Memberships Statement

Along Come Norwich and Barclay End Norwich were represented at last night’s supporters groups meeting with the club, to further explore our concerns about the new membership scheme. Also in attendance were our colleagues from Forces2Canaries, Proud Canaries, The Canaries Trust and Capital Canaries.

It was encouraging to hear the club acknowledge that the consultation, communication and implementation of the new scheme was flawed. We welcome the commitment from Ben Kensell and the club to undertake robust engagement with supporters regarding memberships for 2020/21, to ensure a new model works for the fans and the club.

There were plenty of opinions exchanged and it is fair to say it’s unlikely any membership scheme will ever be perfect, but we remain of the view the club should have reconsidered their stance, and as gone as far as refunding supporters and reverting back to the away points system, with the clear proviso that things would change for 2020/21. The club do not share this view, but accepted our points, particularly in relation to the cost for Junior Canaries and families, which we believe could act as a prohibitive factor in allowing the next generation of supporters to attend matches.

Moving forward, provided we continue to be part of any ongoing consultation, we will press the case for any membership scheme to be affordable and not just be a way to access tickets. It should also make a member feel part of their club, and the benefits of any scheme should reflect that fully. We feel strongly that the specific away membership scheme needs scrutiny and that it should have been scrapped for this season. However, we can only lobby for this in future discussions about 2020/21 and will now fully focus on backing the team for the season ahead.