Transition to Wanderland 2.0 Forum 3/10/17

[ManfredSchaefer]

Last night Braad, AndyPK and I went to a forum run by students from Western Sydney Uni, on behalf of the Wanderers, re how members would like the seating transition from Soulless/ANZ to the new Wanderland 2.0 managed. I will post more details on this when I get my head out from lesson plans and uni assignments, so watch this space...

[Burztur]

I just want my old seat back

[btron3000]

That has to be the best teaser of an opening post ever.

[wendybr]

1 hour ago, Burztur said:

I just want my old seat back

I do not want mine!! 

[mack]

The only major issue is transitioning people who used to be in the main grandstand. As we know the entire new main grandstand is now a relative handful of premium "Cumberland Lounge" field club seats, while the rest of the levels are corporate boxes. The old stadium held roughly 7500 seats per main grandstand (2200 in each end). The new stadium will have something like ~11000 seats in the opposite side grandstand & ~7000 in the home ends, although exact numbers will depend on what you assign each corner to which stand.

Anyway, the first step would be to round up all the main grandstand members and tell them that they have a few options:

1) Upgrade to centre-field "Cumberland Lounge" Premium Memberships. These would be the most expensive regular memberships, with access to the special new field club and/or Cumberland Lounge.
2) Stay in the main grandstand, but moved into the few hundred seats at the end of the main grandstand. Due to capacity regulations these wouldn't include any access to the special lounge area. They would be level with the penalty area. Many people who used to be in the main grandstand will have had similar views. They might even be a cost downgrade for those who used to be in the middle.
3) I would not be surprised considering the amount of corporate boxes available if the club thinks about selling memberships which are technically a corporate box seat but are just a regular membership, so you turn up to your "box" along with another couple dozen regular ticket holders and you get your seat and maybe some nicer facilities than usual memberships have.
4) Move to the other grandstand but stay in the middle. The sun will get up in your face in summer afternoon games.
5) Move to a corner or one of the ends of the ground. Most useful if you really don't like the sun.
6) Buy your own corporate sponsorship/box.

Once that's done if there are any premium spaces left they will ask the other member types if they want to upgrade to a premium, then once that's done, give everyone their new seats in the same area as they used to, and let people move if they want.

[matty]

It's  gonna be a ****-fight, twice as bad as the transition to Sydney  Olympic Park. 

There is no hope. 

[ManfredSchaefer]

Okay, here's what went down at WSU Parra Tuesday night.

First off, the forum was really a small focus group that were brought together to meet two students who were conducting research on behalf of the Wanderers, as part of the students' sports management degrees. Apparently (and AndyPK might know more on this) there had been a survey previously circulated on this subject, to whom I don't know. I believe that there was some focus on loyalty to the club vis-a-vis match day attendance being weighed against length of membership, however don't quote me on that.

The attendees to the focus group were almost all foundation members and ranged from RBB through to Red. Almost to a man we were all keen to voice our disdain with the move to Spotless, and generally speaking most people suggested that the basic premise for the transition back to Wanderland should be based on our membership and seat/bay as of the Roar semi played at the end of the 15/16 season.

Obviously there are wrinkles, unique and diverging issue that may confound or complicate matters. Some people spoke to the changes in membership that may have happened during the Spotless/ANZ exile, including downgrades and upgrades. To be honest I thought some of the people there were a bit too precious about what they thought they deserved or how loyal they were, but hey that's my 2 cents. Having said all that using the old Wanderland seating allocation as an initial offer to members was favourably looked upon by the focus group.

My main argument near the end of the focus group was that the club needs to (if it capable of doing so) giving the members plenty of info as to the planned internal lay out of Wanderland 2.0. So much of the discussion we had in the focus group was predicated by assumptions re the new stadium fit out just being a larger version of the old Wanderland (which IMO seems incredibly unlikely). Then there are issues relating to bay sizes and fit outs, members who have signed up since we went to Soulless/ANZ, and trying to account for corporate and away bay allocations.

All this was conducted in about an hour, and at the end the convening WSU students said there was no guarantee WSW would use the focus group feedback to develop a transition policy. So...it could all have been just one hours' gabbing and BS signifying SFA.

Truth be told the best way to get the suits to understand what we prefer transitioning back to Wanderland would be to send in letters and emails, and perhaps using any club/fan interaction to ram home our huge investment in this issue.

[mack]

2 hours ago, ManfredSchaefer said:

So much of the discussion we had in the focus group was predicated by assumptions re the new stadium fit out just being a larger version of the old Wanderland (which IMO seems incredibly unlikely).

