Mel Q&A with Marketing Derby

[cannable]

4 minutes ago, Wolfie said:

Seeing as this was a marketing event, I hope someone told DCFC not to bother with the god-awful depressing facebook advent calendar this year.

It looked like it was zero fun to make and it was excruciating to watch.

*What's your favourite Christmas food*

*Fades in to a clip of an expressionless Butters.

"Turkey"

*Fades out

[Wolfie]

6 minutes ago, SuperDerbySuperRams said:

"If people want to see what the cost of tickets would have been had it funded the player purchases we made, it would have nearly doubled the cost of your ticket. That's to set that expectation. So please, give me a break. Okay?

"If you want me to double the ticket prices and raise the expectation, then let's do it. I'm happy to do it – I'll spend it all on players. You want to get to the Premier League? Let's put season ticket prices up to £1,500. We'll buy a load of players. It's a simple as that."

That is not going to go down well with some on here......

[StringerBell]

44 minutes ago, The 1884 Group said:

I think everybody is getting a bit too upset about what Mel said about booing at half time.

He understands, as we all do, that we want to see players giving 100%, performing well and getting results. He also recognises we have been poor this season.

He didn't even say anything about booing at full time. He talked about booing at half time when we are drawing 0-0 being unhelpful. How can anybody think that he is wrong on that? Booing doesn't help, it doesn't motivate.

How do you know?

[MackworthRamIsGod]

8 minutes ago, SuperDerbySuperRams said:

"If people want to see what the cost of tickets would have been had it funded the player purchases we made, it would have nearly doubled the cost of your ticket. That's to set that expectation. So please, give me a break. Okay?

"If you want me to double the ticket prices and raise the expectation, then let's do it. I'm happy to do it – I'll spend it all on players. You want to get to the Premier League? Let's put season ticket prices up to £1,500. We'll buy a load of players. It's a simple as that."

Were they Mels words? 

[therealhantsram]

52 minutes ago, Papahet said:

Happy if concerts return  to the stadium. RHCP were awesome back in 2006. No idea why we haven't gone down that route, when it gets the city out there and more money for the club I'd imagine. 

No mention of drones, Mac returning, ticket pricing, FFP...?

It ruined the pitch. Key reason stayed for getting this new woven pitch was so we could host gigs. 

[SuperDerbySuperRams]

Just now, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Were they Mels words? 

The DET just posted loads of quotes from today's event, that being the main one

[Day]

Just now, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Were they Mels words? 

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/mel-morris-candid-interview-derby-county-owner-tells-fans-give-me-a-break/story-29797295-detail/story.html

[Animal is a Ram]

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/mel-morris-candid-interview-derby-county-owner-tells-fans-give-me-a-break/story-29797295-detail/story.html
 

Quote

 

The young grandson of Mel Morris was left fearing for the Rams owner's life after an angry supporter said he should be beheaded over the club's woes.

At a question and answer session for business leaders today, Mr Morris said such comments were unhelpful to Derby County's cause and called on fans to "give me a break" and "get real" when it comes to expectation levels.

He said: "There was one comment on social media that was quite interesting. It said 'Mel Morris needs to be beheaded, the bald-headed clown'.

"If you imagine now, the first time you hear of that is when your grandson calls you fearing for your life because someone at school has shown him that, and you'll get a backdrop of what it's like [to run a football club]."

However, Mr Morris used the event to get a message out to supporters, calling for them to "unite" behind the club, as a "twelfth man" is needed to help the players win matches following a troubled start to the season that has seen manager Nigel Pearson exit the club.

He used the session to keep their expectations "realistic". Referring to the signings of Bradley Johnson and Jacob Butterfield in the summer of 2015, he said: "I spent some money to safeguard – not to move forward – our 2015-16 season. But no, no – we've spent a load of money so we've raised the expectation. What we actually did was replace two players who were out for the season with two other players and spent £12million to do that. But it didn't move us forward. That wasn't the plan. We just wanted to stay where we were. But no, that's raised expectations even more.

"So I don't know how you contain the word 'expectation'. We have no entitlement to Premier League football. I might also add, that for this season, it's cheaper for a family of four this season to go and watch the majority of our home games than last season. So the only person paying to raise the expectation is me. The supporters aren't paying any more for it. So the bottom line to it is, what is this expectation level being fuelled by?

"If we lose two players to injury and replace them, that has not improved our ability to put 11 players on the pitch. Even when those two players come back from injury, you can only still put 11 people out on the pitch. So unless you're going to be bringing players in that improve that 11 on the pitch, how does that move you forward? It wasn't done to do that. It was done to make sure our season wasn't a disaster.

"We have to go through life keeping our expectations in balance. And I think at this football club, let's get real. Look at Brighton at the moment. Hey, they failed to go up last season – but does that make them a failure? No. It's a well-run club. And we're a well-run club.

"We happen to have had a couple of hiccups with managerial appointments. That's it. Can I guarantee the next one will knock it out the park? No. I can't get in his office and bash his hands every day with a hammer and say 'give me a win on Saturday'. I can't guarantee all the players are going to get on with that manager. Should I care? It's easier if they do get on and of course I would like that to be the case. But fundamentally, expectation is not an entitlement.

"If people want to see what the cost of tickets would have been had it funded the player purchases we made, it would have nearly doubled the cost of your ticket. That's to set that expectation. So please, give me a break. Okay?

