Reserving Bay 16

[marinermick]

Discuss the positives and negatives and give opinions.

I am currently in two minds.

[DJ]

Positives

Keeps Marinators happy
Doesn't make bay 16 so tight
Makes bay 16 more recognised as the supporters bay (if it isn't already)

Negatives

Would have to be managed/policed
Some people may not be able to afford a season ticket up front, meaning game day allocation would be less

I voted yes but really don't care until we sell out on a regular basis! I would keep it as GA but sell bay 16 GA so people can roam around the bay if they choose!

[Chimmi Churri]

Ok, I'll be the bad ass - It's just too hard to police, and it discourages newcomers.

[marinermick]

waaazmina said:

Ok, I'll be the bad ass - It's just too hard to police, and it discourages newcomers.

no right or wrong answer

we need good discussion becuase this is an issue we have to work out with ivan in the off-season

[Chimmi Churri]

somebody (I forget who) suggested a print out sheet of songs (or chants - chants sounds more manly) and upcomming events - to be passed out to people in bay 16 to get more people involved and more people making noise...kinda like a marinators newsletter

[kevrenor]

On balance no!

A few early thoughts...

Pluses - can help get a solid core of 480 singing standing chanting fans to support the team. Makes the Bay easily identifiable, and strengthens the identity, policing may distract security from other concerns (lol)

Downers - can't guarantee that only rolled gold marinator types will buy there (Cove problem), can't ensure who you will stand next to (as if it is policed that would be a problem), limited to 480, avoids asking whether Bay 16 is actually what we want or whether there is a different route we want to go in future.

The whole 'brand' - hate that word - of the Marinators is also an issue for next season, and probably subsumes this issue.

Bay 16 was nominated by a couple of us acting on limited debate to a need to get our type of fans recognised and allowed for before the CWC. The archtypical fans group is behind the goals, but suppose there are other options.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

though i'm a regular in bay 16, and though i've really had the craps with bay 16 getting crowded as a dolecheck scramble in newcastle centrelink, i'm yet to be convinced that reserving the bay is the solution.

positives and negatives are very much as DJ suggested, however the "Makes bay 16 more recognised as the supporters bay (if it isn't already)" point is not so much a positive methinks.

the ideal is for us to work towards having the end, and then the stadium standing and singing. reserving seats in bay 16 alone will give off the impression that only bay 16 is meant to stand and sing, and everyone else can be entertained but shouldn't feel as if they should/can join in.

we already know that people are unsure as to how to 'join' us, and if we adopt the reserved seats idea this merely codifies how to join, rather than making it easier to join. it will make us appear more closed and less welcoming i think and also discourages people from joining in the songs and chants. it's another code i realise, but at AFL games they have a cheer squad area roped off behind the goals - it gives the 'casual fan' the impression that they a) have to do something special like fill out a form and pay a fee to 'join', and b) don't have to cheer and sing and whatever because that's someone else's job.

love it or hate it - the marinators is now a brand. it can either lift us or kill us at this point. people know who we are, they now need to know that we want them to come and join us and all that's required is their voice and their passion for the mariners.

the more open and welcoming the marinators are, and the more they're seen to be encouraging people to come along and join us behind the goal, standing and singing til the bitter/sweet end, the more i think people will take it on themselves to make the effort and join in.

long story short - reservation to me is like weighing anchor when we should be hoisting the spinnaker.

if the problem is overcrowding, then we might just need to spread out. start taking the tops of bays 15 and 17. there's nothing inherently wonderful about bay 16 - it's where we started but we're obviously going to expand. the cove started in bay 23 but they're now taking at least 3 bays for regular matches. we can start on that path by having people pop over the aisle and start colonising the other adjacent bays. then we've all of a sudden got room to move.

note - for coordination purposes, this will probably require song leaders on megaphones - one on the bay 15-16 aisle and another on the bay 16-17 aisle. as we get bigger we are going to have to work the coordination a bit, but we'll get there.

[marinermick]

i think we need to buy a couple of megaphones for next week for sure

[marinermick]

maybe we need a mission statement like the squadron are currently arguing about

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

maybe we need a mission statement like the squadron are currently arguing about

sorry 'bout the essay...

hmmm, mission statements eh?

"to raise a yellow army of fanatical football fans who:
a) follow the mariners wherever they go, and;
b) fund themselves through acts of small scale piracy and the occasional hijacking of oil tankers."

i'm guessing the office of fair trading wouldn't like that so much... nor the name Marinators (Football Support and Piracy On The High Seas) Inc.? ;D ;D ;D

[marinermick]

dibo said:

marinermick said:

maybe we need a mission statement like the squadron are currently arguing about

sorry 'bout the essay...

hmmm, mission statements eh?

"to raise a yellow army of fanatical football fans who:
a) follow the mariners wherever they go, and;
b) fund themselves through acts of small scale piracy and the occasional hijacking of oil tankers."

i'm guessing the office of fair trading wouldn't like that so much... nor the name Marinators (Football Support and Piracy On The High Seas) Inc.? ;D ;D ;D

not even chiming in on this

mission statement indeed

[brett]

I'm very interested to see/hear everyone's opinions on this.

Ideal situation for me:

I'd like to see a way that people who want to buy a season ticket as a marinator can be given that option and the usual suspects will buy out bay 16 from the back. One seat each. That way the regulars who have made bay 16 what it is get rewarded with a seat each, next to who they want, and they can get there any time to sit in it. We can focus the song leaders into a pack in the middle to be help organisation. The rest of the bay would be a GA free for all and we'd go to lengths to encourage people to go there and join in.

