Hello Rik,

I am currently doing research for an independent documentary about the changing face of football. The programme will be from the perspctive of fans who feel they have been used and abused by their club's owners/directors.

One of the issues of the programme will be the Save Our Seats campaign and the disregard that these supporters were shown by both the Newcastle Utd board and the FA. I wondered if you would be prepared to be interviewed about the matter or knew someone else who might be. We are currently seeking funding for this project but in order to raise the finance we need to prove we have prospective interviewees.

Any other info or ideas you might have would be much appreciated.

Hope to hear from you, Jonathan Hill Sleeping Giant Productions Any takers to appear with me?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

So no one wants to be on TV then? Well I'm applying for the job, Looks like your stuck with me as spokesperson for the Internet toon fans? You had your chance.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

Rik, does they can send me the tickets for a trip to their studio? Because as a die hard fan of Newcastle, I never have my seat at St. James' Park!

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

Sorry Rik. The directors never abused me. Why is my typing appearing in Italics?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

The Board are all fans of the club, They do what they think is best for the club as a whole. Who would you rather have in charge? A Ken Bates type who once tried to put an electric fence around the fans or A Bob Murray type who pledges million for new players onlty to end up with virtual freebies who are coming to the end of their careers? You could do a lot worse than the current board.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

The SOS guys should be shot. They are dragging NUFC thru the mud purely for their own interests.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

Dragging the club through the mud? No more so than any Laobour Govt. Fact is, we don't see any bairns at SJP. Makems raising capacity to 56000. Who do you think they are trying to attract?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

Ace
Is it going to be a 'hear both sides' type thing, or will it be slanted towards supporting the SOS people, so that anybody who isn't sympathetic won't come up smelling of roses ?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I was speaking to a young property developer yesterday (not a football fan) who told me he sometimes has a drink with Freddy Shepherd's sons. He told me that they are both United fanatics. I'm sure they'll get that from their dad.

Who would you rather have as directors? Bates? Edwards? Sugar? It's brilliant for us that we have two United fanatics at the top (Hall & Shep). They have spent a fortune in trying to bring the best players to SJP and have been badly let down by 2 highly rated but failed managers. They have backed all their managers to the hilt.

As for SOS they ARE dragging the club's name through the mud and their argument is spurious. When we bought bonds we were specifically told that if a new stadium was built then the existing seat could not be retained. As from August we have a new stadium. SOS has been offered sweeteners. They should now shut up and support the club instead of doing a job that the Mackems have been happy to give them financial support for. If the Mackems issue you with public support and finanacial backing then it stands to reason you must be doing something against United.

As for Sunderland going to 56000 at Monkwearmouth Colliery and bringing in the bairns, United has decided to remain in it's magnificent city centre positon, and is therefore constrained in stadium size. As for the kids, United has expanded the family section and is keen to see the bairns coming. We shall see which stadium is filled.

Sunderland apparently gave free tickets to kids during this season in an attempt to build their fan base (a tacit admission that they could not sell them I fancy). I don't know about you, but when I was a bairn my mam told me never to accept things from strange men (they don't come any stranger than Murray) and I dread to think of the consequences for these bairns.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Hahaha. Well said Jonno. Agree with everything you said, How tedious;-)

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

JONNO, Who would you rather have as directors? Bates? Edwards? Sugar? Why not jonno? They have backed all their managers to the hilt , pumping millions into thier clubs. All of these Chairmen are fans of the club the same as ours are. There are better chairmen such as Jack Walker, Steve Gibson, The Leeds Chairman is a lot better than ours. We could have better board members, there aren't many worse.

