The Fans Liaison Committee met for their second monthly meeting of 2007 on Monday 5th February.

Policing

Reviewing last months meeting which focused on policing issues, one member who had witnessed match day Police operations before the Leeds game gave some feedback on the experience, which took him to the ’Silver Command’ room at Queens Gardens and the ’Bronze Command’ station situated in the control box at the KC Stadium. An officer in attendance at the police briefing at 4pm that day was asked if there had been a change to regular briefings and said that before this game they were told that that ordinary supporters should be accorded with respect and that officers milling near the briefing room and refreshment facilities in the South/West corner should not be on view to supporters in the stands.

Some FLC members expressed cynicism, dismissing the attendance of Superintendent Sean White and Football Liaison Officer Gary Neale at the last FLC meeting as a PR move, one member said that an officer he knew said that they were told to treat all supporters the same, as potential trouble makers.

Still, the willingness of the Police to listen to and address supporters concerns is a step forward, previously they were not prepared to meet with the FLC whereas now they said they will attend whenever invited. It is clear that there are serious issues that need addressing, several incidents that occurred after the conclusion of the Leeds game were discussed. It was said that some 40-60 youths were ‘looking for trouble’ at the Leeds game, they did attend the game but apparently ‘are not regulars’. They were not the only source of incidents after the Yorkshire derby however.

Reviewing CCTV footage after that game the Club stumbled across some film which Chairman Adam Pearson described as ‘quite shocking’, it apparently shows an incident that was ultimately created by overzealous policing and ‘encapsulates all the issues [we] have over policing at the stadium’. The chairman could not elaborate further as after showing the tape to Humberside police, they have launched an investigation that is ongoing.

The club continue to maintain a dialogue with Humberside Police and both the chairman and stadium manager John Cooper seek to change ‘things which can tangibly improve’ such as having officers removing riot helmets when in the stadium. At the suggestion of the FLC, the Club will seek to establish a ‘code of conduct’ with expectations of the standard of policing at games documented. The club are slowly winning over the police on the issue of segregation, for example the rozzers wanted four rows of seats empty either side of the Leeds fans though eventually the club talked them down to two.

Away fans standing

Seeking notoriety, Leeds fans persistently stand at every away game and as a result many clubs in the Championship are reducing their ticket allocation by 10% for the next game each time they do so. One health and safety conscious FLC member said that Leeds fans should be forcibly removed for persistent standing, all of them if need be. While this may be ideologically sound, it is just not practical, there aren’t enough police in the stadium even at a category C game to forcibly eject thousands of away fans, never mind that doing so would incite infinitely more mayhem than is caused by a few thousand people standing up.

There was another, frankly quite foolish suggestion that we reduce capacity for Leeds but charge the fans that do attend more money to offset the reduction in away tickets sold. Apart from the fact this would be utterly unethical, Football League rules state that away fans cannot be charged more money than home fans for comparative seating, so charging Leeds fans more would require charging home fans in the South Stand more too.

Walkway Lighting

Lighting on the Londesborough Street walkway is poor and gives the place an air of eerie menace. This tract of land is the Council’s domain but the Club will let them know the current lighting is inadequate. It was noted that there are enough streetlights, just that many or either broken or just not turned on.

Perimeter Parking & Car Park Egress

People parked in the spaces around the perimeter of the stadium are still attempting to drive through crowds of people within 15 minutes of the game ending. This is against the terms and conditions of being a permit holder for these parking spaces and is obviously very dangerous. People found to be doing this are warned by letter that further violations will lead to the removal of their parking pass. Around ‘half a dozen’ people have had their passes rescinded for this but the FLO Danny Pratt admitted this is ‘a real problem’. Terms and Conditions will be printed on the perimeter parking passes from next season.

The club are pressing for the closure of Walton Street to incoming traffic after matches to improve the flow of traffic leaving the car park. Stadium Manager John Cooper is yet to receive an answer from the Council.

