General Tim Williams Vote of Confidence

[bazzer9461]

I’ve been a season ticket holder of more years than I can remember while living in north wales an making 1 or 2 home games a season. I carry on buying a season ticket as it’s my way of supporting the club, that said though, for the 1st time in a long time I am questioning whether to bother next season due to Williams, Ferguson and Benson and their attitude towards us as supporters, sorry customers.

You’re not alone there, I said as much on the radio after Saturdays game. I think Williams and co are going to find it hostile at the fans forum.

 

[bashamwonderland]

Are we losing customers though? Genuine question, not trying to be asinine.

Despite the atmosphere being flat as a pancake, attendances remain surprisingly decent (albeit we’ve had some good away followings recently, excluding a Wigan). By the fair hand of Corporate Overlord Tim on the retail side we’re doing well. Those activations are working well too.

And we’re moving towards that time when they start being nice to the season ticket customers because it’s not that long before they need us to part with our money for another season. (Before duly ignoring us come August).

If we do fail to Play-Offs this season it really will be interesting to see what the reaction is on ST sales. Another slip up after a rare blistering start to a season. On the heels of the dreadful season the year before (and blowing a good position after Christmas the year before, and getting pummelled in the playoff semi the year before that, and dropping the Covid playoff final before that) it will be interesting to see how the corporates spin it.

(Actually, thinking realistically/cynically about it - they’ll anticipate the drop in ST sales, then pump up the price knowing that the bedrock fanbase who they know they can use and abuse regardless will fill the coffers if they drop a few emotive press releases about finances, the new stadium, backing the team/project etc…)

I think this is partly why English football is such a mess. Fans will support their teams without any question.

B-Teams in League One? We'd still have fans attending.

Tim appointing himself manager? There would be one or two on here urging us to get behind him.

Season tickets double in price overnight? Some would still pay.

For some reason, English men seemingly have absolutely no self control when it comes to their football club. It's endearing but embarrassing at the same time.

 

[Essexyellows]

I’ve been a season ticket holder of more years than I can remember while living in north wales an making 1 or 2 home games a season. I carry on buying a season ticket as it’s my way of supporting the club, that said though, for the 1st time in a long time I am questioning whether to bother next season due to Williams, Ferguson and Benson and their attitude towards us as supporters, sorry customers.

Similar despite shuttling around the country.

There is often a point in the season when, for purely footballing reasons, you feel like "Feck it I`ll save the £350 quid".

And then, inevitably, I fall for the Early Bird offer and pay again, rinse & repeat for decades!

As it stands the Club appears to be intentionally looking for "ways to pee off their supporters" and the connection between them and us hasn`t been as low since the Maxwell days, but that was balanced with immense success on the pitch that covered up whatever was happening behind the scenes.

Since then we, as a fanbase have got wiser, we can communicate better and voice our opinions on various platforms.

The senior club management don't seem to understand that or seem willing to engage with it.

If that is customer service TW is reading the wrong management book.

 

[McXal]

If that is customer service TW is reading the wrong management book.

Or - and others have alluded to this - we simply aren’t the ‘customers’ TW would prefer to have. And thinning/culling as many as our type of fan as possible on the move towards the new stadium/up the league (lol) are acceptable losses as long as the numbers can be replaced on the balance sheet.

Top 30 club mentality means targeting the tourists, the one-off fans, and milking as much from their single visit as possible. (Look at the top-end PL teams, season tickets limited and costing stupid money, everyone else goes into a ballot and ends up sitting next to tourists). I suspect ‘activating’ match days is part of this mentality too. Get all the families in for a week. Get all the military supporters in another week. I expect we’ll have ‘student week’ soon enough in the hope of tapping into the university population that our backers are such fans of.

 

[Wallop]

Or - and others have alluded to this - we simply aren’t the ‘customers’ TW would prefer to have. And thinning/culling as many as our type of fan as possible on the move towards the new stadium/up the league (lol) are acceptable losses as long as the numbers can be replaced on the balance sheet.

Top 30 club mentality means targeting the tourists, the one-off fans, and milking as much from their single visit as possible. (Look at the top-end PL teams, season tickets limited and costing stupid money, everyone else goes into a ballot and ends up sitting next to tourists). I suspect ‘activating’ match days is part of this mentality too. Get all the families in for a week. Get all the military supporters in another week. I expect we’ll have ‘student week’ soon enough in the hope of tapping into the university population that our backers are such fans of.

With respect to 'the greatest football team the world has ever seen', I would be surprised if we are on many tourists' bucket list! If that's the strategy, then it's a rather high risk one and doomed to failure.

 

[McXal]

With respect to 'the greatest football team the world has ever seen', I would be surprised if we are on many tourists' bucket list! If that's the strategy, then it's a rather high risk one and doomed to failure.

For now, you’re quite right. But they’ve made no secret of the fact that the Oxford brand and name is what attracted them here. And as you’ve pointed out, it isn’t OUFC that makes Oxford famous internationally.

I quite suspect they’d rather get a nice new batch of the wealthy tourists coming to Oxford to look at twee Harry Potter sh*t and wealthy international student families in to our lovely new stadium each week than they would grumpy old veteran supporters who don’t want to spend £100+ at the ‘OUFC Megastore’ each visit then peruse the artisan wine vendors…

I’m not saying it’s a good plan for right now. But it’s the model & direction of travel. It’s what top end PL teams do. TW was part of the Man Utd regime which has ignored its supporters and let its first team rot whilst the club rakes in fortunes for more than a decade.

