Heading in the right direction but more work to be done
People will say being British or a football fan we’re never completely happy. There is always something for us to moan or gripe about and while in some cases it might not be justified, in other cases it could be.
We know over the past few years and we can go back one, two, five or more that Barnet Football Club has been neglected both on and off the pitch. Not always at the same time I might add, there does seem a struggle to get both the on-field and off-field experience to match each other.
Since football returned from it’s enforced break in 2020 and a majority without fans I think it’s fair to say Bees fans can feel short changed in both aspects. Disappointing is probably a kind and polite word to use for what we’ve seen on the pitch prior to this season for at least two years, interjected by a decent year under Darren Currie and preceded by more less than favourable times.
No wonder a losing team and a club that doesn’t look like it cared much for what the supporters were witnessing in front of their eyes the fanbase has dwindled further to something that amounts to around 1000 people or less by the end of the 2021-22 season.
Charging one of if not the highest price for a home supporter to watch National League football at The Hive has it been value for money? Not even close! Are we surprised the fanbase has dwindled even more since the move from Underhill some nine years ago? No we’re not!
But we see a chink of light at the end of the tunnel, Dean Brennan is putting together an on-field experience for us to get excited about, it’s not fine-tuned nor is it the finished article either, it’s building for the future, something we’ve not seen since The Hive was in its stages of completion.
Another signing this afternoon brings us close to the numbers and personnel Dean wants at the club, it’s quite refreshing and I think at times overwhelming for some as we’re not used to seeing the club build on the pitch, I hope it’s not a flash in the pan on the chairman’s part.
Now I have to temper that expectation on the pitch with the off-field experience, here’s where we’re not going hand in hand and not even close. In reality the club are lucky we’ve started well and there is a bit less clamour about what’s going on.
Our two promotions so far on tickets have been excellent, you can’t fault Tony Kleanthous for what he’s done and actually matched on-field expectations. A buy one, get one free season ticket offer, a free ticket for the televised Eastleigh game on Bank Holiday Monday having attended the Woking fixture, the guy has listened and acted accordingly and we saw 1800 supporting Barnet FC in front of the BT Sport cameras, numbers we’ve not seen on lots of occasions over the past five or six years at least.
What didn’t work though was how the offers played out when you tried to buy them online, we do a good thing and then we try to shoot ourselves in the foot to almost compensate, should it really be that difficult to test run these things and find any fault before it goes live?
The above brings me nicely onto Monday and the customer matchday experience before and after you watch the football, basically there isn’t one or there isn’t one you would expect as a standard National League supporter.
We did a great job in getting new fans into the ground, we did a great job getting some previous disgruntled fans along to watch and we offered them zilch in the way of getting a pint in good time or standard football grub, let alone those who come every week.
All I hear is hospitality in London is struggling to employ people, but I can’t seem to find any news coverage and that’s going back since April this year. I’m happy to be corrected on this via the comments, I don’t live in London so I don’t see first hand if it is the case.
I heard the same story six weeks ago during pre-season yet in all that time we’ve not come up with a way to offer our own supporters something better than pre-packed sandwiches and not able to boil an urn for a cuppa!
For some I appreciate it’s not an issue but getting your pint at the bar doesn’t seem to be any quicker either. We’ve a great Supporters Association who’ve made great strides in the last couple of seasons, why are the club not leaning on them more to see how they can help us through? It’s not an admission of struggle on the club’s part, if it’s an issue across the city then try every avenue to sort yourselves out, I find it hard to believe there isn’t a mobile burger van or three who don’t want to make a few quid
People want to spend money, they want to put it in Tony’s pocket, but why does it seem to be so difficult? I’ve always said I will praise him for when we do things right, whether that’s something we should be doing anyway or we’ve gone above and beyond, but criticism should be expected when we can’t do the basics or the simple.
It's frustrating, this togetherness can run through the whole club from the top through the players and management down to you and I, the ball is rolling, and we need to follow it and look after it, failure to do so takes us back to what we’ve previously witnessed and been a part of.
Because if you get these small things right and a cup of tea or a burger is a small thing, 1800 come to watch and they spend, they spend more week in week out, don’t miss this opportunity Barnet FC that Dean is laying the foundations for, it might not come around again.
Thank you for reading the first two articles on this new site, I am looking for any contributions that people want to put forward for inclusion, drop me a line on Twitter (@trevk37) or email trevork31@sky.com.