Even though it says £10 in advance but £24 on the gate on the Charlton website, I am reliably informed by friends in Sheffield (and the Wednesday website) that they have recently extended the £10 deal to include those who pay on the day. Anyone who doesn't go is a big fat cheapskate. I am seriously toying with the idea of having a week-long holiday in Sheffield to take in both games...
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Im there then!!
£7 for my return tickets from Goole, just gotta figure out where the hell that is!
Complete shithole on the mouth of the Ouse. See you on Sat mate
Wednesday fan here in peace.
Just wanted to say that I hope those of you coming up to Hillsborough enjoy the day and cheap ticket prices which are definatly available to the home fans on the turnstiles and I suspect the same will apply to Charlton fans too but I would suggest someone gets in touch with Charlton to clarify and get details posted on the official site.
As you may or may not know, Sheffield Wednesday has been in steady decline for around 10 years under the chairmanship of a Mr Dave Allen with his right hand man being a guy called Kaven Walker.
Mr Allen would fund transfers and players wages when needed but decided to charge the club interest, something which wasn't discovered by the fans for a while.
Fans started speaking out and protesting about the way the club was being run and for this action they were banned from Hillsborough by Mr Allen and the board of directors.
To avoid having to mount a bid to buy all the shares when Mr Allen took over the club he gifted nearly 10% to a fans trust in order stay below the 30% figure which would trigger this.
A few years later Mr Allen wanted these shares back claiming it was holding up any sale of the club and so offered £500,000 for a players kitty in exchange for these (which he would then be able to sell for a great profit).
Relationships got bitter and a few weeks before the start of the 2007 / 2008 season our then chairman had a press conference which was all built up to announce a takeover but instead ended up with him calling Sheffield Wednesday fans 'Scum' and 'Cretins' and one lady a 'Venomous Bitch'.
Watch that here :- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ntGheS9fMCs&NR=1
Fans had been split with half supporting Mr Allen (or not caring about the politics) and the other half wanting the Chairman out but after this press conference and the fact that the Chairman and Board of Directors were taking legal action against a fans forum www.owlstalk.co.uk and around 40 posters for comments made on the site the fan base became united against him.
A judge threw most of the cases out but ruled that owlstalk must divulge who several of the posters were and then the club would decide whether to persue them for libel.
The club did persue one poster for well over a year with the fan running up a legal bill of over £50,000 and even though he developed throat cancer the club carried on it's action only dropping it towards the end of last year and i'm not sure if the £50,000 legal bill has been settled yet by the club.
Dave Allen resigned as Chairman and left the club around Christmas 2007 citing he was fed up of the abuse every time he attended matches at Hillsborough but in doing this meant his right hand man Kaven Walker took charge of the everyday running of the club.
It seemed the club would not listen to fans feedback and treated them with contempt with the final straw being matchday and season ticket prices for this season risinge by around 15% which saw people refusing to renew Season tickets meaning really poor sales for which Sheffield Wednesday seemed reluctant to release figures of how many where sold.
From being the best supported Championship club a few years ago averaging around 24,000 per home game we ended 2008 averaging around 18,000 this season with some attendances dropping below 15,000 which hasn't happened in a very long time and for one game it was said that around 3,000 season ticket holders didn't even turn up making the true figure around 12,000.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we appointed two new directors onto the board (with a view to bringing in new investment and backers) and now these two have taken over as Chairman with the other being the CEO meaning they had to 'let Kaven Walker go'.
Kaven Walker seems to have been the one person that was holding the club back and already the new pairing has lifted everyones spirits within the club, have been talking to fans and have said an announcement is to be made in the next few days re reducing ticket prices for the rest of the season, giving free tickets to school children to sit in the Lower West Stand (below the away fans) which Kaven Walker said was not possible because of segregation issues but is happening with the first time being against Charlton so you will hopefully have 1,000 screaming kids below you on Saturday.
From nothing positive coming out of Hillsborough seemingly for years we are now getting announcements everyday about what is happening to improve the club and with this new optimism and all the fans pulling together (and cheap tickets which to be fair only usually puts a few thousand on the gate) it looks to be pushing the attendance on Saturday to above 30,000 which will be good to see the old Stadium looking full again.
I don't think it will get to the 36,000 like the final match of last season against Norwich where we needed to win to stay up but it could be close so my advice is to get there early because it might be a bit busy around the ground.
If you have any questions about coming up, where to go for a beer e.t.c then just reply here and i'll try and answer any questions.
UP THE OWLS !!!
owl-zat
Didn't know all that about Dave Allen. That is mental. Still, at least he wasn't Simon Jordan.
glad it seesm to be on the turn for you....
We've followed the legal stuff last year on here
http://www.charltonlife.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=10994
but i never really knew the depth of the problems there. Looks like we're getting you on a feelgood day. great :-(
It has been a torrid time for us Wednesday fans but hopefully now we have some light at the end of the tunnel and we will go from strentgh to strength from hereon in.
We went from winning the League Cup against Man-Ure in 1991, finishing 3rd in Division 1 (now Premiership) in 1992, playing in the UEFA Cup in 1992 and getting to both domestic cup finals in 1993 to just surviving relegation to Division 2 (old Divison 4) in 2003.
Throughout the bad times the fans had stuck with the club until this season but hopefully now the only way is up and a deadline has been set of 31st March 2009 for another takeover by some yet unamed investors.
Hopefully Charlton will pick up soon (but not Saturday obviously) and it would be nice to see you stuff The Pigs in The F.A Cup next week :-)
UP THE OWLS !!!!
owl-zat
Sounds like some of our problems but maybe with a different relationship between fans and directors and a more open and sensible approach to ticket pricing.
I hope we catch Wednesday cold as our revival gets into gear but good luck for the rest of the season. If the new board suggest an elected fans' director just say "no, thanks"
cumon u reds
try the http://www.thefatcat.co.uk/86index.htm , its a cab ride from the ground but does decent food and beers and is cheap
Cheers
Hi Rob,
If your coming by train then your best off having a few beers in town and head for Division Street or West Street which are 5 minutes walk from the station or probably about £3 by taxi.
There are loads of pubs on these two roads and they run parallel to each other.
Division Street has a Lloyds pub and a Weatherspoon's called JD Weatherspoons and this is just off Divison Street and a stones throw from Lloyds.
Also on Division Street is The Frog & Parrot which was famous for it's 'Roger & Out' ale which was at one point the strongest beer in the world or something and was only served in 1/3rd's of a pint.
For the real ale lovers you can also try The Devonshire Cat which is a minutes walk from Division Street (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/133814-Devonshire-Cat-Ltd-Sheffield)
West Street also has The Swim Inn which is a Weatherspoons and from West Street you can catch The Supertram down to the ground getting off at The Leppings Lane stop with the ground in sight and less than 2 minutes walk.Also by the Tram Stop on Leppings Lane you have a KFC, and an excellent chippy called Four Lanes which you will see as you walk down to the ground.
Pubs around The Stadium and in the Hillsborough shopping area are really home only pubs and should be avoided.
Someone has mentioned The Fat Cat which is also a real ale pub and just out of the city centre down a side street and you'd really need to get a taxi to find this from The Station.
Beware though, don't get too drunk or the Police will prevent you from entering the ground.
UP THE OWLS