It pretty much is, except there are bigger & more public facilities in all the stands.

The main Western grandstand has all the premium/corporate seat/boxes, all of the maintenance, storage, media, player & administration rooms just like Parramatta Stadium did. It has bathrooms on each floor (service, concourse, club, suite & media level) and food/drink facilities but these are smaller & more premium to cater for the various levels of seating/boxes.

The other 3 stands have all the public facing facilities on the concourse level has all the public facing facilities just like Parramatta Stadium did. They stands look similar to Brisbane, AAMI Park or the Gold Coast stadium although not exactly, as they have some single & some triple tier stands. There are some slight differences for the 3 regular stands in the configuration but the facilities are:

RBB North End: 3 large female toilets with ~115 stalls, 3 smaller much smaller male toilets (only a dozen or so stalls, rest of the room by urinals), two merch rooms, 4 food/drink outlets, 2 bars (1 small that will likely serve the main stand, and 1 very large one that will serve the East stand as well), police holding room & first aid. Oh, and the male & female prayer rooms. I feel like maybe one of those large female bathrooms should get split into M & F facilities.

South End: Parents room, first aid room, similar bathroom setup in terms of numbers but they aren't physically separated like the RBB end is, so it's more like a school toilet setup where it's one large room split into two little ones. Merch outlet, three food/drink outlets but no specific bar, although the two main stands each have a bar at each end, making them accessible presumably for this end.

East Stand: 4 massive bathrooms split into 4 male 4 female, parent room, first aid, 1 large bar (corner near the South End), three very large food/drink outlets. The one in the middle & another on the RBB end look huge.

Compare that to Parramatta, the RBB end had a drink truck, food truck, and the food & drink outlets on the fence, no specific bathrooms. South end was just as bad. There were I believe two main bathrooms in each grandstand, and a handful of food outlets scattered in each.

[Johnno]

how hard could it be.

Sort all memberships based on sign-on date, start allocating seats.

Done

 

 

[Hughesy]

I can see a huge shitfight brewing over the western stand. The significant lack of 'normal' seats is a poor design. 

[ManfredSchaefer]

53 minutes ago, Johnno said:

how hard could it be.

Sort all memberships based on sign-on date, start allocating seats.

Done

 

 

If what I heard is a decent sample of how members may react to this suggestion, then there will be a lot of argy-bargy and problems related to members who believe that going to more games is the deciding factor, or if they sit in a group where people have signed on at different times, and want to stay together.

Allocating seats should probably start with the premise of where you were at the end of our last season at Wanderland, and then being offered (not allocated) the same bay/seat. Anyone who doesn't want to be allocated to the same bay/seat can ask for a different bay at that first offer. Anyone who has signed on after our last game at Wanderland 1.0 can specify a preferred bay in the new stadium, however they won;t be guaranteed of a place.

Have to say the whole issue of 'loyalty' meaning how many games you go to is a bit of a shite measure. For example, we all know an old Bavarian grump who is loyal as buggery but doesn't like Soulless...should he be penalised over someone who has only been a member since last season and has been going to games at that awful fooking stadium?

Bottom line...the club REALLY needs to talk to the members and offer options...not take a 'suck it and see' approach.

[Johnno]

9 minutes ago, ManfredSchaefer said:

 

Have to say the whole issue of 'loyalty' meaning how many games you go to is a bit of a shite measure. For example, we all know an old Bavarian grump who is loyal as buggery but doesn't like Soulless...should he be penalised over someone who has only been a member since last season and has been going to games at that awful fooking stadium?

Bottom line...the club REALLY needs to talk to the members and offer options...not take a 'suck it and see' approach.

Thats the trouble i have on the 'loyalty' front.  6pm sunday games at Soulless (7pm in a couple of weeks), with young school aged kids means they might not be able to go.

Everyone has different life priorities but that doesn't make them less loyal than the next person.

inb4: i'm more loyal than you

 

[Jukes01]

3 minutes ago, ManfredSchaefer said:

Anyone who doesn't want to be allocated to the same bay/seat can ask for a different bay at that first offer. Anyone who has signed on after our last game at Wanderland 1.0 can specify a preferred bay in the new stadium, however they won;t be guaranteed of a place.

Have to say the whole issue of 'loyalty' meaning how many games you go to is a bit of a shite measure. For example, we all know an old Bavarian grump who is loyal as buggery but doesn't like Soulless...should he be penalised over someone who has only been a member since last season and has been going to games at that awful fooking stadium?

