The Fans Liaison Committee met for its final gathering of 2006 on Monday 4th December.

Occurring on the day that Adam Pearson dispensed with manager Phil Parkinson, that event understandably overshadowed fans concerns about queues at the beer kiosks and hot water in the womens bogs. The Chairman was quite willing to discuss the termination of the managers contract and the search for a new boss, but it was decided that we’d conduct the meeting as normal and then move on to that topic.

So, to begin proceedings, the club’s latest boardroom recruit was introduced – Andy Dawson, formerly Commercial Manager of Derby County. He has been brought to the club by Adam Pearson to strengthen the club’s commercial activities, and brings with him experience of working at a fellow Championship club in a modern stadium.

Programme
The first supporter issue raised was the club’s programme. Although everyone agreed that it is an excellent product, sales remain low, both in real terms and as a ratio compared with other clubs in the division. Part of this is down to the price, with many feeling that £3 for a matchday programme is too expensive. The chairman noted that this is the standard cost throughout the division, but observed that in the future it may be better to have a smaller programme with fewer pages costing less money, as many of the featured content could easily be transferred over to the monthly City mag. Part of Andy Dawson’s brief is to raise the programme penetration rates, as it is apparently termed, up to a level more consistent with our Championship rivals.

East stand Stewarding
Overzealous stewarding in the north-east corner was discussed, with one committee member passing on a complaint that a fan was instructed to sit under pain of ejection while just to his right several hundred away fans were allowed to stand. Although the club cannot openly tolerate persistent standing without risking the removal of the licence for some areas of the ground, the stewards are discreetly asked to take a common sense approach. The chairman noted that the more experienced stewards are posted to this area, and that they generally will not take swingeing action against standing supporters unless it is considered necessary at the time. Interestingly, the chairman noted that a Stoke supporting acquaintance of his who went in the away end for our recent fixture against them offered praise to the stewarding operation.

Away fans in west Stand
The amount of away fans seated in home areas of the ground at the Sunderland game was discussed. The club took the decision on the day that the situation was manageable in terms of leaving Sunderland fans in situ – despite it being technically an offence to enter home areas as an away fan, the club could not follow its customary procedure of escorting them to the away end as it was full and considered that mass ejections would cause more ill-feeling. Situations such as this are taken on a match-by-match basis however, and if the club believes that visiting fans in the Upper or Lower West stand are causing a problem they reserve the right to act. It was noted that most of the Sunderland fans in home areas were in the West Stand as guests of hospitality box owners. Those with corporate boxes have been notified that they are responsible for the behaviour of their guests.

Mascot package
One supporter asked for some positive feedback for the club’s mascot packages to be noted – the chairman and FLO both observed that praise for these packages is commonplace and the club are very proud of the service they provide for younger supporters wishing to be mascots for the day.

Public address
Predictably, the practice of the PA announcer prompting the crowd to recite a goalscorer’s name was moaned about again. It was decided at the last meeting that it would be given a bit longer, but it hasn’t really caught on and even Adam Pearson terms it ‘hard work’, Chairman speak for ‘a bit naff’ we assume. Granted, the scarcity of goals and lack of good football is not conducive to raising enthusiasm for it, but it’s likely the practice will be dropped. If there is a consensus amongst the committee to do so then it will be gone, but at this meeting there were other things on our mind. As for Steve Jordan, his recent improvements in delivery and tone were praised. One member observed that he sometimes seems to be giving out “too much information” that sounds almost like a barrage, though that’s the fault of whoever tells him what to say, not of the announcer himself. Andy Dawson commented that he’s among the better PA announcers he’s come across in the Championship, damnation with faint praise indeed.

Admission prices
The Chairman was asked if anything concrete had been decided upon with regard to the mooted price reductions for next season. At present, the club is “out of step” with the rest of the division in terms of the ticket prices for under-7s, and the club needs to catch up with some of the successful initiatives being run by our rivals. Although nothing has been documented yet, the club is minded to lower both “entry-level season ticket and matchday ticket costs”, with the Upper West stand being the likeliest area for this.

