This meeting with Gibson

Status
Not open for further replies.
AytonMews said:
Yeah but he offsets the MFC losses against his bulkhaul tax so he’s quids in.

It’s a genius move. In fact, he should just run bulkhaul at a loss as well, then he wouldn’t have to pay any tax at all.
Click to expand...
that really is the laymans view. He could invest this in staff training and retention, or a whole host of company assets that secures bulkhaul and increases it's future revenue and get that same tax saving, while actually making money and not incurring a cash deficit in the company that is his main source of personal income.
 
Last edited:
And clearly for good reason. I
Zoophonic said:
Fair if predictable take on the situation although you have been cynical even before the statement cane out.
Click to expand...
didn’t expect the club to do anything so to reduce kids walks up to the joint highest in the league is at least something.
 
What pishes me off about the handling of all of this is Gibson has appeased RF and other fan groups but the rest of us are left in the dark about the rationale behind what is happening. These fan groups are not the only ones affected by this. We have 27k regular home supporters most of whom are season ticket holders and are struggling to meet these costs.
 
B_G said:
Well I had a pretty big moan about the prices compared to other Championship Clubs last year as well. Things were pretty good then so speaking for myself, it's not just because we've had a bad season. It does compound the issue though. At least last season we were paying top prices for some of the top football in the Championship.
Click to expand...
True, we had a pretty big moan. But we then went and bought season tickets at a level never previously seen in the championship. That’s kind of the point. And this year I think we will see a reduction and would have seen one even if we had frozen or cut prices. I am sure sales are price sensitive to some extent, particularly at the extremes, but they are way more sensitive to team performance. Not to justify the current pricing structure, but just an observation.
 
mercury_redstone7 said:
I was born in Middlesbrough and most of my related family lived there, I grew up in Stockton and have lived all my life there. I played football up until I was 50 and ran a couple of successful Sunday teams. I`m a long time Boro fan seldom missed at all since 1968 only one season as a non season ticket holder. I know Stockton like the back of my hand, where I couldnt put a figure on it, Id say theres as many other club fans in the boro (Teesside Whites) is a perfect example.
This 50 50 stuff you are talking about with all due respect to you is sheer b0ll0x conjecture. The early 80s saw Middlesbrough people as a town abandoned their football team until we went bust.
There were always a few Sunderland supporters in Billingham, especially after the 73 cup win. Stockton has mostly been Boro, since the 60`s and a long time before that.
Its the same as most towns near to a town with a good football club and history. I can remember when they took the pizz out of me for going to the match when I was contracting in Middlesbrough steelworks.

Take a look at the gates we had in div 3, it took a good while before they crawled back from under their rocks back to support the Boro. Then you now always hear "I always went" like fvck they did.

Rant Over..... sorry
Click to expand...
I agree with most of that, but not the division three gates point. They saw an immediate increase of almost 2/3, the biggest single year on year increase we ever had. After a relegation. Bigger than any increase after a promotion. It was from a catastrophically low base, and at a time when football gates were about at the lowest everywhere, so it looks nothing special now. But relative to the times and to what has just happened it was astonishing. The people bought in pretty quickly.
 
Mfc79 said:
What pishes me off about the handling of all of this is Gibson has appeased RF and other fan groups but the rest of us are left in the dark about the rationale behind what is happening. These fan groups are not the only ones affected by this. We have 27k regular home supporters most of whom are season ticket holders and are struggling to meet these costs.
Click to expand...
From my understanding of it, and I'm not privy to anything more than anyone else, is that they had that meeting off the back of RF threatening the protest.
Those around the table have made a semi compromise on the u18s prices, MSF wanted to release a statement saying we've made amazing progress and got this agreement. Rf have gone back to their members who have agreed it's OK but we need more, so have held off the protest for now, but want more wiggle from the club otherwise back to protests.

Robs got depressed because he thought that getting Gibbo to move on anything was a big win but not everyone agrees.

Happy to be corrected, but that's my interpretation from this thread.
 
free_pint said:
From my understanding of it, and I'm not privy to anything more than anyone else, is that they had that meeting off the back of RF threatening the protest.
Those around the table have made a semi compromise on the u18s prices, MSF wanted to release a statement saying we've made amazing progress and got this agreement. Rf have gone back to their members who have agreed it's OK but we need more, so have held off the protest for now, but want more wiggle from the club otherwise back to protests.

Robs got depressed because he thought that getting Gibbo to move on anything was a big win but not everyone agrees.

Happy to be corrected, but that's my interpretation from this thread.
Click to expand...

That’s what I mean, MSF will communicate with the club but are quite happy to pay Gibson lip service and bow down to him. When have they ever organised action?

It’s shown them up for what they are.
 
