Blues Trust

Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice

Blues Trust

Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice %

Blues Trust

Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice

BCFC: Meeting With New Owners

16 Aug 2023 | 15 comments

Last week was an exciting week for Blues fans. The new owners have continued apace with their refurbishment work at St. Andrew’s which, of course, hosted an emotional and gripping home curtain raiser to the new season on Saturday afternoon. As we all know, Tom Wagner and his colleagues were present including the legendary Tom Brady.

Behind the scenes there has been a lot of progress too, with the new owners and their executive team having already started to meet with supporter groups to better understand fan perspectives. Blues Trust has been invited to two such meetings in the last fortnight, including one with Tom Wagner and other members of the Board on Friday evening, and we wanted to give Trust members and other supporters an overview of those sessions.

From the Trust’s perspective we have been able to share with the new owners some background on the Trust and the work that has been undertaken in recent years. In particular with regard to the Fan Led Review, including our discussions with Tracey Crouch MP who chaired the Review, and also working with other fan groups to ensure the future wellbeing of the club. We also shared ideas and views on the need for a robust fan engagement strategy which, we hope, will lead to the development of a best in class fan engagement model which gives Blues fans a voice in governance and service delivery.

The new owners listened attentively to what we had to say and reaffirmed their commitment to develop proposals for fan engagement going forward. It was clear from the discussion that they take fan engagement very seriously, and want to establish a model that brings fan groups together with a common set of objectives.

It was also very clear from the discussions that the new owners are in this for the long term and are very keen to build the club and its revenue base. It was fully acknowledged by them, however, that short-term Profitability and Sustainability constraints will clearly have a part to play.

The Trust was delighted to participate in the initial discussions and looks forward to those discussions continuing into the future. They represent a very clear step change from what was on offer previously and, in the Trust’s view, all fans and supporter groups should take encouragement from the club’s new approach.

We will see where it takes us of course, but the Trust warmly welcomes the initiative taken by the club to reach out to supporter groups. For its part, the Trust will continue dialogue with the club as required and looks forward to helping to build what we hope will be an exemplary fan engagement strategy going forward.

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15 Comments

  1. Mark R

    That’s a really good sign, and no surprise bearing in what we’ve heard from Tom Wagner and Gary Cook so far.
    The lines of communication between our new owners and the fans is a tad different from the way things were with our previous shot-callers!!
    Make sure you let them know how much we appreciate their vision for Birmingham and BCFC, their efforts to date, their visibility, and the way they seem to be prioritising the fan experience.

    KRO

    • Ian Thomas Starks

      Did you ask them about the lack of staff at the grounds bars and pricing £6.90 a pint

  2. David Frankum

    I am very encouraged by all that the new owners are bringing to the Club and also the engagement with the Blues Trust. I did not want to complain direct to the Club regarding distribution of season tickets and as I am sure you have had other comments I simply want to add my own experience.

    Receipt of season tickets has always been a last minute issue but having renewed for myself, my son and 2 grandchildren on 6th July we have never received our tickets despite being assured that they had been posted by Friday 4th August. On Friday last my son took extra time in his lunch hour to go to the ticket office and obtain replacements. This is clearly not the experience that the owners would want for fans and I hope that arrangements will be far more efficient for next season.

    • Linda Magner

      I really hope the delay of the issue of tickets is a one off for the new owners. I bought mine on the day they came out and had to wait for 4 days before the first away game to receive them. I was told theyvarevissuedbin block order which I thing is the case and possibly Club Class was the last block to be issued. Is this where you sit?

  3. Fred Greaves

    This has been worth waiting for and it is a reward for all the hard work put in by the Trust. The future is definitely royal blue. Thank you for all you have done !

  4. Keith Purdom

    Delighted you were able to get our views across in a constructive way Keep up good work Ive not felt this good about a season for sooooo long and Im 63 years attending

    • Linda Magner

      Me neither. At first I was very reserved about what promises they were making but now they really do mean business. I am walking about feeling so proud but also in disbelief.

  5. Dougie Deans

    Really do hope this is a corner turned for all that are connected to BCFC, the road has been a long one I watch from afar (Stay in Scotland) my interest has always been “The Blues” KRO

  6. M Jones

    The overall BCFC website and especially the Ticketing site by TicketMaster is a shambles and the Trust should urge a custom re-build of the entire e-commerce activities to fit what will be an expanding Fanbase. Simply, if revenues need to increase, the new Management must make it “easy to buy”. I have given up a few times trying to buy online. Logins, passwords & site navigation is a mish-mash and not spend friendly at all. I am sure they are on this already…. but if it is difficult to buy revenues will be lost.

  7. Ray

    Cliff, Great post on meeting the new owners. Do they have a perspective on the Asset of Community Value registration on the pitch?

    • cliff

      They Know from us that St Andrews is an Asset of community Value. However the conversations were general and introductory so no discussion re this – so can not say what their perspective is. They are very much into serving the community generally and doing what fans want.

  8. Malcolm Stevens

    They will only meet with “fan groups” really? So nothing has changed then? These “fan groups” speak for themselves and their members and no one else. We all have equally valid input, we all spend what we can afford so we all deserve a chance to attend these meetings. Will you be pushing for that?

  9. Chris Evans

    I thought last weekend at the Leeds game was possibly best atmosphere since we reached Premiership 20 years ago
    Great buzz and impressive work done already on stadium
    Loved the fireworks pre match music tribute to TF. Result was icing on cake
    If I am fussy it’s a shame they don’t let Mr Blue Sky play until end. Was always part of build up the end bit clapping away!
    Ask the owners to get Jeff Lynne to ply it live on pitch. Surely if can get Tom Brady down Jeff a Blues fan should be easy!

  10. Global Blues

    A great day was had last Saturday, and for sure there’s at long last a new horizon that circulates around St.Andrews.
    Whilst we definitely need one, maybe two strikers(God knows how Hogan steals a living!), It was clear to see improvements have been made in a number of positions,and will only get better.
    A few teething problems have come about with the poor processing of season tickets (evident from other posts here),and in my case we ordered ours late June but despite an email later telling me they would be posted by the end of week commencing 31st May and then a couple of phone calls to further chase up, we received ours one day before the game! Totally inefficient and needs urgent review.
    Upon reaching the ground on Saturday we were searched at the turnstile(which I fully agree with) but upon being checked the steward conducting this never said ‘thankyou sir’,and I had already clocked this with other supporters ahead of me being treated in the same manner. Not a good advert for welcoming supporters,nor is it polite. I hope Gary Cooke and his hierarchy will address these and the other issues around the quality and over the top pricing of the catering.
    I have no doubt this new team in place at the club will address these issues in the short to medium term, and whilst any business is always a ‘work-in-progress’, it all boads well for an exciting future for BCFC.

  11. Eric Jones

    Thanx as always for your feedback – good news for Blues – KRO

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