Marketing
The chairman feels the club may have become a little complacent in marketing the club to attract new supporters during the promotion seasons, and that the dropping gates now are a consequence of this. To address the problem, more initiatives will be launched to attract children, with the focus on targeting parents rather than schoolteachers, the former being more likely to give up their time than the latter. City will also look at restoring some of the schemes in place from the Boothferry Park days, when local businesses were given a couple of cut-price tickets in exchange for arranging for a group of people to attend. Although announced attendance figures suggest there are usually 15,000 at the KC Stadium, this figure can be misleading as it is not just a count of those passing through the turnstiles. It is that number added to the number of passholders or corporate ticket holders, so the announced figure will include passholder and corporate no-shows. Recently the actual figure of people in the ground has been nearer to 13,000, so the club are aware of the need to attract more paying customers.

Merchandise
On the subject of merchandise, the Chairman feels that the current range is of good quality and superior to stock sold in recent years. A request for more (and more faithful to the originals) retro shirts was noted.

Concourse TVs
The long-running issue of the televisions on the concourse may be finally solved (breath not held) – any area in which a television is not currently placed is one that is not intended to have one. Some have been removed so as not to encourage large numbers of people congregating in some areas in an already overcrowded concourse. However, in order to hopefully stem the complaints about missing sets, the club will look at removing the empty brackets that remain. The remaining TV’s have been serviced so those that haven’t been turned on recently are definitely not faulty, they’ve just been turned off by some dilweed steward. Dilweed stewards will be told not to turn TV’s off.

Smoking ban
80% of fans voted in favour of a smoking ban in a recent poll ran by the club. The club are happy to implement such a ban whenever the committee feels it necessary, although with Football League likely to impose such restrictions next summer this may not be necessary. Once this diktat is received, the club will examine ways of facilitating those who wish to smoke at half-time, possibly by copying Derby’s excellent system of creating a small pen outside the ground that is fully stewarded and may offer catering facilities too.

Away Direct
Negative comments about the seating allocation for Away Direct members at Norwich were once again raised, although some present thought there seats at Carrow Road were quite good. The club is usually instructed by the home side to sell tickets farthest from the home fans first, although City do seek to over-ride this instruction by offering the best seats to Away Direct members wherever possible.

Playing kit
One member requested that City wear black and amber at away games wherever possible in the future. The reason behind the recent spate of wearing light blue at away matches was due to Phil Parkinson, who wanted to stick with the same kit that brought success at Southend. Next season’s kits, which the chairman is yet to unveil (likewise the sponsor), will be ‘more sharp and crisp in design’. Although Adam Pearson has steadfastly refused to reveal the identity of the new supplier, we have a sneaky feeling it will be a company who’s logo is a double diamond. Ahem. the new away kit will be all white, a welcome return to tradition.

Miscellaneous
Although they are not convinced of the need for such a service, the ticket office will trial-run opening after home games – the fixtures on which it does so will be announced shortly.

The club is reviewing the matchday bookmaker arrangements, new commercial director Andy Dawson bragged of his contacts with Ladbrokes and he will oversee the replacement of the current company running the concourse bookies.

The Sports Bar was praised, ‘very good’ said the Sports Bar rep who has been asking for more stools since the move to the KC Stadium, he’s finally got them! The new bar manager was complimented also. The club wishes to restore interest in the bar, and as well as cutting the admission cost will seek to advertise it more heavily now that the facilities within are improved.

City have an initial allocation of 3,000 tickets for the Leeds away fixture – this is likely to suffice, although more can be requested if necessary.

A request from a supporter for a pre season tour of Norway was aired but not commented upon.

Parkinson Departure
External advice was extensively sought by the Chairman before the Parkinson appointment in the summer and he was the standout choice. Adam Pearson feels that fundamentally Phil Parkinson is a good manager and that he will succeed at another club, though he acknowledges that any success may come as a result of lessons learned from his time at Hull City. If appointing him was a mistake then it was a mistake that several other clubs were prepared to make in the summer, Ipswich, Derby, Preston and Charlton all courted Parkinson but he chose to come here and at the time it was seen as a coup to land such a highly thought of, up and coming boss. Pearson doesn’t feel another Championship chairman would have chosen differently.

