Newest article: Re: Fake news by MCYesterday 21:07Yesterday at 21:07:41 1 personview thread
Oldest article: Ground share statement by www.kingstonian.com12/5/2023 14:17Fri May 12 14:17:51 2023 3 people 10 peopleview thread
Next thread: U18s Fixture: Corinthian-Casuals vs Kingstonian by Damo9/10 22:42Wed Oct 9 22:42:47 2024view thread
Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 588
In a thread below the question was posed as to why fans seemed just a little ambivalent towards the "successes" of this K's team. Third in the league, lots of goals, a likeable manager...
Perhaps last night exemplifies the problem. It is pretty obvious that we concede too many goals, against good teams and even sometimes against very bad teams. Either we have bad defenders or the team isn't too interested in defending. We're told on occasion that this is a function of "how we want to play" but the goals don't seem to come from that.
Then there's the experience of Step 4. This is not the Step 4 of even 5 years ago. The number of leagues in the London/South-east region means the decent clubs/teams are scattered across three divisions rather than the traditional two - and the bottom half of each league is made up of pub/park/Combined Counties dross. Yes, it's good that this K's team (with an expensive front four) can slice through the worst teams but, as was shown by our abysmal capitulations in the FA Cup and Trophy (and some league games), the big victories we've seen have felt a little empty and deceptive.
As to the long season ahead: Farnham are running away with the league. Perhaps we will make the play-offs but there's little sign we'd be able to compete with a good team in a knockout match; nor is it clear that we can afford to be at Step 3 anyway. It brings us back to the strategic direction of the club - accepting relegation last season and then seeking to spend a way to promotion the following campaign.
All of this pales into insignificance next to the latest ground news. It is 2024 and we're at square one. As was communicated to the Supporters Club las week: "Yioryos explained that the Club had a further meeting planned for late October with Kingston Council to examine what other options it might be able to offer us and what other help it might be able to give the Club."
Read that quote again. It is profoundly depressing.
Elsewhere, the club - despite Yiorgios's explicit promises - has failed to improve its communication channels. The Twitter is virtually moribund, the instagram features one post per week, there are no player or management video interviews, no goal footage and, generally, little sign of life. The Supporters Club has, to some extent, stepped into the breach but understandably want distance from a discredited ownership. If the Board cannot attract young, capable volunteers, it should ask itself why. If it doesn't have the skills itself, or won't invest in professionals, then nothing is going to change soon. They don't seem to understand that communication is a form of marketing. There are Step 5 clubs who do a better job of generating interest and fans via social media. Scott Harris, of all people, knows this. Crowds remain stubbornly sub-200 (actual people in the ground).
To put one thing to bed: those who previously volunteered are not absent because "they will only do it if they're allowed to run the club". They are not volunteering because they do not have faith in the leadership skills and bona fides of the Chairman, whose sorry record over the last decade is known to all.
"Get behind the club", someone will say below. Alas, many of us have tried ...
ps. Bring back Tears for Fears.
reply to this article | return to the front page
14 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 446
Yes good first step bring back tears for fears. Second step stop listening to stupid blind rhetoric from the likes of big Dave who we know couldn't pick his nose let alone a team ,who ever called him a brown nosey got it spot on.Third if they could make it common knowledge who was the building expert they consulted and how much they paid him from their ( own pockets) perhaps they would get a bit more help.
reply to this article | return to the front page
4 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 465
For what it's worth, I started doing the Instagram account in early 2018 when it had been dead for a few months, and ran it for a few years. Think we went from 300 to 3000 followers in that time.
I barely bothered at the back-end of last season as we were literally trying to get relegated and playing in bloody Mitcham, so we had nothing to shout about, and then in the summer someone else seemingly took it over so I bowed out.
That person seems to have stopped doing it, so if needed I'd happily do bits for it again.
The funny thing is that one trump card we have as a club is the services of photographer Simon Rowe who is genuinely excellent, so it's an easy enough task.
But of course over the relevant six-year period I've had absolutely no communication with anyone from the club (aside from an email with Rob, always helpful, a couple of years back saying I'd happily keep on doing it so he didn't have to). Kinda think that shows how little the people running from the club care about marketing / communication / getting the club out there.
And as mentioned so many times, some of us who tried to get involved in the running of the club last year do this stuff as our day jobs and (in my view) when we were collectively doing programme / twitter / insta / youtube a couple of years ago the quality was pretty good.
But efforts were never acknowledged by the club, then we were treated pretty badly with regard to takeover stuff, so why would people bother to keep on doing it all?
Anyway, there's been no sign of life on the Instagram for a week. If there's no further action by the weekend, I'll happily start doing it again. That's how 'communication' at this club seems to work!
reply to this article | return to the front page
7 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 424
This is all true, but I think the thing that's really killing us is that we don't seem to have any kind of mailing list. We could easily have built up a database of 100s maybe even 1000s of floating fans if we'd done this over the last decade or so, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be something that has ever existed.
