Well, congratulations chaps and chapesses. You’ve made it through the summer – and what a slow summer it was! With no World Cup or European Championships to get us all excited, this summer has gone very slowly for this particular fan, I can tell you. We’ve seen plenty of change during that time, however – and we go into the new season with a completely new side, a new manager and some new tactics. People may point to the relative lack of strength of the squad, but I’d much rather we were in this position, rather than having given half a team of thirtysomethings a retirement fund to see out their careers at Priestfield. In terms of the quality of football and our subsequent relegation, we hit the bottom last season. Now we’re in a position to bounce back.
That’s not to say that we’re going straight back up this time round, however. We’ve had to rebuild our side through a combination of trialists and free transfers – and our squad probably isn’t quite strong enough to endure a promotion campaign. A few injuries or suspensions to key players could hit us hard this season. But for the first time in years we’re in the pack of possible challengers. The playing field is a lot more level in this division – and with only a couple of notable exceptions, we’re in the same boat as most of our rivals.
So what should we expect this season? I reckon that a top ten finish is a realistic target – and top six would represent a superb campaign. To finish the coming season in the playoffs after the last two years would be just reward for the fans, who’ve shown incredible support to the club in recent seasons.
On the pitch things are being dealt with, but off it there is clearly still much to do. With Paul Scally financially restructuring the club over the summer, we should be a leaner, more efficient club from this season – and that should benefit us in the medium term. But in my opinion he’s made one major decision badly wrong this summer. I expect at this point people are thinking I’m going to criticise the season ticket vouchers – and they’d be right, but for different reasons to those many people may be thinking.
I can completely understand the thinking behind the vouchers. The idea is the fans can give them to friends so they can come to Gills matches for a cheaper price. Hopefully we’ll do well on the day and the newbies will decide to come back, perhaps regularly. That all makes sense to me. What doesn’t make sense is the way these vouchers were promoted to the fans. If you think back, there was a statement from the chairman saying how grateful he was to those who renewed their season tickets early – and that there would be an ‘Exciting Announcement’ to follow. The reward for purchasing your season ticket early has turned out to be precisely nothing.
We all know about the sliding scale of the prices for renewals, but leaving that aside, there was absolutely no benefit to renewing early. Yet the club built up to the news of these vouchers as if they were really grateful to the fans and they would repay them in one form or another. The announcement of the vouchers was not only distinctly unexciting (I’ve yet to hear from a fan who felt even a tingle of excitement at the news when it broke), but also vague.
There was talk of ‘money off vouchers’, but when they eventually came, those vouchers couldn’t be used by the very people who were supposed to be the ones the club were rewarding for their loyalty. Only juveniles received any benefit whatsoever, with their voucher for a tenner off a replica shirt. The adults received vouchers for games that they’d already paid for. As a result, the vast majority of these vouchers are going to end up in the bin rather than back in the club’s hands (with increased revenue).
Indeed, season ticket holders have actually seen their benefits DECREASE from last season. Forget the fact that we have to endure a lower standard of football for prohibitively high prices,
I understand the financial restraints the club is under. We can’t offer thousands of cheap tickets for kids, and we can’t afford to slash our ticket prices to a competitive level as it will result in a lower turnover, so what we’ve been offered probably IS the best the club could offer this season. I also believe the chairman is doing what he feels is in the best interests of the football club - and I back him in that regard. It's just the apparent lack of forethought with regard to the club's PR that has left me dismayed yet again.
What I’m dismayed with is the way these non-existent benefits were sold to the fans. Why not just front-up and explain the situation? Football fans would respect the honesty a lot more than empty promises of ‘Exciting News’ and fan benefits. I think the vast majority of fans would understand the situation we currently find ourselves in – and would not just respect the club for explaining the situation to the fans, but they’d also feel more of an affinity with the club and feel more empowered to support the club through these difficult times. It’s another PR own-goal – and yet again, it’s one that could so easily have been avoided.
I support the club and understand the situation we find ourselves in, but if we’re to move forward we need the support of the fans – and bad PR such as this is not just damaging the club’s reputation with its own fans, but it will also cost it money. We have these vouchers that we cannot use. We can’t buy merchandise with them, we can’t use them in the Blues Rock Café or use them for away day coach travel. All we can do is try to convince friends to come along to watch the Gills, but the prohibitive pricing structure means that even with a £10 discount, many friends of fans will feel the price of watching a match in English football’s third tier is still overpriced, especially with the ludicrous match grading scheme making watching a League One game with Nottingham Forest more expensive than watching a Premiership match. The truth is, we’ve all probably tried to get more of our mates to come along to the games before, but they’ve either decided it’s too expensive, it’s not entertaining enough, or simply that we’ve had a crap side – and who wants to shell out in excess of £20 to watch that? Besides, they can’t even sit with you anyway.
The honest truth of the matter is watching football at
The club is more likely than not to see attendances fall in its core support this season, as some fans have opted to pick and choose games, so the club’s only hope for improved attendances (or at least attendances similar to what we had last season) is to see a winning team on the field. Hopefully under Neale Cooper, that won’t be too long in coming. We’ve got an excellent manager with a point to prove and I’m confident he can give us a far more entertaining season this term.
First up it’s Colchester United at Priestfield – and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. Hopefully we can kick off with a bang and score a few goals. Woudn't it be great to be top of the league at 5pm on Saturday? Here's hoping...
Enjoy the season and up the Gills
Headley