QUESTIONS BROUGHT TO CUSG MEETING ON MON 15 APRIL 2019 BY THE USERS OF THECUMBRIANS.NET FORUM.
- No Group is made/forced to answer any question and does so at their own behest.
- Some Groups have answered both their own specific questions and the ones that were marked ‘All in attendance’, others have answered just their own specific questions.
- If a Group hasn’t answered their questions, a simple ‘No answer received’ has been written. This is in the interests of clarity within the CUSG Group.
- TheCumbrians.net would like to thank all those who replied on behalf of those who submitted questions.
QUESTIONS FOR CUFC:
Any update on the ground and future plans for it?
We continue to look at options, but this is a long process. Nothing new. If there is anything meaningful to report we will do so immediately.
Can the stewards please stop cars getting out before the crowd leave?
Before the Bury game we issued a reminder to fans about leaving times and increased the stewarding. This is planned to continue.
https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2019/april/car-parking-a-reminder-of-match-day-protocol/
Stewards are seeking to address this issue.
Has the club considered operating bottle bars in and around the ground rather than the current system. A lot of other clubs already operate this system and it appears to give a few advantages in speed of service and not having beer go bad in between games.
The club already has a bottle bar in place from Ross’s bar in the Pioneer Stand. It has been running for some months to speed service and avoid decanting.
Turning over other bars to make them bottle only has advantages but, from a fan point of view, would limit the choice. If there is a specific bar fans would want to make bottle only then we are open to considering it.
In your last response, it was stated that the MK Dons match is the highest grossing of the season. Excellent promotion, marketing and obviously the ticket price helped with this.
The #8kMK was a special promotion of heavily discounted match tickets associated with a specific game.
However as expected its died a death (more so with what's happening on field) and back to 5000ish, why then don't you expend on the formula used for the MK Dons match and offer this more often and see what happens. Surely if something is a success it seems archaic/moronic to go back to "normal" ways especially if it produced the most income.
We have to take a view of all the facts at specific points in time when considering initiatives. Just because they worked once doesn’t mean they will work every time. We will continue to consider them.
Q for the BOD, when are you going to drop the 'reluctant' tag as it clearly isn't?
I have seen reference to it in the past some years ago.
I am not aware that phrase has ever been used by the club in the time I’ve been here. It’s not a tag we use.
And bonus question when are you going to feck off?
I think having forum questions from fans to the club via CUSG can be positive, and I strongly advocated trying to set this up. I do my best to answer everyone, but I will pass on this one.
Peter Beardsley Night:
It was not a CUFC event.
The event was an IM Events promoted and organised event, which we were very happy to simply host and publicise at Brunton Park. The Star attraction was Peter himself and it was billed as “an evening with Peter Beardsley”.
As a club we have good relations with IM Events and we were happy to promote the event to our fans. This relationship continues. We are working with IM Events on the Fun Run too … https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2019/april/carlisle-half-september-community-running-event/
Funds from the evening were also due to go to Eden Valley Hospice, which as a club we also support.
As an added ingredient club staff were delighted to accept invitations made to them to take part.
Who made the decision to withdraw the attendance of CUFC officials from the night?
The individuals who were invited to attend made their own choice.
Do you think it was appropriate for the club to take the moral high ground when one of the people you withdrew is facing a more serious charge than Beardsley is?
Your presumption about the decision being made by the club is incorrect, so the question has no answer.
Are the club happy with the way they have treated one of its greatest ever players?
It was not a club event and the club didn’t ‘treat’ Peter in any way. We are delighted the event was a success.
The position was reported by N&S: https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/17520693.carlisle-utd-boss-coach-and-director-of-football-pull-out-of-peter-beardsley-charity-night/
Do you have an approximate figure of the average age of blues fans attending games home and away. I’m no spring chicken myself but the older generation see to outweigh young up and coming fans by a great margin.
For fans giving their date of birth and buying in advance we have information, but these make up only part of all fans buying tickets. So the data is therefore incomplete making it unreliable to estimate specific ages.
