It’s good to talk…
Rob Fielding says “what a difference a meeting makes” as he praises the Supporters Club and administrator Bob Young for giving us an update on events at Vale Park.
Rob Fielding writes
As you’ve probably noticed in these columns, poor communication is a real bugbear of mine and thankfully it’s something you cannot blame the Supporters Club for. I’m thankful that we have such a proactive bunch as we do and that Monday’s meeting was able to give Vale fans a much-needed update on events.
Rob has been a Vale fan for 30 years. He set up “There’s only one Vale fan in Bristol” back in 1996 in an attempt to get a lift share to Vale games. The website’s name has (thankfully) been shortened to “onevalefan” and recently celebrated 15 years online.
I feel that a lot of anger and bad tempers are caused by frustration and worry as fans grow increasingly concerned about the state of their club.
Simply, there has been little clear communication from the club over the entire summer. Press releases and statements have been few and far between.
I do think it’s really not too much to give fans more than two minutes on the local radio or a couple of quotes in the local paper. And I really don’t think it would take that much for a regular weekly update via the official website (yes, not everything, I know some things are confidential) but some of the things mentioned in the meeting – kit sponsorship, the Sproson statue, player registration and the like – could easily have been passed on to the fans earlier than Monday and helped calm some fears.
That’s taking nothing away from the Supporters Club’s meeting. I fear my regular appeals for more efficient updates from the club are falling on deaf ears, so well done to the SC for organising this meeting, without which, many of these issues may not have come to light.
Well done to Bob Young, who has taken much stick, some of it deserved I must say, but who had the guts and professionalism to face the fans on Monday.
But most of all thank you to the Supporters Club. I really don’t know what we’d do without them.
I just hope the administrators are inspired by the Supporters Club’s efforts to inform the fans and that it doesn’t take another mass meeting for the fans to get regular updates. I know more regular news updates will solve all our problems, but I do think that it will go a long way towards quelling fan unrest.