He was there on Saturday! At about 1:45, outside the main gates, but an hour later he'd shifted up the road. I assume he had been told to move or maybe was being given a hard time by supporters.

lowandhard wrote:

The Newport wrote:If you are all so concerned about the shop. Why not get together and help by looking for empty premises by the ground. Once you have found the right premises get together and open your own shop in partnership with the Club. Problem solved. So who's in favour?

Then you have two for outlets selling Newport County merchandise.

Just not the point. If anyone makes a criticism of the club’s operation, the answer appears to be “ if you’re not happy, do it yourself! “. That is totally unprofessional, any worthwhile business addresses customers complaints. It doesn’t blame its customers or put its fingers in its ears. As for having club sales on site on match day, what professional club doesn’t eh?

Where do you suggest we have the club sales on match day?

It seems people have short memories , I recall the disdain we were treated with in our first season sharing a ticket office and shop, I also recall you leaving the bar and vowing never to drink there again after they switched the football off. Has the attitude now changed from the Dragons Staff that they are now more accommodating?

Alan G Bryant wrote:

lowandhard wrote:

The Newport wrote:If you are all so concerned about the shop. Why not get together and help by looking for empty premises by the ground. Once you have found the right premises get together and open your own shop in partnership with the Club. Problem solved. So who's in favour?

Then you have two for outlets selling Newport County merchandise.

Just not the point. If anyone makes a criticism of the club’s operation, the answer appears to be “ if you’re not happy, do it yourself! “. That is totally unprofessional, any worthwhile business addresses customers complaints. It doesn’t blame its customers or put its fingers in its ears. As for having club sales on site on match day, what professional club doesn’t eh?

Where do you suggest we have the club sales on match day?

It seems people have short memories , I recall the disdain we were treated with in our first season sharing a ticket office and shop, I also recall you leaving the bar and vowing never to drink there again after they switched the football off. Has the attitude now changed from the Dragons Staff that they are now more accommodating?

I don’t know I no longer drink in hospitality, I voted with my feet. Let’s get something straight, it’s not for me , a customer, to solve the problems of a commercial organisation that I have no position in, that’s the job of the person at the club, the CEO or the Commercial Manager in this case. I am merely pointing out that it is not good commercial practice for there to be arbitrary opening hours at the shop as customers today have articulated. It didn’t affect me, I wasn’t there, I merely understand what is good business, having run a successful department all my working life which turned over roughly 4 times that of this club.

The following is just my opinion as to how I would approach this issue. I would of course accept any help that I could get from the volunteers but it should not be that no help equals a closed shop, we should have some paid staff who could be called to man it whenever required. As regards the problem of no presence of a shop at the ground, I am not privy to the boards relationships with Rodney Parade, am I to assume they are abysmal because we have no shop there? Who knows? Nobody will tell us. My approach would be to attempt to negotiate such an outlet, similarly a sophisticated ticketing system, similarly office space. All those purported improvements somehow disappeared last summer although apparently negotiated previously by Alex.

So you tell me what’s going on I don’t know : I merely know as others do, that this is not a satisfactory state of affairs. It’s no good jumping down people’s throats who complain, that doesn’t solve anything and it’s not those peoples duty to solve it either.

lowandhard wrote:

The Newport wrote:If you are all so concerned about the shop. Why not get together and help by looking for empty premises by the ground. Once you have found the right premises get together and open your own shop in partnership with the Club. Problem solved. So who's in favour?

Then you have two for outlets selling Newport County merchandise.

Just not the point. If anyone makes a criticism of the club’s operation, the answer appears to be “ if you’re not happy, do it yourself! “. That is totally unprofessional, any worthwhile business addresses customers complaints. It doesn’t blame its customers or put its fingers in its ears. As for having club sales on site on match day, what professional club doesn’t eh?

