Sheffield Wednesday held a steering group meeting with a selection of fans on Monday evening, giving supporters the opportunity to air their views and opinions on mainly off-field matters. The group has been meeting on a more or less quarterly basis with the chairman Dejphon Chansiri, Chief Operating Officer Joe Palmer, ticket office manager Alastair Wilson and director of communications Trevor Braithwait inviting and answering questions from the floor.
A particular bugbear of supporters at Hillsborough in recent times has been the speed of service from catering areas with many fans left disappointed, especially at half-time. At long last the club has invested in an enhanced Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) system which should speed service up significantly. This is to be used for the first time on Saturday when the Owls face Preston with supporters urged to show patience at this time as any teething problems may need to be ironed out. Hot drink lovers will also be pleased to learn that the stringent rules surrounding bringing flasks into the stadium are soon to be relaxed!
It was also stated that plans to improve the aesthetic of the West Stand are in place and will hopefully be put into practice soon.
The upcoming 150th anniversary of SWFC was discussed, plans are being finalised in relation to a prestigious pre-season home game next summer and it was also revealed that supporters will be given the opportunity to design the 3rd shirt to celebrate the anniversary.
In terms of the club shop a new retail manager has recently been appointed and so there could well be some much needed improvements made on the retail side of the club in the near future. Despite plenty of debate among the clubs supporters, record shirt sales were received on the new home shirt this season though the club are restricted by what they can order and how long it takes to receive delivery and so it is unlikely that the club will get any fresh deliveries of replica shirts once current stock levels are depleted.
It was confirmed that necessary refurbishments are taking place in the North Stand as a result of consultation with the Safety Advisory Group. The club will be completing these requirements as a priority and as a result around 900 seats in the stand will be lost during the work. A small number of TV screens have had to be removed from the Kop recently on advice from SAG as the were creating issues with supporters congregating in confined spaces.
Previous meetings raised the possibility of 10-match tickets but having looked into this in detail the club feel it would be difficult to operate and manage effectively. Half-season tickets for the remainder of this season are to be announced soon.
A lengthy discussion was had on the subject of corporate pricing with the chairman feeling that the increase in price was justified in relation to improvements on the pitch and corporate areas as a whole. He spoke of his own financial input & the fact that this season he has spent more time in Sheffield than in his homeland and expressed his gratitude to the clubs supporters in general for taking on board the clubs increase in ticket and shirt prices. With fans having responded in record numbers in terms of these sales he was hoping that corporate support would respond in a similar manner.
Not for the first time and hardly surprisingly the club received negative feedback in relation to the online shop though there were more positive views of the SWFC website in terms of its content and up to date information provided. The club responded by stating that improvements were being putting in place in terms of improving the customer experience of the online shop and this is likely to be further enhanced by the new retail manager. The club website is also to be updated next season under a new deal with the providers and the league and so although not directly linked this may aid the development of the shop.
The links to the huge student population in Sheffield were debated with the club confirming that they do have contact with the universities and sell tickets to their students. They also have a presence to promote the club during freshers week though this year their stall was tied in with other Sheffield sports clubs. The group felt that the club should not be tied into others and should promote the club more as a brand at these events rather than have to 'share the stage' with others.
Some fans choose to view these meetings with a degree of cynicism but the club have opened the door to supporters with the chairman in attendance and supporters are not restricted by the questions they can put forward. It can only be a positive thing that supporters have this opportunity to engage with the club, especially given the lack of clarity and debate that was afforded under some previous regimes.