To the future
We might have a trouble with frost as we don’t have under soil heating. HOW can Accrington Stanley compete with local rivals Blackburn and Burnley? IT has a great feel to it Accrington Stanley. It’s a family club.
I can’t think of any other clubs in the football league where the managers and players go in the bar at the end of the game and talk to the fans.
It’s quite a unique offering. It’s not a cold, corporate set up where you are ushered into a box and the door is shut.
It’s got a really great, charming atmosphere that we don’t want to lose in all this.
It is about the fans and the people of the town. We are not looking to build a really glossy and shiny Starbucks or McDonalds, we are looking at improv- ing on what we’ve got but keeping the charm.
We might get things wrong along the way but everything we do can be changed later if we need to.
I’m not afraid of competition. I never have been.
I think it’s about our offer and I think Accrington’s offer is better than Blackburn’s and Burnley’s.
In terms of match day experience you are closer to the action, the atmosphere is really good and the spirit around the place is good.
I think our offer is unique because it’s not Premiership and too corporate.
I think Burnley and Blackburn have to be more corporate because of where they are in the leagues.
I prefer our match day experience offer to Old Trafford’s and people that come along all say the same. We don’t want to lose that and we want to work on it and improve it.
We don’t want to become a corporate animal. WHAT do you think of proposed changes to the Football League and how could Stanley be affected? I don’t like it and I think it’s appeasing the Premier League.
It will cost us money. We will lose revenue. They keep saying we won’t but I don’t see how we won’t.
Things like scrapping FA up replays have also sneaked in, I don’t like that one little bit.
If you look at Exeter last year, they drew Liverpool in the cup, they drew 1-1 at Exeter and then went up to play at Anfield in the replay. They got beaten but they probably got £500,000 from the experience.
That fortune will help them do work around the stadium which we all need to do at our level. We don’t have big fancy new stadiums.
As a small club you dream of getting a big Premier League team home or away and get a replay because they play a load of kids as they don’t want to play their full side.
I’m never going to vote for it.
I don’t understand the justification they’ve put across for it either. They say we will sell more season tickets if there are less mid-week games. I just don’t follow that logic.
They will still buy their season tickets but just not come to the mid-week games. Fans will then say that season tickets need to go down because there are less games.