Riverside Rocket(S)

T

table

UTC Legend
First off, thanks to everyone that has posted so many positive comments about the Rockets. Being so involved on them, it's difficult to know how much notice people take of us Rocketeers ( I do see the responses to my Rocket Ramblings and it does warm the cockles' ) So, I thought I'd take TJs advice and start a thread dedicated to it : )

From what I've learnt so far about this season's Rockets is titbits here and there, nothing officially official but I don't have a reason to doubt it. As from and including Everton away, the club will only provide one accessible minibus, instead of the two they've provided and filled for the past season and a bit. The stumbling block is who pays for the second one. At this point I'll admit that I've heard more from Riverside about their side of the story than the club's side. I know there's people in the club trying their hardest to get it resolved but they don't have much decision making clout.

With interruptions, this has taken nearly 2 hours to construct, I've still got caring duties for the Good Lady even with my covid. That again isn't a "woe is me" comment, it's just explaining why I'll only be an occasional poster on a thread I started on a subject I feel passionate about. All I would say, can we all be civilised when dealing with people at the club. We all listen to the message more if someone's talking rather than shouting : )

Ps guess who watched Colombo yesterday,
One more thing, the club should be able to provide accessible away transport and £139 all you can eat/drink tickets. They're not mutually exclusive and can all be included under the club's business umbrella : )
 
Do you have any idea of the cost of a Rocket for a typical trip - I imagine that Burnley would cost more than Brentford ?

Also, how much do Rocketeers currently contribute themselves ? Maybe some supporters think that you get the whole thing for free, but I know that's not the case.

Would be useful to know how much subsidy/sponsorship we are actually looking for.
 
Rob has said on another thread it could be a cost thing. The club are looking for sponsors yet there are millions of pounds slopping around and the club want someone else to pick up the tab.

Sadly yet another PR failure at Dean Court to add to the long list.

Time for Bill and Jim to do the right thing there is more to life than the £139 hospitality package.
 
Such a shame that the club 'appears' to think that a hospitality package is more important than long standing supporters. The communications appear to poor, too. I suppose that does keep out tinpot image intact.

Couple of questions.

Do other clubs provide such a service or is it unique to AFCB?

What is the overall cost and could sponsorship be arranged?

Could other supporters, perhaps, make small contributions to help out through a 'Just Giving' page?

I think it is important to support our own, even though Mr table is dead rough and illiterate. Just remember he is OUR 'dead rough and illiterate'

Hope you recover from Covid quickly, missed our little chat yesterday, and this can be sorted out to everyone's satisfaction.

(Just to make you feel better, you missed a really exciting game yesterday!)
 
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hba1 said:
Rob has said on another thread it could be a cost thing. The club are looking for sponsors yet there are millions of pounds slopping around and the club want someone else to pick up the tab.

Sadly yet another PR failure at Dean Court to add to the long list.

Time for Bill and Jim to do the right thing there is more to life than the £139 hospitality package.
Click to expand...

You have to wonder how many hospitality packages would be needed to cover the costs of the Riversides Rockets.

The weekly wage of just one of our first team players would probably cover the oncosts for a whole season.

In the USA companies would be falling over themselves to cover this and trumpet it as Corporate Responsibility.
 
ErikthViking said:
You have to wonder how many hospitality packages would be needed to cover the costs of the Riversides Rockets.

The weekly wage of just one of our first team players would probably cover the oncosts for a whole season.

In the USA companies would be falling over themselves to cover this and trumpet it as Corporate Responsibility.
Click to expand...

Maybe worth tagging some of the players on social media to see if they might want to get involved as 'sponsors'?
 
Other than the various reports/messages that @RobTrent and @table have received, has anyone contacted senior personnel at the club with the question directly? Is it possible that this is just a trial balloon from some "fonctionnaire" but it hasn't been kicked upstairs?

I did send a message to the Foley Entertainment link, but have not received an acknowledgement. So probably not a good avenue.
 
table said:
First off, thanks to everyone that has posted so many positive comments about the Rockets. Being so involved on them, it's difficult to know how much notice people take of us Rocketeers ( I do see the responses to my Rocket Ramblings and it does warm the cockles' ) So, I thought I'd take TJs advice and start a thread dedicated to it : )

From what I've learnt so far about this season's Rockets is titbits here and there, nothing officially official but I don't have a reason to doubt it. As from and including Everton away, the club will only provide one accessible minibus, instead of the two they've provided and filled for the past season and a bit. The stumbling block is who pays for the second one. At this point I'll admit that I've heard more from Riverside about their side of the story than the club's side. I know there's people in the club trying their hardest to get it resolved but they don't have much decision making clout.

With interruptions, this has taken nearly 2 hours to construct, I've still got caring duties for the Good Lady even with my covid. That again isn't a "woe is me" comment, it's just explaining why I'll only be an occasional poster on a thread I started on a subject I feel passionate about. All I would say, can we all be civilised when dealing with people at the club. We all listen to the message more if someone's talking rather than shouting : )

Ps guess who watched Colombo yesterday,
One more thing, the club should be able to provide accessible away transport and £139 all you can eat/drink tickets. They're not mutually exclusive and can all be included under the club's business umbrella : )
Click to expand...
Well put Table. I’d be pretty confident this could get sorted, as long as it’s kept in the club’s consciousness.
 