Asked when the decision to push Parkinson was made, the Chairman said he was happy with the Norwich performance, feeling we had turned the corner, and was ‘110% behind him at that point’. Even after the Colchester debacle which was described as ‘a major concern’, the decision to move the manager on had not been made. He said it was as late as Sunday afternoon following the Southampton defeat, when after pondering the next six games, games he feels are ‘vital’ to City’s chances of retaining Championship status, he didn’t feel confident that Parkinson could have inspired the players to produce the performances needed.

Did the Chairman regret giving Phil Parkinson the public backing he gave him? It’s a tricky one he concedes. Maybe in hindsight to say the manager would not be sacked no matter what happens was not right but he wants to give the manager an atmosphere he can work in and not feel he cannot do his job properly because of the threat of the sack. Pearson pointed to the recent situation at Norwich where the boss was told he had three games to get it right, this isn’t right says Adam, all you get then is ‘a dead man walking’. He knows as well that the press will not accept a simple ‘the manager has the backing of the club’ statement and will continually ask ’so how long has he got then?’ in response which leads to unequivocal backing to (hopefully) end the speculation and let the manager get on with his job.

When asked how this leaves the club from a financial standpoint the Chairman stressed that ‘we shouldn’t be hung up on finances’ and that the amount of compensation due to the manager should he be fired was never a factor in whether he stayed. He did though admit that the sheer amount of money spent by Parkinson since the summer will hinder the next manager, adding that ‘a substantial amount of private income’ injected into the club has been spent. The Chairman added that the club is financially structured so that we could handle relegation if it were to happen, ‘it doesn’t frighten us going down, it frightens us more finding the money to stay up!’. Even if relegation would not be financially debilitating the Chairman knows it must be avoided for the sake of ‘the momentum of the football club’. Where finances are concerned Pearson feels the club will have to trade better in the future, and that maybe our rigid ‘we’re not a selling club’ ideology will need some change. The chairman also believes that for the third season is a row the recruitment of players was done poorly, and while he acknowledges that he is the man signing the cheques, he wants to give the Hull City manager, whoever that may be, his full backing in the transfer market and will continue to do so.

Where did it all go wrong? Adam Pearson feels that a mistake was made not getting the backroom staff right from the start, a situation that led to a change in late October when Frank Barlow departed and Phil Brown was brought in. When asked the question himself, Parkinson said that he felt the fitness of the players going into the season was wholly inadequate and felt during the West Brom game on opening day that this was a big problem since the club faced 3 games in 8 days. Because of this concern, the manager adopted a conservative approach following the game at The Hawthorns and felt we never fully recovered from a poor start, a start he attributes to the players not taking fitness seriously enough. The players have been told in no uncertain times that they have let a good man down, and Pearson feels that the respect that the players have for the club has been eroded in the last three months. The players also know how important the next six games are

No timeframe has been set for the appointment of a new manager, and Phil Brown and Colin Murphy need to be given time to prepare the team for Saturday’s trip to Plymouth. Asked what he’s looking for in a boss the Chairman said we need ‘an impact manager’ with experience. An internal appointment hasn’t been ruled out, and Brown and Murphy are said to have a good rapport with the players, but Pearson will wait to see if any external managers come forward in the next 24 hours and will choose the outstanding candidate. Asked if he knows who he wants, the Chairman simply replied ‘yes’.

Next month
The next meeting will take place on Monday 8th January 2007. The guest for this will be Sean White, the matchday commander of Humberside Police, who has accepted in writing an invitation from Danny Pratt to attend and answer the many concerns about the policing of City fixtures.

We would therefore like to invite as many comments and suggestions as possible for him. Mr White is the man accountable for the policing at the Circle and is perfectly placed to explain their actions and decisions. A thread will be opened on the message board closer to the time, however if you simply can’t wait to get your message to Mr White, please feel free to e-mail the editors at the usual addresses.

