Did you join the original one Chicago? Would love to put a name etc. as we really did having working well for a while. Swedish Addicks have their AGM tomorrow in a place that I can't remember the exact name of but it's near Gothenburg - the website is great and can be found at www.addicks.se , Lars who organises it all actually found himself playing for the CASC quiz team away to Barnet this month whilst on business in London. Going to the inaugural meetings in Hamilton and Stockholm are 2 of the things that I am dead proud of during my time at CAFC and if it can be resurrected would be more than happy to help out. Good luck to you.
Good luck with this C.A. I have to say the my overseas living isn't quite as far as yours (I'm only over the river in Essex), but with the lack of coverage it sometimes feels like I might as well be a million miles away.
Nice letter. I did leave you a lengthy reply on your site, but for some reason it wouldnt publish. I know the lads on Addicks Downunder will be interested in the outcome, and if I can do anything to assist, just drop me a whisper. I live part of the year in Sydney and the rest in Sevenoaks. Tel
I second that Tel. Last season was the most frustrating ever to be supporting Charlton from afar. It was as if everyone had it in for us. Every way we turned to try to get some coverage, it was blocked. The most frustrating thing for me was listening to Steve Brown doing the pre match commentary on radio London only for them to pull the plug (due to rights restrictions bollox, we are unable to bring you this broadcast!) about two minutes before kick off. Well done CA and thanks for putting our views across. Something needs to change next season as I really don't want to have to go through that again.
Oh and by the way Ian, you used to look after us guys really well when you were at the club. It would be really good if you could get back involved again as it hasn't been the same since you left.
Tel, Queensland - thanks for the positive responses guys. Once I get a reply I will let you know. It is certainly true that once Ian moved on the overseas ball was well and truly dropped.
No point in speculating as to what our overseas (and out of London) fans will be able to get this season. There are plenty of discussions going on i'm sure and Chicago's very good letter will be listened to along with everyone elses' views.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens. one thing is for sure that it has been a lot harder for everyone to listen into games this season no matter where we are based but even more so for the international and nationwide supporters.
I couldnt get Radio Kent coverage from Sevenoaks, so went and invested £100 on a good DAB radio. You will have our full support Chicago, and I know I speak for all the Downunder lads.
[cite]Posted By: ChicagoAddick[/cite]Tel, Queensland - thanks for the positive responses guys. Once I get a reply I will let you know. It is certainly true that once Ian moved on the overseas ball was well and truly dropped.
Seeing as we've got a response on bringing back our Radio show did we ever get a response back from the club on this?
I spoke to Steve Waggott last week. He is near to striking a deal and said an announcement would be made on the OS when it was finalised...this will be beneficial to both overseas fans and those out of range of Radio Kent...in other words outside of Maidstone :-)
[cite]Posted By: TelinOz[/cite]I spoke to Steve Waggott last week. He is near to striking a deal and said an announcement would be made on the OS when it was finalised...this will be beneficial to both overseas fans and those out of range of Radio Kent...in other words outside of Maidstone :-)
It's perfectly true that we were unable to build on the meeting that Ken Jennings had with Wendy Perfect and myself in 2007, but then a lot of other things went by the wayside in the summer on 2007 for reasons we all know about.
The club actually scrapped all its paid-for membership schemes that summer - and if you look back at the benefits promised and what was actually delivered in 2006/07 you may get a clue as to the reason why. It couldn't deliver on its promises even in the PL. It would be fair to say that not everyone who had paid to join the ISC was satisfied with what they had got for their money either.
I wrote a five-page paper on the ISC, the issues we had uncovered and how we could take it forward, which was based on what we discussed with Ken.
There were 1,284 people who had signed up to the free Red Card membership scheme from overseas, but only 37 who had paid to join the Platinum Red Card scheme and another 100 who had been enrolled in that scheme because they had previously paid to join the ISC. Those are the figures that were given to me - I wasn't involved so I can't say how representative they are of the level of interest, but they are indicative.
