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Stop the Split for Derby

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  • Out of interest, what went so wrong on Saturday?

  • Massive queue for the gents and kiosk at half time in the Family Stand and it took an age to get out the end.

    My daughter wanted a drink and some bits but the queue was too long so we didn’t bother.

  • @Raminpeace I suspect many Derby fans will see the decision as a slight upon Derby, but I think the reasoning is more basic than that. We extended the allocation to Ipswich and Sheff Weds (the first time visitors have ever been allocated into the Frank Adams stand) and by the sounds of it, this has caused all sorts of logistical problems with the decreased facilities available to Wycombe fans in the stand. Also, we sold out the home areas on Saturday and with the possibility we'll sell out even with the increased capacity against you lot, there's really no need to increase the away allocation to maximise the attendance.

    Our form has improved considerably since the return of Scowen and other key players from injury. We were decimated for the first few months. We'll be close to a top 6 finish I'm sure. Keeping hold of Mawson and Mehmeti in January and possibly adding a forward will be key to our chances. Warne is a great appointment for you guys. If you don't go up this season, I'd think you'd be pretty much certain to next season.

  • The kiosk queues are a problem every game, split or not.

    The other issue is that the kiosks have next to nothing in them to buy.

    The match day experience being a FA stand season ticket holder has certainly not got better in the coughig era.

  • @Raminpeace -

    SWFC only had 2572 at ours on Saturday. There were some untaken seats in the portion of our Family Stand allocated to them . The Family Stand is the lower tier of our biggest stand. There were Wycombe supporters with young children who moved to less appropriate parts of our ground or didn't come on Saturday. I am sure that you can understand it would be undesirable to split the upper tier and have opposition fans above our Family Stand whoever the opposition would be.

    Our new owners have always been keen on the Match Day experience, and there are some seats in the ground for home supporters that it is necessary to walk 4 / 5 ths of the way round the ground to reach and leave those seats, if those stands have a split allocation. The queues for various facilities were greater than I have ever known on Saturday.

    We were very close to selling out the remaining areas of our ground to our own fans. This despite the weather and the bad experiences of some of our fans on the first occasion against Ipswich when we split the two stands to sell additional seats to opposition supporters. We had more than 5700 Wycombe supporters in the ground for the game against SWFC and that number has been recently rising steadily. I can't think of any club in the country who would sell seats to opposition supporters and turn away their own supporters or even run the risk of turning away their own supporters. That is not a courtesy, that's rolling over to have your tummy tickled.

    I reckon that we tried to increase the away allocation as an experiment, and from the point of view of our supporters it certainly wasn't an unalloyed success. It may well have been that if our home games against SWFC and DCFC had come in the reverse order, Derby fans would have been offered the additional seats and Sheffield Wednesday fans would not have been given the opportunity. I am sure that there is every chance that if we are play-off contenders towards the end of the season we won't be splitting our stands to increase the allocation for away supporters.

    I think our club has acted sensibly and without prejudice in this matter.

    I am sure that Derby will return to at least the Championship at some stage. As you say, whatever happens, enjoy your season.

  • Top post and a great reply. Makes it easily understandable why we aren't getting the extra allocation. Thanks Steve,

  • @Wycombe85 re “we were decimated for the first few months…” and to save @micra the trouble - ‘decimated’ actually means 1 in 10 ie 10%, I’m sure it was more than that.

  • Thanks 85. Good reply as was railwaysteve's. Given your explanation I can see why we aren't getting the extra allocation.

  • That might be the historical derivation of decimated but it doesn’t mean that any more.

  • Bit like a must win game

  • The English language has been decimated by social media usage, it should of come on leaps and bounds but it ain't. Isn't that so @micra

  • My understanding was decimating was the process whereby a Roman Legion was punished collectively for the equivalent of losing to the Met Police and one in ten of them were put to the sword to reduce the chance of a repetition. Perhaps we are blessed that both language and civilisation have developed since then.

  • Glad to see the club has seen sense here. It's one thing getting a quick few extra quid in the very short term, but if you piss off your supporters, as the split seems to have broadly done, then this could impact longer term revenues from your core "customer" group.

  • When there’s a group of fans openly saying they are planning to damage your stadium by way of revenge, it probably makes sense to limit them to one section of it rather than three.

  • Now this threads objectives have been met it is incumbent on us to each get as many extra ‘home’ fans down to AP as possible to make up for the (short term) resultant ‘lost’ revenue.

  • I think it’s interesting that you describe our owners as ‘new.’ I didn’t pick up on it on first reading. They’ve been here over three-and-a-half years now.

    I think I prefer the epithet ‘temporary.’

  • edited January 2023

    I'm not at all surprised you're doing well, having defaulted on your debts and dodged your taxes there does seem to have been affordability to keep, and acquire, very decent players for this level. I think most of us here always thought that would be the case despite protestations to the contrary.

    Having heard some of your fans comments about our club, fans and chairman the idea we'd go to any trouble, or risk segregation to accomodate more of your fans near ours was probably always a non-starter.

  • As we all know, the 'owners' never really own a club, they are just temporary custodians.

  • Yes. Thank you both, @Steve_Peart and @glasshalfempty - owners needed an adjective and 'new' seemed appropriate but you are both right. I wish now I had used 'new world' owners. I should stop now before I am tempted with too much philosophy.

  • On the contrary @railwaysteve you’re one of the more wiser sages on here.

  • Wasted no thyme coming up with that one eh @MorrisItal_

  • I can’t believe I got a downvote one little herb pun and they start baying for blood

  • Don't worry @MorrisItal_ , I thought it was mint

  • edited January 2023

    It doesn't take shallot to derail a thread on here

  • First post on this thread and I've not read through it. My initial thought is - doesn't this make us as guilty as what MK Dons did to us in the playoff semi final?

    A little bit embarrassing and shows a lack of class if you ask me. The more Derby fans to witness them leave with 0 points, the better, IMHO.

  • LX1LX1
    edited January 2023

    If you really think about it.. a split would be bananas!

  • I’m sure you can tell the difference between artificially limiting capacity of the away end, and not wanting away fans in a poorly segregated home area.

  • I popped down to AP at lunchtime to pick up some tickets for the Derby game.

    I was very saddened to see the damage done to seats on the away terrace.

    To be fair I don't know for sure that the damage was done on Saturday, so this maybe historic damage.

    In the past I have seen away fans walking down Hillbottom Rd with their "trophies". The police were oblivious and took no action.

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