 

[Cookie]

TW was part of the Man Utd regime which has ignored its supporters and let its first team rot whilst the club rakes in fortunes for more than a decade.

That's not true at all though, is it? He was there from 2009 to 2014 when they finished 2nd twice and won the league twice

 

[McXal]

That's not true at all though, is it? He was there from 2009 to 2014 when they finished 2nd twice and won the league twice

Yeah very fair point and I’m probably misrepresenting him a little bit. The point I was nudging towards is that he was involved in a regime which over a decade has a consistent track record of prioritising commercial gain over the hardcore fanbase.

(Hey, maybe I’m being incredibly harsh and you can directly attribute Man U’s on-field decline to the departure of Corporate Timmy!)

 

[Wallop]

For now, you’re quite right. But they’ve made no secret of the fact that the Oxford brand and name is what attracted them here. And as you’ve pointed out, it isn’t OUFC that makes Oxford famous internationally.

I quite suspect they’d rather get a nice new batch of the wealthy tourists coming to Oxford to look at twee Harry Potter sh*t and wealthy international student families in to our lovely new stadium each week than they would grumpy old veteran supporters who don’t want to spend £100+ at the ‘OUFC Megastore’ each visit then peruse the artisan wine vendors…

I’m not saying it’s a good plan for right now. But it’s the model & direction of travel. It’s what top end PL teams do. TW was part of the Man Utd regime which has ignored its supporters and let its first team rot whilst the club rakes in fortunes for more than a decade.

Artisan wine vendors - now you're talking!

 

[Cookie]

Yeah very fair point and I’m probably misrepresenting him a little bit. The point I was nudging towards is that he was involved in a regime which over a decade has a consistent track record of prioritising commercial gain over the hardcore fanbase.

(Hey, maybe I’m being incredibly harsh and you can directly attribute Man U’s on-field decline to the departure of Corporate Timmy!)

I'm not supporting him at all btw, just have to disagree with anything to suggest Man Utd fans have anything to complain about

 

[Carpy]

Wondering where @OxVox and @OUSP sit on this one now, I note that @Scotchegg hasn't pinned himself to the Williams out campaign...

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Artisan wine vendors - now you're talking!

I bought an artisan cheesecake from a woman in Wootton recently. £30 but f**k me sideways, it was unbelievable.

Madagascan Vanilla, FYI.

Cakes – Cloud Cake Bakery

cloud-cake.com

 

[Eric Blair]

I bought an artisan cheesecake from a woman in Wootton recently. £30 but f**k me sideways, it was unbelievable.

Madagascan Vanilla, FYI.

Cakes – Cloud Cake Bakery

cloud-cake.com

Going off topic but that egg-free cake shop on Cowley Road is pretty good.

 

[Manorlounger]

I bought an artisan cheesecake from a woman in Wootton recently. £30 but f**k me sideways, it was unbelievable.

Madagascan Vanilla, FYI.

Cakes – Cloud Cake Bakery

cloud-cake.com

£30 for a cheesecake! It must have been very, very good at that price. On the other side, a slab of Lil's cherry lardy cake is just £6.50 - one of each for the weekend?

 

[Eric Blair]

£30 for a cheesecake! It must have been very, very good at that price. On the other side, a slab of Lil's cherry lardy cake is just £6.50 - one of each for the weekend?

Ying and Yang.

For £30 I'd expect that cheesecake to be able to play right back.

 

[WuTang]

Appointed a head of academy who 2 years on still lives in Scotland and is present 2 days a week

Appointed at significant expense a manager but wouldn’t let him appoint his own support staff

Appears sufficiently political to not be able to celebrate the work of an employee of 20 years

You could go on but so much evidence of an individual who does not understand the importance of building an outstanding culture.

Spreadsheets represent what has happened in the past, what will happen in the future is dependent on the people you have and the culture you build

Overseen by a chairman who doesn't live in the country and only visits once every 6 weeks.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Numbers are looking pretty bleak for Tim.

Mind you it's still only 112 out of 1777 responses. @Carpy, do you have a figure for how many of the total users are still active for a better representation?

 

[Eric Blair]

Numbers are looking pretty bleak for Tim.

They do look a bit bleak but there are some big plus points as well - fan numbers are up, we have progressed from last season, we have brought in some great players and going forward with the stadium. We shouldnt forget these are important things.

I know the team is stuttering at the moment and there have been some crap communications and - most importantly - it feels to me like Des hasnt been supported properly with his management team. There are questions to answers.

Having said all that a lot of the criticism from here seem to be from people who are close to the club and some of the players. I'm not aware of any of that so I may be putting a gloss on it.

That to one side there has been some major progress this season.

 

[tatabanya]

They do look a bit bleak but there are some big plus points as well - fan numbers are up, we have progressed from last season, we have brought in some great players and going forward with the stadium. We shouldnt forget these are important things.

I know the team is stuttering at the moment and there have been some crap communications and - most importantly - it feels to me like Des hasnt been supported properly with his management team. There are questions to answers.

Having said all that a lot of the criticism from here seem to be from people who are close to the club and some of the players. I'm not aware of any of that so I may be putting a gloss on it.

That to one side there has been some major progress this season.

Some spin to turn that into a positive for Tim. He was part of the reason the bar was set so low.

 

[Carpy]

Numbers are looking pretty bleak for Tim.

Mind you it's still only 112 out of 1777 responses. @Carpy, do you have a figure for how many of the total users are still active for a better representation?

We have over 1700 registered members but I think the only one of us with the number of regularly active members would be @Northstandboy