Update | Changes to Matchday Parking

[barnetpete]

It’s the first match day parking increase since we moved to the hive and yes it’s
20% whih is high but yes in reality £1 isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things BUT...

And it’s a big BUT...


WTF is the club (well TK) playing at. It’s a PR/marketing disaster, (disaster may be a slight exaggeration but a tip of an iceberg of a bigger problem)..... we are bottom of the league and he thinks this is the time to increase costs? Football fans live their footballing life in seasons, not annual years, we expect price increases to be announced in March/April for the following season. The announcement that there will be no increases on the ‘membership’ - a fancy monthly payment of a ‘season ticket’ which ever way you gloss it up, when at best we will be in league 2 at worst the national league was meant to be a way of placating the parking increase, in truth why would you tell a football fan that now not even 50% into a season, are we meant to be impressed? He know that for those who park in the car park he is unlikely to see more than a 20% drop in those using the car park so the club are better off.

I’m all for the club making as much money as possible to invest in the team, but stop squeezing every penny out of the fans, we are fans not customers, get the commercial aspect in place and get the it right. Get ground sponsored or boards round the ground covered in more than just TK owned companies. you’d make more money from that than a £1 parking increase if we got this right but despite hive facilities TK has pissed off lots of local businesses over the last 20+ years. The ‘customer’ as we are treated wouldn’t mind the £1 increase so much be if the match day experience was good, the football is sh*t, the service in the bars is sh*t, the quality of the beers and food is sh*t, the choice of merchandise is poor, and fans are rightly pi**ed off at the club at the moment so yes we’ll done TK try fleece the fans some more.

[MCB]

I don't drive to games as no skin in the game.

But £5 or £6 must be by miles the cheapest on site parking costs of any football league club? Is there any club that charges less than £10?

[becbee]

I might be in the minority but I fail to see what is so bad about this. Surely the home fans who regularly park at the ground do so in the members car park and the cost of parking membership isn't increasing. Most home fans don't park at the ground anyway. Many of those in the main car park will be away fans and they will pay anyway if they don't know where else to park.

[RichardM]

I don't drive to games as no skin in the game.

But £5 or £6 must be by miles the cheapest on site parking costs of any football league club? Is there any club that charges less than £10?

Mansfield and Wycombe are just two of the many that charge less than £10.

[Bee52]

Hopefully that's this week's own goal out of the way now.

[Anthony]

Given that we are applying to increase the capacity by around 3000 people with no extra car parking, Im not sure that increasing the costs of parking is that sensible

[DerekRocholl]

This isn't the smartest PR. Look, at the end of the day, the sum of money isn't massive, and honestly, there are bigger things to kick off about. We shouldn't fly off the handle here.

But that said, it doesn't show at a lot of PR savvy. Calling it a "nominal" rise is clumsy- it's a 20% rise. Not really nominal. And to announce it when you are bottom of the league just looks like poor timing. Given the sums of money involved to the club, this strikes me as the sort of thing that is just not worth doing for the irritation it will cause at a time like this.

I think what TK doesn't fully realise is that whilst the Hive offers way better facilities than Underhill, it still feels quite corporate. Football for a lot of people is about community, mates and togetherness. Football has always been a game of the people, and for that reason perhaps, football fans often like a bit authenticity, character and a bit less slickness. So the symbolism of this sort of thing often matters more than the money involved.

As a South Stad regular I can’t say I’ve noticed any relevant facilities at the Hive that are better than those at Underhill. There is a terrace with some poor sight lines if you stand in the middle, very slow and bad quality but expensive tea huts, and loos in portacabins. Where are highlights in quality improvement I am missing ?

[hoppy]

This isn't the smartest PR. Look, at the end of the day, the sum of money isn't massive, and honestly, there are bigger things to kick off about. We shouldn't fly off the handle here.

But that said, it doesn't show at a lot of PR savvy. Calling it a "nominal" rise is clumsy- it's a 20% rise. Not really nominal. And to announce it when you are bottom of the league just looks like poor timing. Given the sums of money involved to the club, this strikes me as the sort of thing that is just not worth doing for the irritation it will cause at a time like this.

I think what TK doesn't fully realise is that whilst the Hive offers way better facilities than Underhill, it still feels quite corporate. Football for a lot of people is about community, mates and togetherness. Football has always been a game of the people, and for that reason perhaps, football fans often like a bit authenticity, character and a bit less slickness. So the symbolism of this sort of thing often matters more than the money involved.

As a South Stad regular I can’t say I’ve noticed any relevant facilities at the Hive that are better than those at Underhill. There is a terrace with some poor sight lines if you stand in the middle, very slow and bad quality but expensive tea huts, and loos in portacabins. Where are highlights in quality improvement I am missing ?

Surely the portaloo is far better and cleaner than the always-waterlogged gents loo at the South end of Underhill?

[rudebwoyben]

This isn't the smartest PR. Look, at the end of the day, the sum of money isn't massive, and honestly, there are bigger things to kick off about. We shouldn't fly off the handle here.

But that said, it doesn't show at a lot of PR savvy. Calling it a "nominal" rise is clumsy- it's a 20% rise. Not really nominal. And to announce it when you are bottom of the league just looks like poor timing. Given the sums of money involved to the club, this strikes me as the sort of thing that is just not worth doing for the irritation it will cause at a time like this.

I think what TK doesn't fully realise is that whilst the Hive offers way better facilities than Underhill, it still feels quite corporate. Football for a lot of people is about community, mates and togetherness. Football has always been a game of the people, and for that reason perhaps, football fans often like a bit authenticity, character and a bit less slickness. So the symbolism of this sort of thing often matters more than the money involved.

As a South Stad regular I can’t say I’ve noticed any relevant facilities at the Hive that are better than those at Underhill. There is a terrace with some poor sight lines if you stand in the middle, very slow and bad quality but expensive tea huts, and loos in portacabins. Where are highlights in quality improvement I am missing ?

TK didn’t have the South Stand built, blame Wealdstone for that one!