Children zone / family area

Speaking to a couple of ladies at the club, I'm not 100% sure if people are aware but we lost the family of excellence award.
As I'm sure most of you know on here that the club has already started to work on this by introducing flag bearers, penalty takers and a child to take the ball to the referee. But the club want to go that extra bit more and provide more for children and families. An fantastic example of this is Exeter City ( https://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/fans/junior-grecians-family-zone/ )
The club would love to be able to do something very similar on match days and are asking people for their input/ideas.
Someone has mentioned getting aa second hand portacabin and placing it in the big space between the pontoon and main stand? And then similar to ECFC get a load of consoles, games and activities going in there. Reckon we could doo that at a cost of around £6,000. If the club decide to go ahead with it would you support it and contribute?

Also does anyone else have any other ideas? Obviously it is alll about space and where things could go etc.

I get the taking the family to a game. but does that not defete the object of going to a football match,, not moving the kids from there xbox at home to an xbox at a football ground ?

I'm not keen on the apparent use of the family seating in the Main Stand as a buffer or neutral zone between other Town fans and the away fans. Not an issue when we're playing Forest Green, but not great when we're playing Oldham, Bradford or Port Vale, as they'll have a go at whoever is nearest. The idea of a family zone between the Pontoon and the Main is a good one and surely it would make sense to move the kids seating to that end too.

The efforts so far this season have been very welcome and I'm behind anything that could improve it for kids.

Quoted from denni266

I get the taking the family to a game. but does that not defete the object of going to a football match,, not moving the kids from there xbox at home to an xbox at a football ground ?

Oh didn’t you know it’s the latest mantra, we mustn’t let the poor little angels get bored must we? If they can’t learn to sit still and wait for the game then why are they there?

Sorry if this offends OP but my personal opinion is that if the club wants to do stuff for kids/families then it is up to the club to do it. In all honesty I have never thought family sections either add a lot to to the atmosphere or promote extra long term support. It looks nice and sounds good on the club CV, but effective? Not to me it isn’t.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Oh didn’t you know it’s the latest mantra, we mustn’t let the poor little angels get bored must we? If they can’t learn to sit still and wait for the game then why are they there?

On that logic, you could justify closing the bars and switching off the TVs. If adults can't sit still and wait for the game then why are they there?

Quoted from lukeo

Speaking to a couple of ladies at the club, I'm not 100% sure if people are aware but we lost the family of excellence award.
As I'm sure most of you know on here that the club has already started to work on this by introducing flag bearers, penalty takers and a child to take the ball to the referee. But the club want to go that extra bit more and provide more for children and families. An fantastic example of this is Exeter City ( https://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/fans/junior-grecians-family-zone/ )
The club would love to be able to do something very similar on match days and are asking people for their input/ideas.
Someone has mentioned getting aa second hand portacabin and placing it in the big space between the pontoon and main stand? And then similar to ECFC get a load of consoles, games and activities going in there. Reckon we could doo that at a cost of around £6,000. If the club decide to go ahead with it would you support it and contribute?

Also does anyone else have any other ideas? Obviously it is alll about space and where things could go etc.

Other clubs do this but I wished we would use proper Town flags rather than what looks like large hankies

Quoted from marinerdazza

On that logic, you could justify closing the bars and switching off the TVs. If adults can't sit still and wait for the game then why are they there?

The amount of time some of them spend moaning, I do wonder about that as well!

Quoted from marinerdazza

I'm not keen on the apparent use of the family seating in the Main Stand as a buffer or neutral zone between other Town fans and the away fans. Not an issue when we're playing Forest Green, but not great when we're playing Oldham, Bradford or Port Vale, as they'll have a go at whoever is nearest. The idea of a family zone between the Pontoon and the Main is a good one and surely it would make sense to move the kids seating to that end too.

The efforts so far this season have been very welcome and I'm behind anything that could improve it for kids.

I agree with this, Dazza. For the big games, that area in the Main Stand is wholly inappropriate for kids. Between the main stand and the pontoon would be ideal and more friendly.

Quoted from arryarryarry

Other clubs do this but I wished we would use proper Town flags rather than what looks like large hankies

Something that's being looked at currently

No offence to Luke and the fans looking into this, but the club can absolutely GET TO FUUCCKK with this, and this is a perfect example of why people are fed up with the way the club is run.

It’s the club’s job to ensure the ground is fit for families and they couldn’t be arsed to put the work in. Now they’ve got well-meaning, good natured people having to dig them out the shiitt for free. People get paid for their time, effort and ideas at other clubs and in the real world, you should all recognise your worth.

The club are happy to piiss £15k down the drain in FA fines because they employ a Stadium Manager who cannot do his job - fact. That could’ve funded this nearly 3-times over. You could’ve had one in every open corner in the ground, for home & away fans. How good would that have been? But no, and I imagine £15k is just the tip of a very big iceberg in money just thrown in the bin under this regime. We’ve seen a 10% (at best) drop in season ticket sales - is anyone at the club arsed? Not from what I can see.

But it’s the CONSTANT squeezing, begging, bleeding and draining of already stretched fans that’s so galling. It’s never ending - raffles for mascot packages, scratch cards for the youth teams, £1 handling fee on every ticket, auctioning a tatty-old pool table. It’s like being on a never-ending Ryanair flight ffs.

I wouldn’t mind chucking a few quid in now & then if those at the top weren’t so disrespectful with the money we already put in. We chucked £120k at them and got told to bolllocks. I wouldn’t give them the steam off my piiss nowadays and if that hits the playing budget then it’s tough - the club needs to realise it’s a business and not a charity.

Like I said, absolutely nothing against the fans trying to help the club out here, but shame on the club for even putting people in that position to begin with.