I understand that your son is the chairman of the Dragons? So if anyone knows anything or can find out that's going on between Newport County and the Dragons is you. I understand you wouldn't be able to really say anything directly. But I bet you know more than you are letting on. If I'm right in saying that your son is "David Buttress" is the chairman of the Dragons and that you are often sat around the dining table chatting away about this and that. There's no way that you wouldn't talk about Football or Rugby or even work. But please when someone makes a suggestion don't try and knock it and try and put people off. I know you only want what's best for the Club so it must be quite hard for you to see that the Dragons are doing doing as much as they can to make it hard for Newport County to operate at Rodney Parade as a professional football Club.

But that’s the point I don’t know whether what you are saying is true about that attitude towards us. I have a loving relationship with my son and would never jeopardise it by involving myself in his business with the Dragons and he knows how I feel about my football club. I only know that in his business dealings that he is collaborative, nobody gets to be as successful as he is without that. That’s why I am bewildered as to why a deal could not have been struck between the interested parties.

I do know that without a good relationship, the whole enterprise could be in jeopardy. We need each other in my opinion for both to succeed. If the club would only tell us what stands in the way of a good deal, we could form an opinion. Do you know the details of our presence at RP , are they being unreasonable? Are we being unreasonable? Who knows? How does our deal compare with other groundshares? Who knows? Who’s telling? Are we good tenants? What, if anything has gone wrong between the parties? Do they liaise regularly? You see, we simply don’t know. I certainly don’t.
The only time I know recently that we needed to talk with RP was the extra seating for Spurs and that was done quickly and efficiently so as far as I know relationships may have improved.

The only thing I do know is that for us to be successful we need to work together with them or as some have suggested find another home. Without outside help my opinion is that financing and upkeep of a stadium is beyond our present capabilities, I wish it was otherwise but for the moment I’m forced to conclude we should be making the best of our relationships at RP because EFL football in Newport is only possible there, we realised that years ago. You see, where I differ with some is that I think we are not only wanted at RP but needed there too because rfc are a basket case crowd wise and Dragons don’t have enough fixtures surely to generate enough revenue. I just don’t get why we're not cooperating to help each other. We have to talk to each other.

Incidentally in the incident you mentioned in hospitality, I spoke to the person involved and they know how I felt. I care not whether such an incident could recur, I would hope not but given it’s at least 10 minutes to the nearest bar with football on the tv (with in any case cheaper drinks) , I’m not likely to repeat the experience to find out. I voted with my feet, let’s just hope that the punters today who found the shop closed, don’t do the same.

lowandhard wrote:But that’s the point I don’t know whether what you are saying is true about that attitude towards us. I have a loving relationship with my son and would never jeopardise it by involving myself in his business with the Dragons and he knows how I feel about my football club. I only know that in his business dealings that he is collaborative, nobody gets to be as successful as he is without that. That’s why I am bewildered as to why a deal could not have been struck between the interested parties.

I do know that without a good relationship, the whole enterprise could be in jeopardy. We need each other in my opinion for both to succeed. If the club would only tell us what stands in the way of a good deal, we could form an opinion. Do you know the details of our presence at RP , are they being unreasonable? Are we being unreasonable? Who knows? How does our deal compare with other groundshares? Who knows? Who’s telling? Are we good tenants? What, if anything has gone wrong between the parties? Do they liaise regularly? You see, we simply don’t know. I certainly don’t.
The only time I know recently that we needed to talk with RP was the extra seating for Spurs and that was done quickly and efficiently so as far as I know relationships may have improved.

The only thing I do know is that for us to be successful we need to work together with them or as some have suggested find another home. Without outside help my opinion is that financing and upkeep of a stadium is beyond our present capabilities, I wish it was otherwise but for the moment I’m forced to conclude we should be making the best of our relationships at RP because EFL football in Newport is only possible there, we realised that years ago. You see, where I differ with some is that I think we are not only wanted at RP but needed there too because rfc are a basket case crowd wise and Dragons don’t have enough fixtures surely to generate enough revenue. I just don’t get why we're not cooperating to help each other. We have to talk to each other.

