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The convivial setting of the Chairman's Suite was once again the location for the Supporters Panel meeting at St James' Park attended by thirteen gallant supporters and Messrs Llambias, Williamson and Esland from NUFC.
The smaller group numbers certainly seemed to help the general ambiance and the meeting got off to a flying start with an agenda to follow and a suggestion paper from Simon Esland regarding family concessions for season ticket holders to be discussed.
The review of the past minutes, updates and actions took relatively little time and Simon advised the meeting that the club website was now up to date with reports on all past supporter's panel meetings now online. It was also noted that supporters should be seeing a more relaxed style of stewarding in the ground, particularly on level 7. This is due in some measure to a more relaxed approach being applied by Newcastle City Council to the issue of fans standing in that area.
The agenda moved on to the next item; issues arising over the last month and everyone to a man (and woman) was in agreement that focussing on the one main issue - that of premiership survival was the only item that needed to be discussed. Debate followed on what could be done off the field to drive up the atmosphere within the stadium in the remaining home fixture; all agree that away game support from Newcastle United fans being a given. Reverting back to the old historic idyll of public hangings at the Gallowgate end was not mentioned at this juncture. Had this been a few months earlier I am sure the words Hanging; Dennis; Public and Wise would have been re assembled into a meaningful sentence but such is the emphasis on the positive at present, there were no utterances of the words Wise, Keegan, Kinnear, debt, transfer kitty, scurrilous southern press or Ashley during the meeting from any attendee. When asked about fans bringing in banners and flags to SJP, Mr Llambias' face beamed at the idea. Sighting of, among others the True Faith Flags would be welcomed. Mr Llambias did counter the suggestion of flags with a request that they did not include the "Cockney Mafia Out" banner!
The club announced a number of initiatives which would be put in place and were being actively worked on that would help build up the atmosphere within SJP pre match and as I am not one for peeing on their parade I will leave it to their PR gurus to work this into next week's press releases. Needless to say, anything that is being proposed should be applauded. NUSC representatives, for their part explained their tie in with the Evening Chronicle and how the Al Together Now campaign would be running over the next six weeks. A number of panellists suggested getting some of the players more actively involved in making public appearances, buoying up the supporters, mixing with them and generally seen to be part of battle and part of the solution. Derek Llambias agreed to take this back to the players and management to see what could be worked into the schedules. The recent open training session was praised as being a perfect example of bringing players and fan community together and was commented on by all as being a resounding success.
Panellists brought up issues concerning the poor PA system quality particularly with regard to the East Stand and the club agreed to look again at a solution. Various suggestions were put forward regarding how best the club could utilise fan power over the next three games; generating a wall of noise that could work in our favour but be to the detriment of our opponents. Again, the club took away many ideas and agreed that they would look at the feasibility of implementing a few initiatives that would benefit the team and the atmosphere. Rallying calls from ex players were also suggested. Thoughts came to mind of clubs like Galatasaray and Besiktas; the intimidating atmosphere and the sacrificing of animals on the pitch. Such suggestions were not put forward as serious contenders for stoking up the atmosphere and the wall of sound that many would like to see brought back to SJP; ownership of which is now up for grabs given the guilty verdict placed on Mr Spector!
Next item on the agenda was that of the panel itself, its format, its role and how its work could be publicised. Debate centred around opening the panel members up to scrutiny by publishing pen pictures of all attendees in club literature and on the club website. Club officials are not suggesting for one moment that this should be implemented and it is up to the panellists themselves to come up with suggestions on how they wish their representation to be portrayed among fans, the media and by the club. A number of ideas were brainstormed concerning how the panel could gather information from as wide and broad a church of supporters as possible. Suggestions included a supporter moderated forum for season ticket holders and a message board run through the club website. Nothing was agreed and the item was placed onto the next agenda for further debate.
Next, Simon Esland brought up the idea of introducing a scheme to benefit existing season ticket holders in bringing a child to a game and being able to sit together. This would involve a season ticket holder relinquishing his existing seat for an individual game in exchange for two seats together in another location and the child paying a much reduced price for their seat. This would be a one off and not jeopardise or impact on future attendance back in your own allotted season ticket seat. It was considered by many as interesting concept and one worthy of further analysis, although some felt it might be a problem to manage and administer. It was agreed that this would be looked at again and in more depth at future meetings.
AOB brought a number of issues forward concerning stewarding and David Williamson responded with positive and well meaning reposts. The club were aware of the issues, welcomed such problems being brought to their attention and felt that the issues in question had been resolved as best they could under the circumstances; a good round of sparring between panellist and respondee and proof that he does take these issues seriously and hopefully fairly when all the facts are available. The issue of ticket touts occupying the Milburn concourse was also brought to the panel's attention. David Williamson agreed that this was unacceptable and that measures would be taken to eradicate these people from the vicinity of SJP with the utmost vigour.
On a more serious note was the issue brought up by one of our less able bodied supporters concerning the total lack of courtesy shown by many supporters who seem to see at as their right to use the lifts at the ground to gain access to and from the stadium when these lifts are there for the use of those with mobility and or accessibility problems. Many of our supporters who utilise the disabled section of the ground have found it very difficult to get into and out of the ground because more and more able bodied fans are using the lift facility reserved for the disabled. Disabled fans have been abused, denied access to lifts and treated in an unacceptable manner by those that should know better. This was particularly a problem at the recent Chelsea match where one of the lifts was out of order.
Quite frankly, if you are able bodied or in good health you should not need to use the lifts to gain access into and out of the ground. Use the stairs. Don't harass those who need this facility and if you have a problem with that then I think you should think twice about coming to the match at all. Abuse of anyone should not be tolerated by decent supporters of Newcastle United and everyone attending the meeting was of the opinion that this needs stopping NOW. I applaud the panellist for bringing this to our attention and hope that this is the last we hear of such problems. For their part, the Club officials agreed to take this problem up as a matter of urgency.
The meeting ended at around 8pm
