The Mail Bag
Elstone
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Just visited the Official Site, and read a blog by Robert Elstone where he says, "It's Wednesday evening, before our second biggest game of the season and we've still got good tickets on sale." He then goes on to say, "We 'ink in' what would be a full house for Man United; that's now in doubt, and that hits our budget badly."
If I remember, there were tickets left for the Liverpool game as well... could this be a sign that the natives are not happy, and are voting with their feet?
I know there is still a couple of days left for the remaining tickets to go, but, when was the last time it was this easy to get tickets against the Mancs? It's not as if it is on the box either.
Brian Waring, Posted 23/10/2008 at 20:11:21
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The German League is the way forward they are the most watched league due to prices from ?5 a game, imagine if ticket prices were like that here! We’d have no problem selling out to 40,000 and if the ground was bigger could prob attract 70,000.
We will turn it around this is the same team thats done so well the last few seasons, I doubt it will be this weekend but hopefully soon.
Is it not possible that the club are trying to encourage you to buy a ticket for someone else? Still, don?t let the facts get in the way of another chance to pull the club the pieces again, eh? They do nothing, they get slagged off. They do something, they get slagged off....
To be honest its a lot cheaper to watch it at home on the web. I carnt bear going to the pub or the match anymore because of all the boring gimps who come out with comments like "we're not going to get anything today".
It's sad that they have no faith in the team and as a result I am watching the matches on a tiny screen at home.
I guess the players feel the same way after last season promised so much.
It already feels like the club?s funeral and with BK deciding he?s looking for an investor who will allow him to remain on the board rather than an outright buyer there looks like no short term news to cheer us up.
Unfortunately we need some leadership right now and regrettably Moyesey is as depressed as the rest of us.
Time for Blue (?) Bill to put his smoke and mirrors to work on the pitch but dont "watch this space".
Sky have fucked up the game in this country, and the backlash is ordinary fans are pissed off with the mega millions average players are being paid.
But you can’t fool ALL of the people ALL of the time.
A lot have decided that the ’ fool me twice’ clause applies to them and have voted with their feet.
I?m sick to the teeth of watching the Sky4 walk all over us Mr Elstone. I?m also sick to the teeth of having my weekend ruined by shit performances. What a fuckin privilege for us all to admire Man Utd at Goodison eh.!
As for me using it as an opportunity to pull the club to pieces.... I would say that the club are doing a good enough job of that themselves at the moment without my message board postings causing further damage.
Slagging them off?? It?s a message board, John. It gives Evertonians an opportunity to voice their opinion on all things right and wrong about "our" club. I personally think asking a current season ticket holder to purchase further tickets two days before a game is wrong.
Is it because of the Moyes contract debacle? Because of the late signing? Because of the takeover rumours or because of no takeover rumours? We are shit. We don?t play good football, we have a striker who hates heading the ball yet we constantly hoof it up there, we play a right back in centre mid (Neville, I don?t give to shits what you think you are but you will never be a midfielder as long as I?ve go a hole in my arse). We spent £15m on the basis of a decent game against the shite. I?ll tell you what?.. when Moyes said there was on average 20 scouts per week watching Standard they were all watching Dalmat not fucking Screech!
Why they couldn't deduct the 4 games from the price is beyond me and now they are scurrying about trying to flog tickets. The club's a joke. I know of plenty of long-term match goers who are chucking the towel in and it has nothing to do with the credit crunch.
It's down to the way we play and the spinless manager who is turning our side in to a bunch of wimps. No-one likes to see thier team getting their arses kicked every week but worst of all it is the way we readily accept defeat as the norm these days. No fight, no class, no desire. Perhaps this has something to do with falling attendances...
1-0 tomorrow: Lescott.
There are some valid points being made and home truths to be told but this is not the place to have them heard.
Joseph McNicholas - why are you so bloody annoyed about the club calling people to try and sell tickets? I really dont get that. John Taylor is right - they would get lambasted if they done nothing. I think it is good to see the club actually try something like this. So ok, they called an existing season ticket holder by mistake? Big fuckin deal. Get over it.
Our home support this season has been an absolute disgrace. Booing the team when they are playing shit is debatable; personally I never have and never will but I can understand why it happens. But booing individual players and particularly Joleon Lescott has been shameful and idiotic. Individuals should never be subjected to it.
At least the team and manager are trying to improve but what about our support? Are we trying to do better? Not so far ? if anyone wants to see something going badly wrong at Everton ? go look in the mirror.