And we have absolutely no presence in Kingston - I'm not sure when I last saw a poster/flyer promoting the club, but I think it was probably six or seven years ago.
reply to this article | return to the front page
5 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 440
I'll start by paying respects to Simon Roe and Rob W, both of whom do a great job. And John Bangs, who posts and shares and likes stuff on Facebook quite a bit, and is kind enough to say nice things about the SC's efforts. I think we should also acknowledge Jonathan Blakeley's live commentaries. It's excellent communication, it is a form of marketing.
In our meeting with the Directors last week, we set out what the SC does to help the Club. (It's quite a lot, it takes up a lot of time, and not all of it is free.) Next item on the agenda asked what the Club could do to help the SC - and was met was blank faces. Despite sending them the agenda over a week earlier, they had nothing to suggest. (Actually, Jim Page did suggest that he will buy a golden goal ticket, but only if all the Committee Members of the Supporters Club buy a season ticket. It should be noted that of all the Directors of the Football Club, only John Bangs is a member of the Supporters Club.)
The SC now has a (GDPR compliant) mailing list of over 100 people, which has grown again this week. People are reading the newsletters, clicking on the links, and forwarding them to other people. We have had new members join us this week, too. (Welcome to you all.) The blogsite had nearly 300 views yesterday - the Match Centre has quickly become the essential source of information for each first team game, and Simon Grier's superb articles on Four Goal Hauls was hugely popular. (If you've not read it yet, it's a cracking read. Click here.) More recently, the SC has also started publishing "Player Q&A" interviews, to help the supporters get to know the players.
The Directors' response to our efforts? Because they didn't want us to share the minutes of last week's meeting, they have now told us they will "not meet with us again, and any future interaction with fans will be by way of an open forum or something similar". So that'll happen, than. Every 6 or 8 weeks, presumably.
Kingstonian Supporters Club
Edited by K Supporters Club at 14:02:42 on 9th October 2024
reply to this article | return to the front page
9 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 390
And on a personal, "ambivalence" doesn't even come close to describing my feelings towards the Chairman, whose incompetence, arrogance and hubris will surely destroy this Club.
SACK THE BOARD
Edited by reximus at 14:06:52 on 9th October 2024
reply to this article | return to the front page
6 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 406
The 2019/2020 FA Cup run was a missed opportunity....
Edited by WeHateWombles at 10:37:33 on 9th October 2024
reply to this article | return to the front page
2 people
Re: Ambivalence towards this K's team/the club
Views: 415
To be fair, I didn't read your post - too long.
reply to this article | return to the front page
3 people
The current State and the Future
Views: 420
I was going to write this post at some point during this week and as it happens it ties in nicely with the contributions from others today and it’s important we continue these discussions. I thought I would let the dust settle a little following last week’s supporters club meeting with the board, there has been some posts about it and of course the minutes which despite threats from the board about publishing these, it's more important than ever to be open and transparent with our supporters. Make your own mind up about the board and their recent behaviour but I think we all know now it is to be expected. I should point out that this is not recent behaviour but continuous.
What we saw at the start of last year following the KBH’s announcement was that the KBH had attempted to purchase shares in the club and potential control of the club. For me it wasn’t just a group of 13 multi skilled professionals willing to put in £30k a season. It was much more than that; it was about involving the fans to help run the club in way it should be. Straight away a number of us outside the KBH group offered our services in doing what we could to help it be a success. It offered us hope, a glimpse of what the future could be. It would have influenced and galvanised the fans, it would and could still be a success. But no, the status quo wouldn’t allow it, the same old ways of running the club board after board with no ideas, no people skills and no care towards what the supporters actually want. More than once this chairman had tried to tell me that the KBH wanted their money back after a few years, did I believe him? No, because I am not an idiot. Members of the KBH subsequently advised all their documentation was available for public viewing and still is.
Let’s look back at 2016 and the failed vote on fan ownership 8 years on. Most of us voted NO at the time as we didn’t know enough about the state of the club including the finances required to run the club. The KBH faced this same problem again last year when they were denied access to the accounts so that the 3(yes three) accountants as part of that group could properly examine the club finances. What were they hiding?
Thus not only did we not have the full picture we did not have the right people standing and pushing for fan ownership at the time. Three of which are now on the board, we would have had to work with these three who have now proven to the Supporters Club, KBH, former players, managers and sponsors that you just can't work with them.
But it was only 6 years after the failed vote that the KBH formed as it was clear as a collective they could do a better job of running the club than the board at the time (and the current board no doubt either).
