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ASK THE CHAIRMAN: PART 11 - Free away travel and improving the Megastore


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Sheffield Wednesday Chairman.jpg

 

It was said at a Steering Group meeting that the club is open to working with local suppliers who are Wednesday fans. Could you provide more detail on this please?

 

As we have discussed on many occasions in the past, the club is keen to work with local businesses and more specifically businesses in the Sheffield Wednesday family. We want to support the local market.

 

We prefer to work with fans’ businesses as we always look to support fans first over outside suppliers and we have been loyal to those companies, enjoying long term relationships with Wednesday fans in the business community.

 

We have worked across a range of associates, whether they supply food and drink for our catering departments, contractors for building works around the ground or more general services and products.

 

There is always interest from suppliers to work with Sheffield Wednesday and we are happy to speak with anyone who can provide a mutually beneficial service.

 

But, of course, any arrangement has to be two-way and we can only continue to support local businesses if they are willing to support us, and by that I mean offering competitive prices, prices that help our club.

 

Sometimes we have had to change several long term supply partnerships over the past couple of years. This is because some businesses have attempted to exploit the club rather than support the club by looking to make large profits - and in some instances up to three times more than comparative quotes.

 

This has been more apparent when we have sought to undertake contra arrangements with certain partners.

 

If there is a genuine desire to work with the club, on contra or otherwise, it is our preference to do so with supporters of Sheffield Wednesday in a mutually beneficial way.

 

 

What plans does the chairman have to improve the commercial and retail arm of the club?

 

As within any football club or industry for that matter, improvements go hand in hand with resource, expertise, experience and the implementation of strategies that support commercial success.

 

We have an entirely new management team of commercial and retail personnel and I am confident that both these key areas of the business will see significant growth in the coming months and years.

 

This supports my aim to make every department of Sheffield Wednesday Premier League ready and that applies to the team off the pitch as much as the team on it.

 

With the structure and staff we now have in place, I expect change for the better and improvement across the board. Managers will take full responsibility for their own departments and the pressure will be on for every member of staff to deliver.

 

This is what the coach expects on the pitch and I share the same philosophy off it.

 

Other football clubs around the country have offered free travel to fans for long distance away games, especially for midweek games, such as our game at Ipswich which is also on Sky. Have you ever considered subsidising coach travel for fans who attend these games midweek who often sacrifice hours at work to support the club?

 

This is something that we have looked at in depth but we must always bear in mind the costs involved.

 

It is true to say that some clubs do sometimes offer subsidised travel but our research suggests that this is something seen mainly in the Premier League, where clubs benefit from the broadcast money and parachute payments if relegated.

 

This is something we could revisit when we achieve promotion.

 

What time limit will you put on achieving promotion to the Premier League before you will allow supporters who take up the Club 1867 offer of a three-year Season Ticket to take advantage in the Championship?

 

The three-year Season Ticket can be redeemed only when we reach the Premier League. There is no time limit on this benefit of Club 1867 – and it applies whether we are promoted this season, next season or in five seasons’ time.

 

The nature of the scheme is solely to help the club combat any issues with Profitability and Sustainability that apply in the Championship. Obviously, the financial landscape would change dramatically should we achieve promotion to the Premier League.

 

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See he didn't answer my question on why Club 1867 was preying on the loyalty of supporters to cajole them into giving the Club an unsecured interest free loan and that robbing tomorrow to pay for today was basically what got us into a mess at the start of the decade 

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What I get out of Answers Part 11, is that the club want our supporters to simply GIVE them money.??

 

1) Suppliers have to be Wednesdayites and under cut other tradesmens rates, therefore, cutting their own margins/profits.

 

 

2) Supporters must continue to fully pay all costs to travel to  hard to reach midweek away games that are on TV, even when the supporter has given up some hours of paid work to get there.

 

OK its the supporters choice to do so, but could'nt the club show some goodwill on this. a) DC/CC has said how important vocal support is to the players b) when it is convenient to the club , the "Family" connection appears to go out of the window.

 

It would be a nice "we are in it together" gesture if they OCASSIONALLY contributed SOMETHING towards the fans difficult away games.

 

But I fear DC  is only interested in taking more and more money from already hard pressed fans,..... and not contributing anything in terms of building a family spirit.

 

 

3)The Club 1867 Scheme is a more direct way of extraction of the pennies from your pockets. Example...

 

A concession s/t holder currently pays under 400 pounds for a seat in the South Stand for one season.

 

It would require a payment of 2300 pounds to cover the cost of a 3 year s/t under the scheme (no concession prices), which is an extra donation of over 1000 pounds over the 3 year period.

 

No wonder that the scheme has not taken off !!

There is a theme running here imo.

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I admit I am not Chansiris biggest fan but fair play trying to answer some of the fans questions in parts 1-10 even if I didn't agree with the answers given.

But thought this one was just waffle.

Free or subsidised away travel would be a good gesture (and probably not cost that much compared to what some things are costing the club) but not something I would have a go at the club for not doing.

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Thank you Chairman for answering these questions. Lots of really interesting subjects covered but for me this one isn't relevant.

Megastore is a rip-off, even with local suppliers. not going to change

Commercial and retail arm Is a rip-off, not going to change

following Wednesday is a rip-off, not going to change

Wednesday are in the championship, put whatever timeline you want on it this it might never change, of course he wants this to change.

 

No matter how he answered these questions nothing to learn from them for me. His stance is clear to me from all the answers so far. Get money in from fans and reduce costs, I think he should get revenue from elsewhere not just fans but that is my opinion.

 

These areas being like they are is not because of Chansiri, he has also clearly shown he doesn't feel like addressing the cost of these anytime soon. He has put his own money in to try and get to the PL money ASAP.

 

Feel like he can wrap It up now and do this again next year.

 

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2 hours ago, mkowl said:

See he didn't answer my question on why Club 1867 was preying on the loyalty of supporters to cajole them into giving the Club an unsecured interest free loan and that robbing tomorrow to pay for today was basically what got us into a mess at the start of the decade 

 

You'll know better than me, is Club 1867 basically a Ponzi scheme? Promising something in the future to new investors which wont happen for a few years?

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4 minutes ago, Adem Poric said:

 

You'll know better than me, is Club 1867 basically a Ponzi scheme? Promising something in the future to new investors which wont happen for a few years?

 

It's basically a Championship football club version of Herbalife. 

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2 hours ago, mkowl said:

See he didn't answer my question on why Club 1867 was preying on the loyalty of supporters to cajole them into giving the Club an unsecured interest free loan and that robbing tomorrow to pay for today was basically what got us into a mess at the start of the decade 

You have a choice, Join Club 1867 or do not join club 1867.

What's the problem?.

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6 minutes ago, adelphi1867 said:

I thought that was  Holmes's adversary!.

Joking apart, no one is press ganging anyone into joining, are they?.

My objection is more that these are being offered in the first place given it is in effect a unsecured interest free loan to the Club masked as something else. 

 

Would any other business get away with this

 

Would you offer this as a customer to any other business you buy from

 

Its the fact there is emotional blackmail utilised to promote the scheme

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