Posts Tagged → Anti-Glazer
Glazers Drop Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tickets Prices By 20% to 30%
I do as many blogs on Tampa Bay as I do Manchester United these days because they are also in a pickle. The poor performances of the team during 2009 and 2010 saw attendances at their publicly owned stadium drop. From selling out every home game since 1996 when the American council house was built, they failed to sell out a single home NFL game. Not only that but all their home games were blacked out from tv as stated in the NFL rules. So far they’ve had poor performances, failed to get on TV and seen attendances drop by significant numbers. Now if United started coming 10-15th in the league for two seasons on the run after poor performances, saw attendances drop by 20,000-30,000 over night and then didn’t see a single home game on TV, it would be big world wide news. People would want answers and heads would roll. In the NFL they seem to take a lighter view as its only 4 teams in each league and its a different sport. After all that I’d say this is a victory for all those wanting the debt ridden owners to give some back. They have reduced ticket prices and not just by a couple of % some have dropped by 30%. 10,000s have mostly dropped by 20%. A 31% drop is a ticket in the East Upper In Old Trafford Dropping from £36 to just £24. That’s the sort of price drop in some areas of the stadium. Heres a list of the price drops.
- Adult Tickets
Lower row West sideline:
Last season – $85
Next season – $79
Upper West corner
Last season – $65
Next season – $52
East side upper level sideline
Last season – $85
Next season – $72
East upper level
Last season – $75
Next season – $52
East corner end zone
Last season – $99
Next season – $89
- Youth Tickets now cost $17.50 instead of $35
- Stadium Parking Is 40% Cheaper.
- Season Ticket Holders now receive 10% off all food, drinks and merchandise purchases.
- They have introduced a 10-month payment plan for season tickets.
The Glazers have also had the cheek to say ‘we’ve listened to our fans and made changes’ well they should listen up in England because we’ve been telling them from day one. You made a big mistake.
LUHG
The Glazers Don’t Do Public Until Now!
One thing every Manchester United fan will know is the Glazers don’t do publicity. That is until now. The problems this time aren’t coming from Manchester, this time its from on the other side of the pond in Tampa Bay. In the States they are more public than here but when I say more public, this is the first time this season (its ended already) the Glazers have spoken to the press and the fans publicly. There is the odd comment from behind closed doors or at private NFL events but hardly any direct speeches or interviews to the press or the fans. Bryan Glazer said… Many teams ”are happy we’re not in the playoffs because we could have done some damage,” but Bryan your not in the playoffs, you didn’t get any games on tv and you didn’t sell out once. On top of that your fans think your running the team and many of them are worried about it being sold to Eddie Debartalo. Many other NFL fans want the Glazers to sell up.
Bryan Glazer is treating the Bucs much like Chelsea or Manchester City. Over hyping what is slowly becoming below average. The Glazers have big enough problems, that they have to hype up the team publicly and for them to go that far it must be bad. With Manchester United they know this is off limits because they’ll get buried into the ground. David Gill is no longer seen by many people as more than a puppet, its hard to take him seriously unless you have the brain of a City fan. Only a fool says ‘wait and see’. This can apply to the Bucs plan of spending fuck all or Uniteds plan of we have £100m in the bank for players, but we’re not touching it via the managers ‘theres no value’ comments. Bryan would be seen like that before he opened his mouth. In America from the comments I’ve seen, Bryan Glazer could very well be their David Gill. A pointless PR spin machine, picked up by most who read the headline before they read the quotes.
This Festive Period
In this blog am going to cover a Qatar takeover and United in general. First up is the team and squad its self. I commented before Villa how United might be running into abit of form. Now against Villa it was lacking but since then apart from that battering against West Ham United, we have been unbeatable. There are kinks in the armour, so we shouldn’t forget that. Talksport were having a Thursday night discussion about Fergies comments on the future of our best goal keeper for along time. Edwin Van Der Sar. We’d all love for a young keeper from within the club to come in and take the number one shirt. That sadly isn’t going to happen. In such an important position we need to pick a keeper who has been solid for another side for a good number of seasons. He needs to be 6 foot plus, calm and have experience. Ferguson has to go shopping and hopefully he will do.
In the League United have done very well 20 games played 44 points. It was only the weather holding us back, or Chelsea’s lack of form. The Chelsea game was something that annoyed many fans as other games went ahead. Despite all the snow/ice we had in Manchester, City of all teams had no problems getting their games on. I’d call it a conspiracy, playing bad, lots of games one after the other, lets use the weather. You could say the same about one or two other games that weekend. With two games in hand on City and a game on Arsenal we could have been on 50 points and 8 points clear of City and 15 clear of Chelsea only at the midseason point. Theres no reason to say we wouldn’t have beaten both Blackpool and Chelsea to achieve that.
With a win over Liverpool in the cup, United are in a prime position. Arsenal and City both have midweek games in the FA Cup 3rd round which means when we come to play Spurs on Sunday, in-terms of that weekend it could be an advantage. We only play Southampton in the cup, so I won’t mind see those two games go against them. An Everton win and we could see a clean sweep of early PL exits before the end of the 4th round.