As for SOS they ARE dragging the club's name through the mud The same could be said for the board for starting this WAR, They could and should have handled it much better , instead of trying to railroad their plans through and their argument is spurious. When we bought bonds we were specifically told that if a new stadium was built then the existing seat could not be retained. , They were told that they would get a seat of the same standard as the ones that they were moving from, and the fact is many are not getting a seatas good As from August we have a new stadium. no we aren't, its the same place with another tier added., SOS has been offered sweeteners. They should now shut up and support the club they are suporters , they have been our longest standing supporters, why should they shut up, they have been agrieved instead of doing a job that the Mackems have been happy to give them financial support for. If the Mackems issue you with public support and finanacial backing then it stands to reason you must be doing something against United. true fans stand together, A lot of clubs have supported The SOS

As for Sunderland going to 56000 at Monkwearmouth Colliery and bringing in the bairns, United has decided to remain in it's magnificent city centre positon, and is therefore constrained in stadium size. As for the kids, United has expanded the family section and is keen to see the bairns coming. We shall see which stadium is filled. I BET ANYONE ON HERE I WONT BE OFFERED A SEAT IN THE FAMILY ENCLOSURE NEXT SEASON, the are is still too small and demand will outstrip supply, It's a publicity stunt, they could have made it larger but the area in front of the new Family Enclosure is earmarked as another exclusive club with seat prices at #999, rather than #299 and #125 for juniors.

Sunderland apparently gave free tickets to kids during this season in an attempt to build their fan base (a tacit admission that they could not sell them I fancy). I don't know about you, but when I was a bairn my mam told me never to accept things from strange men (they don't come any stranger than Murray) and I dread to think of the consequences for these bairns. I think If I were a bairn mi ma would be more worried about me being offered something from a couple of blokes that had been caught with their pants down in a spanish brothel rather than Mr Murray . Jonno I think we should agree to dissagree on this one, OR BOTH APEAR on the TV interview? Are you up for it ?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I doubt very much that you will be able to change the agenda of this programme Rik. 2 NUFC fans arguing the relative merits of the Board wouldn't raise general interest the way 'martyrs' being picked on by a cruel and heartless PLC would.

This programme almost certainly has no interest in our club and will instead be trying to do yet another of these tedious exposes where they present one side of an argument and 'balance' it up with "we asked NUFC to take part in this programme, but they declined." The word missing from that statement is "sensibly".

I have no interest in making someone else some profit by us washing our dirty linen in public. The simple fact is that the Club owes us nothing, and can charge whatever they feel people will be prepared to pay, not what we think we can afford to pay. It used to cost nowt to go because it was dirty, smelly and dangerous. That was football supporting at its lowest ever point - it used to be a family outing in the Edwardian era (ask Jonno:-)) and slipped to the period of violence. All-seaters have got rid of most of that, but they also have to be paid for and this has brought in a new crowd. The blokes who used to piss down the back of your leg and knock your teeth in have been removed, but so have their singing voices. I don't see how taking our club to court or letting someone film some muckraking little attack on our club is going to change any of that.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I don't think any NUFC supporter should give the makers of this programme the satisfaction of pulling the club through the gutter it is unfortunately all to familiar with.

Whatever your grievance take it up with those concerned privately, otherwise it will be seen as public muck-raking. I would imagine if you asked the majority of NUFC supporters what they thought of Jane Duffy you couldn't print it on here, be careful.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Rik, why you are so anti - board on this SOS matter. Have you been moved to an inferior seat? 5 of my friends have been moved from the Leazes for this new sports bar, all have better seats in the Milburn stand.

Although I agree the situation could have been managed a little more sympathetically, I have not spoken to anyone who did not get a decent seat from this move (unless they opted for the extra seat).

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Any solidarity I felt with SOS disappeared very fast when I saw them with t-shirts stating "The News of the World supports the SOS campaign".

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

What's making it worse is the length of time between the original verdict and the hearing of the appeal. If they'd get that out of the way, then everybody would know where they stand.

As it is, they could still have the builders in sorting out boxes when next season starts. And how's this going to affect the dishing out of season tickets to those on the waiting list ? I'd hate to think I might be kept waiting because of delays due to this appeal. All because of six people.

