It’s now the time of year for the Club to send out letters regarding Season Tickets and then letters about Sponsorship.  However, despite after all the restrictions due to Covid, hospitality returned a while ago and still no thank you to those of us who, year after year, pay hundreds to sponsor a player or players.  Why has the Club not had a Sponsors Night, even a tea and sandwiches, meet their sponsored player and get a photo?   I know of quite a few who, disappointed in the Club, are considering not sponsoring again.   It’s the Clubs loss - they are happy to ask for money but with no acknowledgement to these fans.   

16 minutes ago, lizi said:

It’s now the time of year for the Club to send out letters regarding Season Tickets and then letters about Sponsorship.  However, despite after all the restrictions due to Covid, hospitality returned a while ago and still no thank you to those of us who, year after year, pay hundreds to sponsor a player or players.  Why has the Club not had a Sponsors Night, even a tea and sandwiches, meet their sponsored player and get a photo?   I know of quite a few who, disappointed in the Club, are considering not sponsoring again.   It’s the Clubs loss - they are happy to ask for money but with no acknowledgement to these fans.   

As well as leading to a potential loss of income it is sheer bad manners and an absence of basic courtesy towards dedicated fans who dig deep to help keep the club afloat in challenging circumstances.

Shame on them.

At a Fans Forum meeting in September - the minutes of which we still await -  I asked Scot Gardiner if there would be a sponsors night. He very firmly stated there would be. Maybe the invitations will arrive with the minutes of the meeting. 

I don't sponsor a player but once again the higher echelons of the club show contempt for the bread and butter supporters of the club. 

The club making promises that they don't keep and never follow up on - they'll be a sponsor's night, we'll have open fan's forum meetings (and get the minutes out), we'll put a roof on the west stand etc.

Situations change and there may be perfectly good reasons for all these 'oversights' but true to form the club never communicates anything, speaks to anyone, (the supporters trust or supporters directly) nor explain the situation. There is however always time to punt expensive hospitality.

I simply don't understand why it's so difficult for them to do this? Ego? Unwilling to accept that they made mistakes and cant fulfill commitments? Maybe. I first really noticed this during the Pixallot fiasco. 

There's quite a lot of positive fan feeling right now and it would be a shame to waste some of that. 

Edited May 26, 20224 yr by Fraz

8 hours ago, lizi said:

I know of quite a few who, disappointed in the Club, are considering not sponsoring again.   

I am also aware of the same. I know of one family who have sponsored at least one player each year for nigh on 20 years but they are not sure whether they will continue for the same reasons noted. These are not businesses who are simply writing this off as a taxable donation or deduction, these are hardworking fans, who in addition to buying season tickets, shares, and merchandise also stump up to sponsor a player to 'do their bit' for the club. To be honest, I dont think they are even that bothered with the sponsors' evening or any 'free' lunch/dinner - they just want the club to engage with the fans and at least acknowledge things outside of times where they are sending an invoice or request for cash! 

From our perspective - we will continue our sponsorship for as long as people on the site want to do it. If we struggle to reach the target or people are no longer interested we would review. I had a chance to speak to Keith at the club recently and put a face to the name. He seemed reasonable enough, but I guess our requirements in going to any event such as a sponsors' evening (no-one ever seems to want to) or individual outlay (per person) is not such that it really comes on our radar as something that sticks in the throat in the same way as it would for someone shelling out £420+ on their own.

 

5 hours ago, Fraz said:

I don't sponsor a player

    Technically you do really - as a member of our player sponsor group 😉

 

I couldn't get a reply this time last season when I asked what we were getting for our money. Thus I didn't renew. They didn't bother chasing me up ..

The season before didn't even get a gift at end of season. 

 

Just think really really poor. Suspect they might drop it next season? They seem more interested in corporate than fans. 

There are so many small things that the club could be doing, but don't seem too bothered about. At a meeting with the supporters a few seasons ago, it was said that the clubs intention was to improve the match day experience for the supporters, and I realise we have had covid since then, but nothing has changed, in fact it's worse. We can't usually find anyone selling raffle tickets, and with the club needing every penny you'd think they would be pushing this. There hasn't been a physical programme for a number of seasons now, and the online programme has now disappeared also. Where is our mascot Lionel Nessi? With the club attracting a larger contingent of younger supporters, you would think that it would be great to have the mascot around. I see that the team OTB have already set their season ticket advertising in motion on Facebook, but nothing from us. If it wasn't for the lads on the Wyness Shuffle, where would we get any of our information from? Certainly not the club.

3 hours ago, old caley girl said:

I couldn't get a reply this time last season when I asked what we were getting for our money. Thus I didn't renew. They didn't bother chasing me up ..

The season before didn't even get a gift at end of season. 

 

Just think really really poor. Suspect they might drop it next season? They seem more interested in corporate than fans. 

Indeed.

Family fun days, kids Christmas party, end of season ball, kids game with players, 10 pin bowling with players etc all seem to have dissappeared.

Now I realise that Covid will have impacted all of these and lockdowns have somewhat messed up my perception of time so perhaps these have only stopped for lockdowns, however I'm fairly sure it's longer than that. 

Maybe Covid has affected many events but it shouldn't stop the club from writing to or emailing those folk that have sponsored players etc. An explanation would, Im sure. be welcome. Maintaining a comms' black out is bad PR and rude.

We sponsored a player many seasons ago. I believe he was the first coloured player to join the club [MacDonald?] We had nothing from the club even back then and we've never bothered since. He actually left the club part way through the season so we never got to meet him anyway. Having said that we do contribute to the CTO player sponsorship [missed one season I think since it began] and were lucky enough to go to a Sponsors Evening on CTO behalf. It was a great evening of chat and banter. This event should not be brushed aside by the powers that be.

and yet there is the opposite side of the coin with an article about Section 94 that gives some hope to the club working with fans and fostering this whole 'together...NESS' cliche ... seems like a bit of a disconnect somewhere in the mix between these two areas.