Some people, whether they’re blinded by their own SuperFan credentials or merely their glaring stupidity, seem to doubt the magnitude of the fuck-up that came out of the club this week and the lasting damage it could have on the current regime going forward.
I should point out that I’m aware that the club are potentially in the process of back-tracking, but for me it will take a lot more than that to undo the insult of their original statement.
Regardless of whether you took the risk of buying a season ticket for the 2020/21 season (I didn’t), the fiasco over refunds is just that; an insult to all Rovs everywhere. It should create doubts in all of us now about how the best interests of our club are being served.
I’m not saying these doubts will be proved true, but they made this bed, not us. Blind faith and support of any regime is far more dangerous than asking for answers when it has offered you a serious question.
There’s so much more to it than conning money out of people that might not have it during a global pandemic. It raises serious questions of what we, the mere supporters, actually mean to the club. It voids all previous statements of us being being one big happy family. It exposes the cynicism behind every empty ‘SWA’ hashtag and claims of what we share ‘meaning more’.
We all love Tranmere Rovers in our own way, and understand how imperative it is, not just for the club to survive, but having the finances to perform to the standard we all crave. Whether you’re a money-man at the top or a meagre fan, we are united, for better or worse, in that shared desire.
If our club is desperate for money, we could all spit-ball a multitude of solutions right now that make a hell of a lot more sense than shitting into the hand that feeds it. The desire to help out in any way we can would be much stronger than that of the customers of any other industry. They know this. This only makes them testing the water in this way so much more insulting.
Some of you will think it is fair that people should pay for their iFollow passes. Some of you will have paid for season tickets and be more than happy to have that money deducted. The club needs the money from season tickets sales, we all understand that. Unfortunately that has nothing to do with the problem.
You would have to be pretty thick to believe what was being offered when they so desperately wanted your money during the summer is in any way equal to the solution announced this week, but that’s just it isn’t it? A very telling slip of the mask revealing how we are really thought of.
The only alternative I can think of to that bleak narrative is a level of naivety and ineptitude from the owners that doesn’t fit with the very capable people we’ve got to know over the past 5 years.
iFollow passes were offered at the time as a deal sweetener for your commitment to buying something you knew you couldn’t use. A blind eye turned to watching a show you have tickets for through a dirty side window. The e-programme nothing more than a frilly curtain around it.
It’s debatable that an e-programme should cost the same as one printed with physical ink and paper than an ever-dwindling number of people still choose to buy, what shouldn’t be is the cost of something.. anything.. billed as free.
I expect many of you won’t agree. Not because I think I’m wrong or anything, but because there are a lot of you with your noses so brown you’ve clearly got some of it in your eyes. I can think of no other football loving country on earth where this wouldn’t cause a huge rift between club and supporters’ groups.
Supporters’ groups of course, by their very nature, created to stand on the side of the fans in cases such as this. Makes you question the purpose of all our ‘fan’ organisations does it not?
The signs are there that a u-turn is in the process. One that no doubtably will be sold as a case of listening to the all-important fans and further proof of the progressive nature of our ownership. Personally it’s going to take more than a Tory-style flip-flop on a draconian policy to undo the greedy cynicism we’ve seen here.