Andy Dalton/Les Motherby

FLC meetings are normally held on the first Monday of each month but this one was delayed because of the unavailability of the Chairman and FLO on the 4th. No bad thing that, since City had mustered just one solitary point by the start of the month and propped up the division, a meeting then would have been a very solemn occasion indeed.

Not so now, since City have won two on the bounce, and questions for the chairman have become ‘that song we play when the players run out is crap, can we change it?’ as opposed to ‘are we going to be relegated? Should I drown myself if so?’.

Public Address and Scoreboard
It was the pre match routine and Steve Jordan’s manner on the mic that kicked off the meeting. A fair few people had expressed dismay that Republica’s ‘Ready to go’ was no longer the song the players run out to, it having been replaced by Planet Funk’s ‘Chase the Sun’, which also soundtracks televised Darts coverage.

The Chairman thought this had been changed at the behest of the supporters, but this is not the case, at previous FLC meetings it had been mentioned that some felt the ‘loop music’ played before the ‘Tiger Tiger’ intro kicked in was getting a little stale and needed refreshing, but nobody had moaned about the use of ‘Ready to go’ at previous meetings. It should not be a problem returning to the ‘Tiger Tiger’ then ‘Ready to go’ set up.

Announcer Steve Jordan continues to divide supporter opinion, some feel the ‘round the ground’ pre match routine has had it’s day, that he tends to bellow when just talking will suffice when a mic is being used making some utterances sound garbled, that repeating the goalscorers first name in the hope the crowd will chant the surname and screeching ‘get behind the Tigers, come on!’ before the kick offs is both embarrassing and a nauseating attempt to choreograph the fans.

Though accepting some of the points made, Adam Pearson said that he had received contrary viewpoints about Steve Jordan from people quite happy with his style and method. He said that going round the ground does get the desired response prior to kick off but agrees that exhorting supporters to ‘get behind the Tigers!’ is a bit much, there was a consensus around the table and that element will be dropped. As for the goalscorers name being stated twice, the second time just the first name so fans chant the surname, the Chairman said this appears quite popular to him.

On a show of hands to determine who was in favour of this and who was against, the committee was split. As a result it was decided that this will remain for now, but that the practice had to be done ‘tighter’, it must be announced as quickly after the goal is scored as possible so it’s done before play has recommenced. Although abominations such as drummers and music after goals are unlikely to inflicted upon us any time soon, the chairman noted that some elements of crowd prompting are useful for younger supporters. Striking a balance between maintaining a traditional atmosphere and including younger fans is imperative.

It was decided that when reading half time scores, results from the division City are in should be announced before those from other divisions, and these should appear on the scoreboard also. The practice of showing other scores on the electronic board was observed last season but it hasn’t happened so far this term. Both teams line ups should be displayed before kick off too.

On the subject of scoreboards the Chairman said the club would be in a position to afford a giant screen next summer, but it’s all a question of priorities. Such a screen would cost £250,000 to buy and around £70,000 a year to run, and if the club feel the money would be better spent on a new player at the time, then we are more likely to make a signing rather than a TV purchase.

The Council’s bus
The issue of the bus for supporters with disabilities being parked outside the South Stand after home games was raised for the infinitieth time. Stadium Manager John Cooper is satisfied that there is no health and safety issue with it being there even though some supporters feel it hampers mass egress from the stadium complex.

Walkway lighting
The walkway from the Anlaby Road flyover to the stadium complex is poorly illuminated. The club will ask Hull City Council to review the matter.

Away Direct and Ticketing
Several complaints were made about Away Direct members being allocated poor seats at recent fixtures, Birmingham being a notable example. This is frequently due to home clubs insisting upon a certain pattern of sales due to segregation reasons. However, Away Direct members are supposed to be given the best tickets for away fixtures and the club will disregard unreasonable selling instructions to ensure this is done in the future. Complaints of this nature were made last season and it may explain why the number of supporters choosing to be part of the Away Direct scheme has dropped significantly. It was also noted that tickets for Southampton have been sent out already, the fixture isn’t until November and there are three away fixtures between now and then.

