This bit sticks in my throat somewhat but I have to say the rovers fundraising fans organisation which has recently disbanded has to be admired, no doubt about that, they have proved to be a big help to the club in tougher times and gave something for the fans to rally around and to enable them to feel that they were doing their bit to help. In fairness hearing detail of their situation from the Rovers administration has never really been an issue for their fan base and it wasn't for us at one time either.

Adam used to sometimes even be accused of saying too much at times, in some very regular interviews, but changes in the administration at our club has seen all that stop as have the fans forums. Now it appears the lid is firmly on everything. We will no doubt get a questionnaire from time to time to gauge our views, but nothing face to face. Some cite above Jamie Shauls planned forum but you're not telling me that where a fans organisation to arrange a forum featuring Smith, Clark and say Adam it wouldn't at present pack a place out. But who is there to actually press hard for it on behalf of the fans?

With exception of the vice Presidents association, which although appearing a tad elitist to some, does a fabulous job for the club, but we don't appear to have a representative voice at present at all or indeed a conduit through which to press the club for some explanation and answers.

There are two real models for fans organisations ones like HISA which was formed in adversity in 1998 (and which probably saved the club in one historic meeting with the then Gateshead administration). They had a paying membership, a fanzine etc which is great at times of massive trouble when everyone has one goal , saving the club. But once the big issue is settled, then managing a subscription based organisation with a wide spectrum of views, (from passionate folks all of whom pay their subs and believe they are right), through the more run of the mill fans issues, just becomes unwieldy, thus HISA folded. .

We tried to form FC voices in its wake, in an attempt to gain some middle ground without a membership but with a mandate and constitution recognised by the club and we tried to get the message through to the club with regular meetings with the owner etc. No one was ever refused when wanting to join the committee which worked hard to represent the fan base. WE had an agreement for two Forums a year which the club stood by, and we tried to bring the fans together with projects like regular memorabilia fairs, projects like the funding and creation of the boulevard memorial and the refurbishment of the Jack Harrison memorial, the annual Veterans Day service at the stadium, arranging the voting for the fans player of the year and providing the trophy, social events etc.Whilst taking up the broad issues raised by the fans in a monthly meeting between the chairman and the owner. they still exist I believe but are obviously finding it hard to fill the void. So in recent times that seems to have faded away too. Therefore, at present we have no voice directly with the Club. And perhaps these days that suits them, for it seems to.

If anyone wants to form an independent fans group they would have my support but good luck cos it aint easy.

But I guess what I'm trying too say in yet another waffly post is that (possibly by design but I hope not) the club has become a closed shop organisation who only tells its life blood the stake holders out there on the terraces what they want them to here when they want them to hear it. We seem to find out more from good old Dan Tomlinson on who's signed etc.
All we need as fans who love our club, 'bleed' when we get humiliated on the field and hate to see it going backwards is a bit of hope, but as always its the hope that kills us isn't it.

I think the leaking of info to Dan Tomlinson at the HDM is deliberate

Agree with this and it happens all the time in the media.

Quid pro quo.

The HDM journos are embedded with the clubs to all intents and purposes.

To expand on my original post. Culture has become the buzzword at the club since TS became coach but the issues with culture have been there throughout my time as a supporter. In the 70's, 80's and 90's the culture was very much "part time" and similar to most other clubs of the time (anyone remember the TV clips of the players and wives jolly on the eve of the 1980 cup final?). Shaun McRae was probably the first to publicly highlight the culture issue with his infamous "cancer in the club" statement. Despite numerous changes of ownership, coaches and players the "culture cancer" seems to remain and even grown. The piece in HDM about Gaz Ellis' take on what culture looks like is interesting and it's a shame that even a great leader like him was unable to instill that effort culture in a more sustained way after he hung his boots up. Brian Smith managed to achieve it with a workmanlike first team in 90/91, Shaun McRae and Shane Richardson gave it a good go as did John Kear before he was let down by the Hetheringtons.
It would appear then that Mr Smith is correct in prioritising club culture first in the root and branch overhaul of the club. After previous coaches have failed to achieve the support of other club stakeholders in their attempts to improve club culture I think us as supporters will play a major role in supporting him through what will be a painful process.

As an aside, is anyone able to instruct me how to change the thread title to the correct...#backtheblackandwhites
please?

Done it for you , apologies would have done it earlier but work got in the way

FWIW- I think Pearson has realised the error of his ways; loyalty to the coach when things were going badly, misguided loyalty to players via long contracts, coaching appointments , basically all things rugby related and, instead of wiping his hands and letting the club fold, he has given the dice one last roll and given Smith direct control of all of the above , and handed him authority on all media communication. It seems that we have been drip fed news , rather than confirmation of signings, targets etc, as the club are keeping their cards close to their chest, probably because negotiations with targets are on going or have failed materialise. Despite the optimism of some, it seems there is a general feeling of unease among a large section of the fanbase ,from reading posts on forums and talking to others and the signings made so far, have yet to convince many that things will improve, playing wise, any time soon. I like Smith, but performances like the ones we witnessed at the Castleford and Huddersfield games seem to confirm that the attitude and culture shift we are hoping for, is as far off as ever. I do think if we'd got the win against Wigan, those two games may have ended differently, score wise but that defeat really did for us. We have to hope that the club have a proper half lined up, to replace Clifford, or I do fear a large drop off in pass sales, which could really hurt, or even kill off the club as challengers in the future.

Nailed it. The best summation of our current situation I've read.

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I see our attendances are up again this season. So once again I will repeat what I said last year and the year before that, in that I hope the Club understands that over players Coaches, a great merchandising set up and a great Stadium to play in, we, the long suffering fans, are our Clubs greatest asset. Other clubs and sometimes much better teams like Salford, Leigh, Huddersfield (particularly) Castleford and yes even Rovers, would kill to have a fan base the size of ours now, never mind what its potential is. If we had witnessed a season the likes of our noisy neighbours or that of Leigh we would be averaging around at least 13,000 now.

But that can't go on forever and even the most passionate are becoming disinterested and disengaged and feeling that things will never change back again. Many of us now simply stick around for love and an inability to change, it is as I often say like having dysfunctional kids. can't live with em can't live without them. One things for certain we certainly don't stay loyal because we are getting great entertainment do we? The fact is even with the most devoted of followings, in such hard economic times you can't keep promising crock of gold and delivering a crock of you know what! Season ticket sales will be interesting!!

I agree with the above. I know of a few people who didn't renew for this season, and their decision seems to have been vindicated. My business partner had a pass for 10-15 years, and was sick of AP's marketing spiel before every season, and then we crash and burn.

I spoke with him this morning, and said about the Jack Walker signing, and his reply "well, that won't make me buy a pass".

A lot of apathy around, perhaps a lot of misguided loyalty as well to grow the attendance figure this year, on the back of some absolute garbage

attendances will plummet at every club next season,because the braindead at the rl decide to let sky televise every match. what a set of plonkers.

I think this is one of the issues with the Hull fan base. Clearly don’t understand rugby if he doesn’t think Jack walker is a class signing for numerous reasons.

We are an extremely entitled fan base with a very vocal majority who don’t actually understand A. How a salary cap sport works, B. What actually a decent player looks like and C. That we can’t just magic up signings.

The historical precedents relating to increased television coverage from other sports are pretty positive, and there’s a case that more exposure is good for any sport.