probably most expensive in the league? – in return we will be competing top 6 & have a star named line-up. (supposedly..!)
2. Pay what you’d expect at this level. £400 season ticket, £26 - £30 match day ticket. £40 shirt, £20 for young’uns, in return our squad will be a mix of premier league loans, free transfers & maybe the odd transfer fee paid for, because of this we’ll more than likely be around mid-table.

 

It's an absolute no brainer for me because Wednesday is a family to me, I’ve always lived amongst Wednesday fans, I don’t care how bad we are, some of my early memories of watching us was late 70s, I saw the highs of the early 80s, the 90’s & they were great memories but some of my favourite memories watching Wednesday were during the bad times, because me & my mates went to football & that’s what it’s all about.

 

What I would love to see (not going to happen now DC is so heavily involved but I’m going to say it anyway), is go back to affordable pricing, get rid of all this modern rubbish Doyen Sports, Head Coach titles, signing foreign players for them to sit on the bench? Not giving youth a chance! One of the best prospects we’ve had in a while won’t sign a new contract & will more than likely leave for peanuts… Give a MANAGER a job, Mr Warnock would have been perfect back in 2013 after Dave Jones left, but there’s other alternatives, Mick McCarthy, Arry Redknapp & just give them a project to work with, weeling & dealing in the transfer market & football is so huge nowa days you’d still get the 28k average if the pricing was right.

 

I’m not sure how many people will read this but I feel better for typing but my main point is -----------------------à Pricing out working class football is shameful.

 

 

Great post and the feelings of many

[jonesy87shef]

14 minutes ago, toppOwl said:

 

Malcolms a good bloke and is 100% Wednesday, he attends the meetings and asks prior to them if any fans want to Tweet him any questions, he then asks these at the meeting - this is surely the correct thing to do, if he was then singled out for just being the messenger then thats poor form.

 

Thats because everyone else who goes to the meetings sits there and claps. 

 

The fans applauded when Chansiri said he was behind CC 100%.

 

For the most the wrong people are attending these meetings. It's not critical fans who can take the blue and white specs off. It's fans who love the club and can see it doing no wrong.

 

A bit like your gullible mate who's lass is shagging everyone. Deep down they know it but just keep plodding a long smiling because they are scared of change.