Fans group NUFC Fans United held their fourth meeting since forming back in August on Monday night and I went along to attend.
Held once again at the Tyneside Irish Centre there was more or less the same people that were at the groups second meeting I attended in September.
The group is basically about wanting to open and maintain channels of communication between the club and the fans.
Quite alot on the agenda again and first off was The Ticket for troops campaign.
This is an initiative thought up by the group and seems very popular in which it has the backing of the club, the group have been collecting ticket stubs from the Fiorentina pre season friendly match which got abandoned and to use them for a category C home game for people in HM forces and their families.
Some of these were used for the recent home game agaisnt Everton and its still an ongoing campaign for future home games.
The recent season ticket discount offer by the club was heavily discussed, apparently there has been some full price paying s/t holders that have been forced to move to make way for ones on the half price offer which begs the question would this offer had been made if we didnt have such a good start to the season?
Also are s/t holders paying full price who can only get new fans to sign up for the offer going to get something out of it like a free cup ticket should we get a home draw?
On the subject of tickets I brought it up that I noticed the next two away games against both Manc teams,we seem to be taking less tickets than normal for both games. We need to ask the club why is this the case and also how long the ban on the general sale of away tickets is going to last for after the events at Darlo.Apparently box office manager Simon Esland who was asked to attend the meeting but couldnt but could well attend a future meeting,so he may can give us answers to that.
Under UEFA directive, rules state that clubs must have a fans liasion officer and this was brought up in the meeting.
Back in 2000 the club appointed Steve Wraith,who told us about his time in the role in which to start with he didnt even have a desk or a phone for 2 weeks after he got the job!
The club done away with the position 18month later.
Who the club appoint is anyones guess, but what is the role of fans liasion officer?
All in all the group is certainly here to stay and they plan to hold meetings every month.
For more info go to http://www.nufcfansutd.com/index.html