SEO is Working

[big carlos]

glad you're all having a good laugh....from what i saw on saturday the vale fans are heading for civil war and its no joke,Don't get me wrong i want the board gone but vale rowing with vale in the street almost coming to blows, its not good and what worries me more is the fact that seo is working, its plain to see with the board making offers and the food bar being easily accessable at half time. the thing is.....with a club our size it could all go horribly wrong, something needs to happen to unite the vale and it needs to happen now!

[geosname]

From where I sit SeO isnt a campaign, its a group of fans making a statement as a collective. No one is trying to force any fan into joining, its a personal choice, not an easy one but some have made it, they are by their very nature pro change.

Is it working?... of course it is.... its not fast its a long process that cuts into reserves, it doesnt have the visual impact of B&G or the coffin dodgers march, its the quiet thing that sits in the boardroom menacing from the corner of the eye, from the back of the mind. Of course the more people who take this route the quicker the process becomes.

Is it new?.... not at all, every club in decline has its SeO, they are the people who walk away. Previously they have not had a collective voice or the ability to discuss with the like minded, then comes the internet. Not only do the people who wont spend get a vehicle for discussion but people who dont agree get a chance to see whats happening and comment. SeO is basically a number of vale fans who individually want change and have decided not to attend matches until that change takes place that suddenly have a collective name.

When will it start to take effect?... It already has... whether the club admit it or not there are strong indications that it is having an effect... none payment of Nantwich, extended ST offer, giveaways with advertising, naming the ground cheap etc all point to this.

Will it force the club into administration.... No, it cant, it doesnt have that sort of power, customers dont force administration on a business. Yes Port Vale is a business, not quite the same as the corner shop or the manufacturer, more like a monopoly in that the customers cant just go somewhere else to get the same product, but the customers are the same, if they dont want the product what does the business/monopoly do?... if it wants to survive it changes.

Should everyone join SeO... Thats a personal choice and should be respected as such

At the end of the day all the groups [for want of a better word] are vale fans, each collective of fans are separate from the other, B&G is not SEO or NLV or coffin dodgers nor are any of the possible permutations of the 4, some fans may or may not be associated with another collective but they all have things in common.

1] They are all vale fans

2] They love the club enough to be pro active to effect change

3] They all want something better for the Vale

[old sage]

I withdraw my comment about the season starting earlier, it hasn't. As for countering starve them out, if the 5300 Vale fans attending spend £2 per game more throughout the season that is £243,800 more revenue. Let us say 33% of that is profit leaving £81,266. That is 312 season tickets, about 60% of the SEO support if numbers are to be believed. With better performance on the commercial side of the club, there should be enough revenue to overcome SEO and in any case we hope the club is working to address supporters' concerns and get people back attending. A good offer for part season season tickets should help eventually.

 

What a great idea replace the missing fans by spending more.....wonderful!!. Why not just get rid of two horrid people Bratt & Oliver and hey presto over a 1000 extra fans straight away. That seems a better solution to me surely.

[old sage]

From where I sit SeO isnt a campaign, its a group of fans making a statement as a collective. No one is trying to force any fan into joining, its a personal choice, not an easy one but some have made it, they are by their very nature pro change.

Is it working?... of course it is.... its not fast its a long process that cuts into reserves, it doesnt have the visual impact of B&G or the coffin dodgers march, its the quiet thing that sits in the boardroom menacing from the corner of the eye, from the back of the mind. Of course the more people who take this route the quicker the process becomes.

Is it new?.... not at all, every club in decline has its SeO, they are the people who walk away. Previously they have not had a collective voice or the ability to discuss with the like minded, then comes the internet. Not only do the people who wont spend get a vehicle for discussion but people who dont agree get a chance to see whats happening and comment. SeO is basically a number of vale fans who individually want change and have decided not to attend matches until that change takes place that suddenly have a collective name.

When will it start to take effect?... It already has... whether the club admit it or not there are strong indications that it is having an effect... none payment of Nantwich, extended ST offer, giveaways with advertising, naming the ground cheap etc all point to this.

Will it force the club into administration.... No, it cant, it doesnt have that sort of power, customers dont force administration on a business. Yes Port Vale is a business, not quite the same as the corner shop or the manufacturer, more like a monopoly in that the customers cant just go somewhere else to get the same product, but the customers are the same, if they dont want the product what does the business/monopoly do?... if it wants to survive it changes.

Should everyone join SeO... Thats a personal choice and should be respected as such

At the end of the day all the groups [for want of a better word] are vale fans, each collective of fans are separate from the other, B&G is not SEO or NLV or coffin dodgers nor are any of the possible permutations of the 4, some fans may or may not be associated with another collective but they all have things in common.

1] They are all vale fans

2] They love the club enough to be pro active to effect change

3] They all want something better for the Vale

My vote for post of the month. All connected with Port Vale should read it and understand it and then we may find the solution. Nice one Geo.

[1876 Legends]

Oh for gods sake - will you all just give it a ****** rest!

[geosname]

Oh for gods sake - will you all just give it a ****** rest!

