Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice
Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice
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Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - An Independent Voice
Blues Trust: Membership Appeal
The extremely disappointing events of the past few days have once again raised questions about the intent and competence of those that own and manage our football club. The continued closure of the Tilton and Kop stands….and with no immediate prospect of reopening, despite the sale of full season tickets for both….is as incredulous as it is damaging.
The issues with the stands have been known for 8 months now. And during a period of lockdown too, when supporters were not allowed to visit sporting venues. Now that they are, at St Andrew’s we cannot!
Last week the Trust reported that we had attended a supporters forum with club officials which, at that time, we regarded as a positive step forward on the part of the club. We were keen to acknowledge the measures being taken to improve engagement with supporters. But we cautioned against too much optimism too soon. With no mention made at the meeting of ongoing uncertainty about the opening of the two stands, it seems that caution was well placed.
It is clear that problems still run deep at Birmingham City and it is really important that efforts are made to hold to account those making decisions which affect us as supporters.
The Trust is ready and willing to do that. We are also ready and willing to be constructive with those in charge at St Andrew’s because we only want the club to be the very best that it can be. To be truly effective, however, we need more supporters to join our ranks and play an active part in the challenge that we face. If you are a Bluenose, no matter how long your affiliation with the club or where in the world you live, please consider becoming a member of the Trust to help shape the future wellbeing of our club.
Blues Trust is an organisation for supporters of Birmingham City Football Club, run on a voluntary basis by fans of the club.
Details about the Trust and membership options can be found here https://www.bluestrust.org
Thank you.
Blues Trust.
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17 Comments
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Blues Trust gets your facts correct. These issues came to light last December not 18 months ago. ” No immediate prospects of reopening ” how do you know? Have you been told the cause of the delay? I was also at that meeting and if the rumour I heard is correct it was mentioned in the meeting.
Thank you for your response Linda. You are correct in highlighting that the issues came to light in December 2020. So, of course, the article should have said “8 months”, not 18. We are happy to make a correction and to apologise for the error. We are still of the view that the club has had a long time to address and perhaps even correct the issues, even though we acknowledge the scale of the problem.
With regard to your point about when the stands will reopen, we would draw your attention to the club statement from last Wednesday, 11 August which read “However, we acknowledge that previous timeframes have not been met and therefore it would be irresponsible to set a final date for reopening”. That does not seem conclusive in our view.
Finally, you mention picking up on a rumour at the supporters meeting last week. The question is whether club officials stated from the platform that a delay might occur. Our representatives at the meeting do not recall that having been said, and the minutes of the meeting do make that point either.
Hope this helps.
Thanks again.
Blues Trust
You have been going ten years. Why are you going to hold the owners to account now when you haven’t before? You can see why people don’t take you seriously.
Interesting observations Mr Jackson. A tad negative, and certainly not constructive, but interesting nonetheless.
I was unable to attend the game today because despite shelling out £485 several weeks ago my seat was not available. And I was not successful in the ballot. So I missed the game and had to change plans to meet family and friends after so many months apart.
So my question to you, respectfully, is what would you do to address the current circumstances? Or, perhaps more pertinently, what have you done?
From where I stand, the Trust is at least trying to do something to make things better for us as supporters. Perhaps if the Trust had 3500 members…..or, better still, 35500 members….rather than 350….its influence would be far greater. Which, I think, is the point of the article.
KRO!
The situation at our club goes far deeper than the closure of the kop and tilton stands as a club we have been treated by owners who have overseen our club as a means to their own ends the club means nothing to these people it is part of a business portfolio to them statements they make are full of hot air and wind we have a manager who actually cares about the fan base but what are the chances of him leaving because he has obviously been given the same hot air and wind the fans are not puppets to be pulled from pillar to post we genuinely care and want nothing more than honesty from the people who are custodians of the club then perhaps we may move forward and progress
I pray the owners and directors watched the fervour and excitement generated by the fans at Brentford last night. The atmosphere was amazing. This is echoed throughout the country, with supporters everywhere enthused by a new season and having been absent for so long.
What do we Blues fans get ? A slap in the face.!!!!
Season tickets sold for areas not yet made safe despite the amount of time that has passed since problems were identified.
Season tickets not yet issued to many fans.
Tickets sold where money now has to be refunded, and a ballot to accommodate some of the season ticket holders who have shown faith in the club by purchasing.Even that has been badly done, with at least one person being told.. he was unsuccessful, then successful, then both anwers repeated again.
Can you imagine the chaos at the club before the game? No one has any idea how to sort the many many problems.
Furthermore, we had a message read out on WM radio last night stating that a further statemet wouldnt be issued until after Wednesday, as the directors don’t speak English well enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
None of us knows the truth about how this fiasco has been allowed to happen, but NOW is the time that second rate running of our cub has to stop, before it not only affects our loyal fans , but the manager and the team. We should be full of anticipation today. Instead , it is dread.
I am a blues trust member.
But this is something i’m finding hard to to get behind for many reasons.
1 I don’t blame the current board for the issue.
2 I believe they’ve done their best to resolve the issue.
3 I know first hand what it’s like to be in this situation.
4 I don’t want to be a part of bully Group piling on pressure and create even more stress.
5 I don’t feel the need to upset the feel good factor and performance of the playing staff.
6 I don’t want to see Bowyer and C Gardner get fed up and leave the club due to hostilities. And stressed squad that are finding date hard to perform.