I loathe shephard, but even I can't pin much blame on him in this - the telling thing being, as Jonno has already mentioned, that if the new ground had been out of town, the four thousand wouldn't have had a leg/seat to stand/sit on.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I would not take part in a one sided discusion / Interview. IF there were both sides to the arguments both say in say a bar discussing these issues then that would be fairer and probably more entertaining than listening to someone slag off their clubs directors. As for the SOS campaign, As I've said it was handled really badly and I was dissapointed by the outcome . It shows that the club can treat it's most loyal customers very badly and get away with it. In any business this is wrong and it will eventually backfire on the company when their product isn't as sort after as it is now. These New customers (the corporates) will bring in plenty of revenue in the short term, but long term will they still want their expensive seats when football goes out of fashion? Personally I am bracing myself for what I think might be a bigger issue than the SOS campaign, and that is the allocation of new season tickets for next season. Having been on "THE LIST" for 6 years, if as I am beggining to suspect, I'm not offered the season tickets that I applied for all those years ago, as they have been sold to queue jumpers paying higher prices. Then I, and thousands of other really will go ballistic.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Rik,

How do you know you are on THE LIST? I imagine you have had a letter some way down the line but are there any disclaimers.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

The problem with the letters you've shown us so far is that they are asking for you, or any other disgruntled fans to get in touch. Corporations NEVER get involved in these programmes. If they release a statement or send a spokesperson onto the show then they pretty much endorse the show and its findings.

As we discussed on the Media threads earlier this week, TV companies are after something that sells; sensationalism, manipulative crap, scandal - not a balanced view with both sides getting fair treatment. The programme makers will never let NUFC have a say in the final edit and will reserve the right to draw their own conclusions at the end of the show. Since NUFC will be aware of how easy it is to edit an interview to make anyone look moronic (and from their starting point, they don't need much help in that department!) they won't want to get involved. Having 50% of the time on the show is no good if they only show your spokesperson looking flustered or refusing to answer.

Your own idea for people having a chat in a pub is a better idea, but that would probably only interest NUFC fans so the Media company won't touch it, unless you can guarantee a Jerry springer- style 'debate' with both parties coming to blows - either way, it won't do us any good, and my advice would be to steer well clear of it.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

That's the whole point. I might have been waiting with my reference numbers since 94 , but nowhere does it say, "You and your son will get seats within St James' park when we add another tier". Imagine waiting in a queue for say a "sale" to start, with your eye on a cetain item. You've been in that queue for six days and nights and your getting really excited as the hour in which the store opens approaches. It's 8 am , the shop opens at 9am, then an executive bus pulls up outside the store. A few dozen well dressed men are escorted to the front door. It opens for them , in they walk will there wadds of cash and snap up all the items within the store by offering a few quid more for the items that you had your eye on. The shop opens at 9 am but they have sold out, there's nothing left to buy, you've waited 6 days for nothing. How would you feel towards both the shop and those rich people who jumped the queue?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

The last posting was directed at the waiting list issue, Softie, Do you not fancy a mock fight in the strawberry if they paid us enough?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

The brothel creepers, Toon fans - don't make me larf

Hall hates football, he's a motor racing boy. He rarely watches matches prefering the bar when at St. James. Before his dad got his claws into NUFC then he was a 'fanatical' fan of Sunderland.

Shep was a fan as a lad but didn't go to games at all until he got on the board. Of course his kids are fans, most young lads in Newcastle are NUFC-daft and I'm sure that dad can get his hand on plenty of merchandise.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Definitely! Wouldn't it be better to have a Gladiators type of event against the mackems(ptuh!), though? They could add in regional touches; we are protected by steel plate from Swan Hunter while they can wear Sunderland Glass, we can gash them with broken BroonAle bottles and they can think back wistfully to when Vaux was still going.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Hmmm Ok I think you lot could have persuaded me to decline the interview, unless that is I get a reply from the enqiry to ST James' saying "I'm sorry but all the new seats have been allocated, would you like to remain on the list?" If this should happen I will gladly slag off the decision makers at NUFC.and I would have a damn good soap box on which to make my views known.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

So apart from those few niggling points we are in full agreement Rik? (-;

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

That would be entirely different. Let's put it this way, if they give me a season ticket and not you, you will have good cause to be pissed off, as I've only been on the list for 2 years. It wouldn't surprise me if they hadn't bothered copying the old list over when they changed the computer system.

As it is, they sent me letter thanking me for letting them know about my change of address - nobody does that unless they are desperate.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

You're gonna get your ******* Heed kicked in Bonny Lad It'll have to wait till the film crew arrives though is that ok?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000