I don't agree with you Manfred. Sure you don't like Soulless but you do have options in how you can use your membership even if you don't attend games. Do you pass your membership card to a member when you can't attend games, do you sell your ticket back to the club or to a member? I am sure your loyalty isn't being questioned by the club, you have been a foundation member haven't you. 

I don't know what everyone is complaining about, even when you get your new seat I am sure the club will try and accommodate you as best they can in a seat that is comparable to the previous stadium. In any case some members will miss out because its just a different configuration. I personally don't think there will be too many bad seats in the house. No one even knows what their new seat is going to look like and already people are complaining.  I think we are all getting a little precious, we are getting a brand new spanking stadium.

 

[leslie]

4) Move to the other grandstand but stay in the middle. The sun will get up in your face in summer afternoon games.

To be accepted into this stand you need to attend at least 3 games at Gosford before the new stadium opens as a suitability test, if you aren't already a black member (so to speak)

[ManfredSchaefer]

47 minutes ago, Jukes01 said:

I don't agree with you Manfred. Sure you don't like Soulless but you do have options in how you can use your membership even if you don't attend games. Do you pass your membership card to a member when you can't attend games, do you sell your ticket back to the club or to a member? I am sure your loyalty isn't being questioned by the club, you have been a foundation member haven't you. 

I don't know what everyone is complaining about, even when you get your new seat I am sure the club will try and accommodate you as best they can in a seat that is comparable to the previous stadium. In any case some members will miss out because its just a different configuration. I personally don't think there will be too many bad seats in the house. No one even knows what their new seat is going to look like and already people are complaining.  I think we are all getting a little precious, we are getting a brand new spanking stadium.

 

I'm not that concerned about how I use my membership and I am very comfortable with my degree of loyalty (if the foundation membership, podcasts, blog, thousands of posts here, away trips, $$$ spent on merch, signing up new members and getting tattooed with the club crest ain't displaying loyalty I don't know what will lol). The problem is that some members and possibly the club (as communicated through the focus group we had on Tuesday) think that loyalty is strictly defined by going to games. After all...it wasn't that long ago thousands of us boycotted a game at Wanderland against Victory because of our desire to protest the unfair treatment and depiction of active support across the entire HAL...are we no less (or no more) loyal to the Wanderers for missing games like that?

I'm optimistic about the eventual fit out and placement of members in the new stadium, assuming the clubs gives us the appropriate amount of time and information and does try to accommodate as far as reasonable the consensus of requests. Sadly, just as in general life or in how the club is run (hello, #PopaOut ) there will be some very loud and very pissed off folk who will emerge no matter what is done.

Hopefully common sense will prevail...

Oh wait a sec...

This is Oz Sokkah...

 

PS You do know I was talking about FCB re Soulless? 

[Davo]

1 hour ago, Jukes01 said:

I don't agree with you Manfred. Sure you don't like Soulless but you do have options in how you can use your membership even if you don't attend games. Do you pass your membership card to a member when you can't attend games, do you sell your ticket back to the club or to a member? I am sure your loyalty isn't being questioned by the club, you have been a foundation member haven't you. 

I don't know what everyone is complaining about, even when you get your new seat I am sure the club will try and accommodate you as best they can in a seat that is comparable to the previous stadium. In any case some members will miss out because its just a different configuration. I personally don't think there will be too many bad seats in the house. No one even knows what their new seat is going to look like and already people are complaining.  I think we are all getting a little precious, we are getting a brand new spanking stadium.

 

On the highlighted section, the club doesn't have a great track record in this regard.

When we moved from Parra to Spotless we went from bay 49 (western stand, back of the lower tier, pretty much behind the home bench) to bay 236 in Spotless (behind the goal line, next to the away bay). We went from arguably one of the best black member bays in the stadium to one of the worst. We signed up to memberships as soon as they opened in the clubs first season so I doubt they used order of joining to allocate seats, and they certainly didn't give us anything near comparable seats.

After talking to the club and being offered other terrible seats (or better seats but with our group split up) we bit the bullet, did what I suspect the club hoped we would do, and upgraded to red memberships to get reasonable seats.

I know it's not an easy job and they'll never make everyone happy but my past experience suggests it's going to be messy.

[sonar]

I don't care where I sit it will be OUR stadium, our fans,our atmosphere......can't wait. We were in bay 1 at Pirtek, something similar would be fine.

[Wanderboy]

Hey Mack.

Where did you get all that info about the new stadium and all the facilities?

Do you have a whole heap of section plans with a link or something? I'd love to check it out.

Cheers.

