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Post by sw18gas on Aug 27, 2014 9:06:27 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on.
I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price.
The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause.
But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs.
This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do?
Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance.
So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history.
Up the Gas.
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jackthegas
David Pritchard
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 313 
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Post by jackthegas on Aug 27, 2014 9:51:26 GMT
If Higgs needed our support he'd have issued a rallying cry at the weekend. His attempt to brush this under the carpet suggests the board don't need the supporters help.
I'm sure you are right and that Sainsbury's are the bad guys in all this but the board have history. I don't trust them.
It's no longer my club. It hasn't been for years.
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BS7 GAS
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 41
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Post by BS7 GAS on Aug 27, 2014 9:52:33 GMT
Very good post if we kick up a big enough stink, publicity wise with leaflet Campaigns and petitions, and picketing there stores they definatley will take notice because they wont like there reputation damaged.
We would get a lot of publicity doing this as it is a big local story, we just need to make sure we spin it right by making it clear there's an awful lot more on the line than just our club and Stadium!
We need to make it known to the Media that this store will unlock hundreds of new jobs and Millions of pounds of new investment in the Area.
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BS7 GAS
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 41
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Post by BS7 GAS on Aug 27, 2014 9:52:44 GMT
Very good post if we kick up a big enough stink, publicity wise with leaflet Campaigns and petitions, and picketing there stores they definatley will take notice because they wont like there reputation damaged.
We would get a lot of publicity doing this as it is a big local story, we just need to make sure we spin it right by making it clear there's an awful lot more on the line than just our club and Stadium!
We need to make it known to the Media that this store will unlock hundreds of new jobs and Millions of pounds of new investment in the Area.
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Post by turnpike on Aug 27, 2014 9:59:41 GMT
Don't Southend have an issue with Sainsbury's as well?
Maybe this could be taken up by the FSA for a more national campaign.
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Post by disenfranchised on Aug 27, 2014 12:34:06 GMT
An approach for BRISA to consider.
7,000 fans at Rovers’ first game in the Conference. 42,000 at Wembley seven years ago. A huge proportion of the local community who take an interest in the club’s fortunes.
All of them being crapped on from all angles – by the Board and now by a major supermarket chain.
Develop a two pronged approach that targets both.
The Board – you only have to look at the contempt that supporters have been treated with for years, be it the most recent lies/truth economics, the summer EGM/Q&A, the Cheltenham fiasco a few years back, 2006 or loads of other examples. If that’s how the Board treat their most loyal "partners" (as Watola likes to call them), then it’s fair to assume that their relations with other key partners like Sainsburys, sponsors etc. must be run on the same disastrous lines. A supporters group really needs to start hammering the message publicly that this way of operating never has done and never will work – the truth will always catch up with them in the end. As that blog in the Bristol Post today so rightly said: “In trying to tell Rovers fans what they want to hear and get them on his side, he’s in fact done precisely the opposite” They need to be told very loudly that if they’re not prepared to change then they need to go. Otherwise the cycle of decline will never be broken.
Sainsburys - I may be looking at things too simply (must admit my head’s hurting from reading the main “Rovers To Sue Sainsburys” thread) but Sainsburys entered into a deal to buy the Mem and they’re now very unsubtely trying to renege on that deal by moving the goalposts. Are we really expected to believe that their hugely resourced and experienced planning & development team spent thousands of hours putting together a £20m deal only to work out after all permissions had been granted that they’d got something as basic as the delivery hours needed to run the place wrong? No, of course not, it’s absolute bulls**t and that needs to be shouted by Rovers fans.
What’s certain to me is that a strung out legal process isn’t going to deliver anything other than a Sainsburys win and a Rovers defeat (possibly fatal). The only route open is for the fans to take up the fight in the way that Coventry City have done recently. The tools by which to fight corporate giants bullying smaller companies/groups have changed markedly in recent years what with the likes of 38 degrees, change.org etc. As has already been said on other threads, big companies don’t like being embarrassed publicly and having their reputations undermined. That’s the way to go in my opinion. Get hold of the likes of the Sky Blues Trust, the No To Hull Tigers group and others and pick their brains on how to do it. As a starting point, a banner going the full length of the Blackthorn End on Saturday with “SAINSBURYS, YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT, HONOUR IT” (google football protest banners for some examples) would generate a stack of media coverage. Looking further ahead, would Sainsburys really want 1,000+ Rovers fans gathering in the car park of their big store right next to the UWE Stadium site on a Saturday morning, protesting outside and then marching to the Mem? Things like that might just shame them into doing the deal. An extended legal battle certainly won’t.
