Quality of Stewarding at The Madejski

[T.R.O.L.I.]

"Shit on the Bagshot, shit on the Bagshot tonight"

[who are ya?]

"run, run, run, run, Sandhurst"

[Royal Lady]

Didn't want to start another new thread - but if a group of people wanted to start up a Supporters' Club - do they HAVE to join the FSF - I've been googling, for a mate, and mostly there are links to the FSF and them saying you should join them.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Surely you can start a Supporters Club for any team without HAVING to join the FSF, go for it RL.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Didn't want to start another new thread - but if a group of people wanted to start up a Supporters' Club - do they HAVE to join the FSF - I've been googling, for a mate, and mostly there are links to the FSF and them saying you should join them.

No, not in the slighest.

[Royal Lady]

Ah ok cheers. But would a football club recognise a supporters' club which wasn't affiliated with the FSF?

[Hoop Blah]

Ah ok cheers. But would a football club recognise a supporters' club which wasn't affiliated with the FSF?

It would depend how they deal with the club, how many fans they represent and how much they go along with the whims of the club I should think.

[southstand67]

I booked two tickets for the Barnsley game online a couple of weeks ago. I was a little unclear whether my membership card would work as for the Millwall game I was issued with tickets through the post. So I went up to the Ticket Office a couple of days later and asked for clarification. Oh yea,it's alright, you won't be issued with tickets as they're on your membership card and the linked membership card for my brother. Ok, no problem, I go away not entirely convinced, but who am I to question the guys with the technology right?

Imagine my delight then, when I try to enter the gate and a red light flashes up. Same thing happens to my brother. I ask a steward what the problem is, I show her my email confirming the tickets are bought and paid for. So she gets on her radio and contacts the Ticket Office, gives them mine and my brother's membership card numbers which we've handed over to her. 5 minutes later, she gets on the radio again asking for the outcome and they had forgotten to check so she gave the membership numbers again. The Ticket Office then come back to her and tell her that the cards don't have the Barnsley game on them and not to let us in, oh and don't give us our cards back. The steward keeps our cards! I paid £2 each for them 4 or 5 years ago - can she just keep them? Eventually a Tango comes over because he sees us getting a little upset with the Steward, after all we feel that we have been treated as though we have committed a crime! The Tango takes us to the Ticket Office where there is a nice long queue, he speaks to a girl there who checks with the Collection Desk and discovers that the tickets are there.

Is this the usual level of Customer Service at the Madejski? This is the first time I have ever encountered a problem with getting in and I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the Steward's attitude.

[Royal Lady]

Although it was a fiasco with the TO, you can't blame the steward on this occasion - you said yourself they were told not to let you in and to keep your cards. They were doing what they told to do, however wrong that may have been.

[Ian Royal]

Although it was a fiasco with the TO, you can't blame the steward on this occasion - you said yourself they were told not to let you in and to keep your cards. They were doing what they told to do, however wrong that may have been.

Yeah, blame the half-a-job planks at the TO who stuffed up giving you advice and then stuffed up again checking out the problem when you couldn't get in.

[Compo's Hat]

Twenty minutes to ask about ten Barnsley fans to sit down and fail miserably

[Forbury Lion]

I stood for virtually the entire match. Stewards came up about twice. I sat down when they asked, I stood up when they went. Seriously, how difficult is that people? They're doing it for appearances because they have to. Try doing the same and there won't be any problems. Antagonise them and you're asking for problems.

Wah wah wah, the Millwall fans are standing. Yeah, well there's several thousand of them and how do you stop them? Ask nicely? They refuse, what do you do? start a riot by trying to forcibly remove two hundred people? Stewards simply don't have the resources to do it and it isn't worth it or safe.

So why won't the club tell us how many troublesome away supporters are greeted in the concourse and quietly ejected, as we are told it happens? Could it be because the numbers are laughingly small and would just wind up the home supporters even more?

No the numbers given at the policing and stewarding forum were not laughably small and the away supporters outumbered the home supporters easily. The police liaison officer was happy to give us the figures but the club are less happy as it undermines the family club image with those who only come occasionaly.

I will see if I can get regular figures for the STAR website as the occasional visitors the club worries about are much less likely to visit that.

Maybe the figures will help direct occasional visitors (say parents taking kids for a treat who are worried about violence) to the games where no arrests take place and violence is not expected. e.g Reading v Barnsley. So in publishing this, STAR is providing a service to the fans it represents.

[Terminal Boardom]

I booked two tickets for the Barnsley game online a couple of weeks ago. I was a little unclear whether my membership card would work as for the Millwall game I was issued with tickets through the post. So I went up to the Ticket Office a couple of days later and asked for clarification. Oh yea,it's alright, you won't be issued with tickets as they're on your membership card and the linked membership card for my brother. Ok, no problem, I go away not entirely convinced, but who am I to question the guys with the technology right?

