Mem meeting tonight anyone there?

I have just read through this thread for the first time, interesting to read some differing points of view. I come at this having attended shareholders annual meetings and Supporters Club meetings for well over 25 years. So I've always tried to form a judgement on the people running Bristol Rovers based on those meetings, down the years got to know some of those people quite well and actually worked with them.

It was interesting that in answering the first question Abdullatif, launched into something of a monologue but some of it just didn't quite hang together I felt. I know some have debated his comments defending the season ticket prices for children above. Trying to argue that Rovers could be like Man City in Manchester and become a better supported club (within the city of Manchester) than United if we became really successful we could do the same, didn't really stack up for my money. "Success would attract children", that seemed to me to be a very fragile argument that was a little naïve and hard to sustain - trying to justify not offering better deals to families and children. This was having argued that rises in ticket prices were necessary for a variety of reasons that we all understood, but for me just to hope that families would suddenly be able to afford to come to football because Rovers were successful seemed fanciful. This was demolished by one supporter later in the meeting who spoke most eloquently about the demise of the Young Pirates and the top table had no answer.

The proposed timescale of the redevelopment seems hard to believe if much of it hinges on the housing development at The Quarters, I can't see that filtering through in two years to be in a position to go out to banks. I hope I am wrong in that assumption.

The one chink of light for me was a most impressive contribution from George Friend, he is no mug and I thought he spoke really well about how he and his team would go about their task. I hope he doesn't become a victim of what I saw as a somewhat confused set of objectives around the upscaling of the academy and trying to achieve almost immediate success for the first team (Championship football within three years whilst rebuilding the stadium). Luton was used as the example that Rovers should follow in terms of moving to a new stadium once the Premier League was in sight. It all seemed like a wish list rather than a clear set of objectives and more importantly what was missing "this is how we are going to do it". When pressed on how it would all be financed the answers reminded me of Wael's initial statements around UWE that "finance wouldn't be a problem". Remember those early heady days, where everything seemed possible? I really hope that they can do it, I really do.

The other thing that I took away from last Thursday is that I feel that the new owners still don't really understand the fanbase and it's diversity in terms of opinion, financial means and what it really means to be a Rovers supporter. It is almost like everything that went before 2016 doesn't really matter or have any relevance. Key employees don't seem to have a clear grasp of the history of the club since the move to the Memorial Stadium, this cannot help the new owners understand where the fanbase is "coming from" and what those of us who supported the club at Eastville went through when the club had to move to Bath? Had the club tapped into some of the knowledge that longstanding supporters have about the history of Rovers move to the Mem, then some of the mistakes that were made in the building of the South Stand could have been avoided. Do they know why the dimensions of the two stands are as they are, there is a reason which might be good to know before they embark on the redevelopment?

It was good to see such a well attended meeting, whilst there was a lot of old stagers such as myself present it was good to see some fresh faces engaging with the Football Club. Someone commented on the age of those present and it's true that most were the wrong side of forty, but it's always been that way. I was in my mid thirties when I started going and many of those people present have grown old with me! That's why the Football Club has to find a way of engaging young people at a time when attention spans are now so short, if they don't do it now the drift away from playing eleven-a-side football at weekends will eventually start to eat into people watching professional football at League One level when there is much to do at a fraction of the price.

Kind regards

John Malyckyj

Allison must have been way before Man C became more successful than Man U, as it was decades since he turned up at Twerton?

Oddly my family were from Manchester and had never watched Rovers until I dragged them to their first game as a youngster when we were top of the league, at that time Rovers seemed to be the team to support in (north) Bristol, so perhaps there is some logic in what Abdullatif was saying.

You don't get my point . I don't get your answer. I was referring to what " Topper " said regarding Manchester City & Manchester United. Who are you referring to ?

I'm referring to to us vs the other lot.

You mentioned that Man City had a couple of decades when they were the top dogs in the city. The 50's and the 60's. I'm not sure we had the same thing.

In my living memory, sadly we only had 89/90 when we were top dogs in Bristol. So, I was making a point that again the Manchester comparison, isn't that great a comparison.

To me this isn’t really good enough. If I can pay my son’s music group fees or football training fees in instalments then why shouldn’t we be able to do the same with season tickets? When you outsource this kind of thing the service always gets worse, unfortunately.

I was not referring to any of the Bristol teams. I was simply replying to what Topper had written.

For comparison, Bristol Rovers terrace prices:

Adult - £26
Senior 65+ - £22
Under 18 - £20
Under 14 - £7

Such a big jump when they hit 14 with us.

Because “Gasheads”, I’ll use that term loosely have been taking the p*$$.

Taking up the finance option but not actually paying it back. Hardly surprising finance companies won’t deal with us.