Mfc79 said:
What pishes me off about the handling of all of this is Gibson has appeased RF and other fan groups but the rest of us are left in the dark about the rationale behind what is happening. These fan groups are not the only ones affected by this. We have 27k regular home supporters most of whom are season ticket holders and are struggling to meet these costs.
Click to expand...

I guess that's a reason to join a supporters' group?

It's the same argument for joining a union at work isn't it? Individually, you are easy to ignore. As a group, you can get things done.
 
Rob can you please clarify what, if anything, MSF knew about this year’s early bird prior to it being launched publicly.
 
Primus84 said:
Rob can you please clarify what, if anything, MSF knew about this year’s early bird prior to it being launched publicly.
Click to expand...
Yeah im pretty sure he's confirmed that, they just weren't aware of the date. They kept nice and quiet though as they didn't want a repeat of last year..
 
Scrug said:
That’s what I mean, MSF will communicate with the club but are quite happy to pay Gibson lip service and bow down to him. When have they ever organised action?

It’s shown them up for what they are.
Click to expand...
This is what I mean, its all well and good saying you're not happy with the prices to the club/Gibbo, but until you do action like a protest then everything gets forgotten about.

Imagine if every group or collective backed RF and planned to protest instead of just saying boo hoo and just staying to watch the match, we could of got a lot more than just the freeze/discount on the kids tickets.
 
Frozen Horse said:
I guess that's a reason to join a supporters' group?

It's the same argument for joining a union at work isn't it? Individually, you are easy to ignore. As a group, you can get things done.
Click to expand...
This is true but the union is only good if the representatives are good (and represents everyone within the union) and that there is a proper process within that union to understand what it is that the union wants.

The MSF is a group of well-meaning people but it doesn't appear to deliver anything meaningful for the fans it is supposed to represent. It often seems like it is a nice to have for a small number of fans but is really used as a box ticking exercise for the club to say they engage with fans. Engaging with 5-10 fans is not the same as fan engagement with the 10s of thousands of Boro fans if there is no structure behind them to ensure representation.

Rob's message replying "will make it difficult for many to afford" is a great example of how the club uses the MSF and not the other way round because he is right but it is easy to ignore. A well researched argument about other teams prices with numbers and evidence which would require Gibson to justify properly the reasons for the prices is what should have happened rather than an emotional argument with nothing to back it up. Without that data it is far too easy to justify that costs have risen so prices have to rise because it instantly accepts that the previous prices were acceptable when they never were. Everything should be transparent and minuted otherwise it isn't worth anything and the club can say whatever they want.

If you want to act like a union then there has to be proper organisation. You can't be self-appointed and you can't pick and choose which things people want discussing are discussed.

A lot of things sound like they are knocking Rob and that isn't my intention. I know he is doing it voluntarily and he believes he is doing it for the good of the fans and I believe that is his intention. I don't know who the other fan groups and representatives are which is why I wouldn't mention them. I'm critical of the group as a whole and the club for using them. I don't know anything about the way RF organise but they seem like they have some sort of organisation, discussion and decision making process which as we have seen can actually lead somewhere. I don't know how many people Rob claims to represent but it must be fairly substantial and if that's the case there should be something more formal in place for what is potentially the largest group of fans that could be a collective.
 
DimisLegCramps said:
MSF knew the prices were going up and didnt say anything, and people still think its fit for purpose. Look they will tell you what you want to hear, THE SUPER DUPER FANS
Click to expand...
Seems to me that RF are the "super duper fans" with their claims of single handed getting gibson to change policy and belittling MSF.

Why can't you all stop being difficult and argumentative and work for the good of the clubs success, it's surely what we all want
 
BoroMart said:
Seems to me that RF are the "super duper fans" with their claims of single handed getting gibson to change policy and belittling MSF.

Why can't you all stop being difficult and argumentative and work for the good of the clubs success, it's surely what we all want
Click to expand...

You’re a ra-ra, we get it. Fact is they’ve managed to make headway when everyone was telling them it was pointless. It’s a start towards genuine change. And they’re not claiming to have single-handedly done anything, we’ve just seen the impact they’ve had.

Cannot see any impact from the other groups aside from ‘support the team’ ‘this is only going to affect the players’ and ‘Mr Gibson has listened to your concerns’. They’re a mouthpiece for him and that’s it.
 
Scrug said:
You’re a ra-ra, we get it. Fact is they’ve managed to make headway when everyone was telling them it was pointless. It’s a start towards genuine change. And they’re not claiming to have single-handedly done anything, we’ve just seen the impact they’ve had.

Cannot see any impact from the other groups aside from ‘support the team’ ‘this is only going to affect the players’ and ‘Mr Gibson has listened to your concerns’. They’re a mouthpiece for him and that’s it.
Click to expand...
Ad hominem, I'm far from a ra-ra, I'm just a bit more balanced on the reality of the situation than some
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top