Spurs sign Pete Tong
Cor blimey. It's kicking off. Or rather it isn't. As expected, based on all the rumours leading up the FA's announcement of Spurs taking up the offer to play more games in the National stadium...we have our N17 return delayed. Much to the dismay of everyone.
Where to even begin?
I can step back and digest the longevity of it all, that we are transforming and moving into a new chapter that will live beyond all of us. Another 100 or so years in a new gaff (or less if we end up being franchised and move to LA when the Premier League goes global in 2033 and games are played in tour fashion around the world). Sh*t happens, especially in the construction game. Delays are often common place (will Tottenham be compensated by way of penalties? Bit ironic that when fans are hanging around to see if they will be compensated). However, this isn't an excuse. In fact, how on earth does the boy Levy, the genius negotiator, not fathom this possibility whilst pricing up the season tickets for the 2019 season?
Oh.
Right.
Gotcha.
So here's the mistakes made. Firstly, communications. What we got isn't good enough. They are always reactive and not proactive. They are always late. We're so slow at turning things round, Michael Dawson can 360 faster than our PR team. It's shambolic. Secondly, there should be no requirement in the first place to send out an apologetic statement.
Tottenham should have had the foresight to forecast this predicament. We should have aimed beyond the Liverpool game for our opener at the new unnamed cauldron of empty promises. Guessing we've got no naming rights specifically for this reason hey? That would allow for a contingency, a safety net to assure that there are no problems. Especially when setting an expectation. The third is the crux of it all. You (the club) ask the supporters (consumers, all replaceable in the long term it seems) to part with money for season tickets + travel expenses based on announcing the start date for our return to N17. Loyalty and committed is being subjected to abuse here.
i'm not even being dramatic about it. The club got everyone to pay for their season tickets, some people in that paradoxical messy place of doing so because they love Spurs unconditionally and refuse to buckle under the weight of modern football. They paid up in spite of how the club behaves. In this case, they (the club) behaved much like any other business, chasing the pound note. No matter what.
I won't deviate much but I will mention the clusterf**ck that is the overly expensive 1882 bit in the single tier. A wonderfully illustrated imperfection of what the club is to many. A contradiction. Here's the biggest tier in Europe (I think) but we're gonna stick a premium on the seats in the middle of it. It's like they try to appeal to the core but miss the target on purpose every time. But still pretend they prioritise what 'we' want.
Spurs have a comms problem. If...if (I don't personally believe this) they are naive and have made mistakes, over-reaching and trusting the contractors building the stadium then internally, questions need to be asked. Because if the proles wanting to watch their team can see that the stadium is extremely ambitious in terms of time-frames and runs the risk of hitting a snag... then why not the people actually privy to everything within the bloody club?
Not one brick hey? Not one fan more like. They're all going to have to march down poxy Wembley Way again, more than the one time they were informed they'd have to. Those that bother to turn up. Which most will. Why? BECAUSE WE'RE TOTTENHAM FFS. In all of this, we want to support Poch and his players, you know, the group of lads that haven't had an injection of new players this summer. Jheee, the Spurs way is the hard way is the only way.
Accountability. It's simple down to this. We want the club to consider us on the same level and not treat us like we're a byproduct of what they're attempting to build. We are the club. Except we're not, not really. Hence the reason why we're not on the same level. Hence why we get drip fed nonsense.
Comms. PR. You could have an infinite amount of Chirpys smashing laptop keyboard and they'd never produce this little mess. And that, my friends, is the painful bit. It's a little mess. A little something that was completely and utterly avoidable if only for some transparency and the ability to treat us all with the respect we deserve.
Still no actual apology either.
footnote: Please deal with any typos and grammatical errs. Ta.