Without getting into specific ages, it is clear that overall the older generations do outweigh the younger fans. It’s something we recognise as an issue and it’s why we are developing initiatives aimed at young fans of the future.
Season Tickets:
What is the point in the date for securing your current seat, being two weeks before the end of the early buy period? Surely makes sense to have them the same date? Seem to remember this being mentioned by a few fans last Summer as rather pointless!
The gap allows those fans who wish to move seats and take a new seat previously held by an existing season ticket holder and still get the early buy price. If the seat and early buy was the same date, the unused seat a fan who did not renew would only be available after the prices went up.
Do the club receive any % of food and drink takings on match days/private bookings in any of the function rooms?
The club receives a fixed catering fee and a profit share of profits above a threshold. This includes profit on food and drink takings on match days/private bookings in any of the function rooms.
What is the point of this ParkView tie up, if any potentially decent Players are allowed to go elsewhere? A couple have progressed to Sunderland recently, and one is going to Hertha Berlin on trial!
The aim is to develop recruitment links to the East for late developing players. Like signing any player not registered with a pro-club you are in competition with others. The rules of player registrations mean we cannot have exclusive rights to sign PV players. But by having strong links we can see the players in closer action, work with them in our academy training and games and then make earlier and more informed assessments and maximise the chances of signing those Academy staff believe can be a success.
QUESTION FOR CUSG CHAIRMAN/DISABLED GROUP:
Firstly a huge thanks to Nigel Clibbens and Louise that helped with some disability queries recently. Unfortunately these queries were ignored/not answered/ not forwarded by the DSG along with no answers to questions asked by message boarders, this is unacceptable and unprofessional and doesn't show the DSG in a good light at all. Ideally the CUSG should be in a position to remove those that are incompetent in their positions, as in my opinion the DSG leader is, however if this is not possible can someone within CUSG train/advise Barry as to how to go about fulfilling his position in the correct/professional way instead of ignoring everything!
Some issues others and I have had regarding the DSG:
- An email was sent, to the DSG, last season regarding a strange issue with carer tickets - this was ignored meaning I had to escalate to Nigel and Suzanne. Unfortunately they had poor understanding and is something you’d thought the DSG chairman should know and help with.
- An email was sent regarding an issue with CUSAT - this was ignored.
- An email was sent in November and followed up in December last year, from an employed carer. This was ignored and not dealt with until March when the person was advised by Nigel Clibbens himself and sorted by him.
- An email was sent by a carer in December. After a complaint was received by NC in March because of no response, it was resolved easily by Louise in the ticket office.
- A statement released by the DSG through the club was an embarrassment. Full of inaccuracies and confusing!
- DSG meetings were attended, but any advice given was refused.
- No responses have ever been received from queries submitted for the CUSG.
These are things the DSG/leader should do, without the need of the club. At the moment nothing is being answered showing the DSG and the club in bad light. Unfortunately it seems the DSG position was given in a hurry, to satisfy EDL tick box, without any thought what its purpose is. Other clubs do this position well, we have the worst, which is surprising considering we have a director on the EFL board.
Chairman: At our meeting on Monday, the CUSG discussed effective communications between reps and their groups. In order to truly represent fans, reps must engage with them, deal with issues and be transparent.
We are arranging to give the DSG Chair support with communications, starting with an article on the club website. He has done a great job in establishing DSG and will benefit from support from CUSG in this area.
Disabled Group: No answer received.
QUESTION FOR CUOSC:
It was disappointing to read in your last CUSG response that you wouldn't be disappointed or consider the season a failure if we didn't achieve promotion. I understand your response was more in regards to the word "promotion" in general rather than promotion from this god forsaken tinpot league. Therefore as we are most likely to embark on yet another season in "tinpot2" it seems from your response that you are content with this. Does this not show a lack of ambition and being content with mediocrity/failure as Carlisle United should not be a club cemented to the last tier of the football league.
With regard to the question put to CUOSC, we are happy for our original answer to stand without adding anything further to it.