In being asked to stand and being subsequently elected by our fellow supporters, the Supporters club set about seeking to engage with the then Kingstonian board last September at the away match in Bognor. We were warned by members of the KBH, supporters and others close to the club we would be wasting our time. That they will say one thing and do another and that we would not be able to trust them. Whilst we listened to these concerns we still had to do everything possible to show that we would try to work with them. We did have a good conversation, we shook their hands, they promised to work with us, to look at how to improve supporter/board relations, communications, updates on the search for a ground and of course re-visiting fan ownership. They failed miserably on all counts. Instead of ever even looking at fan ownership models they were busy facilitating the move for a new board. A real kick in the teeth and sticking two fingers up to all Kingstonian Supporters.
When the new board formed in February, we as a committee despite having concerns decided it was only right to give the new board a chance. The onus was on the board however to convince us they have what it takes to run the club. Therefore we did try again; we continued with our efforts to keep the Kingstonian support together, providing regular communications, being open and transparent and of course organising a successful club event in the end of season party (I think about 5 people turned up to the official club event).
At last week’s meeting between the Supporter’s club and the board, it’s clear from the board there is nothing on offer. The same old story about the ground and options, renegading about the 6-8 weekly communications, no business plan, no strategy and no transparent financial information. We were told to mind our own business when asking if the project manager had been paid yet and what money it was from given half of the AFCW money has gone in 7 years. Ultimately being told by this board if we don’t like it to go and form our own club. I have been asking for a business plan since the ‘new’ board took over in February, I like most other supporters am concerned about the existence of our club so I want to be assured that the right people are running it and what the plan to succeed is. This is no way to run a business of which the football club is.
There a lot of good people at the club who have something to offer in terms of volunteering to help the club succeed. As Taimour has highlighted, it's not about being sour about not getting to run the club, it’s those who are running or ‘ruining’ the club that we just could not give some time to support that cause. Why should we? They take us for granted and haven't got the decency to be open and transparent about the state of the club or can satisfy us that we will have a club within a few years. If you are helping the board you are unfortunately pissing in the wind and we all know how that feels!
It doesn’t need to be this way, I did start drawing up various fan owned models at the start of the year. I paused when the new regime took over which meant all previous talk on fan ownership was just lip service.
Rex went to the trouble of producing a paper on falling attendances, a survey and narrative. The board didn’t care. Scott has asked to see the paper and will hopefully understand that the majority of people are not happy with the way the club is being run. We now have 3 out of 4 board members who previously ran the supporters club, the same 3 who stood on that platform pushing for a fan ownership vote. The power of owning a dying football club has got to their heads. You do have to have a good laugh.
We as supporters were right to vote NO in 2016, we as a supporters were right to question how this new board came about, criticise their performance and behaviour because ultimately it is killing the club.
We do not play in Kingston, we are no nearer to getting a ground than we were 8 years ago when the announcement was made to leave Kingsmeadow or 20 years ago when Kingsmeadow was signed over to AFCW when the focus by subsequent boards should have been about a home ground in the long term. We have taken a gamble on a great manager and good team to produce results that will in turn bring the fans back (that’s the big master plan from the board) but in the medium to long term its not sustainable.
I wanted to use Jimmy Cochrane’s example as a discussion point. Various previous board members have attempted to discredit Jimmy about the state of the club’s finances when he was at the helm without ever being able to prove it. Jimmy is very open and approachable and hates to see the state the club is in and has been in for many years by mismanagement from the various boards. But, Jimmy back in 2006 for the good of the club he loves stepped aside because others at the time presented an alternative. The worry is now this chairman/this board will never do so. That’s not just my opinion but the opinion of many who have reached out to me and expressed their concerns over the past few years and even in the past few days.
In 25 years of supporting the club I have never heard supporters talking about forming a new club but I have in the past few weeks. I personally hate the idea, we would lose the name and history of the club but the alternative is to watch that club that we all love disintegrate because this board know best. They did tell us to form a new club and as a programme manager that’s a red rag to a bull. Whilst that idea kills me inside I know its achievable and I believe I could get us a ground in the borough of Kingston upon Thames quicker than this shambles of a board could for the club as it currently is.
Therefore it is probably time to entertain those discussions about the future of our club; if the current board want to continue with their ego project then we should let them. It doesn’t need to be like this; we have enough supporters, former sponsors, players, managers and even chairmen floating and pushing the idea of a new Kingstonian on us.
In the meantime Gary I hope the SACK THE BOARD T-shirts are ready for some new outings, if this board did the decent thing and stepped aside they would get a lot of respect. Whilst they continue to kill the club with their behaviour and incompetence, then they need to be told!
reply to this article | return to the front page
6 people 1 person
Previous thread: New keeper? by Senior8/10 19:50Tue Oct 8 19:50:40 2024view thread