Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "I agree that communicating the change and reasons would have been good but disagree it is the right thing to do.
Whilst the open day for 'mingling' is a great idea, and all due credit etc., it is not the POTY awards, and the POTY awards imho should be reasonably available for the genuine fans, and should not be taken advantage of as a moneyspinner in lieu. Sure they'll fill the tables up with the usual corporates, and sure a few lucky normal fans will get invites, but basically the price tag, and to a lesser extent the black tie format, is excluding a large proportion of the everyday fans, whichever way it is dressed up.
And the fact that other clubs may already be doing so is hardly a ringing endorsement of the principle.
The decision seems to have been taken that POTY is just for well-heeled plus corporate types, and not for those who have already paid many hundreds of pounds to be on the terraces or in the stands, and without whom TY in POTY would never have taken place.'"
Yes I would agree with all of that.
I would add that we have been seen as trend-setters in super league. We made the format successful by getting whole families down to Odsal and going out into the community to get new people interested.
Now there seems to be far less effort to get new people at the club and events which were once free have gone to the other extreme and now exclude families.
I recently received an invitation to a lunch at the Coral stand before the Catalans match. The £40 "special price" doesn't include match ticket or even a seat in the Coral stand at all. It's just lunch - for forty quid.
It's as if it's just easier to squeeze current supporters for more money rather than go and find new ones.
That can't be a sensible long term strategy can it?