Away ticket postage was raised. Although the committee was successful in ensuring that season tickets were posted out in unmarked envelopes, tickets for away matches can easily be identified as they are sent in windowed envelopes. This may be behind a number of instances of tickets going missing.

City have requested an allocation of 5,000 tickets for the trip to Elland Road in December, Sunderland received that amount recently. Leeds United had their first meeting with the Polizei about the fixture last week and because of their parlous financial situation are hoping for the maximum number of briefs to be allocated to Tiger Nationals. If the police reject the request for 5,000, we will get 3,200 tickets with travelling restrictions highly unlikely. No alteration to the kick-off time is envisaged.

Sales for the Crystal Palace game are in line with expectations, with a crowd of around 18,000 anticipated. The chairman compared our away support favourably to most of the division, noting that Coventry and Derby combined barely brought a thousand to the Circle.

Season ticket holders on a 4/6 month payment scheme will soon receive a mailshot inviting them to switch to the popular 12 month payment scheme for next season. The scheme allows you to pay for your pass in twelve instalments – eleven at 1/11th of the present price, with the twelfth payment including the final balance plus any increase in price for next season.

The club will trial opening the ticket office after games for a short time following several requests. Previously the view was taken that this was not necessary as there are now several ways to purchase tickets as well as in person at the stadium, such as on the web, by phone or at the new kiosk under the City Hall.

Official Website
Last month we raised a supporter’s issue regarding the dearth of information on the clubs juniors on the OWS. An update was made but this has since been the only one, and the supporter was seeking regular updates about the youth set up. This comment will be passed on to the OWS editor.

Youth development
How is the academy facility at Ideal Standard progressing? Building work has slowed down somewhat as a need has been identified for more dressing rooms that was originally planned. The pitches are practically ready though and should be in use in a matter of weeks. The club are keen to enter the FA Academy League to improve the level of oppostion the juniors face. A proposal for a Championship reserve league, split North and South, will be discussed at a forthcoming meeting of Championship clubs, this too would raise the standard of opposition faced by our reserves, which will include members of the youth team. The Chairman is confident the proposal will be given the green light and the regionalised league should kick off next season. The present reserve set-up that City are part of does not provide strong enough opposition either for first-teamers dropping down to the stiffs or for improving young players.

Refreshment costs
The high cost of matchday refreshments was commented on by one supporter. The Chairman observed that the price of food and drink is comparable to other social activities (he cited Lightwater Valley as an example) although he agreed that it is higher than is ideal. The costs incurred running the refreshment kiosks, there are 700 matchday staff to pay on a matchday, dictate that items cannot be sold as cheap as they can at a newsagents or a garage. Contracts with suppliers also mean that the club cannot just slash prices on a whim. Adam Pearson takes the view that he should focus on ticket prices, catering costs are very unlikely to fall, so he is looking at ways of making entry to games more affordable.

City’s monthly wage bill is approaching half a million pounds, and with gate receipts just making six-figures, the club has to look at other streams of revenue to make up the shortfall. Sky Sports only chip in £60,000 for televised fixtures and arguably that is lost when some supporters choose to watch at home or in the pub rather than in the stadium.

Several Championship chairmen have made noises about making football more affordable, although all are aware that lowering costs places them at an immediate disadvantage. Pearson hopes that a consensus will emerge in the next few years that prices simply have to stop rising in order to reduce the risk of pricing fans out of the game. He stressed that if City ever made the Premier League, the TV money would probably be so great that a reduction to £15 per ticket would be feasable.

Issues about the quality of the catering service were also raised. The club feel this is down to the average age of the staff – the club would like more mature individuals to be serving, but they are not able to recruit them as easily as teenagers.