Manchester City are again splashing out and this leads to the Qatar. I come up with a quiet simple way that for starters I’d be happy for them or anyone else to take over. The Club has a problem of the Glazers. They put, take, lie and generally act like retards. If they cared about the club, they’d talk to the fans instead of treating us like idiots. We pay for tickets and are therefore as they say ‘we are the customers.’ First rule of customer service. The customer is always right no matter how daft it sounds. They don’t treat it like that. Even after protests and even the government telling them theres a problem. Still nothing. So what’s this I’d be happy for someone else to take over? Firstly its not just letting someone take over the club. For me to be happy a number of things have to happen. I don’t want the new ‘owners’ to carry everything out. They should leave the footballing side to the footballing people as they have done with Fergie. I’d accept new owners and a takeover, if it was done in conjunction with the fans. The biggest problem we have is lack of communication between us and the owners. The only thing the pointless ‘fans forum’ created was a note from Fergie asking not to call Wenger names. We have bigger problems than that. A deal done in conjunction with the fans would look like this. It doesn’t matter if its the red knights or Qatar. The new owners take over the club, get rid of the debt, allow certain fan groups back into the club. This can straight away allow IMUSA’s work and past deals on tickets to be put back in place. Possibly put in a process to insert not just one but a number of fans forward as directors on the board. One thing which could be very important is a deal for the fans to buy part of the club from the new owners. One it fully seals the fans into the club and two if Qatar ever want to pull out, we as fans have a say who comes in. We could even buy the club if after 20-30 years it came to selling. All of these are important issues to me and all can be put in place during a takeover. It benefits the fans and the new owners. MUST have said a similar sort of thing. Any new owner would be daft not to listen.
You can follow me on twitter @wewantglazerout
Officially Announced The FA & EPL Have Six Months
The Last Blog Post Still Applies apart from it is 6 months! Anyone told to read the first blog post, go down apost, then read this. I mentioned in the last post there was an announcement. Here it is, its quiet hard to believe.
But Read This….
“5.4.iii. Work with football bodies to consider how best to improve football governance, including options to support the co-operative ownership of football clubs by supporters – December 2010 To May 2011.
5.4.iv. Publish proposals for improving governance in sport – May 2011″
This has come directly from the Government. The FA Has Six Months but my other big question from the last blog post still applies.
You can read this information here - http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/transparency/srp/view-srp/34/22
Daniel Harris – “On The Road A Journey Through A Season”
This isn’t simply a promotion of a book of any Manchester United fan book, or as it says on the back an ESPN blog of each Manchester United game but Old Trafford, its one fans review of Manchester United on the pitch but more importantly matters off the pitch. If your a match going fan, especially the away games, you will relate to this. You’ll also relate to this if you have a problem with the way the club is being run. If you still go to home games or not, it spells out what is wrong with Old Trafford, what is wrong with the club and why many fans back in 2005 couldn’t give football up but instead did away games only.
Daniel Harris speaks his mind in this book. They’ll be many 10,000s of fans in Pubs around Manchester on match day who will know exactly how he felt in 2005. There will have been many more since then and that group will be growing with each day that passes. That group will have grown during the summer just gone. If they still do away games or go watch a club in Bury, well that’s down to them but to me they all had the same feeling. To try and never step foot inside Old Trafford until the owner goes or something changes. Clearly a number of fans will go every now and then, which is acceptable but for some its more than that. Its that the Old Trafford experience changed from being a ‘the fan’ to the ‘being a customer’ match day experience. Those little plastic seats, stewards telling you what you can and can’t do, the flat atmospheres, those expensive seats which come with a meal in the corners and the expensive prices at the bar. There is even an executive section in the middle of Stretford End. There will still be many fans who still go, sat in many areas of the ground thinking, ‘this is awful and its not getting any better.’ but they can’t give it up. Its your football club, one you might have followed for 20/30/40 or more years. What Harris says is he doesn’t cry at night after giving it up and its lesson to many others out there thinking about. Its your choice. The right choice might not have been made yet. Some fans might call this ‘Anti-United’ without thinking but I could also say the same about funding Glazer and I already know the truth & the facts.
The book its self follows Manchester United game on game. Harris goes to the away games and comments on the home games. I haven’t counted or checked but am guessing its every game. It also goes into more depth about not just what happens on the pitch but everything off it. From the players, to the manager, to the way your treated at many away grounds by normally the ‘West Midlands Police’. Wolves, which isn’t mentioned is a prime example, Birmingham away another which is. I know, I went. Harris also follows the Anti-Glazer protests during the season from the very start to the end. Its strengths and weaknesses, to the facts and how the Glazers are damaging the club. The the fan following and the players United use are also hinted towards the Anti-Glazer argument in some areas. For me its not an argument for or against glazer. Its Harris talking the truth and sometimes the truth is a hard thing to take.
You can find and buy ‘On The Road A Journey Through A Season on Amazon for £6.48. Its not alot to pay to read our whole last season in depth, especially when no funds go towards Glazer. Like it or not, its a very good read. http://amzn.to/cSZEzF you can also follow Daniel Harris On Twitter. @OnTheRoadajtas
The book has also been given a number of independent reviews including Rob Smyth from The Guardian, Richard Kurt a United Author, a review in the fanzine Red News, Alyson Rudd from The Times, Patrick Barclay the Chief Football Correspondent also from The Times, Daniel Taylor from The Guardian and Mick Hume from Red Issue & The Times.