This is solely down to money. The cost to the club for each Bluebird 50 seater coach can’t be huge as most of the 50 passengers pay for the travel ticket. There may be some ambulant disabled that receive a free personal assistant travel ticket. For the accessible minibuses each supporter again pays for the same travel ticket as per large coaches and receive a free personal assistant travel ticket. Obviously the total cost of running a coach versus minibus is different, each coach has say 45 paying supporters whereas each minibus has only 3 paying supporter. As our fellow fans Table & Rob have said, our club has never before been in a better financial position. These as yet non official management decisions seem to be a long way from taking the supporters with them, especially given the recent forming of a Disabled Supporters Association at AFC Bournemouth and connection with Level Playing Field. I know the DSA had a meeting with representat of the club attending last week so it will be interesting to read those minutes when published.
 
table said:
First off, thanks to everyone that has posted so many positive comments about the Rockets. Being so involved on them, it's difficult to know how much notice people take of us Rocketeers ( I do see the responses to my Rocket Ramblings and it does warm the cockles' ) So, I thought I'd take TJs advice and start a thread dedicated to it : )

From what I've learnt so far about this season's Rockets is titbits here and there, nothing officially official but I don't have a reason to doubt it. As from and including Everton away, the club will only provide one accessible minibus, instead of the two they've provided and filled for the past season and a bit. The stumbling block is who pays for the second one. At this point I'll admit that I've heard more from Riverside about their side of the story than the club's side. I know there's people in the club trying their hardest to get it resolved but they don't have much decision making clout.

With interruptions, this has taken nearly 2 hours to construct, I've still got caring duties for the Good Lady even with my covid. That again isn't a "woe is me" comment, it's just explaining why I'll only be an occasional poster on a thread I started on a subject I feel passionate about. All I would say, can we all be civilised when dealing with people at the club. We all listen to the message more if someone's talking rather than shouting : )

Ps guess who watched Colombo yesterday,
One more thing, the club should be able to provide accessible away transport and £139 all you can eat/drink tickets. They're not mutually exclusive and can all be included under the club's business umbrella : )
Click to expand...
This is an issue which will undoubtedly unite the entire fanbase - the Rocketeers are a much loved and cherished part of what we are. The optics are, on the face of it, terrible and we have to hope that not only common sense but also compassion and unity prevail.

The emotions rightly expressed on this thread - the club's wealth, the players wages, hospitality gripes - are valid, but as table says let's keep it civil. Experience shows that identifying negatives such as these early into a discussion rarely lead to a desired outcome. Please let's focus on the outcome we seek not the injustice we feel.

Together anything is possible remains our guiding principle.

PS - get well soon table. It's taken us quite a while to work out we've lived around the corner for 30 years so if there's anything you need just let me know.
 
Again thank you all for reading and responding to this thread. Just to address some of the points raised, as gjlouie says, wheelchair users pay the same as coach users.PAs tickets are complimentary.

I'm hopeful, based only on my natural optimism, that Riverside and the club are still in dialogue and this can be resolved. So at the moment I don't want to bring them into it to much, they have always been exemplary in everything we've had to do with them : )

The things that are bugging me the most are, the club just wouldn't contemplate announcing "instead of 4 coaches to the next away match there will only be 2 and we'll chose who goes on them, to give everyone a chance, not just the usual people that follow us everywhere, no matter what time, how far and how bad the weather. Thank you for your loyalty and support, we really appreciate it" . That is basically what's happening to us : (

Another thing is, it seems to me, any concession or assistance wheelchair users get is because some of them (like Rob Trent, Kelvin Trevitt and others) have had to make a "fuss" until something is done about it. When it's there, it never feels permanent as it appears with the Rockets. It just shouldn't be so in this day and age, it really shouldn't be so at one of the richest clubs in the world. The attraction of this club has been that we're included as equals, that is priceless to us, now we're looking like a drain on the profitability of the "investment" : (

As I say, if only to convince myself, the club may have something up their sleeve ( unfortunately, I fear it may just be a sweaty armpit) : )

As ETV says, I would have thought the club ownership would see the Rockets as cheap positive publicity. I'm not sure if the Rockets are unique to our club but I don't think many other clubs have them. My observations are because of how this club's been run, we have a bigger than average wheelchair using fan base. We had 8 wheelchairs at Swansea for a midweek League cup match, I doubt these "SuperMega clubs" have that many : )
 
Even though it shouldn't be necessary, keep banging the drum table, and I'm sure there will be a resolution, with hopefully long term commitments

And get well soon fella, Mrs Table and the rest of this board need you fit and well
 
Just wondering, does anyone here know/have access to Mark Pugh ? He's always struck me as a very decent bloke. If all else fails, maybe he could intercede on behalf of The Rocketeers ? Or perhaps he could get a few of the players to chip in to help towards the costs ? As others have said, this could be a fantastic piece of positive PR for the club if handled well.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
How many accessible minibuses are acceptable? Two? Three? More?
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Well one is always full, and since the second one became 'a thing' the take up has been good. Its encouraged fans who cannot get to games to maybe try it out.

Of course there are some coach companies which have wheelchair spaces on their standard coaches. This was something I pushed for a few years ago. Bluebird does not have any.

I also understand why some wheelchair users may not be comfortable travelling on a standard coach. Feeling we are holding people up; requiring extra stops etc. Different needs from different people.

I accept that due to costs the minibuses are less attractive to run, as if your question had been about the Bluebirds, well the answer would probably have been as many as away travellers want them. I accept that disabled people dont have that sway.

I also feel that the cost is a drop in the ocean to clubs.

If they decide to only run one then its tough really.
 
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