General enshittification of the club?

[Clyde1998]

With the latest debacle with the ticketing website, I'm just thinking about all the things around the club that have degraded since the takeover. The term 'enshittification' springs to mind over what we've seen, tbh.

Just a list I've come up with:

1. Stadium experience:
   
   1. Basically none of the 'upgrades' being promised have occurred (at least in the East and West Stands). I did notice new ticket scanners going into the West Stand last night, but the ticket scanner was worse than the previous one (unsurprisingly).
   2. The sound system has seen no consistent improvement, despite the club communicating their 'upgrades'.
   3. Removal of most of the posters in the East Stand, so there's absolutely no connection with the club within the concourse.
   4. Screen spends too long showing adverts throughout the game, especially when the game is stopped. The game being stopped is when I might want to look at the team lists, for example.
   5. No half-time entertainment most weeks. Not even the kid's penalty shootout.
2. Stewarding:
   
   1. Totally inconsistent in whether they search you; what they search; etc.
   2. Often unknowledgeable about what can be taken into the stadium.
   3. Completely unknowledgeable about the stadium itself. I heard a story of multiple stewards not knowing where the away end was for the Wycombe game, for example.
3. Decline in the Fan Zone:
   
   1. There's no less choice. Only got new burger and chicken outlets; the 'ticket office'; and Renegade bars, IIRC. We've lost the pizza; the burrito; the donuts; the Heineken bar ('Royals Rendezvous'); the previous burger van.
4. Online content:
   
   1. Somewhat better in this regard (the pre-match stuff, for example), but there are still issues.
   2. Very limited coverage of the development teams, even to the point it's not obvious there's a U21 or U18 game going on (at least from the club's platforms). We typically at least got U21 highlights for games at the stadium.
   3. Change in radio commentary to be the Phil Catchpole one (is this still the case?), which is designed for people watching the game. People may have their views on BBC Berkshire, but at least it's intended to be listened to.
5. Ticketing website - previous site was perfectly functional and was significantly more complete than the new one:
   
   1. There's no drop down menu for the lists of different sections of the site (home tickets; away tickets; hospitality; etc), so you have to go back to the home page every time.
   2. No links back to the club website or online store.
   3. It's less clear what seat you have selected due to the colours being too similar to each other. Selecting a seat turns it grey, the same base colour as unavailable seats, and available seats are darker blue. Significantly worse than the green (available); red (selected); grey (unavailable) system of the previous site. It was obvious what was going on.
   4. The site feels less mobile/touch screen friendly compared to the previous one.
   5. Various glitches/issues, which proves the site shouldn't've been rolled out during the league season. Pre-season would've allowed for a much smoother transition.

This is all without considering what's happening with the playing squad.

Am I overthinking this?

[ILoveMoonPig]

The pizza van, it was sad to see them bite the crust. That donut van was just going round in circles too.

Seriously though, I can take any other one of those losses on the chin, but the one that really hurts... losing the burrito stand!

I guess they had to wrap up.

[Brogue]

Car parking. Car park six been closed a few games this season because they have been unable to negotiate a price with the owner.

Loss of paper tickets

Ticket office reduced hours and unable to book tickets over the phone

The club shop has amazingly got worse since it came back to being in house.

Subsidised buses gone

Where is the WiFi in the stadium that was being talked about

[The Royal Forester]

Online content:
Somewhat better in this regard (the pre-match stuff, for example), but there are still issues.
Very limited coverage of the development teams, even to the point it's not obvious there's a U21 or U18 game going on (at least from the club's platforms). We typically at least got U21 highlights for games at the stadium.
Change in radio commentary to be the Phil Catchpole one (is this still the case?), which is designed for people watching the game. People may have their views on BB

Yes, it is still Phil. He has improved since the start of the season, with a passable "radio" commentary now. But I don't see why a Wycombe Wanderers fan should be doing it. Still very little in the way of of Post Match or half time talk though. it seems like they want to get away as soon as possible. The stupid canned crowd noise is distracting, even more so in the couple of matches when it suddenly came through so loud that it made it impossible to hear the commentors. And don't get me started on that silly "jingle" that comes up while they talk.
I listen to the BBCRB website both before and after the game, when it is not taken over by the National "Squad Goals" or whatever it is called, so I miss part of the programmes.
Another thing that irritates me is that the Official Site rarely has extended highlights(about 10 minutes long) only goals highlights (about 2 or 3 minutes).
RC said when he took over that he will improve Royals TV. I feel that he has ruined that as before we could listen to BBRB pre and post match programmes on the RFC website.

[Tinpot Royal]

Car parking. Car park six been closed a few games this season because they have been unable to negotiate a price with the owner.

Loss of paper tickets

Ticket office reduced hours and unable to book tickets over the phone

The club shop has amazingly got worse since it came back to being in house.

Subsidised buses gone

Where is the WiFi in the stadium that was being talked about

Subsidised buses went when Dai could no longer fund us

[Clyde1998]

Car parking. Car park six been closed a few games this season because they have been unable to negotiate a price with the owner.

Loss of paper tickets

Ticket office reduced hours and unable to book tickets over the phone

The club shop has amazingly got worse since it came back to being in house.

Subsidised buses gone

Where is the WiFi in the stadium that was being talked about

Subsidised buses went when Dai could no longer fund us

Yeah, they were removed a while ago. Don't bother with the football buses now as they're far too expensive for what it is, unless I have to take it (often just getting back from midweek games). The train is cheaper!

[Clyde1998]

Car parking. Car park six been closed a few games this season because they have been unable to negotiate a price with the owner.

I think the car parking could become something that blows up in the next few seasons.

The dispute over Car Park 6 and the loss of the on-site parking with Royal Elm Park (if that ever goes ahead) could lead to very little car parking being available. Add in the club not having great public transport solutions and it's possible people will struggle to get to games simply through poor transportation. At least the station at Green Park has opened in the past few years or so.

[AthleticoSpizz]

How I long for the spontaneity of waking-up on a spare Saturday, deciding to go to the game, a 3pm kick-off allowing a few beers in the town centre, toddling off to the game, and paying at the gate………no pre-planning nor fuss.