The reason people aren’t going or they’re booing is because we are absolutely powerless to what is going on at Everton. That’s where this apathy is coming from. ’The peoples club’ don’t give a shit about us, the people.
The Liege and Blackburn LC matches were bigger. The Derby was bigger than the Man U game for local pride. After that the league games were we may actually get something were bigger. In fact I cannot think of a smaller match this season so far.
OK granted, the club are "trying" as you put it but, what I didn't mention in my original posting was that they actually knew I was season ticket holder, so it was in fact no mistake that they were calling me to flog me more tickets.
It once again highlights the disorganisation and mis-management that is spreading from board level all the way through the club and onto the pitch. I?m no Sales & Marketing expert but, maybe they could "try" to shift tickets and raise the club?s profile by getting themselves into one of the remaining sites in Europe?s current biggest retail development area, Liverpool One. We have no presence in the city centre other than a picture of Phil Neville on the side of the Sports Direct store. Actually, maybe the club are planning to have our next commercial gold-mine in between Asda and TopMan when we move to Kirkby.
Now I know that Mr Elstone will be reading this thread, so here is why many people are thoroughly fed up:
We spent the summer watching Moyes sulk like a little kid. Then he dithers over the contract and over getting in the necessary players to take us further. Then he gets us knocked out of two competitions. He suddenly backtracks on the sulking and declares himself here for the next 5 years and is rewarded with £17.5m.
Well I’ll tell you something Mr Elstone, that doesn’t make me feel like spending my money to support that type of set up. Bill needs to get tough with his manager. Get him performing, Get him some help with tactics. Make sure all the petty point scoring with the media, and lame excuses for his poor performance as manager are now considered not acceptable. Moyes is your problem, and you’ve just given him 5 years to continue.
Sort him out and the punters will return.
For the first time, I can?t say that I?ll automatically renew my ticket next season. I?m just so totally pissed off with the crap standard of hoofball, the embarrassing close season (with the panic buying of a player we?d apparently been watching for two years who scurried in at the last possible second), the overpaid prima donas diving and cheating every match...
Just walk past the players' car park if you want to see what?s wrong with football. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cars driven by players who?d be off like rats deserting a sinking ship if we were relegated, despite it being them that put us down. Sky, the BBC, in fact all aspects of the media, grovelling around the Sky 3 plus the RS at every opportunity, paying lip service to the rest of football who have to be happy with their 15 mins of fame.
I?m not surprised that we haven?t sold out. How many other Blues fans are just so absolutely sick of the gap between the haves and have-nots, sick of turning up knowing we?ll get battered and played off the park tomorrow, despite our School of Science approach....?
Most weeks in the summer and when we play too far away for me to bother going, I play golf with two other scousers who travel to North Wales to play. Both Blues who formerly went week-in, week-out until kids, finances etc.put paid to their match day trip.
Sure the kids are now grown up but once they stopped going, despite still being Blues fans, they were never going to start again. They?d got out of the habit. And that?ll happen to loads of fans once they?ve had enough of this crap. And they think we?ll sell 50,000 tickets in Kirkby? Yeah, Right.
Gates are down and suddenly after ignoring & manipulating our opinions
they need to address our concerns.
Boycotts of ticket or programme sales DO hit home quickly so please remember this next time the club try and bully us over Kirkby etc
Remember as consumers you have more power than you realise, so don?t be bought off with the blackmail of being disloyal for not just blindly giving them the money, no matter how the team performs or the club treat you.
Paul Johnson - Agree with your reasons 100% and would add 7/ Being treated with contempt by an owner & board who lie to me 8/ Don?t want to contribute to the ridiculous & obscene contract given to Moyes
Perhaps if we played to the strengths of our players instead of aimlessly hoofing the ball up front to no-one in particular, hoping to get a flick on which MIGHT result in a chance on goal....
Perhaps if we didn’t give the ball away needlessly (particularly when not under pressure) and continually surrender possession to the opposition....
Perhaps if the manager didnt persist with playing people out of position and finally admit that Neville will NEVER be a midfield player...neither will Jagielka...
Perhaps if we didn’t surrender match-winning leads and conceed bad goals in the first 5 mins of the 2nd half each week....
Perhaps if the players looked at least one bit bothered....
THEN THEY WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM SELLING TICKETS !!
Just a thought !!
Kenwright & Moyes you have a lot to answer for !!
You have hit the nail on the head mate ... totally agree.
