Missed Opportunity

A day worth celebrating as fully as possible with as many as possible - well, so you'd have thought !

Charlton going well in the league, goodwill towards " the club " better than it has been probably since Roly took over, the CEO thankfully about as verbose as Harpo Marx ( save for a nonsense interview in the Belgian press recently ) and the 25^th anniversary of Back To The Valley looming large on the horizon.

As the day draws closer interest increases and many will want to be at the Portsmouth game on Saturday 9^th December given that it’s so close to the sacred date of 5^th December and against our opponents on that memorable day.

A good time to reminisce about the fulfilment of a dream that was all about the fans taking on the local authorities and battling successfully to make a dream come true.

I shed tears that day recalling my parents plus past matches whilst ruing the fact that we’d ever had to leave in the first place. Like many other Addicks a whole range of emotions ran through me that day.

I appreciate that will mean diddly squat to Roly or his CEO whatever she may say. They have no feeling for the club. One wants a return on his investment and the other is just desperate to cling on to a job that has only served to highlight her incompetence in the role.

However, a good opportunity presented itself to garner more goodwill by converting an easy chance with the goal at their mercy! Make the tickets cheap as possible ( dare I say make it football for a fiver day ) to get loads of fans back plus the Pompey ones in attendance to make it great atmosphere and thus occasion.

Not only that it’s a chance to give something back to Pompey fans as 25 years ago we, quite rightly, we didn’t offer them any tickets.

However, the regime has decided in football terms to square the ball to Ronnie Rosenthal who has blasted it over the bar!

Prices have been put up to the maximum. Clearly the handsomely staffed and  rewarded PR team are either being ignored or not earning their corn on this one ( assuming that it's even crossed their minds ).

I read with interest that some money from ticket sales is being given to charity. I’m sure our wealthy owner could make such a gesture without the need to raise the funds in this manner. Alternatively do this on another occasion or have some collecting buckets on the day.

Added to the above of course is the vastly overpriced 25th anniversary dinner. Who on earth thought that the majority of fans would be prepared to pay £95 for that no matter who attends. 

As I said before imagine a family of four wanting to go. £360 before you've even had a drink ! A couple going will pay £180 again before they've a drink.

All this aside from struggling to get home late on a Sunday night with little to no public transport.

I note that as of today there still 10 tables available. 100 places and that must be quite a high percentage of the overall number. Incredible this close to the event but not surprising.

What a shame that this marvellous anniversary that is special and unique to our club is being overseen by this ownership. Just another addition to the catalogue of disasters delivered by our Belgian brethren.

It will be left to us to make the most of the day as best we can. Sadly living where I do I can't get down to the museum on the actual day but hope those that do go enjoy it.

We'll have to defer a little bit of celebration until the time the owner sells. That particular celebration will be quite something but the cost is unlikely to approach £95.