It is not often Caterersearch gets beaten to the punch on a story but we're happy to hold our hands up when it happens.
This afternoon we reported that Compass Group's FMC had won a three-year extension to provide catering at Southampton Football Club.
Alas Saints themselves had already revealed this exclusively to their fans on their official website last night.
But were the supporters grateful? Not on your nelly.
It seems the club's decision to use the official site to announce the FMC contract has gone down like, well, Southampton from the Premiership a couple of years back.
Here are just a few of the reactions on fans internet forums:
And now we have a really interesting story on catering. Well done Andy Oldknow (ed: commercial director) excellent just what I wanted to hear about.... well done official site.....About as exciting as a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Skateland (ed: this means Portsmouth)Look it is quite simple - if you guys on the official site have nothing worth saying or your are not allowed to say it because the MANAGEMENT won't let you, then please stop bombarding us with this sort of rubbish. It just looks bland and inane. I know it is a tough job for you people on the site but honestly you insult our intelligence.
Do they think anyone really GAF (gives a f...) who provides the catering for the hospitality suites?
Phew. There's clearly a lot of anger down on the south coast.
Comments (2)
To put it into context, a couple of years ago the fans of Southampton Football Club had to endure a statement from a former club chairman - on the very day that they were relegated from the Premier League - that the club had made excellent progress off-the-pitch, including it's "superlative catering facilities".
This was even picked up by a number of nationals including, from memory, the Telegraph, Guardian and Mail.
As you can imagine, catering has since been a bit of a sensitive topic for many fans!
However, you’ll be pleased to learn that more recent events that have also made the national media - such as the statue of Ted Bates (a former long-serving player, manager and president of the club) that was unveiled to a chorus of complaints about his out-of-proportion head, arms and legs (the sculpture has subsequently been removed and meted down) and our very own Fake Sheik scam where a Dubai "consortium" (based at a business park in Bury) duped fans into thinking they were going to buy the club and invest millions into a stadium development and new players - have done nothing to dampen our cynicism!
Posted by Charles Wayman | July 28, 2007 12:07 PM
Posted on July 28, 2007 12:07
Thanks for your comments Charles, sounds like the club's supporter relations leave something to be desired!
Good luck for the coming season.
Posted by Daniel Thomas | July 30, 2007 10:15 AM
Posted on July 30, 2007 10:15