 

 

[ManfredSchaefer]

2 hours ago, Davo said:

On the highlighted section, the club doesn't have a great track record in this regard.

When we moved from Parra to Spotless we went from bay 49 (western stand, back of the lower tier, pretty much behind the home bench) to bay 236 in Spotless (behind the goal line, next to the away bay). We went from arguably one of the best black member bays in the stadium to one of the worst. We signed up to memberships as soon as they opened in the clubs first season so I doubt they used order of joining to allocate seats, and they certainly didn't give us anything near comparable seats.

After talking to the club and being offered other terrible seats (or better seats but with our group split up) we bit the bullet, did what I suspect the club hoped we would do, and upgraded to red memberships to get reasonable seats.

I know it's not an easy job and they'll never make everyone happy but my past experience suggests it's going to be messy.

What you mention about the upgrade you experienced at Soulless Davo was also brought up at the focus group.

The complication that has now arisen because of situations like yours is whether the club is planning on offering you a red membership when we return to Parra or if you will be given the opportunity to change back to black.

Shitfights are going to ensue that is for sure.

[wendybr]

3 hours ago, Davo said:

On the highlighted section, the club doesn't have a great track record in this regard.

After talking to the club and being offered other terrible seats (or better seats but with our group split up) we bit the bullet, did what I suspect the club hoped we would do, and upgraded to red memberships to get reasonable seats.

I know it's not an easy job and they'll never make everyone happy but my past experience suggests it's going to be messy.

I'd agree with that.

Even Red members such as my family and others here, were allocated dreadful seats in the transition to Soulless (altho the ANZ seats were good...well as good as ANZ seating gets)

A massive and difficult job, and I guess the sooner they start looking at ways of consulting with the members,  the better.

 

PS Upon complaining about dreadful seats at Soulless, much better seats were eventually allocated.

[Horus]

Love to have the equivalent of my Bay 6 seats back in the new stadium as there is no comparison to wilds that ive got at Spotless (as with Wendy my ANZ ones are about as good as you're going to get) but it will be a **** fight no doubt.

Not sure what the solution is because clearly its not going to please everyone (or anyone?)...my suggestion would be try to do the best you can to replicate the last season, perhaps some type of lottery for the western side if its just not going to work on the numbers....but as long as the coms come early and fast so people know what could be the ultimate outcome

To be honest as long as I'm not back in Bay 70 being covered in beer and crap from the arseholes in the away bays like my first year...it has to be an improvement on spotless

[HillsWanderer]

I miss Bay 66................................

[mack]

2 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Hey Mack.

Where did you get all that info about the new stadium and all the facilities?

Do you have a whole heap of section plans with a link or something? I'd love to check it out.

Cheers.

 

 

I have collated copy of all the design drawings & documents. I believe a link was posted here but I don't remember who by.

[Wanderboy]

1 minute ago, mack said:

I have collated copy of all the design drawings & documents. I believe a link was posted here but I don't remember who by.

Damn.

I've seen a couple of section plans posted here but only basic ones from memory.

Your descriptions were quite detailed so I'd love to see some more informative plans/details.

Maybe it was Gazmon, (who incidentally, hasn't posted for a while).

Any chance you can post what you have collated?

[btron3000]

My only question is whether the RBB Bays will be the same numbers? Just thinking of all the dudes with tatts...

[ManfredSchaefer]

7 hours ago, HillsWanderer said:

I miss Bay 66................................

Memories of Bay 65 and Mickisnot abusing the oppo 

[Valter43]

8 hours ago, wendybr said:

 Upon complaining about dreadful seats at Soulless, much better seats were eventually allocated.

So far from my experience I am happy with how the club handled me requesting seating/membership changes so I'm not too worried about wanderland 2.0. When I was in the "RBB" Bay that was in fact physically separated from the actual RBB bay, I just called up club membership the next day and requested a seat change. That was all sorted over the phone in less than 5 minutes and my new, updated membership card arrived before the next game. 

 

[Hughesy]

To be honest, the club could try everything and I'm sure plenty of people will still bitch and moan. No one whinges like WSW fans 

[SomeGuy1977]

6 hours ago, hughsey said:

To be honest, the club could try everything and I'm sure plenty of people will still bitch and moan. No one whinges like WSW fans 

I submit the smurfs as bitch and moan contenders, if only so they can say they're better than us  .

[ManfredSchaefer]

1 hour ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

I submit the smurfs as bitch and moan contenders, if only so they can say they're better than us  .

Remember that summit they had after the 'Farina Out in Cyrillic' crisis?

Made our Members Forum a few weeks back sound like a love in!