It’s been classic talkback. Some agreeing, some corporate types sticking the boot in and a smattering of comedians. Never change talkback, never change.
I imagine they were too busy liasing with the company currently installing the owners lift. Which I got to hear about at length, and to great amusement, on tuesday.
Just on this point. Perhaps worth remembering that forest was one of the last elite level community owned clubs prior to the PLC 'ship revolution. The 'committee' to whom the club was entrusted, ran it into the ground, and then sold it off at great personal profit, at the behest of, and of the benefit to, fat Larry's band. Not bad for a quid each.
Which has allowed us to bask in the benefit of being owned by the likes of scholar's soar arse, the idiot abroad fawaz, and a global billionaire shipping magnet and spontaneous incendiary device with an ego the size of a planet.
There used to be a time when 'pick your team' was a phrase about football. In the days before the post apocalyptic rule of the spreadsheets.
So it's where you draw that line, You, Forest and Melbourne Hearts International Head of Telling People to Go Fuck Themselves think Seven isn't high enough value for a small amount of admin time on a practically zero cost/high margin product like a walk round (this isn't like a match ticket, they are finite, more people can always walk round). This would have been a straightforward win, he would have come on here, said the club was great and there would have been much rejoicing. Now, I'm not going to book a tour out of protest.
No, I don't have an opinion on Seven's value, he isn't my customer. But you're wrong about the tour, it's directly comparable to a match - it's a fixed event at a fixed time with a finite amount of tickets available, so if they allow Seven to switch at the last minute they are out the revenue for the slot that he had booked and/or denied the revenue for his future slot.
Different departments run different P&Ls. This is a very normal and appropriate decision for the commercial team to make.
It's not, the club can put on as many tours as it likes, all night if it wishes, until demand is exhausted. They can't ring up the Premier League and go "yer, we want to fleece these mugs a bit more, can we book City for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening next week?"
A good few years ago (Fawaz had just bought the big screens) I sent a email to the club to book a half-time birthday message for my son. I used the email address that they posted weekly on the big screen.
About a week later, I chased it up (no reply) and the club told me there was a new process, I should have used a form on the website and, because of that, they were now all booked up for my son's birthday weekend.
I sent a snotty email back which must have been forwarded upwards because I got a call from Paul Faulkner, the new CEO, who apologised, got the message put on the screen and invited us to have a look round behind the scenes before the game. Think we met a player etc.
The rolls in my sushi tray were packed too closely together so half of them fell apart when I was getting them out. Also, I forgot to pick up an extra packet of soy sauce so there wasn't enough.