John Lee Pettimore:Armavinit:John Lee Pettimore:ComeOnYouUll:John Lee
Pettimore:
We’ve paid for
reserved seating in E4 and heard nothing from the club. They knew about this prior to the season. They were quick to take our pass money. We’re less than impressed.
Did they?
I asume this is an SMC decision.
Yes they did.
Don’t think the seats are being taken out, you’ll still be able to sit down. It states “standing is not compulsory” can’t see many FC fans standing up for the game.
Here's what i know.
The club did not make us aware of the possibility of this happening at the time of us purchasing our passes.
The club have totally failed in communicating this to the affected fans. Right up to the point that i rang the club this morning and they claimed to know nothing about it as "they're just the staff" and that they were expecting a meeting about it this morning with their managers and that we should expect a letter about it at some point. I asked for a call from one of these managers. Nothing so far.
It's very "nice" of the club to let us "move free of charge" to a possibly cheaper seat when we've already paid extra for reserved seating, rather than "working with the affected fans to reach an acceptable solution".
In the area we sit there are some older fans and families with small children. If people decide they want to go and stand in this new area this will force them to stand or miss the game.
The game bleats on about "respect" but then openly treats the fans with utter contempt.
Also, given that they released the mini passes for sale a few weeks ago, options for moving seats are now even more limited.
All in all I'm pretty disgusted by the club's treatment of the fans.
I don't know the full ins and outs behind this, so I will take your view that the club were aware of this possibility but unfortunately didn't make our fan base aware of the fact.
If it ends up that you and your family/friends feel you have no choice but to change seats then I think the very least the club can do is offer you a decent alternative, probably somewhere in West stand?, at least for the remainder of this season. From next year we will all be aware of the situation and can choose accordingly.
The drawback with these safe seating areas is that if everyone else around you chooses to stand you will most likely have no choice but to follow suit, or spend the whole game staring at someone's backside!!!!!
I sit in Souths so at the moment this won't affect me (unless they were to make changes there as well at some point), but unfortunately for you, it looks like you've been caught in the crossfire of someone else's decision. Think I would be annoyed if this suddenly landed in my lap, especially on the back of the excellent start to the season, but I have a feeling this may be a 'tough luck' moment for you. Bad luck here I'm afraid.