"If you want me to double the ticket prices and raise the expectation, then let's do it. I'm happy to do it – I'll spend it all on players. You want to get to the Premier League? Let's put season ticket prices up to £1,500. We'll buy a load of players. It's a simple as that."

Earlier in the session, Mr Morris said the club needed supporters to rally behind the club and its players.

He said: "I've been thinking about the word 'fan'. Let's define that word. A fan can mean someone who's fanatical or someone who's really interested in something. You can be a fan at both ends of the spectrum. I prefer the word 'supporters'. If you're a supporter, you cease being one if you no longer support.

"There's a clear distinction between the two. If we're going to get this club back to the top, I need the people out in the stadium to understand our plan, the commitment going into it and back it. If people do that with us, that twelfth man will turn up and we'll actually enjoy more wins and a team that's more enthused about playing.

"And get this: if we want to recruit good players, no-one wants to come to a stadium where the prevailing wind is boos at half-time or you get a 0-0 with Brighton. Support is needed as it goes to motivate the players. Boos never do that.

"We have to unify things. I'm not asking for blind support. I'm asking people to understand what we're trying to do and understand also that the pathway that got us here probably isn't as clear as they thought it was."

Mr Morris accepted supporters felt "confused" about what the club's plan was and accepted this was "the club's fault" as it "hasn't been communicated well enough". He vowed the "fix this over the next two weeks" by restating the plan, presumably when the club appoints its next manager.

 

 

[Nuwtfly]

DET also include video links to clips from his interview. Really interesting stuff. 

[TomBustler1884]

7 minutes ago, DerbyRevolution said:

Quick read through on this lads twitter and his replies to anyone querying Mels comments make him come across like Mels spin doctor

'impromptu' Q&A...nice set of answers, who did the Qs and what was actually asked?

 

 

Surely opinions are allowed on twitter, or are people only allowed to be negative about the club and Mel at the moment? 

Questions were submitted to Marketing Derby from the 200 people who were in the room and asked by the MD of Marketing Derby, would you rather Colin Gibson had asked them, or perhaps the "fan" who tweeted that Mel should be beheaded, which scared his grandson?

Who said anything about it being impromptu? Been in the diary for weeks, before Pearson was sacked.

[Nuwtfly]

1 minute ago, The 1884 Group said:

Surely opinions are allowed on twitter, or are people only allowed to be negative about the club and Mel at the moment? 

Questions were submitted to Marketing Derby from the 200 people who were in the room and asked by the MD of Marketing Derby, would you rather Colin Gibson had asked them, or perhaps the "fan" who tweeted that Mel should be beheaded, which scared his grandson?

Who said anything about it being impromptu? Been in the diary for weeks, before Pearson was sacked.

That bit horrified me. What kind of sick f*ck would say something like that? There's being negative on twitter and then there's that. I hope they ban whoever it was for life. 

[Kennington Ram]

Saw a few fans on twitter moaning and bristling about their tweets being flagged up during the talk as demoralising or just creating a crap atmosphere around the club, as if they thought you could just say anything you wanted in a completely public and permanent open forum and nobody would notice or care.

Entitled and sad eejits, with the emotional maturity of an 8 year old.

I don't think everything has been great at the club over the last year, but I think the vast majority of people understand the difference between having a reasonable moan afterwards on whatever outlet you choose, and calling for MM's death or whatever.

[eddie]

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Me neither, seems like a sly dig at the fans and let's be honest it's a small minority who boo.

 

To be fair, there weren't many left in the ground to boo at the end of the Blackburn game.

[DerbyRevolution]

That video....

Mels lost it...

[eddie]

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

No, I would expect him to say nothing if he wasn't happy and have discussions behind closed doors as he did with Clement.

Perhaps that's exactly what did happen - at first.

[Uptherams]

This was overdue. Glad we are getting a new PA system. Interested in his opinion of TV rights for the football league. If this is achieved we would be one of if not the biggest benefactor. But who is going to agree to this. The current deal benefits most sides in the league. Without it every league would become two tier overnight. Longer term though it would obviously result in a re-balancing of the championship and league 1. League 1 would never see a championship sized club again. 

I hope the training ground facilities can be upgraded. I also hope they sort out the infrastructure in the concourses. On top of that get the Plaza going. 

In terms of the footballing side of things, just along for the ride really. But Mel desperately needs to get the fans back onside and get the crowds up and going again asap. Everything else is longer term. I want a new scarf

[DerbyRevolution]

£1500 season ticket anyone?

[eddie]

1 hour ago, James1989 said:

??? He saying players won't join because fans boo? What a load of bull. What does he do when he sits in his office and his staff continually under perform? Didn't think it was that difficult to grasp

I bet it won't stop you booing, will it?

[Fish]

Long time reader but don't usually post, however I feel compelled to post.

I like Mel Morris, and liked his vision when first taking over, regarding bringing youth through and playing attractive football however for whatever reason he hasn't appointed the manager to fall in line with his vision. That's why I've found it baffling the money he's spent as it only blocks the youth coming through. We've not seen anything from Clement or Pearson that has matched his vision that's why I'm very optimistic he'll get it right. Appoint a manager to match his vision, and I think as fans as long as we see that we'll be happy even when we go through the run of bad form we've suffered the last few seasons. At least we can then say well we tried to play good football, we've got the youth players in there it will come good.

[tomsdubs]

Unless the players look like they genuinely don't give a **** then any kind of booing is a disgrace in my mind. Never done it once myself. I'm a supporter not a bandwagoner.