Incidentally in the incident you mentioned in hospitality, I spoke to the person involved and they know how I felt. I care not whether such an incident could recur, I would hope not but given it’s at least 10 minutes to the nearest bar with football on the tv (with in any case cheaper drinks) , I’m not likely to repeat the experience to find out. I voted with my feet, let’s just hope that the punters today who found the shop closed, don’t do the same.

Just one more thing. Don’t forget that my son offered last year to come and address a meeting of the fans in a gesture of openness. Some on here thought it a bad idea, I thought it was a great offer to make a meeting that would clear the air. It wasn’t taken up by the club for whatever reason, they knew where he was, it was just a phone call. As was said by the Don, this isn’t personal, it’s business , strictly business.

lowandhard wrote:But that’s the point I don’t know whether what you are saying is true about that attitude towards us. I have a loving relationship with my son and would never jeopardise it by involving myself in his business with the Dragons and he knows how I feel about my football club. I only know that in his business dealings that he is collaborative, nobody gets to be as successful as he is without that. That’s why I am bewildered as to why a deal could not have been struck between the interested parties.

I do know that without a good relationship, the whole enterprise could be in jeopardy. We need each other in my opinion for both to succeed. If the club would only tell us what stands in the way of a good deal, we could form an opinion. Do you know the details of our presence at RP , are they being unreasonable? Are we being unreasonable? Who knows? How does our deal compare with other groundshares? Who knows? Who’s telling? Are we good tenants? What, if anything has gone wrong between the parties? Do they liaise regularly? You see, we simply don’t know. I certainly don’t.
The only time I know recently that we needed to talk with RP was the extra seating for Spurs and that was done quickly and efficiently so as far as I know relationships may have improved.

The only thing I do know is that for us to be successful we need to work together with them or as some have suggested find another home. Without outside help my opinion is that financing and upkeep of a stadium is beyond our present capabilities, I wish it was otherwise but for the moment I’m forced to conclude we should be making the best of our relationships at RP because EFL football in Newport is only possible there, we realised that years ago. You see, where I differ with some is that I think we are not only wanted at RP but needed there too because rfc are a basket case crowd wise and Dragons don’t have enough fixtures surely to generate enough revenue. I just don’t get why we're not cooperating to help each other. We have to talk to each other.

Incidentally in the incident you mentioned in hospitality, I spoke to the person involved and they know how I felt. I care not whether such an incident could recur, I would hope not but given it’s at least 10 minutes to the nearest bar with football on the tv (with in any case cheaper drinks) , I’m not likely to repeat the experience to find out. I voted with my feet, let’s just hope that the punters today who found the shop closed, don’t do the same.

You know I really wish that one point could be gotten across to Alan Bryant and chums. Perhaps Mike, without in any way placing your relationship with your son under any pressure ask him to confirm one thing. That being.......

All businesses make mistakes. Those businesses which respond to customers complaining by putting right their mistakes and making amends tend to get loyal customers. Those businesses which blame the customer tend to go out of business.

Of course your son who I'm sure is a far better businessman than me might tell you I'm mistaken.

Naw, I doubt I am or that he will.

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

lowandhard wrote:But that’s the point I don’t know whether what you are saying is true about that attitude towards us. I have a loving relationship with my son and would never jeopardise it by involving myself in his business with the Dragons and he knows how I feel about my football club. I only know that in his business dealings that he is collaborative, nobody gets to be as successful as he is without that. That’s why I am bewildered as to why a deal could not have been struck between the interested parties.