I know it and you know it, so you can bet your bottom dollar that Sir Alex Ferguson will fucking know it ? and best of all, we all know it won?t fucking work!
Why not once, just once, change it a bit. Try something new. Something a bit unorthodox. Something that the opposition wouldn?t have thought we?d do?? If we get beat then fine, at least we would have given it a go.
But you can guarantee that we will just have to sit there for 90 minutes watching Man Utd run rings around us while Phil Neville is totally lost in the middle, and then listen to Moyes afterwards moaning that we can?t compete with our budget compared to theirs.
What a fucking joke ? mind you, I?ll still be turning up!!
And I thought we went to the match to support the team......
C'MON YOU BLUES
I don?t know if I am right in assuming your remarks were directed at my comments.
if they were, yes, you?re right, we DO go to support the team as I will be tomorrow, but you can?t expect me to believe that anyone has enjoyed the football that?s been seved up this season?
You?re also right, I DON?T like the hoofball masquerading as football that we?ve had this season, I DON?T want to move to Kirkby and I sure as hell DON?T like Sky.
I think that Sky has ruined football. Sky is the reason that we have a Prem that?s stitched up at the start of every season. It?s the reason that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. OK, you can say that success brings more success and consequently more money but that "more money" is the very reason that it?s so difficult to break into the Sky 3 plus the RS.
Everton, quite rightly, are applauded for breaking into this quartet but it?s the exception that proves the rule. No-one else has realistically got close. Just look at how much Man Utd have spent over the past 10 years, it?s astonishing. Then think... Liverpool?s NET spend is more than Utd?s Gross spend, according to Sky.
How can we, or any other none Sky 3 plus RS club, match that? It must be nice to have £30million plus going into your coffers each season from European CL. Sky? No thanks....
Oh,if the "rats" do go to lift the FA Cup, I?ll show my arse in my front window.
Actually, if went out and tried to compete against the Sky 4 instead of trying for damage limitation all the time, it would make me change my mind.
Problem is, Everton are so fucking predictable. Once they go behind the game is over.
Who wants to see our terrible home run continue?
We have regularly given up against Man U.
No one wants say "I was there when WR got his 100th!!
Local police demanding the 12 o’clock kick off.
Some might fear further crowd trouble.
Reasons I and many others WILL be there:-
We are BLUES, and that means being there through good times and bad, and I have seen Everton teams much worse than the one we have now.
Many may dislike the current set up but compared to the eras of Lee, Bingham, and Walker this is a vast improvement.
Money IS the be all and end all.
I never expected to pay more for a single match ticket in the Lower Gwladys Street than I did for my first season ticket, and that was with 21 home games per season and Goodison based reserve fixtures thrown in!!!
Things are not good but they have been worse.
My comments weren’t specifically aimed at anyone, and the reasons you’ve listed are all reasons why anyone in their right mind would choose not to go.
But I’m with Ste Kenny on this one - we go because we have to! To be anywhere other than Goodison Park on a matchday if you can get there just does not make sense to me.
I’m clearly NOT in my right mind because I’ll be there tomorrow like the rest of us but if only the team could find the passion that exists amongst the fans they wouldn’t be so quick to run up the white flag.
That’s what so annoying - we’re going to be doing our job, if only we could transmit that to the players. Or maybe tomorrow they’ll be up for it themselves..... we’ll see.
"The season starts here!" (c) Richard Dodd
I was a fanatic. I had a season ticket. I learnt that allowing 11 millionaires ruin my weekends and me getting pissed off about it all the time wasnt fun.
So I let go. Everton now is a passing interest. I’ll watch a game, if we lose, I go "ah shit!", look at the league table, then dont think about it until the next game.
Football isnt our game anymore.
There are more important things in life than Everton. I think it is awful that I feel like this, but it isnt the end of the world.
I think many others are now feeling the same and will do what I have done.
I still want us to win tomorrow but if we get battered like I expect us to then I’ll still have a good saturday night out.
Two weeks ago I attended a meeting in Liverpool and out of the window I could see twenty odd school kids aged about 8 or 9 playing on a pitch adjacent to the office. All but one were wearing RS shirts - the other had an Arsenal shirt!
If Robert Elstine is worried that he can’t fill the ground now, I can’t imagine what the Chief Exec in 10 to 15 years time will be feeling!
Proof that the current malaise and disillusionment has been building for a while - not just this season!
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1 Posted 23/10/2008 at 16:12:29
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