Yesterday I found myself paying to watch the bulls live for the first time in about 18 months. Apart from the result, and many have opined about Mcnamara / Hood and their ability to do their job, there are other things that need putting right.

lets get out of the way about McNamara. 7000 brave souls watched the match yesterday. If he was sacked and replaced then it would be 9000. The club would be seen as taking a positive step to improve. thats my opinion and I am prepared to be shot down.

the "gameday experience". Well, Odsal has never been a good place to be on a day like yesterday, but there are some things that could have been managed better.

For many years i was a season ticket holding, home and away fan. Now, with 3 kids and a wife to support, I have to be more discerning with my spending. yesterday, taking my two eldest sons aged 6 and 3 to the match I spent £50 and was prepared to spend another £60 but couldnt!

I had the "quid a kid vouchers for the boys" so I was made to walk an extra 100 yards outside the stadium to get to the right gate. this was not specified on the ticket. I wanted to buy my lads the away shirt, so walked the 100 yards again inside the ground to find that the smallest shirt available was a large boys, and that would fit a 9/10 year old! I asked when a new stock was arriving, but was told they wer not getting anymore!
Note 1 to club

I then paid to transfer to the stand. £9 for the 3 of us. at 2.30, the only seats left in the block that were covered by a roof were limited view. i could not see about 15 meters of in goal area. I also queued for about 15 minutes in the rain to be charged £3 each for a burger and 2 hotdogs. thats 50p each more than at Bradford City, and I get served before i am drenched.

Note to club 2

I bought a programme for each of my kids and whilst it is a decent programme for the cost, the sellers were holding them out in the wet and I am not sure if they saw my son coming because he weas given two sodden paper mache things that resembled the programme.

so heres the breakdown:
1 adult admission £17
2x cheap kids £2
3 x transfer £9
2 x programmes £6
1 hotdog/2 burgers £9
1hot drink 2 cold £5.60
2 badges £5

total £53.60

will i be back again this season? probably not. and dont even get me started on the on field performance!!

Lots of valid points there, I think Kooga are in difficulties, which could explain the problems with the kit supply.

Lots of valuable points. The issue with shirts has been the case since Kooga became our supplier, I took my son's mate yesterday and he was excited about the prospect of getting one of the away shirts, only to be told the same thing, none in stock in his size. Not only that but he asked if he could buy a ball only to be told they didn't have any of those in stock either! On that front there used to be a time when you could get your name up in lights at half time for a £5 on the main scoreboard, a small earner I'm sure, but surely revenue is revenue, that's gone too. And the shop at the back of the main stand hardly had any stock in it at all.

The constant messing around with which voucher is handed in where for s/ticket entry to the main stand is also indicative of a business being run in a cack handed way.

Can't really blame the Bulls for prices food and drink. Pretty sure they are set by the vendors.

True, though I'd have hoped the goods offered (and their prices) would form part of the process when vendors are applying for one of the pitches.

TBH the food this season is an improvement over previous years. And the price is comprable to other grounds in the league.

Yeah, you'd think that. I was told though that vendors just pay a price to get their pitch and that's about it. Not 100% if this is true for Odsal.

Kooga are supplying no more shirts to any of it's clubs.

The electric scoreboard is fooked, so there wouldn't be much point having your name up there anyway.

What needs to happen next?

Hmmm.

Not a great deal I don't think.

It seems to be fast becoming clear that we're very much a work in progress at the moment. I think it will be a number of seasons yet before we see a consistant challenge to the table toppers.

The key for me is not to slip too far down. We need to be making the play offs as a minimum and a good cup run would be good.

Longer term we'll hopefully see a core nucleus of home grown youngsters forming the foundations of the team for a number of years.

So to catch up:
Food prices have been delegated to vendors and it's the spectators fault for not turning up in greater numbers so we can have better players. What are the clubs responsibilities in the current fiasco.

I do not see how sacking the coach would suddenly see 2000 people think about coming back.. are that many really staying away because of McNamara?

Hit the nail on the head there' That's definitely the plan, but whether it will work is another thing.

In short, no.