Why my attendance and enthusiasm for WWFC has dropped

By... well it could be any number of people we know

I know going to watch lower league football is a badge of honour for some people and I admit there is a perverse pleasure in going to Grimsby in the middle of January to watch a shit game of fourth division football. And I am still proud to tell people I support Wycombe especially if they are some once a season Arsenal fan from Surrey but this year my attendance and enthusiasm has just about dropped to an all time low. I think this is why:

Apart from Sergio Torres we haven’t got any exiting players to watch and apart from Johnson we haven’t really got any good players to watch. I have developed very little affinity for most of them knowing that they will be off to another League 2 club next year anyway. I would much rather we brought through a few local youngsters than pay the likes of Holt who is on his way out of the game anyway.

Buying a ticket is a joke. I have missed a number of games now because I forgot to buy a ticket at least a day before. It really does wind me up that I have to get tube, train and taxi to the ground only to have to pay a penalty charge because I haven’t already committed to being there the day before. If I forget to buy an advance ticket it’s all too easy an excuse for me not to go.

I feel like we are being edged out of our ground. When Wasps moved in people said “don’t worry, you won’t even notice they’re here”. But when I go to the ground I am confronted by a badge on the gate, massive pictures of Wasps players in the car park, merchandise in the shop, yellow and black logos all over the place and try lines on the pitch. It feels a bit like I’ve lent a mate my car as a favour but he’s gone and used it as a minicab and someone’s puked on the back seat.

There are way too many staff at the club. At Barnet this year there was one steward at the gate and one person on each turnstile. When I go to Wycombe there are three times as many box office ticket staff operating fancy tills, a person on each turnstile, four or five stewards on the gate and several people standing around doing nothing in the club shop. I can’t help but think “Why is my ticket money being wasted on these people and not going towards the first team?”

It’s too family orientated these days. I know the kids are the future of the club and all that malarkey but with that massive family stand right next to the pitch and all that nonsense at half-time sometimes it feels more like I’m stuck in a village fun day.

There isn’t really anywhere to drink nearby. The hour glass is ok if it isn’t rammed full of away fans and Scores is ok despite not having any windows, it’s stuffy and feels a bit like the set of a cheap early evening ITV sitcom but that’s it. I’d like to spend my money on drinks at the ground and let the club have my cash but usually it’s just better to drink in town and then hop into a last minute taxi.

I’ve been gradually getting more and more sick of the lies and spin that come from the club and the website. If the board think it’s a good idea to rename the ground or jump into bed with Wasps or spend all their money painting the floors of the woodlands just be honest about it. Say “We are doing such and such because we think it is a good idea” not “oh, well we are only doing this because [insert spin]”. I find it hard to believe half of what the club says these days.

With the lack of anything being done about the spiralling debt part of me thinks the club is being intentionally (or not) run into the ground so that we have no option but to sell the ground and become one with Wasps.

Perhaps overall I just don’t share the vision of Steve Hayes’ future of the club. Rattling around in a massive stadium that we don’t own built pretty much for the advantage of a rugby club from London is something that just doesn’t appeal to me.

16.11.2007. 18:50

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