I do know that without a good relationship, the whole enterprise could be in jeopardy. We need each other in my opinion for both to succeed. If the club would only tell us what stands in the way of a good deal, we could form an opinion. Do you know the details of our presence at RP , are they being unreasonable? Are we being unreasonable? Who knows? How does our deal compare with other groundshares? Who knows? Who’s telling? Are we good tenants? What, if anything has gone wrong between the parties? Do they liaise regularly? You see, we simply don’t know. I certainly don’t.
The only time I know recently that we needed to talk with RP was the extra seating for Spurs and that was done quickly and efficiently so as far as I know relationships may have improved.

The only thing I do know is that for us to be successful we need to work together with them or as some have suggested find another home. Without outside help my opinion is that financing and upkeep of a stadium is beyond our present capabilities, I wish it was otherwise but for the moment I’m forced to conclude we should be making the best of our relationships at RP because EFL football in Newport is only possible there, we realised that years ago. You see, where I differ with some is that I think we are not only wanted at RP but needed there too because rfc are a basket case crowd wise and Dragons don’t have enough fixtures surely to generate enough revenue. I just don’t get why we're not cooperating to help each other. We have to talk to each other.

Incidentally in the incident you mentioned in hospitality, I spoke to the person involved and they know how I felt. I care not whether such an incident could recur, I would hope not but given it’s at least 10 minutes to the nearest bar with football on the tv (with in any case cheaper drinks) , I’m not likely to repeat the experience to find out. I voted with my feet, let’s just hope that the punters today who found the shop closed, don’t do the same.

You know I really wish that one point could be gotten across to Alan Bryant and chums. Perhaps Mike, without in any way placing your relationship with your son under any pressure ask him to confirm one thing. That being.......

All businesses make mistakes. Those businesses which respond to customers complaining by putting right their mistakes and making amends tend to get loyal customers. Those businesses which blame the customer tend to go out of business.

Of course your son who I'm sure is a far better businessman than me might tell you I'm mistaken.

Naw, I doubt I am or that he will.

Quite.

In an amendment to this post I mentioned that he was concerned to clear the air last year and offered to meet the fans, an offer not taken up by the club for whatever reason(s). As the Don said, it’s not personal, it’s business, strictly business and we’re not acting like one. It’s much easier to attract a customer than it is to coax them back once you’ve pissed them off. That’s all I was trying to say about the shop, we are not acting like good businessmen - it’s not that complicated.
My son would fire any salesman who thought that his own personal needs were above those of a valued customer. That’s not a difficult decision to make.

lowandhard wrote:

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

lowandhard wrote:But that’s the point I don’t know whether what you are saying is true about that attitude towards us. I have a loving relationship with my son and would never jeopardise it by involving myself in his business with the Dragons and he knows how I feel about my football club. I only know that in his business dealings that he is collaborative, nobody gets to be as successful as he is without that. That’s why I am bewildered as to why a deal could not have been struck between the interested parties.

I do know that without a good relationship, the whole enterprise could be in jeopardy. We need each other in my opinion for both to succeed. If the club would only tell us what stands in the way of a good deal, we could form an opinion. Do you know the details of our presence at RP , are they being unreasonable? Are we being unreasonable? Who knows? How does our deal compare with other groundshares? Who knows? Who’s telling? Are we good tenants? What, if anything has gone wrong between the parties? Do they liaise regularly? You see, we simply don’t know. I certainly don’t.
The only time I know recently that we needed to talk with RP was the extra seating for Spurs and that was done quickly and efficiently so as far as I know relationships may have improved.

The only thing I do know is that for us to be successful we need to work together with them or as some have suggested find another home. Without outside help my opinion is that financing and upkeep of a stadium is beyond our present capabilities, I wish it was otherwise but for the moment I’m forced to conclude we should be making the best of our relationships at RP because EFL football in Newport is only possible there, we realised that years ago. You see, where I differ with some is that I think we are not only wanted at RP but needed there too because rfc are a basket case crowd wise and Dragons don’t have enough fixtures surely to generate enough revenue. I just don’t get why we're not cooperating to help each other. We have to talk to each other.