Sponsorship and Revenue
City are in talks with a new sponsor to replace Bonus who will not renew when their deal expires at the end of the season. The Chairman was staying tight lipped about the new backers identity, though he feels it is a done deal. The Gemtec back of shirt sponsorship deal gives them the option to renew for a second season, replica shirts will not carry the Gemtec logo on the back of the shirt if the deal is extended though supporters will have the option to have it screened on. City would only seek a replacement sponsor for the back of the shirt “if the money is right”.

The Chairman stressed the importance of revenue from the League Cup, accusing many Championship clubs of endangering one of the games last means of redistributing wealth from the top tier down. If Championship teams field reserve sides, this makes it far easier for the Premier League teams to follow suit, devaluing the whole competition to the point at which it may be killed off. City will be fielding strong sides in the Cups this season and the manager is determined to make lengthy progress in them both, which is a welcome change for Adam Pearson.

Stewarding
Are the stewards at the KC adversarial? Some wondered just what the female Tranmere fan who was forcefully ejected during the 1st Round League Cup game at the stadium had done to deserve such treatment, and the pointlessly confrontational attitude shown towards a group of young City fans in the North East corner that evening was questioned. This seems to be an issue at the start of each season, when new recruit stewards display overzealous tendencies, with more intolerance of intermittent standing a particular problem. The club will review all ejections to date this season to see if any have been unreasonable and indicative of an overall deficiency in this area.

Smoking poll
The recent OWS poll to gauge opinion on a possible smoking ban at the KC Stadium received just over 2000 votes. The results were 75%-25% in favour of a ban. 68% of those in favour of a ban were non smokers. Of the 25% who voted against a smoking ban, 15% indicated they were not smokers. A smoking ban in the stadium then is inevitable, but there is no inclination from the club to rush things, they would like to further explore the idea of smoking pens, fenced off areas outside the ground that people can stand and smoke in at half time.

Miscellaneous
A question raised on behalf of ‘someone who likes mascots’ (oh dear) queried why other clubs don’t bring their grown men in furry suits to the KC Stadium for interactive japery with Roary. City do permit teams to bring their mascot with them but many choose not to.

The magnificent fighting Marines and a ball-juggler have been booked for upcoming half-time entertainment, and Tony Norman has been invited to be a special guest for the Sunderland home fixture.

There was some confusion about whether the Tiger Travel coaches are permitted to make drop offs at various locations. Officially they only stop for alighting at the KC Stadium and that’s the line the ticket office will trot out, though in practice stops are made. This is completely at the driver’s discretion, though they are being encouraged to do more, particularly when returning from night matches.

It was suggested that the club could do more to promote itself around the City. In years gone by a tiger striped bus stalked the city, there was a Hull City taxi and outside Boothferry Park billboards advertised the next home game. Hull FC do a fair bit of this, the next fixture is displayed on posters in the old Black and Decker shop opposite Pozition nightclub, that vintage record shop on Spring Bank has a big picture of Hull FC players holding aloft the Challenge Cup and beneath it are details of how to buy season tickets. One suggestion was a board or banner in Paragon Station welcoming people to Hull, home of the Tigers. The McDonalds opposite Elland Road is Leeds United themed, could one of the fast food restaurants in the city centre display a framed signed City shirt to increase exposure of the club to junk food addled youths? The club inviting further suggestions.

Finally, the chairman discussed a few team matters. The club turned down a couple of bids and enquiries for players as the transfer deadline approached, the Chairman wouldn’t divulge details but said that Leeds made no approach for Jon Parkin despite media reports to the contrary. Stephen McPhee will be fit and playing by December, the club was very eager to extend his contract despite his prolonged injury problems as he is viewed as a valuable asset and one they don’t want to lose on a free transfer. Much of the thinking behind the recent acquisitions was the manager identifying a need for greater leadership on and off the pitch. He has brought in experienced players who add to the dressing room, and the early indications are that this policy may prove successful.

The next meeting will take place early in November. Topics to be taken forward from this meeting and discussed further are:

- advertising for the club, both in Hull and beyond. What can the club do to continue raising its profile?

- Off the pitch, what should the matchday routine be like? What role should the stadium announcer play? What music should be played?

Les Motherby