Quote from Caley D
"Whilst I'm on a wee rant....there's nothing that bothers me more than when making a suggestion you get the "do other clubs do that?", or "what do other clubs do?" response. I don't give a flying fig what other clubs do, it's what we do that's important. Not only are we in a unique situation due to geography, but every now and again I wouldn't mind seeing us taking the initiative on something instead of following on the coat tails of others."
Interesting that you start your post citing examples from County and Clach, considering you "don't give a flying fig what other clubs do"!
Also is it really a case of "so many people saying the same thing" or is it just a few people saying the same things over and over again? In the short time I have been on this site I have posted on 2 threads and on both more than half of the posts (47 out of 90) come from just 4 people (and how many of those 4 are season ticket holders?)
I know that pretty much everyone on here has the club's best interests at heart, but to suggest that those in charge at the TCS don't is nuts. The difference is that the board and senior management live or die (not literally!) by their actions. It is easy to rattle away on our keyboards knowing that we can make sweeping statements and generalisations, without having to back them up with facts and figures, all under a veil of relative anonymity.
I applaud the likes of Scotty, Caley D, Gringo Jr, IHE et al. who are willing to stand up in front of the board and present our case, but as I have said before, be prepared to have your ideas taken apart and scrutinised. Most of the board are wealthy, successful businessmen and these guys didn't get where they are today (to paraphrase CJ! - you probably won't get it if you are under 35) by giving anything away. These guys want solid numbers, not "if you spend this money on that, we're pretty sure it will increase ticket sales" and I've a feeling I know what the response to a suggestion of giving away 1000 tickets to to some of the quieter games would be.
If the 4 aforementioned forumists (I think I may have just made up a word!) truly reprensent the opinions of the 4000+ regular fans, fair play. I would suggest, however that you trawl these pages for someone who may offer a slightly different perspective. From what I have read so far, 5th Stand, often offers a bit of balance to many of these discussions.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of the ideas on here seem pretty sound, but Caley D cites the importance of managing expectations and as with things like the re-instatement of the Boardroom Banter, we should take things 1 step at a time, and not expect things to improve overnight. In this regard I believe we should be entering into something like this with 1 specific change (maybe 2 at a push) we want to see taking place (make it reasonable, realistic and achievable) and concentrate our efforts on making a case that the board will have difficulty refusing. Discussing 6 items would mean not going into detail in any of them. If you get half a dozen or so people giving their opinions the limited time you have will run away from you.