Me, but I hold little hope it will be read out.

I was in a cynical, seething mood when I wrote it but the question is simply to Robin Hood:

'Tell the fans, after dismal onfield performances and the club apparently lacking any movement in the right direction, why we should renew season tickets?'

I'm hopeful that the recruitment of Mick Potter will help create some enthusiasm for season tickets for 2011. Not sure what Hoods answer will be, but I hope the hardcore supporters stick by the club during this pretty terrible period. The best way to support the club is by renewing.

They probably won't answer leading and near-rhetorical questions framed in that tone. Would you expect them to? If they DO answer it, expect to get an ear-bashing, I'd say.

Rephrase the question in less confrontational terms and you'd have more chance of an answer, IMO. Give it a go?

These are mine:
1)At the beginning of the season, we were told that the minimum expectation was a decent cup run (a final I think was mentioned) and the play offs. Do the board feel that they should have acted earlier and more proactively when it became apparent that this minimum target would not be met? Why was no action taken when it was clear that this target would not be met?

2)As with any business, the key to success is attracting and keeping customers through offering them a product that they want. Instead of blaming the customers for no longer having an interest in the product, do you not feel that you should be trying to offer your customers incentives to watch? And if so, what incentives are you offering fans to return or renew?

3)Do the club have any intention of spending the full salary cap next season? The supporters were promised that the full cap was available this season, yet have been misled. Are they going to be short changed again next season or will the full cap honestly be available in order to attract some quality players?

4)What is the long term future for the club if crowds stay as they are? How long can they club sustain such figures?

5)Do the club have any plans to engage the help of the supporters? There is many out there who have fantastic ideas, who have useful skills, who have time to offer and who are desperate to help the club in any way they can. Why don't the club take advantage?

I would say a number of those are framed as leading or rhetorical questions, and so might antagonise them a bit? Statements like "short-changed" and "blaming customers" would be hard for anyone to stomach reading them out as a question to answer. As Ii said to Aaron, if you go in confrontational surely all you risk is a robust response?

Just my thoughts, anyway, FWIW.

Peter Hood said the measure of a successful season would be a top-4 finish and a major final - so a bit more unequivocal even than your recollection. And, by those standards, clearly an admitted failure! One of my questions (not sent in yet...must do tonight!) is "You said that earlier this year the measure of a successful season would be a major final and a top-4 finish. Will that remain your measure of success for next season, or has this season's outcome changed it?"

He also said at the pre-season fans' forum that the club would NOT be spending the full salary cap (the expenditure on Tong was cited as a major reason, with comments about having funds available mid-season if opportunities presented themselves, but I think most people got the coded message that the funds just are not there? OK this was not made clear when people bought their season tickets, if that is the point you are making. Another of my questions is "Will the club be able to make the full salary cap available to the head coach next season, and if so is the club budgeting to spend the full salary cap?".

They might of course answer "it depends on how many season tickets we sell..."

I take your points Adey, but I've already sent them! I will just hide if they read any of them out and start looking for me....

The "blaming customers" bit though...they have come out and done that. They have criticised fans for not going. So I think the point stands.

And I personally feel short-changed. We bought our season tickets last December in good faith, expecting full investment in the squad. We have not had that.

Not saying you are not justified in holding those views - and you are very much far from alone. And I was shocked to hear the salary cap comment at the forum. Telling the fans the consequences of not going is nothing new - have you read Caisley's Chairman's Statement in the 2003 accounts? (In fairness, Peter Hood's are far more diplomatic and reasonable). I guess its the same point for the club too - its all in how you word the point!

Just saying that if you want your question used, its probably prudent to frame it in a way that makes it easy for the club to use it, and not in a way that just gets it off your chest. That's been my experience, anyway.

Chris Caisley once called the club that embarrassing name "the people's team". His reasoning was fair enough though; there are no financial big hitters in the background and it is the people, the fans, the ones who turn up to watch matches/buy merchandise, who finance the club.

If people who used to be fans no longer want to come, well that is their decision; there is a recession on and there are many other calls on people's cash and we're not playing well either. It's never been compuslory to attend matches, and of course 'gates' always drop in those circumstances, and yes it's up to the club to attract them back, without attaching blame.

The difficulty is, the one thing which might attract them back, is the one thing that their non-attendance is helping to prevent; having a successful side out on the field. We're not paying the cap because the money isn't there to do so, if a sufficient number return that might change, and though it might be an STO (STatement of the chuffing Obvious) I don't actually feel there is anything wrong in pointing that out.

Peter Hood is a long standing fan of the club, he took over as chairman at a time of crisis, and if occasionally statements are of a fan rather than the more diplomatic ones from a chairman, well so be it. As one fan to another I can fully understand his frustrations with the situation. Though, yes it's pointless giving statements which antagonise the very people you want to become a part of the solution, rather than remaining part the problem

I'm not sure I can empathise with the "feeling short changed" to be honest. Sport is a different transaction to any other in life, unlike going to the bank where the interest is very specific or buying in a supermarket where it's weighed to the gramme, in sport we have a 'special relationship' with 'our' club rather than a business one.

Personally, I buy match tickets and goods from the shop, lottery tickets etc because I like watching rugby and the Bulls are my team. There are no guarantees with sport; whether we spend the full cap or don't, win the league and make me very happy or don't make the play-offs and leave me a bit less happy, it really just doesn't matter, and whatever, the Bulls are [istill [/imy team.

I think most fans reading that paragraph will wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expessed!

If you don't have the bad times you will never fully appreciate the good ones, just ask the older Northern fans! The problem with a lot of the stay away fans is that the majority of those came during the "Glory" days and don't have it in them to tough it out like the hardcore fans, these things are cyclical and the good times will come round again, but I agree it's no fun having to grit yer teeth, time and time again, but as a true fan you do!

Amen to that

I agree and I also think the board have taken a longer term view than fans who think we should go out spending money on players we can't afford.

As I've said numerous times - things are bad now and may be for another year or two, but the reward is worth waiting for - we've seen it before with other clubs in the not so distant past.

So long as there is a club left in 2 years.