A really informative update from Ben Sadler:
https://www.saddlers.co.uk/news/2024/september/20/an-update-from-ceo-ben-sadler/
23 Likes
Fantastic!
4 Likes
Very impressive
We are starting to look and sound like a professional outfit
10 Likes
Yes it is good but I wish they would order some clothes for our female fans Unfortunately we don’t seem high on the list. I spoke to Dee in the shop and he replied to my email as well. Dee said they don’t order women’s as there is not much call for women’s items and they have to order at least 300 items which they might not sell. I’m sorry but this is not good enough and needs addressing especially as we have a women’s team now.
9 Likes
Great to read that from Ben Sadler very imformative and gives me belief that we have the right people at the top of our football club.
A real shame that we have less than 3000 season ticket holders now but with the amount of over the top doom and gloom from certain supporters in the summer, several who seemed convinced we were in a relegation fight maybe not suprising.
Hopefully some of them they will have cheered up and been conviced enough to buy a half season ticket in December.
15 Likes
From the bits I have seen of Ben engaging with fans, he seems like a top bloke and very good at his job.
The more good people doing a good job you have in all areas of the club, the more chance you have of success.
That is a really good update and encouraging for the future.
17 Likes
I wonder if with something like that they could offer items on pre-order to gauge demand without committing to ordering too many.
It helps that he seems quite personable to ordinary fans rather than Mole’s air of looking down on them.
10 Likes
That’s a bit unfair, have you got any evidence of that? Or are you just saying that he failed to communicate with the fans like Ben does? I don’t think, Mole would have got an upgrade to the Villa job if he was guilty of " looking down"on the people who pay his wages. Well done to Ben by the way, excellent read.
4 Likes
Hmm. As always, I know people like any and all communication from the club, but I’m not sure I completely buy the points on retail or the season ticket sales.
Maybe we didn’t expect the sales of shirts to be quite so good, but it’s been out of stock now for a ridiculously long time. The black kit was harder to get than Oasis tickets and it’s bizarre we still don’t have any in stock online.
And the season ticket sales being down a couple of hundred is a lot of free kids tickets were supposedly saying were in attendance. The attendance numbers have been slightly down, which goes against what the club have said they are trying to achieve. I’m sure if results do continue the way they are that will pick up, but that’s not a result of a clever ticketing policy, that would happen regardless of the prices.
You can’t argue on the team building side though, we have clearly done a good job on that, and by the time our business was done I was very happy with our business for the first time I can remember for a very long time, and the compliments on the training ground ring true with what past players have said, including listing it as a reason to join the club.
Intrigued by the new hospitality section. It sounds like it will be pretty exclusive, but hopefully it won’t be priced so prohibitively that the average fan can’t use it.
1 Like
Totally agree with this. He seems very good at fan engagement, and winning hearts and minds is important.
7 Likes
The black shirt is in stock I bought one Wednesday for my Grandson.
1 Like
Massive upgrade for the saddlers.
1 Like
Sorry I meant on the website, which has been “under construction” but even before that the shirts were out of stock for some time
1 Like
Well done Ben. I enjoyed reading that. He comes across as a modest bloke that is tuned in to his customer base. I particularly liked the mentions for the back room staff, who are often overlooked and anonymous. Good stuff.
5 Likes
Since it will be available for private hire on matchdays, maybe some UTS posters could get together and hire it for a game.
We don’t yet know the capacity or cost…
Just an idea.
4 Likes
I’ve suggested ordering a smaller quantity and actually advertising the fact we have the stock for women. I mentioned Wolves have a good women’s range and the response was that they are Premier league. That really shouldn’t matter though as we as fans deserve the chance to buy a hoodie or sweatshirt. I find it really annoying as the men’s clothes are too long in the arms and body and snug across the hips.
2 Likes
This is a huge step forward for me. It’s interesting, feels honest and is really good engagement for genuine fans.
No mention of Pomlett either which is interesting.
It’s slow and steady progress. To be fair we were never promised anything more.
6 Likes
We’ve probably missed the boat this season but there’s a way through this that I’ve seen done in retail before.
What shouldn’t happen is that women are asked to pay more or quality compromised.
The way people pay now (ie electronically) means that stuff doesn’t need to be done in round numbers which means that oddly priced stuff isn’t prohibitive. A “fair deal” tariff of 1% would probably cover any “wasted” women’s stock if demand were indeed as low as the club suggest. And if there were left over stock I’m sure our women’s team wouldn’t say no to some smart clobber.
Anyway, the 1% fair deal tariff would mean that say a man’s item were £30, the new price would be £30.30. Say a pencil or eraser we’re £2, it becomes £2.02.
No need to hide the reason for the “odd” pricing. It would be just because we want our female fans to get a fair deal and we don’t want the club losing money as they suggest they might. You might get the odd bloke (there’s always the odd bloke) complaining about subsiding women and “pc gone mad” “what next?” but if you’re doing a ton in the club shop then an extra quid isn’t gonna kill you.
Obviously 1% won’t hit the number bang on. Might only mitigate a shortfall, might create a surplus but it’s definitely in the “right thing to do” category.
2 Likes
Get Crod to book it out, should then guarantee an esteemed group, including Everton Andy, Dirty Barry and Lincoln Linda
1 Like
More like PT gone mad 
2 Likes