The 1,284 sounds a lot, but anyone who works at the club knows that we - like other football clubs - receive dozens of contacts from overseas every week, usually asking for free shirts, programmes, trials, autographs, etc. They are mostly from outside Europe and it is very unlikely that 90-95 per cent of these people would become members who would help underwrite the cost of specialist services for overseas supporters.
In a different scenario, we would have tested the assumptions about numbers and worked on achieving a critical mass in order to deliver pilot projects in the countries with the best numbers. In the difficult circumstances of 2007 it was decided that the priority was building and retaining domestic support. We coould deal with the mainstream issues like providing a route to book tickets - we couldn't move forward on developing bespoke services like web pages with local information.
It's very likely the match commentary issue will be addressed in the near future and it will be interesting to see how many people actually take up what is offered.
As to the issue of whether there should be an ISC, the context is that the domestic supporters' club network that was established in the 1990s is withering away. I think this is in part because the internet has changed the way people communicate with the club and reduced their need to associate at a local level. This will also be true for overseas fans.
I wouldn't ever want to discourage interest in CAFC, but any benefits offered by the club to overseas members over and above what any other supporter gets have to be deliverable - and delivered. I know Ian did a good job keeping in touch with individual members, but that isn't really realistic in the current circumstances.
If there are no extra benefits, what is the point? That's an open question, by the way.
It's very likely the match commentary issue will be addressed in the near future and it will be interesting to see how many people actually take up what is offered.
...............
Thank you for looking at it again, provided it isn't prohibitively expensive then I'd be interested.
Every match day we have a thread going and there are a number of us who are overseas, particularly Canada and down under, who log-on and follow the thread/contribute and a common complaint was that we overseas Addicks were frustratingly starved of match-day info and commentary once we were in the Championship - whether there are enough numbers to make something viable I don't know.
It might have helped if there had been regular updates on Radio Kent - other than the two idiots who commentated on the Ebbsfleet match and occasionally broke in to say there's been a goal at the Valley and Charlton are one-up before babbling away to each other like they were Saint & Greaves but came across more like Little and Large there was nothing.
Down here in deepest darkest Cornwall, I'm also hit with a wall of silence. I may only be a bit under 300 miles away - but I might as well be on the other side of the world.
Mind you, I'd only listen to around 35 - 40 League & cup games a season on the internet - I'll be watching the other 10 games live whenever I can.
Thank you Rick - that is the clearest communication yet on the whys & wherefores of providing commentaries & other services to us overseas lot.
If I am honest I cannot see much point to an ISC - we get everything we need from this site, it would be good to point all overseas enquiries this way. If you want to get to the heart & soul of being an Addick, AFKA & Lookout have it nailed.
The only reason I coudl think of having an ISC would be to help people visiting the Uk get their hands on tickets.
Personally I won't need this as Razil has volunteered to give me his ST for the Ipswich game & buy me a Palace ticket when I'm back next month*.
Not impressive when you send your money off and get nothing in return though. A broken promise is worse than nothing.
Signed up in the original foundation whilst in Thailand, receved nothing. Didnt think Charlton would play a three card trick. Personally I blamed Curbs
[cite]Posted By: A-R-T-H-U-R[/cite]Not impressive when you send your money off and get nothing in return though.
A broken promise is worse than nothing.
Signed up in the original foundation whilst in Thailand, receved nothing.
Didnt think Charlton would play a three card trick.
Personally I blamed Curbs
The service hasn't been agreed or launched as far as I know.
The club never advertised a service to sign up to so not sure what you mean.
Comments
Very interested in the reply from Steve Waggott, as I am sure are many other exiled Addicks. I'm sure you'll get one.
Well done CA and thanks for putting our views across.
Something needs to change next season as I really don't want to have to go through that again.
You'd prefer the 99% of fans to lose out so that 1% can benefit?
