Part 2 (of 3) report from Fans Forum

Part 2
Stadium Access
The club has a lot of car parking at the stadium in comparison to similar clubs, but there are still issues. Many aren’t aware however that there is a huge car park at Bessemer Road market and also at the Gol centre. They are also looking into different Park and Ride options with Taffs Well and Pentwyn being mentioned. Vince also suggested the former Ely Paper Mill, which some might remember as being one of the options for the new ground all these years ago. That one is down to the council so probably just an opportunity missed. Adverts for the different parking areas are being considered.
There have also been consultations with Arriva trains about additional coaches and trains to Ninian Park station. However the capacity of NP station is only 400 people per hour, so although it copes well with the pre-match crowds its nowhere near sufficient for the post-match rush. However Arriva threw in the fact that Grangetown station is now only 300 yards further from the CCS than NP staion and has an 8000 person per hour capacity with nearly EVERY Valleys line, Penarth, Barry and Vale line train stopping there. In fact it seems many are catching trains from NP to Central and changing there for a train that has travelled from Grangetown !!
The club are looking to put up signage to try to guide people to Grangetown Station. If you don’t know where it is its by the junction of Sloper Road and Penarth Road, near Sevenoaks Park. Arriva will announce ‘alight at Grangetown for the CCS’ in future n trains.
Other moans in the survey were
- No scoreboard. This is being reviewed.
- Music too loud

- Concourse too drab. With no seating. Safety factors were quoted here, and suggestions were made from the floor to have fold out chairs on the walls and some shelves around the pillars. To be honest I’m not sure if there was any positive response to this from the clubs representatives as they seemed limited on what they felt they could do due to space.
- One thing that was mentioned is that there is now a queuing system (Disney style) in the away section, as, wait for it… they are more likely to push in that we are :hehe: . This is likely to be put in place aroud the ground over time and will help with the space issues in the concourse – as some of the queues end up blocking exits etc..
- There was also a comment about only one two-way turnstile for smokers to come in or out of, causing queues. At the moment this wont change-its too expensive – I think Wayne Nash mentioned £4500. However if the ground is extended more 2-way turnstiles will be put in.

Cup prices were also mentioned as an issue – why don’t the club charge less for cup games ? basically this is generally due to the away side. For example a 5000 crowd at the CCS paying £15 each represents a decent pay day for Burton Albion. Similarly when we played Villa last year Ridsdale refused to drop the prices there.

Special Offers in shop – the club will be sending out newsletters. One type to Premier seat holders, one to Ambassadors, one to non-ambassadors and one to the general database, with various offers, on a sliding scale with premier seat holders getting the best deal.

So far 300000 e-mailers have been sent, 150000 opened and 65000 have had ‘click-throughs’ , which can lead to sales.
5000 people went on the Chasetown site from the e-mailer sent out in reference to their request for support .

Julian also showed us where the club had linked its database to a map, showing where our support came from, it went from dark red to where our support was strongest to grey/white where it was weak. Cardiff, Valleys and Vale/Bridgend were mostly red as you would expect, but there were also red areas in Mid-Wales, (looked like Buith/Rhyader) and West Wales (Carmarthen and Narberth areas) both of these areas had 5-10% of households on our database.
Areas which were not as red as we would like were Pontypool, Abertillery and parts of Newport, even though there were red areas near them (other parts of Newport, Cwm near Ebbw Vale etc..). We then scanned in to show in more detail and then to identify the schools near them. The idea is that the club will get the community team to visit these (Scott Young’s team) and try to engage the youngsters. We have 32 people working for our ‘Football in the Community’ with 1000 kids visiting CCS every week for football related educational visits and our team is in schools regularly throughout the week. Scott hands out up to 250 tickets each week. Personally I think the club needs to shout this out as it seemed for a long time that little was being done to engage City in the community, but this certainly inst the case now.
Family Stand
So where do all these new fans go when the family stand is already sold out with 4500 season ticket holders. (Which in itself is a MASSIVE step from where we were at NP and is for me the BIGGEST success of the new stadium).
Well there has already been some overspill into the Grandstand nearest the Grange End, but the club are planning on opening another family section in the corner of the Canton/Grandstand. Sony are giving £50k toward Playstations for the kids to use here. The question of moving the Family Stand looks dead. The cost would be high and the fact is that there are no problems at CCS now and away fans are safe, the police bill is drastically reduced and virtually none of the families want to move anyway. I have to say I stood against the Family section being where it is, but in terms of cutting bills and giving us a safe ground it seems to have worked.
The ‘Family Day’ will be repeated this year for the DERBY COUNTY game. Last years against Watford was a massive success, where many of us witnessed kids sitting side by side on rides with Cardiff and Watford kits on, enjoying themselves – as it should be.
A special thanks to Norman Sayers who provided all the fairground rides FREE OF CHARGE, even allowing the club to keep the £2500 proceeds.

Outlets for CCFC gear
Pure Football are to sell city stuff in Cwmbran and Cardiff City centre.
There is also a deal in progress with Morgan Sports in Ebbw Vale.
The club cant do deals with JJB or the big chains as they want to sell the stuff too cheap and the club cant make money on it. I cant remember if any other potential deals were mentioned.

Premier Club
Julian to his credit put his hands up here and said the club had made a massive cock-up with this. The seats had been sold badly and were far too expensive. I think he said they were almost double what Swansea’s were sold for when they were launched. Problem being once they’d sold several hundred there was no going back. They were badly advised and the company they had engaged to sell them failed dismally. They were trying to sort this and have sold several hundred more seats this year. There were deals which involved no ‘joining fee’ on Level 4 and this level was being rebranded the Centenary Suite. Many members were bringing friends with the area being virtually sold out for the Jacks game and sales were good for the Forest game. Of course we are all hoping for promotion, which if achieved will see the remaining spaces filled up in no time

Of the 4,500 season tickets in the family stand do you know how many are 'free' season tickets?

Of the 4,500 season tickets in the family stand do you know how many are 'free' season tickets?

Sorry, no mate, but I bet its quite a few.

he question of moving the Family Stand looks dead. The cost would be high and the fact is that there are no problems at CCS now and away fans are safe, the police bill is drastically reduced and virtually none of the families want to move anyway. I have to say I stood against the Family section being where it is, but in terms of cutting bills and giving us a safe ground it seems to have worked.

just had a text saying forest fans trying to attack the family stand???

he question of moving the Family Stand looks dead. The cost would be high and the fact is that there are no problems at CCS now and away fans are safe, the police bill is drastically reduced and virtually none of the families want to move anyway. I have to say I stood against the Family section being where it is, but in terms of cutting bills and giving us a safe ground it seems to have worked.

just had a text saying forest fans trying to attack the family stand???

A small number of them went accross the segregation, but the stewards dealt with them easily.

One got thrown out.

Interesting read, cheers