A lifelong Latics fan has been banned from his seat in the main stand after attempting to give the club chairman his opinion during the recent 7-1 rout by Cardiff.
Brian Wild (64) has been watching his team at Boundary Park for 56 years and is proud to be an Oldham Athletic fan. He even received a certificate from former manager Andy Ritchie recognising his 50 years as a Latics fanatic. However, he was sickened when he was told that he cannot sit in the main stand for the remainder of the season because he tried to offer some advice to the club's chairman, Chris Moore, during the hammering by Division
Two rivals Cardiff.
Mr Wild said he had no idea that he had done anything wrong after he spoke to Mr Moore. He simply returned to his seat and watched the rest of the game, even though fans around him left midway through the second half. At the next home game, against Cambridge United on March 30, Mr Wild and his friend attended the match as usual. They bought their tickets but as they arrived at the centre stand turnstile they were confronted by two stewards.
Mr Wild said: “I had no idea what it was about but they handed me a letter. I could not believe it when I read that my friend and I were banned from the main stand for speaking to the chairman at half time during the Cardiff game.”
Mr Wild said he was very polite when he approached Mr Moore and did not use bad or threatening language. He added, “I feel that I have a right to voice my opinion after watching the team for more than 50 years. We were losing 5-0 at half time and the match was appalling, I just wanted to offer some advice to the chairman in the hope that he would listen to the fans.” He now sits in the Lookers stand. Mr Moore would not comment.
This reminds me of a situation at Southampton earlier in the year regarding feedback to the chairman.
Brian Knight sent a number of e-mails to the club, using the ask Rupert
(Lowe, our chairman) section on the website. The section quite openly
welcomes comments from fans. Of course Mr. Knight's comments were critical
of the chairman and his choice of manager. Having seen some of the e-mails,
there was nothing particularly offensive about them and were just a typical
response from an aggrieved fan.
Of course the club chose not to see it this way. Without a hint of a warning
(they had even sent a reply thanking him for his regular use of the forum!)
they contacted his employer (through whom the e-mails were being sent)
notifying them of a series of unauthorised e-mails in the hope that Mr.
Knight would be disciplined if not sacked from his job.
As much as I love Southampton and generally think the chairman has done an
excellnt job it's just another example of how the club treats loyal fans.
It's sad to think of us as just customer stats, but to many clubs that's all
we are. Everything else would seem to be marketing to get our loyalty.
Football is different to nearly any other business in that the customer base is exceptionally loyal, despite ludicrous prices for tickets and merchandise. Clubs have always been in the game out of greed but now struggle as players and agents want more than their share too. With TV revenue everyone was happy but those days are now over with the collapse of Kirsch and ITV Digital. In the end it's always the fan who'll suffer with a lowering of service while enduring rising costs.
Depressing really. It shows real character on Mr. Wild's part to continue to
go and see the club he has been so loyal to despite such treatment.