Incidentally in the incident you mentioned in hospitality, I spoke to the person involved and they know how I felt. I care not whether such an incident could recur, I would hope not but given it’s at least 10 minutes to the nearest bar with football on the tv (with in any case cheaper drinks) , I’m not likely to repeat the experience to find out. I voted with my feet, let’s just hope that the punters today who found the shop closed, don’t do the same.

You know I really wish that one point could be gotten across to Alan Bryant and chums. Perhaps Mike, without in any way placing your relationship with your son under any pressure ask him to confirm one thing. That being.......

All businesses make mistakes. Those businesses which respond to customers complaining by putting right their mistakes and making amends tend to get loyal customers. Those businesses which blame the customer tend to go out of business.

Of course your son who I'm sure is a far better businessman than me might tell you I'm mistaken.

Naw, I doubt I am or that he will.

Quite.

In an amendment to this post I mentioned that he was concerned to clear the air last year and offered to meet the fans, an offer not taken up by the club for whatever reason(s). As the Don said, it’s not personal, it’s business, strictly business and we’re not acting like one. It’s much easier to attract a customer than it is to coax them back once you’ve pissed them off. That’s all I was trying to say about the shop, we are not acting like good businessmen - it’s not that complicated.
My son would fire any salesman who thought that his own personal needs were above those of a valued customer. That’s not a difficult decision to make.

So you do talk to your son about Newport County?
Or is that your opinion about your son sacking someone. But what you are forgetting is that the shop is run by volunteers so I understand. So are volunteers not allowed time off at Christmas and New Year? What you have also got to remember is with out volunteers there wouldn't be a Professional Football Club in Newport today. Do you know how much it cost to have a shop in the Kingsway Centre. I'm going to have a guess here I think it would be around about £25,000 - £30,000 pa for a reasonable size unit I should imagine. So if it wasn't for the wru Newport County wouldn't have to spend that sort of money on a unit well away from the ground would they. And I'm sorry to have to say this but I believe that your son who represents the wru is partly responsible for reason Newport County at to relocate the shop. There first port of call would be with your son no matter how much we all would like to think it's all the wru fault. Your son has bought shares in the Dragons Rugby Club he's also there Chairman so he would also have a big say in how the ground is run and who should be located where in the ground . Am I right in saying what I have just written? Or am I right off course?

:

The Newport wrote:If you are all so concerned about the shop. Why not get together and help by looking for empty premises by the ground. Once you have found the right premises get together and open your own shop in partnership with the Club. Problem solved. So who's in favour?

Then you have two for outlets selling Newport County merchandise.

To “the Newport”
He has other business interests apart from Newport. No, I don’t talk about the business side only about the sport. You, however, seem to think that he has made decisions to exclude us from RP. Why then wouldn’t the club welcome him speaking to the fans if that is the case he would hang himself by doing so? Why don’t the club come out and say what the problem is ? Why don’t the club tell us what happened about the shop? Surely it would be cheaper ( if your costings are correct ) to negotiate a shop and ticketing at RP? If so why can’t we know what RP trying to charge etc etc? That’s the point we just don’t know and are never told.
In any case , wherever the f*cking shop is and however much it costs, it should be OPEN - and especially so if it costs as much as you say it does.

lowandhard wrote:

The Newport wrote:If you are all so concerned about the shop. Why not get together and help by looking for empty premises by the ground. Once you have found the right premises get together and open your own shop in partnership with the Club. Problem solved. So who's in favour?

Then you have two for outlets selling Newport County merchandise.

Just not the point. If anyone makes a criticism of the club’s operation, the answer appears to be “ if you’re not happy, do it yourself! “. That is totally unprofessional, any worthwhile business addresses customers complaints. It doesn’t blame its customers or put its fingers in its ears. As for having club sales on site on match day, what professional club doesn’t eh?