Whether done officially with ticketing, or unofficially somehow, I just see that type of arrangement as what would suit me personally. I'm sick of standing in the same place every week only to have latecomers or beer-liners or toileters or smokers or whoever left the bay for some reason, coming back after half time and squashing me into a 3rd of a spot. I was close to leaving the bay against the Jets because it just wasn't worth it.

But as dibo very accurately pointed out, the main downer to ANY arrangement big or small that takes us away from 'free-for-all' IS going to create an image problem that makes look harder to join.

find a way that we can a) have ONE seat each
b) fill from the back of bay 16 with people who WILL sing
c) subsequently grow outwards and downways rather than gather in the back half of bay 16 like it's the only place singing and standing can occur.

For me, recruiting is a different kettle of fish. The Cove has 'Cove memberships' but that hasn't stopped it being the biggest, loudest home end in the country. If we can explain to people what they need to do to join in, and REALLY encourage them in ways we haven't even touched on this year, and get ourselves out there in the media at the start of next season also, it'll take care of itself. If we get the word out to potential joiners that we're here and want to grow our numbers, but not how easy it is to 'join', it's our own fault.

So all in all some balance between organisation and freedom would be best. I am not 100% sure what my prefered balance is or how to achieve it yet.

[charger]

50/50 on this, but I was once forced into Bay15 due to overcrowding, I was a bit p....d.

How about:
Compulsory yellow section (we could employ RVD, what's the minimum wage anyway?)

No seating (just railings to prevent crushing)

Remove the TV tower (have crane/tower at the other end)

Add a bar

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

charger - you just gave me a beaut idea.

rather than reserving seats in bay 16, create a new ticketing category (run with me on this one folks).

we have the gold, blue and white. add another and call it... i don't know - the marinators. who cares, that's not the important bit.

we could set up bays 15 16 and 17 as the marinators bays.

the club obviously can't say:
"disclaimer - all people in this area are standing up", because of safety stuff etc, they've got to maintain the pretence that we're sitting and all, but they can say "this is for singers and vocal supporters only". that way if it's full of people singing and shouting and standing up, no-one can say they didn't know that's what it would be like.

we have the numbers i think to go very close to filling two bays (judging by how squashed i've been lately), with a bit of effort and a welcoming attitude (plus teaching noobs the songs) we'd fill 3 in a jiffy.

it'd be a good 'live and let live' solution without going so far as to block access off to noobs. it'd also harness the club and ticketek into explaining (albeit very briefly) what we're about - don't matter who you are, you show up and sing your guts out for 90 minutes to bring the boys home, consider yourself a marinator.

oh, and the other top idea that gialloblu and myself had was to get CCS to build a roof over our area to echo the sound out across the field. we're a lot louder when there's something to focus the sound, as even the squadron demonstrated the other day.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

and if they don't build a bar then i'm going to cry like a little girl (but i do that every time i get a paper cut anyway, so you can ignore that).

[brett]

mmm the ticketing thing sort of defeats the point about being inclusive.

[Ursus]

I like the idea of having the bay for the real hard cases and being able to have the seat you want without having to arrive an hour early. I also like to see the game (without someone standing on a seat in front of me).
However I also like the free idea of the Marinators with no organisation it appeals to the anarchist in me.
I don't think we will have to worry too often about the problems we suffered in the semi (I hope I am proved wrong).
Too difficult let's let it evolve. We could stuff it up by pushing too hard in any direction.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

wyomingtiger said:

mmm the ticketing thing sort of defeats the point about being inclusive.

i can see why that impression would come over, and i possibly didn't explain myself very well (i choose to ignore the possibility that i grossly contradicted my previous statements).

the marinators tickets would not be allocated seating. it would still be a free for all in that area. it would just be made clear that that area is deliberately explicitly unmistakeably for loud, passionate, organised support. it would still be a 'come one come all' thing, anyone who wants to come in and sing can, but a certain number of tickets to that area will be sold and no more (if the bays hold 480, as was implied elsewhere, then we would sell no more than 1440 tickets for the area). if this is too few then the club notifies ticketek and expands the allocation.

it would still be welcoming to noobs, just instead of deciding inside the ground to come with us rather than be elsewhere, they'd decide at the point of purchasing a ticket. it'd be the same deal as purchasing a ticket on the hill at the scg for the cricket - you know that's where the vocal louts are, or like a liverpool fan getting tickets on the kop. no special 'membership' required, but a certain type of fan will be expected to go there.

it's more like 'membership' by self-selection - do i want to stand and sing and chant? yes! i'm going to the marinators!

[Dan]

Im in agreement with Dibo's option, RE 'colour' coding a marinators area.
Certainly with bay 16 if not bays 15/17 initially.

Perhaps as you enter the bay area from the walkway behind, we could have signage/banners going across the walkway AND entrance proclaiming that this is a 'singing/chanting area' or words to that effect.

[brett]

OK im with ya now. Sounding good to me!

"I'm going to the Marinators!"

My point emerges once again that we need a collective area name for this place. We'll still be the Marinators but we sit in the 'wharf' or the 'jetty' or the 'quay' or whatever crappy name we come up with for bays 15-17. Would make things easier.

Oh and also, besides in theory, this plan isn't going to change anything. If people want to sit with the marinators because that's what's cool or they like to listen, it's only going to take them 10 minutes of sitting elsewhere to realise it's still the same old same old in bay 16. After the ticketing thing, perhaps we then need to back it up with banner involvement + songsheets on every seat so if they do go there it's really drummed into them that they are in marinator territory and you join in or leave.