Invite to Jets active support forum

[scarfy96]

Just in via email, assume it went to all members.

The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets will host an active support forum at Newcastle Panthers on Thursday, September 5 starting at 6pm.

All Jets Members and supporters interested in active support are welcome to attend the forum and voice their opinion on a variety of active support topics.

The forum is also an opportunity for those Jets fans that are new to the concept of active support to get a better understanding of how active support works and how they can get involved.

Representatives from the Newcastle Jets, including members of the playing staff will be in attendance on the night.

Through songs, banners and tifo displays, active supporters bring a truly unique level of noise, colour and passion to football stadiums around the world.

Hunter Stadium is no exception to this, with Newcastle Jets players having fed off the energy and passion of the crowd for the past eight A-League seasons.

The Newcastle Jets aim to continue growing the Club’s active support base to ensure Hunter Stadium becomes a fortress for the Jets and an intimidating place for opposition teams to come and play.

The upcoming forum is a chance for Jets supporters who are passionate about active support to play their part in shaping the match day atmosphere at Hunter Stadium for the upcoming A-League season and beyond.

Note:

No prior registration is required to attend the forum. All Jets Members and supporters have to do is turn up on the night and have their say!
The forum is being held to discuss active support only and other Club matters will not be discussed at this particular forum.

[joel31]

Its for past members as well cause i got one

[Grimario]

Its for past members as well cause i got one

That's just because they don't take past members off their distribution list. I still get them for people I had on my account 3 years ago. I get 4 emails... and I can't unsubscribe my email because I still want them for ME, just not the other 3 people that used to be on it.

And I get 4 letters every time a mail out is done, way to destroy the environment and waste overhead money, HSG.

[Pico]

That's just because they don't take past members off their distribution list. I still get them for people I had on my account 3 years ago. I get 4 emails... and I can't unsubscribe my email because I still want them for ME, just not the other 3 people that used to be on it.

And I get 4 letters every time a mail out is done, way to destroy the environment and waste overhead money, HSG.

See this is how you can make savings so you can sack the coach.

[Superdylan]

Good idea sending emails to all jets members, everyone should know about it now. Personal invites should get more people along aswell. Let's hope a fairly decent number turns up.

[Blackmac79]

SD please stay away from this forum. We are trying to encourage more people to join and debunk myths.

On second thoughts you could come but a paper bag may be needed.

[hausmann]

Can't see the players having a lot to say at this. Maybe they'll just sink a couple of schooners and sneak off to the pokies.

[militiamon]

For those who missed it, here's my view of what happened on the night. I didn't take any notes so I probably forgot all of the important points. For the most part I tried to keep out personal bias but some things were too much. Feel free to call me out if you think I misrepresented something.

Who was there

On the panel:

- Aaron Kearney who was chair/moderator of the discussion
- Robbie Middleby
- Jets Media Manager (or something along those lines)
- Ray Baartz
- Taylor Regan

In the audience:

- Club peeps who work in stadium management (ticketing), social media, match day entertainment
- Bay 2 peeps (regulars, part-timers, past members)
- Families (e.g mothers with kids, older couples)
- Random younger people
- Hamma, SD
- No Zads Lads or other supporter groups from what I could see

Run down of what happened (starts chronologically)

- Aaron Kearney tried to start the discussion off with the definition of active support. Rossy was the first to have his say, furns tried to explain things more clearly later, but it didn't really go anywhere quickly.

- Opening shots were fired by Tobedog and Baartz, starting with swearing in chants and then moving on to why Bay 2 isn't 'family friendly'. The discussion quickly turned into an 'airing of grievances' with The Squadron and it was pretty much like that for the rest of the night.

- Being 'family friendly' was discussed for a while with not a whole lot of input from Bay 2 peeps. Kearney concluded that a primary aim of active support should be that it is family friendly. Asked us if we agreed, we said "not really", explained why.

- Next major topic was the seating situation with The Squadron and Bay 2. Frustration from many in the audience (especially those not in Bay 2) about it not being designated GA or being easily accessible. Moving to the Southern Hill was inevitably raised. Club responded with the fact that the FFA mandates seated and 'enclosed' active support areas, but they were also quick to point out that the FFA were trialing GA active support areas this season. Evidently, this was not being trialed with us.

- Discussion kept returning to being family friendly, inclusive, and expanding the size of The Squadron and spreading active support to other bays. Without sounding too dismissive, very few actual recommendations or practical suggestions resulted and it ended up just being an exercise in axe-grinding.

- Online communication popped up at some point. newcastlefootball.net was mentioned several times on the night. A few in the audience attempted to have a go at it for being too small or too exclusive. Club guy in the audience tried to suggest that the Jets Facebook page should be the no.1 place for discussion...lol

- Blackmac mentioned The Jetstream as a means of communication by the fans. Aaron Kearney pledged to write something for it.

- Aaron Kearney and others touched on the issue of rewarding active supporters for their efforts and/or treating them differently to other members. Response was basically that being independent from the club was very important to us, so we don't want to go down that path.

- Situation of non-active people standing in Bay 2 became an unexpected hot-point for discussion. Most of the club multis thought that it was better to have non-actives in active bay than not at all, whereas a few Squadron types + Reegz made the point that it dulls the atmosphere.

- Reegz said that the players love us, love the passion shown and want it to continue. He did say sometimes they weren't sure if we hated them though, lol, but overall he spoke very positively of The Squadron and Bay 2.

- Pre-game active support was discussed at some point. Question was asked why we don't have any pre-game marches or support at the stadium....like the RBB. Response was that a) we do pre-game things at the tenzo, club could look into making it an official pre-game venue b) it's impossible to get anything happening before kick-off due to loud music. Question was then asked about turning off the music, club response was that it was possible but they didn't seem to want to committ to doing it.