Reading the various threads, there’s more than enough skills and expertise on here to run such a campaign.
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BS7 GAS
Joined: June 2014
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Post by BS7 GAS on Aug 27, 2014 12:42:27 GMT
Some Excellent ideas well done Swiss and Franchise.
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BS7 GAS
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 41
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Post by BS7 GAS on Aug 27, 2014 12:45:44 GMT
How about Targeting Sainsbury's on are big away days aswell! Make the point on a National scale and drum up more support. Away Coaches could head for the Nearest Sainsbury's to are oppents ground..
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Post by Curly Wurly on Aug 27, 2014 12:49:20 GMT
As a starting point, a banner going the full length of the Blackthorn End on Saturday with “SAINSBURYS, YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT, HONOUR IT” I like this idea a lot! Especially with the extra BT Sport coverage we are getting this season, this banner should be produced and displayed home and away. |
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Post by sw18gas on Aug 27, 2014 12:49:43 GMT
The tools by which to fight corporate giants bullying smaller companies/groups have changed markedly in recent years what with the likes of 38 degrees, change.org etc. As has already been said on other threads, big companies don’t like being embarrassed publicly and having their reputations undermined. That’s the way to go in my opinion. Get hold of the likes of the Sky Blues Trust, the No To Hull Tigers group and others and pick their brains on how to do it. As a starting point, a banner going the full length of the Blackthorn End on Saturday with “SAINSBURYS, YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT, HONOUR IT” (google football protest banners for some examples) would generate a stack of media coverage. Looking further ahead, would Sainsburys really want 1,000+ Rovers fans gathering in the car park of their big store right next to the UWE Stadium site on a Saturday morning, protesting outside and then marching to the Mem? Things like that might just shame them into doing the deal. An extended legal battle certainly won’t. Reading the various threads, there’s more than enough skills and expertise on here to run such a campaign. This is precisely what I am talking about. 1,000 Rovers fans in one of their big stores' car parks would get their attention. Make it about the wider benefits too - hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of wider investment and so on. Make it about the community being dumped on by a large corporate failing to honour an agreement they signed. Get a storm up on twitter - get an anti-Sainsbury's message trending in Bristol and wider for a prolonged period. This stuff would make a difference. BRISA, step forward... |
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Post by disenfranchised on Aug 27, 2014 12:57:49 GMT
The tools by which to fight corporate giants bullying smaller companies/groups have changed markedly in recent years what with the likes of 38 degrees, change.org etc. As has already been said on other threads, big companies don’t like being embarrassed publicly and having their reputations undermined. That’s the way to go in my opinion. Get hold of the likes of the Sky Blues Trust, the No To Hull Tigers group and others and pick their brains on how to do it. As a starting point, a banner going the full length of the Blackthorn End on Saturday with “SAINSBURYS, YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT, HONOUR IT” (google football protest banners for some examples) would generate a stack of media coverage. Looking further ahead, would Sainsburys really want 1,000+ Rovers fans gathering in the car park of their big store right next to the UWE Stadium site on a Saturday morning, protesting outside and then marching to the Mem? Things like that might just shame them into doing the deal. An extended legal battle certainly won’t. Reading the various threads, there’s more than enough skills and expertise on here to run such a campaign. This is precisely what I am talking about. 1,000 Rovers fans in one of their big stores' car parks would get their attention. Make it about the wider benefits too - hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of wider investment and so on. Make it about the community being dumped on by a large corporate failing to honour an agreement they signed. Get a storm up on twitter - get an anti-Sainsbury's message trending in Bristol and wider for a prolonged period. This stuff would make a difference. BRISA, step forward... Agreed. Something as simple as a twitter hashtag can cause major awareness of an issue/embarrassment for a company. |
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Post by Centenary Gas on Aug 27, 2014 14:03:00 GMT
This is precisely what I am talking about. 1,000 Rovers fans in one of their big stores' car parks would get their attention. Make it about the wider benefits too - hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of wider investment and so on. Make it about the community being dumped on by a large corporate failing to honour an agreement they signed. Get a storm up on twitter - get an anti-Sainsbury's message trending in Bristol and wider for a prolonged period. This stuff would make a difference. BRISA, step forward... Agreed. Something as simple as a twitter hashtag can cause major awareness of an issue/embarrassment for a company. Just thought about that one myself and checked to see if they were on Twitter (they are). Any ideas for the hashtag? |
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Post by alloutofgas on Aug 27, 2014 14:05:41 GMT
Yeh, how about an effigy of Jamie Oliver hanging from box 1?