Food kiosks

One FLC member praised a recent offer on food from the concourse kiosks and asked if this would be repeated. The company in charge if catering at the stadium may intermittently run offers and the club will ask them if they could extend the offers, though there is no chance of refreshments prices being permanently reduced.

At a recent game the kiosks ran out of bread rolls for the hot dogs, and wouldn’t sell the sausages on their own. At another game the heat probes used to determine whether the pies had been cooked properly or not were not working, so pies were off the menu that day. Substitute heat probes will be kept in the kiosks to prevent such a happenstance occurring again, so rest assured that when you are able to buy one, your pie will have been probed. Eww.

Public Address

Everyone’s favourite Magic FM disc jockey was the topic for discussion again, and it was noted that after a brief period of improvement, PA Steve Jordan had eschewed a subdued style and gone back to bellowing into his microphone like Brian Blessed doing Ice T on karaoke.

Drawing almost unanimous criticism, even from the Chairman, was the announcement of the attendance at the Leeds home game. It may well have been a record attendance at the KC but saying so during the game just gave those in the away end ammunition to mock us with chants of ’2-1 in your cup final’ and ’you’ve only come to see the Leeds’ etc. Also, the ’giving birth speech’ (© Adam Pearson) of ’C’mon! C’Mon! C’MON!!!!’ in the nanoseconds leading up to kick off in an attempt to get the crowd going have crept back into the routine somewhat irritatingly.

It’s a great shame that it needs mentioning again because when Jordan had toned his style down a bit he got it spot on. The club will have a word.

Casino & Stadium Development

The Government’s licensing of a large casino to the city of Hull led to rather inevitable questions of whether it would be built near the stadium and finance the long ago proposed extension to the East Stand. The chairman feels there is now ’next to no chance’ of the casino being part of the stadium complex, saying that the now Lib-Dem ran Hull City Council would prefer it to be part of CityBuild’s planned regeneration of the Fruit Market area near the Marina.

Pearson has turned his attention to working with the Council to oversee development of a triangular tract of land adjacent to the stadium, it could be used to build a hotel, leisure facilities and accommodation for hospital staff. Any such development though is unlikely to help increase the capacity of the stadium.

Any capacity increase will be financed by the SMC and the chairman of both Hull City and the Stadium Management Company feels that wouldn’t need to happen until City had tasted Premiership football and shown they could achieve that status regularly.

Sports Bar

Attention turned to the Viking FM Sports Bar, which is supposed to be a members bar but in reality the yearly £25 payment to get in is more admission fee than true membership. It was asked if the bar could be linked to membership of the Official Supporters Club, or if the place could become simply pay on the day for all. There is a big difference between those suggestions so the club will have a think about how to structure sports bar admission.

Warm Up

Phil Parkinson’s rather odd preference of having the players warm up in front of the away fans before home games has been jettisoned by Phil Brown. The players now exercise in front of the South Stand in the build up to games.

Admission Prices and Passes

The next FLC meeting will have an agenda to discuss season ticket issues. The admission prices have been decided for 2007/2008 but are yet to be ratified, the club will hold one more meeting before announcing them. Tickets for certain areas of the ground will be offered at a ‘significant reduction’. Passes were on sale from March 13th last year and this years will go on sale at a similar date, though there will be no escalation in price until after April 18th so that fans unsure about renewing their season ticket will know what division City will be in next year.

This issue led to a brief discussion about admission prices up and down the country and the chairman said he believes that the maximum price of a Premiership game should be £25, and that as originally planned, the television money should offset the cost of cheaper tickets. Clubs in the Premier League now receive £40M a year from the BSkyB and overseas transmission deals, and can easily afford to absorb any loss in ticket revenue should they reduce match day prices.

There is a growing consensus among Championship clubs that action needs to be taken to halt the slide in attendances and even some Premiership clubs have joined the chorus when talking about prices being set at a sensible level. (LM)