Imagine my delight then, when I try to enter the gate and a red light flashes up. Same thing happens to my brother. I ask a steward what the problem is, I show her my email confirming the tickets are bought and paid for. So she gets on her radio and contacts the Ticket Office, gives them mine and my brother's membership card numbers which we've handed over to her. 5 minutes later, she gets on the radio again asking for the outcome and they had forgotten to check so she gave the membership numbers again. The Ticket Office then come back to her and tell her that the cards don't have the Barnsley game on them and not to let us in, oh and don't give us our cards back. The steward keeps our cards! I paid £2 each for them 4 or 5 years ago - can she just keep them? Eventually a Tango comes over because he sees us getting a little upset with the Steward, after all we feel that we have been treated as though we have committed a crime! The Tango takes us to the Ticket Office where there is a nice long queue, he speaks to a girl there who checks with the Collection Desk and discovers that the tickets are there.

Is this the usual level of Customer Service at the Madejski? This is the first time I have ever encountered a problem with getting in and I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the Steward's attitude.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to having to deal with the ticket office and stewards at the Mad Stad.

[Rex]

I booked two tickets for the Barnsley game online a couple of weeks ago. I was a little unclear whether my membership card would work as for the Millwall game I was issued with tickets through the post. So I went up to the Ticket Office a couple of days later and asked for clarification. Oh yea,it's alright, you won't be issued with tickets as they're on your membership card and the linked membership card for my brother. Ok, no problem, I go away not entirely convinced, but who am I to question the guys with the technology right?

Imagine my delight then, when I try to enter the gate and a red light flashes up. Same thing happens to my brother. I ask a steward what the problem is, I show her my email confirming the tickets are bought and paid for. So she gets on her radio and contacts the Ticket Office, gives them mine and my brother's membership card numbers which we've handed over to her. 5 minutes later, she gets on the radio again asking for the outcome and they had forgotten to check so she gave the membership numbers again. The Ticket Office then come back to her and tell her that the cards don't have the Barnsley game on them and not to let us in, oh and don't give us our cards back. The steward keeps our cards! I paid £2 each for them 4 or 5 years ago - can she just keep them? Eventually a Tango comes over because he sees us getting a little upset with the Steward, after all we feel that we have been treated as though we have committed a crime! The Tango takes us to the Ticket Office where there is a nice long queue, he speaks to a girl there who checks with the Collection Desk and discovers that the tickets are there.

Is this the usual level of Customer Service at the Madejski? This is the first time I have ever encountered a problem with getting in and I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the Steward's attitude.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to having to deal with the ticket office and stewards at the Mad Stad.

Not a good read that, though sadly everyone is tarred with the same brush. So what happened with your member cards and was the apology offered?

[southstand67]

The Tango gave them back to us, no apology offered. What I didn't put across very well was the Steward's attitude of 'you're not having your cards back'. It didn't matter that I showed her an email showing that I'd paid for the tickets, there was no offer of a solution and the only answer for her was to keep the cards. Just very poor service really. As if someone would lie to try and get into watch Reading v Barnsley!!

[AthleticoSpizz]

stewards...paid peanuts....
expect crunchy shit


The Tango (slightly better paid) seemed to have amicably sorted it for you.

Ultimately, it was the TOs' fault

At 3pm I guess you must've wondered why you bothered

[Gordons Cumming]

As if someone would lie to try and get into watch Reading v Barnsley!!

To get out maybe.............

[southstand67]

Hmmmmm, booked my ticket online for tomorrow's match against Southampton. Figured I'd go and pick up my ticket from the ticket office today after my experience at the Barnsley game.
What did the guy in the ticket office say?

'Oh it's loaded onto your membership card, you won't need a ticket.......'

[RoyalBlue]

I stood for virtually the entire match. Stewards came up about twice. I sat down when they asked, I stood up when they went. Seriously, how difficult is that people? They're doing it for appearances because they have to. Try doing the same and there won't be any problems. Antagonise them and you're asking for problems.

Wah wah wah, the Millwall fans are standing. Yeah, well there's several thousand of them and how do you stop them? Ask nicely? They refuse, what do you do? start a riot by trying to forcibly remove two hundred people? Stewards simply don't have the resources to do it and it isn't worth it or safe.

So why won't the club tell us how many troublesome away supporters are greeted in the concourse and quietly ejected, as we are told it happens? Could it be because the numbers are laughingly small and would just wind up the home supporters even more?

No the numbers given at the policing and stewarding forum were not laughably small and the away supporters outumbered the home supporters easily. The police liaison officer was happy to give us the figures but the club are less happy as it undermines the family club image with those who only come occasionaly.

I will see if I can get regular figures for the STAR website as the occasional visitors the club worries about are much less likely to visit that.

I would suggest they have got that completely wrong. Those type of occasionals probably already have a perception of trouble at football matches, which would be confirmed every time they come and see supporters (particularly those from away clubs) misbehave and completely ignore 'ground regulations'. They might just be reassured by seeing some evidence that the club do care about this and do actually take some action against the offenders.

[Big Foot]

Stewards are in town on match days too now