The Highlights (heavily paraphrased)

"You guys probably only need a maximum of 2 chants of your own, the rest of the time it should be 'Come on Newcastle' or 'Jets clap clap clap'" - Ray Baartz

"The Jets Facebook page should replace the foz as the primary form of discussion on active support" - Some Guy from the Club

"So you want us standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the 6-year olds doing overhead claps while their mums feed them yoghurt?" - au revoir

"So what you're saying is that we should come up with some call-and-response chants that are simple and get the whole crowd involved? Something like 'Who are we?' 'Newcastle' 'Who are we?' 'Newcastle' 'We're Newcastle ole ole'? Yeah, we'll work on it buddy." - au revoir in response to Some Guy from the Club

"...like the condescening smart-arse over there" - Old Mate @ au revoir

"Why can't you be more family friendly like the RBB?" - Some Lady

[militiamon]

Overall it was kind of what you'd expect from a public forum.

Fairly disappointed that it essentially ended up being an interrogation of The Squadron. Aaron Kearney noticed this and pointed it out several times and attempted to change the course of the discussion, but there were a few individuals in the room who didn't seem to get it.

If I had to guess, I'd say at least half of the people in the room hadn't set a foot inside Bay 2. Now I'm not saying you should only have an opinion on The Squadron if you've been in The Squadron, but it seemed that too many (from both the club and audience) were making some very specific suggestions without ever having faced the reality of the game-day situation. Things like the length of chants, the types of chants, dealing with non-actives, they're very difficult to have an accurate opinion on without every having experienced them.

Having said that, there were a few decent topics of discussion that I think a clear majority in the room agreed on, namely the ticketing issues and the pre-game support issues. I don't know if the club will actually follow through on either of them though.


Finally, Reegz was by far the best speaker from my pov, he just seemed to "get it". Respect increased one thousand-fold for him. Good thing La Baz wasn't there to point me out as the du who was being critical of him after the Wellington game

[furns]

I ended up speaking on behalf of bay 2 along with toby and the commie, hopefully we explained a few things. I hope I put across the bay 2 ideals in the right manner.
We do need to be more inclusive and welcoming, and the bay 1 GA idea needs to happen as a "probationary" area for those who are new or who dont want to chant for the entire 90 minutes.

Once we get the Squadron committee sorted (stay tuned for announcement) and have a clear direction, we can then go back to the Jets with a meeting to sort out the ticketing, pregame, tenzo, signs and pamphlets for active support and general stadium, and all the other stuff that was brought up.
I wrote down the main action points along with my own ideas so hopefully we will be able to get it sorted and grow from here. One thing though, family friendly isnt our main priority which seemed to get agreement from both Aaron K and Reegz. The active bays are unfortunately never going to be a completely suitable environment for families simply due to the passion and enthusiasm from the other supporters who frequent the area.
Families arent going to want to chant and yell at the away team, bounce around and sing for 90 minutes. And for the lurkers, I have my own family who I dont bring into the active area for specifically that reason. I recognise that my two daughters are way too young for that environment which is why they sit in other bays when they occasionally come to games.

[Blackmac79]

My 3 year old is a fooking hool.

Hit a kid the other day just for wearing a wanderers hat.

In seriousness though. The meeting had both positives and negatives.

Baartz is a naughty word, along with that media guy who only seemed to care about the $$$, they just don't get it.

Regan and Kearney are kings of newy as far as I am concerned.

Bring back milton!

[q-money]

so was this worth it in the end or not?

[hausmann]

Loved it that Helen O'Niell was there telling the Squadron that their support versus the RBB in the final game against WSW was like "boys versus men".

Given that she has criticised the Squadron publicly on ABC radio because "that's not the way we support teams in Newcastle" it's interesting to see her take such an interest in it.

[pv4]

Have any of these people actually seen the people who make up the RBB? It's a thousand lebs with shirts off and tats all over their chests. Or a bunch of dudes in matching Fred Perry outfits who want to start fights.

It's the least family friendly environment I can point out in the HAL.

And do you know where the families are located for Wanderers games, and what they do? They sit next to the thousands of lebs, and they actually get involved & sing along to ALL of the RBBs chants (not just the NEW-CAR-SMELL ones).

[pv4]

If all of these people really want a family friendly environment, the families need to actually get involved ffs. I'd love for all of these Baartz's and co to point out families that stand in the middle of your Horda's, the middle of the RBB's, etc.

[q-money]

helene o'neill

maybe she could come down and meet your amok's and northgates etc in district park after the game and see how much family friendly fun the RBB really is

[pv4]

Guys, cmon, we really need to be taking this healthy discussion over to the Jerks facebook page

[pv4]

Did anyone put the word on Baartz and ask why he told the club not to sign Smeltz, btw?

[snake]

au revoir

[MFKS]

So we need to be more like the RBB then OK

I will meet up with SD at BCF and we will get a years supply of Pyro organised. Smuggling them into the ground should be no drama. We can hide at least a dozen in my big mouth

Furns should get the Squadron to march to the ground every game and go past local restaurants so the Squadron can start harassing threatening and intimidating away fans and locals not going to the game. Seeing as we don't have any restaurants around the ground then the Maccas and Hungry Jacks at Broadmeadow will have to suffice. Spitting on some bloke and giving him a gobful who has brought his kid in for pre match happy meal will help us be like the RBB.

We are also going to have to send a party of lads to go an invade the away support bay by going in incognito and trying to pick fights and intimidate the away fans

Middleby is gonna need to also be convinced that GVE has to go so we actually have a team with a possibility of winning games.


If we can achieve these things then we would only need the rest of the crowd to pull their fingers out and start singing and we will be just like the RBB