I have received an email from the Ospreys regarding next year's season ticket, offering three option in lieu of the loss of games this season. I assume others have had similar communications. The options are to receive a refund, use the money to reduce the price of next season's ticket or forfeit the money in order to help the financial situation. I will probably choose the last option because great efforts have been made (new coaches and Mike Ruddock) to rescue the region from the mess we have been in this year. My only reservation is some of these funds will go towards the salary of Paul Whapham and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Millward who have treated the committed and loyal supporters with disdain by some of their actions. Perhaps being the bigger person is more important here. I wonder how others feel about this.
top of page
OSPREYSFANFORUM
bottom of page
2 here, both being donated.
we are all massive ospreys fans from the very start,season ticket holders from day one and we all want our club to be successfulso we're in it for the long haul.
we have 10 in our group and out of us 3 have been made redundant, players with wage cuts are still earning a lot more than most of us ,i think it's a bit of a cheek for big businesses asking if we can keep your money. But at the end of the day we are all contributing what's left back to the Ospreys. hopefully they will look after us in the future.
The total of my contribution would not amount to much, but we have donated it but to offer a different perspective in case others are reluctant to debate the issue for want of not offending.
I am willing to play devils advocate and question giving even more contributions to a rugby region that has expensive players earning well over the average wage and can drop their salaries without putting pressure on their mortgages etc. I don't include the lower salaried players or backroom staff. But many supporters have lost their jobs, been put on furlong or realise that once things recover they will have huge interest charges for bills they could not cover even if they find employment.
My point leads towards the notion of how we the general public contribute to the the game of rugby, we buy products, pay for TV, buy season tickets and that just the average supporter, many pay even more for parking and hospitality eventually the cost of maintaining being a supporter to travel to away games as well will count as a large part of the general household income.
In the past being a rugby supporter cost you the price of a ticket, a few pints and a pie. Now for the average family its equal to going on holiday or running a second car thus in the present climate it can feel wrong to ask supporters to forego a refund on a product they didn't receive especially when they contribute so much in other ways.
Our three are all being donated back to help our region.
I will be donating mine. The players have taken a cut and we should show solidarity to them and the fact that Ruddock seems to have brought some sense and organisation to the rugby side.
Given how totally inept Millward appears to be and that Davies-Yandle will now be making the decisions with Tang I struggle to see how he can remain in such a high level position. He has no discernible skill set to run a business and his inexperience at the level he is very nearly cost us our entire existence. If the new investors feel they can massively improve the off field side as they have stated it does not make sense to keep an MD who seems to have made a pig's year of running the business since he took over in 2015 culminating in us becoming the worst performing welsh region by 2020.
As for Whappum whilst he has no apparent business skill set I could see they might want to use him in the Community role, but cannot see what he could bring in terms of negotiating commercial contracts or top level sports marketing.
All that said it is the new owners decision and it will be interesting to see how they approach the off field structure.
I will be donating mine, but I agree I’d prefer that donations were made to player resource...but I guess there needs to be a business side too. I would like to know how many non-rugby staff there are at the ospreys.