7 I don’t want to give more animation to rebel news reporters and conspiracy fairest‘s.
8 I don’t want to drive a even bigger wedge between supporters and the ownership of the club.
9 I want the club and the team to perform well this season I want a better season this is just another wrench to bring the club back down and should not be pushed upon I can’t be part of it.
I could go on and find many more reasons that I cannot get behind what I see has some sort of witch hunt against the current ownership.
I urge supporters to get behind the club respect the fact that this is the way it is for this season so far.
The team are performing well the manager is doing his best the club board are doing their best this is a little setback.
But one we should help the club with not hinder The proceedings.
Maybe asking the club if there is anything we can do to help would be better.
KRO ????
I have to agree with you Cool Blue, we need to bond, not separate.
If asking for truth and honesty is seen as hindering the club then we as supporters need not bother I will never stop supporting the team and my support for lee bowyer is massive but pacifying the actions of owners who clearly know nothing about the feelings of supporters is not my way
The questions have already been asked The answers I’ve already been given they may not be to everyone’s liking but there’s nothing we can do to change that.
To keep asking the same questions over and over again is just piling on the pressure eventually this will filter down to the playing staff and managers.
It feels like there’s a certain section of Birmingham City supporters who enjoy the hardship because they tend to create it their selves.
The doom mongering needs to stop. There is new people in charge of the running of the club now they are doing their best to put things right when you have major construction work on a public building new problems are going to surface these things are always very little notice I know this firsthand. It’s a very pressurising distressing time for everyone what we should be doing is our best to help the club not in force even more pressure.
KRO ????
There have been so much mismanagement of the club in almost every way (finance, manager recruitment, player recruitment, stadium maintenance & public relations being the most obvious) is it any wonder that the latest problems with the ground is causing anger particularly among
those who have purchased season tickets. At long last there seems to be a realisation among the board that things need changing and they have made some very welcome changes but there will be a legacy of problems that will take time to rectify but the main thing now is to back the team as success on the pitch is the key to ending this long running saga and easing the rift between an awful lot of Bluenoses and the board.
KRO
This appeal by Blues Trust can only be seen as a positive. Criticism is way out of order. To my mind they have always been too moderate and always given the club the benefit of the doubt. They have now decided we need a strong voice to show and represent the supporters who like this week have been hit hard by the debacle of repairs ( or non repairs) to the ground. Whether fans join is their choice and that’s fine but nobody can honestly question why they have made this appeal. Stronger we are the better.
It means nothing. There are many fans groups that could all join together and do something positive to help the club.
Rather than throw spanners in the works digging up old problems bringing them back to the forefront. And stopping progress.
The Newest issue with the stands is not down to the current owners they have gave the best accounting for what will be happening as they possibly can do.
it’s time to get behind the team and support the team and let’s get us firing up the table.
I will not be at tonight‘s game because I wasn’t successful in securing a renewed seat.
I will now be at the Bournemouth game.
Yes that’s pissed me off yes I wanted to be at the Stoke game that’s why I brought my season ticket so Support my team.
But I’m not blaming the board or the owners for this.
We was warned that this could happen people are saying that we wasn’t but we was we was warned about it. There was always a possibility that new problems would be found along the line and repairs would be delayed.
I decided to take the risk that didn’t pay off so that’s down to my own doing. But in my opinion a risk worth taking because I love my club.
KRO ????
Well this topic has certainly got people talking, whether they agree or disagree and that has to be seen as a good starting point.
The way I see it is that our biggest problem is that we have no idea who our owner actually is, where exactly they operate from and how do they generate their cash flow. Do the EFL or FA actually know who it is?
As for the present incumbents of the board room they haven’t even had time to get their feet under the table yet so let’s give them a chance before we kick their seats from under them. Until recently we had Dong and his cohorts to aim our anger at and now that they’ve gone it sometimes just looks like a witch hunt to see who we can vent our frustrations on next. Very few of us know exactly what they inherited so though it’s frustrating, even to put it politely annoying the way we as supporters have been treated there’s one thing we do have to agree on, the new board does at least seem to be trying. The club statements on the subject of the stands certainly haven’t been good but at least we’re getting some information now, albeit late and seemingly unapologetic.
We need the club and the club needs us, singularly we are nothing, together we can be a power house. Let’s give the new guys a chance before we go in with all guns blazing because at the moment all we’re doing is stirring a muddy field into a quagmire.
I genuinely feel for those who were sold tickets to a venue that wasn’t fit for purpose and the club has to accept the blame for that, it certainly doesn’t develop good relations. Until the present owner holds his/her hand up and says “here I am” there’s little we can do to remove them so right now all we can offer is support for Mr Bowyer and the lads. Let’s not kill what little good news has come from the club over the past three or four months before the present directors have had a chance to properly show us what they’re made of.
I know that many people will disagree with my post but that’s what debate is all about, all of us having a say. If nothing else this topic has got people talking.
KRO
John Paget.Your post is FIRST class. Plenty of good reasoning there and points for supporters to think about.
The ground is no longer owned by Birmingham City so why are the club picking up the bill? Surely when you pay your rent then that includes structural maintenance?
I Believe the ground is owned by an proxy I understand it to be on behalf of the current owner. The rent is most likely written off in tax.