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brizzle
Lindsay Parsons
No Buy . . . No Sell!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,293
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Post by brizzle on Aug 27, 2014 14:14:25 GMT
I think it would also be an excellent idea to enlist the assistance (again) of the local MP, Charlotte Leslie.
She has provided sterling support to the club over the past few months, even raising the matter in the House of Commons. I'm quite certain that she would be more than interested in becoming involved again.
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Post by The Concept on Aug 27, 2014 14:18:32 GMT
Another e-petition from our Charlotte maybe?
Really go to town on it to pressure them to go ahead. Set out how much they are costing us and the wider impact to Bristol. Share it round the football community.
Sainsburys might be a big corporate business, with lots of cash and muscle, but their customers have no loyalty - they can easily go elsewhere.
At Bristol Rovers we have a fanbase, that fanbase is big, and as 'customers' football fans don't generally take their business elsewhere. We are loyal to the team, and we must stick together.
I was amazed at how much support the last petition received from other clubs, out there in the football community: it's something we can tap into.
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mjhgas
Joined: May 2014
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Post by mjhgas on Aug 27, 2014 14:27:51 GMT
@sainsburyspr
looks to be the main PR/ marketing on Twitter!
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Post by Nurse Ratched on Aug 27, 2014 14:43:57 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on. I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price. The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause. But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs. This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do? Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance. So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history.Up the Gas. Brilliant post. Great idea. Can we have the approval of the Fat Controller for this to progress?  This is a far more worthy idea for this moment in time than a President Dunford. Come on Kev, what do you say? |
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intheknow
Archie Stephens
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 232
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Post by intheknow on Aug 27, 2014 15:22:59 GMT
This is precisely what I am talking about. 1,000 Rovers fans in one of their big stores' car parks would get their attention. Make it about the wider benefits too - hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of wider investment and so on. Make it about the community being dumped on by a large corporate failing to honour an agreement they signed. Get a storm up on twitter - get an anti-Sainsbury's message trending in Bristol and wider for a prolonged period. This stuff would make a difference. BRISA, step forward... Agreed. Something as simple as a twitter hashtag can cause major awareness of an issue/embarrassment for a company. Good idea .... Sainsburys 'try something new today' # payuptossers |
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mjhgas
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 277
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Post by mjhgas on Aug 27, 2014 15:39:59 GMT
Agreed. Something as simple as a twitter hashtag can cause major awareness of an issue/embarrassment for a company. Good idea .... Sainsburys 'try something new today' # payuptossers "Live Well For Less" is quite apt! or the "Sainsbury's Freshness Promise" (the only promise they keep?). #payuptossers |
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Post by Eclectic Blue on Aug 27, 2014 15:41:41 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on. I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price. The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause. But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs. This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do? Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance. So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history.Up the Gas. Brilliant post. Great idea. Can we have the approval of the Fat Controller for this to progress? This is a far more worthy idea for this moment in time than a President Dunford. Come on Kev, what do you say? Swampy, SW18 Gas makes the point that such a campaign should involve your employers, Bristol Rovers Supporters Club, so if you think it is a great idea, why not raise it with Jim Chappell, Sue Williams, Ken Masters and Brian Seymour Smith? Jim is Radio Bristol's go to Rovers supporter so couldn't you get him to contact the station? How many paid up members has BRSC got? 1500? 2000? You've got their contact details and, more importantly, direct access to the board of directors so, as you say, you can get the approval of Mr Higgs for this to progress. Instead of trying to antagonise people and wind them up, which you've again tried to do in SW18's thread, why not lead this campaign yourself? You stood for a directorship once so you're obviously not shy. |
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This is a far more worthy idea for this moment in time than a President Dunford. Come on Kev, what do you say? 