Not going to happen.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens. one thing is for sure that it has been a lot harder for everyone to listen into games this season no matter where we are based but even more so for the international and nationwide supporters.
Guesstimate.
Seeing as we've got a response on bringing back our Radio show did we ever get a response back from the club on this?
Sounds promising.....
The club actually scrapped all its paid-for membership schemes that summer - and if you look back at the benefits promised and what was actually delivered in 2006/07 you may get a clue as to the reason why. It couldn't deliver on its promises even in the PL. It would be fair to say that not everyone who had paid to join the ISC was satisfied with what they had got for their money either.
I wrote a five-page paper on the ISC, the issues we had uncovered and how we could take it forward, which was based on what we discussed with Ken.
There were 1,284 people who had signed up to the free Red Card membership scheme from overseas, but only 37 who had paid to join the Platinum Red Card scheme and another 100 who had been enrolled in that scheme because they had previously paid to join the ISC. Those are the figures that were given to me - I wasn't involved so I can't say how representative they are of the level of interest, but they are indicative.
The 1,284 sounds a lot, but anyone who works at the club knows that we - like other football clubs - receive dozens of contacts from overseas every week, usually asking for free shirts, programmes, trials, autographs, etc. They are mostly from outside Europe and it is very unlikely that 90-95 per cent of these people would become members who would help underwrite the cost of specialist services for overseas supporters.
In a different scenario, we would have tested the assumptions about numbers and worked on achieving a critical mass in order to deliver pilot projects in the countries with the best numbers. In the difficult circumstances of 2007 it was decided that the priority was building and retaining domestic support. We coould deal with the mainstream issues like providing a route to book tickets - we couldn't move forward on developing bespoke services like web pages with local information.
It's very likely the match commentary issue will be addressed in the near future and it will be interesting to see how many people actually take up what is offered.
As to the issue of whether there should be an ISC, the context is that the domestic supporters' club network that was established in the 1990s is withering away. I think this is in part because the internet has changed the way people communicate with the club and reduced their need to associate at a local level. This will also be true for overseas fans.
I wouldn't ever want to discourage interest in CAFC, but any benefits offered by the club to overseas members over and above what any other supporter gets have to be deliverable - and delivered. I know Ian did a good job keeping in touch with individual members, but that isn't really realistic in the current circumstances.
If there are no extra benefits, what is the point? That's an open question, by the way.
...............
Thank you for looking at it again, provided it isn't prohibitively expensive then I'd be interested.
Every match day we have a thread going and there are a number of us who are overseas, particularly Canada and down under, who log-on and follow the thread/contribute and a common complaint was that we overseas Addicks were frustratingly starved of match-day info and commentary once we were in the Championship - whether there are enough numbers to make something viable I don't know.
It might have helped if there had been regular updates on Radio Kent - other than the two idiots who commentated on the Ebbsfleet match and occasionally broke in to say there's been a goal at the Valley and Charlton are one-up before babbling away to each other like they were Saint & Greaves but came across more like Little and Large there was nothing.
Mind you, I'd only listen to around 35 - 40 League & cup games a season on the internet - I'll be watching the other 10 games live whenever I can.
If I am honest I cannot see much point to an ISC - we get everything we need from this site, it would be good to point all overseas enquiries this way. If you want to get to the heart & soul of being an Addick, AFKA & Lookout have it nailed.
The only reason I coudl think of having an ISC would be to help people visiting the Uk get their hands on tickets.
Personally I won't need this as Razil has volunteered to give me his ST for the Ipswich game & buy me a Palace ticket when I'm back next month*.
* Razil doesn't know this yet!
A broken promise is worse than nothing.
Signed up in the original foundation whilst in Thailand, receved nothing.
Didnt think Charlton would play a three card trick.
Personally I blamed Curbs
The service hasn't been agreed or launched as far as I know.
The club never advertised a service to sign up to so not sure what you mean.
lifetime membership
Help with getting tickets and a special ISC scarf was promised