Spot on mate

lowandhard wrote:To “the Newport”
He has other business interests apart from Newport. No, I don’t talk about the business side only about the sport. You, however, seem to think that he has made decisions to exclude us from RP. Why then wouldn’t the club welcome him speaking to the fans if that is the case he would hang himself by doing so? Why don’t the club come out and say what the problem is ? Why don’t the club tell us what happened about the shop? Surely it would be cheaper ( if your costings are correct ) to negotiate a shop and ticketing at RP? If so why can’t we know what RP trying to charge etc etc? That’s the point we just don’t know and are never told.
In any case , wherever the f*cking shop is and however much it costs, it should be OPEN - and especially so if it costs as much as you say it does.

Rugby and Football businesses are different and will prioritize in there own interests. AFAIK the Rugby have shop and ticket staff that are on paid contracts. Would those contracts be flexible enough to cater for an unusual event in the same way as our volunteers can?

The shop will now have a footfall presence much greater than at RP. I can see that you would get impulse Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, but much less so on New year's Eve, a day when traditionally unwanted presents may be returned to shops.

I understand that the marquee is being used for a corporate event on Sunday, with space being allocated for a pop up shop. Like all parts of the ground the marquee is available for hire on match days but County don't hire it normally.

Likewise the North Terrace, which has a Bar that the Dragons fans use, but cannot be used by football fans.

Others have mentioned cash flow related to ticketing if this was entirely in the hand's of the Dragons.

Newport Rugby Football Club have free use of the pitch but still have to hire everything else, even down to the dressing rooms.

This is just business, the facilities cost money and there are charges made. If it is in the County's interest to have their own facilities that is exactly what they should do. I personally see it as a positive rather than just a reaction to the WRU

Bangitintrnet wrote:

lowandhard wrote:To “the Newport”
He has other business interests apart from Newport. No, I don’t talk about the business side only about the sport. You, however, seem to think that he has made decisions to exclude us from RP. Why then wouldn’t the club welcome him speaking to the fans if that is the case he would hang himself by doing so? Why don’t the club come out and say what the problem is ? Why don’t the club tell us what happened about the shop? Surely it would be cheaper ( if your costings are correct ) to negotiate a shop and ticketing at RP? If so why can’t we know what RP trying to charge etc etc? That’s the point we just don’t know and are never told.
In any case , wherever the f*cking shop is and however much it costs, it should be OPEN - and especially so if it costs as much as you say it does.

Rugby and Football businesses are different and will prioritize in there own interests. AFAIK the Rugby have shop and ticket staff that are on paid contracts. Would those contracts be flexible enough to cater for an unusual event in the same way as our volunteers can?

The shop will now have a footfall presence much greater than at RP. I can see that you would get impulse Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, but much less so on New year's Eve, a day when traditionally unwanted presents may be returned to shops.

I understand that the marquee is being used for a corporate event on Sunday, with space being allocated for a pop up shop. Like all parts of the ground the marquee is available for hire on match days but County don't hire it normally.

Likewise the North Terrace, which has a Bar that the Dragons fans use, but cannot be used by football fans.

Others have mentioned cash flow related to ticketing if this was entirely in the hand's of the Dragons.

Newport Rugby Football Club have free use of the pitch but still have to hire everything else, even down to the dressing rooms.

This is just business, the facilities cost money and there are charges made. If it is in the County's interest to have their own facilities that is exactly what they should do. I personally see it as a positive rather than just a reaction to the WRU

Interesting post. Always good to hear/read all points of view of any arguement. But what p***** me off is being treated like mushrooms. What the f*** is going on? How can we come to a conclusion or form an opinion if we are not given the facts?


Blwyddyn newydd dda I bawb

Bangitintrnet wrote: Like all parts of the ground the marquee is available for hire on match days but County don't hire it normally.

But all the home games I've been to this season the marquee has been in use - or Saturdays at least, not sure about midweek. Are County cut out of the revenue?

I watched the last half-hour of Dragons v Ospreys on S4C and nearly all the uncovered seats were occupied, are they "ours"?