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THE REAL REASON WHY MIDDLESBROUGH CANNOT FILL THE RIVERSIDE
The debate has been raging for two weeks now, ever since Boro became a national laughing stock by failing to even half-fill the Riverside for the season's opening UEFA Cup match.
A sparse meagre crowd of 14,191 witnessed a dreary affair that was the catalyst for the club to review some of its policies. At least that was what was said in public.
Countless radio phone-ins, newspaper columns and website features have since asked the question and provided reasonable theories as to why the fans are staying away.
Let's deal with some of the reasons that have so far been put forward.
It's true that economically, Teesside has been in the relegation zone for years and that admission prices are rising faster than salaries.
In general, football attendances are down across the country, however any progressive business - and Middlesbrough FC is a business whether you like it or not - will find ways of overcoming falling market trends.
Most fans will agree that despite the end product, 1996/97 was the most exciting season we have had. The stadium was almost full every week and obtaining tickets for the four semi-final fixtures and three cup final ties - don't forget the replays - was a quest on a par with trying to retrieve the Dead Sea scrolls.
Teesside's economy was not exactly booming in those days and it hasn't suffered major setbacks between then and now so I am going to dismiss the admission prices argument completely.
I firmly believe that people will pay the price if they are getting value for money and the simple fact is that at the current time, they are not getting anything like it.
The club do appear to be making a big effort to apply the fans wishes. Some of the biggest complaints of last season were the blandness of the concourses, the lack of a scoreboard and the smoke filled refreshment outlets not catering to demand.
The club should be applauded for actioning these items but it is not enough. Taking these steps was highly important but the root of the problem is more than aesthetical and the theory is coming towards the end of the article.
Although the 'decorations' were a good move, the PR campaign was typically poor. The press release that told of the customisation of the concourses with giant sized pictures of former players touted the following names in it's lead paragraph.
Emerson, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Juninho, Paul Merson and Bolo Zenden.
Every one of those players with the debatable exception of Juninho walked out on the club in acrimonious circumstances. Heroes? Big money signings who gave the club an international image for sure, but the real heroes are people like George Hardwick, George Boateng, Bernie Slaven and John Hickton.
We don't like overpaid mercenaries who abuse our club. We prefer people players who reward our loyalty with outstanding effort and the promotion of the above names demonstrates how out of touch the club are with what the supporters feel and think.
It is correct that becoming a regular attraction on Sky TV will make a small number of fans stay away however, the Xanthi game was not screened in the UK and you could not even get a live stream from the internet, so that argument should also be dismissed.
And it can be buried even further when you consider that the game with Sunderland was live on Sky and we still achieved our second biggest attendance of the season.
And whilst on the subject of the Sunderland game, another reason that has been touted for falling gates is the quality of football on offer at the moment and is the most valid reason of the lot so far.
The Sunderland embarrassment has highlighted some of the problems that we are currently experiencing on the playing side. We all knew that problems were there but we couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what they were.
The Charlton debacle brought the spotlight onto Steve McClaren for all the wrong reasons when he carelessly stated just a few short hours before the kick-off that 'he had all the right credentials to be the next England boss.'
It is startlingly obvious that this was the moment that he lost the dressing room and having studied the player's body language, reactions and comments since that day, it is clear that our most successful manager ever will not be able to retrieve the situation.
And in the unlikely event of a miracle occurring and the players reuniting behind the dead man walking, it still leaves the problem of how to get the missing fans back.
As well as losing the dressing room, Steve McClaren has lost the fans in such a big way that the calls for his removal are becoming overpowering. And this is nothing to do with the fickle nature of football fans or the fact that 'one week you're the best manager in the Premier League and the next you're the worst.'
The situation is merely compounded now because despite the Carling Cup victory and our subsequent appearances in Europe, the boss actually alienated himself from the fans a long time ago.
Applying for the Leeds job was the point when he lost the bulk of his popularity but as the team was doing reasonably well at the time, the dissenting voices remained fairly quiet.
McClaren is not loyal to the Boro cause and is merely using us as a career stepping stone. There can be no disputing this now as Keith Lamb actually confirmed on TalkSport yesterday morning that McClaren's new contract DOES contain a get out clause.
And within that statement lies part of the real reason why Middlesbrough's attendances are falling by an alarming amount.
Lies is the operative word here because unless I am seriously mistaken, we have previously been informed that the new, as yet unsigned contract does NOT contain a get out clause.
So in short,the fans were deceived on that point and that will make them question absolutely everything else that has been said.
And that is just the thin end of the wedge. At this juncture, it is even possible to dismiss the 'quality of football' argument because the single biggest quality that fans of the Boro seek is effort.
I would wager that if the team were giving it maximum effort week in and week out, the complaints would die down dramatically. That is not to say that we should not focus on the quality of the play and there can be no doubt that everyone at the club wishes to see sparkling football every week.
The point that I am making is that the fans simply will not accept half hearted performances.Better to see an average performance put in by players who will fight all the way and we are just not getting anything like that at the moment.
In short, the fans feel as though they are being ripped off right now. This is the entertainment industry and value for money is not been provided, at all.
And that begs the queston, do the powers that be understand the entertainment industry and can they provide the value for money that will bring the fans back?
There will be many theories as to how that can be achieved as the Sunderland post-mortem gathers steam but the single biggest reason why the Boro fans are staying away is the appalling standard of customer service that we are expected to put up with.
You can define customer service in many different ways and there is no instant recipe available that will immediately produce an acceptable standard. Many factors must be taken into consideration and Middlesbrough are getting most of them wrong.
I can name eleven people from the top of my head who have at various times contacted the club for various reasons and by various methods and have never received a response.
The enquiries may be trivial to the club but if you ignore your paying customer, they will eventually start ignoring you. I would have thought that the club would realise such a basic point.
I can also name people who have had personal contact with club members and have come away seriously unimpressed. I can quote an associate who spoke with Graham Fordy on the telephone and said that he was the most arrogant person that he had ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
And there are many, many more examples of similar situations, all the way down to rude and 'power-hungry' stewards and disinterested ticket office and club shop staff.
And that is the real reason why Middlesbrough FC cannot fill the Riverside Stadium.
The club are taking the supporter's loyalty for granted and appear bemused as to why people are angry with the way they are being treated and are staying away en-masse.
A full review of the customer service standards is required by a leading industry expert and heavy action is required throughout the business, all the way from the boardroom to the cleaning staff.
A friend of mine rang me a few weeks ago to tell me the story of how he had been to the ground to buy a ticket and had left without one because the car park attendant had spoken to him in an aggressive manner and the lady in the ticket office appeared to be disinterested.
It could be two or three years before he returns and how many other people will he tell this story to? How many other people have found themselves in similar situations and told several people of their experiences?
The stories all add up to produce a very negative perception of the club and this will eventually filter all the down until even the most die-hard fans become affected. The bandwagon is rolling and needs to be stopped before it hurtles out of control.
Any business that appears to treat their paying customers with disrespect will lose them and this is precisely what is happening at Boro right now.
Correcting the situation would not actually be the mammoth task that it would first appear to be. It would simply require a common sense approach to restoring the most basic values of customer relations.
This action should be enforced without delay and treated as seriously as the problems that we have on the field and in the dressing room. If the situation is ignored, attendances will continue to spiral downwards until one day, there will be nobody will be left to listen to the impassioned pleas to buy a season ticket and sell the stadium out.
Until next week.
Steve
Check out our letters page for some response to this article...
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