We have had enough!
"Everton belongs to the people — not the moron" says Kenney Sweeney in this Open Letter to Bill Kenwright

Dear Bill,

I sit here with great sadness and tears in my eyes over what I am about to write.

After witnessing one of the most shambolic seasons in the history of Everton Football Club, you have the audacity to increase my season ticket by 33% and my son’s season ticket by 70%! Yet the product that we are paying to watch has decreased in value by 75%!!!

I can only compare this to when conmen sold people endowment mortgages and told people that, not only would they have enough to pay for their house but enough of a nest-egg to pay for their daughter’s wedding — and a bit more left over… only to find they have been so short-changed that they are going be in hock for the rest of there lives.

I cannot criticize or question your work and the effort you have put in to move the Club in a forward direction. But we can question the efforts of the rest of the Board and the total incompetence of our Chief Executive, Mr Michael Dunford, and our so-called Chairman, Sir Phillip Carter.

When Peter Johnson tried to move the Club forward by offering a move to a new ground, it got a complete No-No from myself and every other Evertonian. When, as a Supporters Club we asked Peter Johnson his ideas about wanting to move, he gave us the respect of a meeting with him on a one-to-one basis.

All the ideas you have introduced over the last few years — like season tickets for £60 —were his vision eight years ago.  Lorriane Rogers wrote an article in the Daily Post a few weeks ago that should have been a warning to Everton supporters about how much the price of their season tickets would increase.  In this article, she asked how the Board of a Premiership football club could justify price increases because, "Inflation - even in football - is in single figures" and "they can't guarantee a significant improvement in the level or quality of the football or the facilities".  She also asked, "Are clubs using significant increases in season ticket prices to achieve the same result as a rights issue, but without having to give up any control?"  I wonder what club she was talking about? 

I have put life and soul into running the Mid-Cheshire Everton Supporters Club over the last nine years.  The one thing that motivated me was when Kopites told me we wouldn't survive another season.  I don't care what time of day or night it is when an Evertonian who hasn't been to the game for years phones me up; my one intention is to make sure I treat him as if coming to watch Everton is the most important thing in the world.  All he has to do is turn up and everything will be provided for his trip.  Doing this, we have brought income into the club of at least £30k but we are treated by the management within the Club with contempt.

I recently had the privilege of being introduced to a person I have long admired.  I was asked by this person why I put so much time and effort into running the Mid-Cheshire Supporters Club and what satisfaction did I get out of doing this for so little thanks or reward?  I told him that, if one kid who had never been before ended up supporting Everton, I could say I have achieved something.

This person then asked, “When you phone the Chief Executive or Club Secretary, do you ever get a phone call back?”  I said, “No, but what do you expect from a Derby or Man Utd fan?”  This person then told me that made him feel better because he gets the same response.  I feel most humble to be treated the same way by Everton FC as is Sir Terence Leahy, the Chief Executive of Tesco, and many more frustrated Evertonians.

Terry told me straight that the only way Everton could become a force in football again was to ground-share with Liverpool but, once again, both Boards (with Directors who have fewer shares than people who want to move the clubs forward) are asking supporters whose personal finances are at breaking point to find an extra 50% plus to support their continuing mismanagement.  If the Board members took the opportunity to try and get down the M62 on a day when Liverpool are at home with 44,000 and compare that with a day when Everton are at home with 40,000, they would not have to pay for customer research: they would know there is a 5-mile tail-back for Liverpool supporters and only a 19-minute wait for Everton supporters at the end of the M62.

Bill, everybody agrees that you cannot be faulted for your love and commitment to Everton FC but the supporters are getting pissed off with the rest of the leeches who are hiding behind your commitment and good name.  I haven't got a problem with not getting thanked for helping the kids who are the future supporters of this club, only to have a promised day to meet their heroes at Bellefield cancelled because the manager is there for football — not for public relations.

Bill, the biggest joke of the lot is to see yourself and other people at the Club give freebies outside the Players Entrance while you are asking working-class people to cover this increase in ticket season prices.  Through our supporters club, we have spent £300,000 plus over the last 9 years and have never had any thanks — never mind a free ticket.

Wake up and smell the coffee!!! This is the People’s Club, and we can't take anymore.

Kenny Sweeney
Everton Mid-Cheshire Supporters Club

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