 

If you dont like it you dont have to read it or comment, but if you do decide to comment please try to be constructive.... any fool can be dismissive... no Im not calling you a fool

[sheffield61]

The penny, or LACK of, will drop with them when Accy bring like 50 fans and we do well to get even 4,000 in, that repeated x's MOST other league games & they're WELL in the dog poo......

[Edge81]

Starve Em Out is only working to a certain degree. The Paddock snack bar ran out of Greene King yesterday and had only cheese n onion pasties at H/T. There was a decent crowd there, not massive by any stretch of the imagination, so on the whole it doesnt look dire. I didnt witness the protest, so cant comment. It does pain me to see Vale fans so split though.

 

All the snack bars run out of everything because they never stock them properly!!

[Edge81]

I withdraw my comment about the season starting earlier, it hasn't. As for countering starve them out, if the 5300 Vale fans attending spend £2 per game more throughout the season that is £243,800 more revenue. Let us say 33% of that is profit leaving £81,266. That is 312 season tickets, about 60% of the SEO support if numbers are to be believed. With better performance on the commercial side of the club, there should be enough revenue to overcome SEO and in any case we hope the club is working to address supporters' concerns and get people back attending. A good offer for part season season tickets should help eventually.

 

Only if in the club shop, as it has been pointed out that a franchise now runs catering, club won't see that.

[Wellington Bomber]

My friend and I live in Congleton, are both shareholders and now former season ticket holders. We made the decision at the end of last season that neither of us would return to the Vale whilst the present incumbents remain in power. We have both become sad and disillusioned that key investment has been repeatedly ignored or turned away whilst at the same time the club have been allowed to spiral into the basement of league football with seemingly little hope of escape.

On Saturday, my friend went to watch Macclesfield whilst I stayed at home and did the gardening with my ear to the Radio Stoke commentary. The fact we managed to salvage a draw against league newcomers Crawley Town says it all!

Neither of us have demonstrated or signed up to Black & Gold or SEO and I feel there are probably many more like us. We both regularly sat in the Railway Stand behind Old Sage and his boys and although I haven't always agreed with his views I respect him for his passion and love of our club.

I have no doubt that my friend and I will some day return to Vale Park but it won't happen until there is a regime change and we start to look like a proper professional football club.

[valetillidye]

The gate yesterday was affected by holidays and the season starting earlier than usual. Also, it is certainly my intention to spend more in the ground than I usually do and that is intended to undermine SEO. Call it famine relief if you light. The PV clock on my wall bought in the shop yesterday is ticking away nicely.

 

you'll have to spend some dosh to make up for the money me, my bro, my dad,my mate and my uncle used to spend, probably 3 pies before kick off, 2 bottles of lager each at half time and a couple of hot dogs thrown in for good measure!

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

Moving away attendance down to bump up the home attendance was a clever move.

 

There were 700 + Crawley, so 5189 Vale fan's including all free under 9's all free giveaway ticket's, every person in boxes etc.

 

I think we were 1000 home fan's down.

 

SEO is worrying them. Don't let them win.

 

Accrington at home is a better time to judge, they will bring one man and a dog so figures can't be moved around.

 

They are banking on us falling back into line, don't be fooled.

[noisyvalefan]

Went burslem saturday for a few beers and a march only to miss the march cuz of 2idiots tryin to tell me it was a mo chaduary march the got a bit shouty n aggresive when i pointed out it was a march for change to show the board we areh not happy that all we want is for them to take sum investment from sum1 who can point us in the right direction off the field not necessarily mo to that 1of them got in my face n started screaming about mo only wanting vale for the land to build houses on and put vale on festival park behind waterworld these two guys i feel r like many who dont simply have the brains to work out what its about maybe thats a bit harsh it could also be down to the lack of coverage and information given by the sentinel and radio sjoke about why people want change without putting some kind of pro board comment or spin on it well i wont be going burslem b4vale again for a 2reasons 1its to hard not goin vale without being in burslem on matchday and 2 i fear i will end up fighting with fllow vale fans this should never happen

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

Went burslem saturday for a few beers and a march only to miss the march cuz of 2idiots tryin to tell me it was a mo chaduary march the got a bit shouty n aggresive when i pointed out it was a march for change to show the board we areh not happy that all we want is for them to take sum investment from sum1 who can point us in the right direction off the field not necessarily mo to that 1of them got in my face n started screaming about mo only wanting vale for the land to build houses on and put vale on festival park behind waterworld these two guys i feel r like many who dont simply have the brains to work out what its about maybe thats a bit harsh it could also be down to the lack of coverage and information given by the sentinel and radio sjoke about why people want change without putting some kind of pro board comment or spin on it well i wont be going burslem b4vale again for a 2reasons 1its to hard not goin vale without being in burslem on matchday and 2 i fear i will end up fighting with fllow vale fans this should never happen

 

Stoke on Trent certainly has more than there fair share of wand's.

[Birdy]

RS did say at KO they thought there was 700+ Crawley fans?