FINAL GAME BOYCOTT

[ciggiesnbeer]

Ciggies, call me a cynic and I hope I'm wrong but no matter what we do I don't think you'll see Lerner spending any significant amounts of money on Aston Villa ever again.

Nah you are a realist. But I genuinely think its the only thing fans can do that might, just might spark a change in his thinking. But yeah I do agree, the chances are slim. But better than the none we currently have. Maybe?

[andyh]

Good luck to anyone who thinks they can organise a protest and that they think anyone will support it.
Even at the height of our total humiliation yesterday, a few chants of Randy Lerner, what a wanker, was about as angry as it got.
I sometimes feel that we, the fans, are partly responsible for the site state our club is in.
For years we have been served shite, followed by tripe, followed by more shite, and the general reaction amongst the crowd is a collective shrug of the shoulders, a collective sigh, and a mumble as we troop out of the ground after another hour and a half of watching shite.
The only time the team has responded to any REAL pressure or grief from the fans if following the Wycombe debacle, and even that only lasted a few games.

The club, the hierarchy and the team have hardly ever had to face any real pressure from the fans, and no real pressure from the media.
So, we might like to think the club and team are bothered, we might like to think that they care, but there has been nothing to show that's the case.
When 30k+ keep turning up to games, and when it 'appears' that are quite content with what is being served up, then why should the club think anything other that 'all is ok'?

A protest of some kind is a great idea, but is an absolute none starter.

Apathy rules ok!

[SoccerHQ]

Balls to that....Newcastle is the only home fixture left I'm actually looking forward to.

I'll go anyway as that could well be our final premier league home fixture for quite some time.

[ROBBO]

I'm a lot older than most of you and have seen it all before and I can tell you this we are great supporters but terrible at protesting, I don't think it's in our DNA. We are moaners and grizzlers but we are far too nice for a decent protest. That episode with the team bus was in some eyes unseemly but it did shake things up for a while and I think the players took it on board. The problem of course is Lerner and the only way to get to him is through ridicule but it would have to be good enough to make the news in the states to work.

[avfc_1874]

Think it was suggested before, but throwing those free scarves onto the pitch would be a good idea last home game.

[claret and blue blood]

Did a well covered high profile protest at Mcleish being appointed stop Lerntwat ? No.
I've never left before the final whistle till yesterday but when the 5th went in I did and it occurred to me that the whole ground leaving to a man with just the Liverpool fans left would have made a statement .
The only vote we have is with our wallets and though it pains me to say it, use it , don't support him at all till he's gone.

[Jimbo]

Borussia Dortmund's tennis ball protest was brilliant. It was against something as trifling as ticket prices, not the reckless destruction and humiliation of their football club, but they managed to coordinate something. It didn't hurt anyone, but it disrupted the game, got on the news and got the message across.

In England, tennis balls would be seen as an offensive weapon and confiscated at the turnstile, but scarves can't be confiscated, and you can chuck them on the pitch with relative ease. It might only take a few hundred too, so it wouldn't require mass participation.

[SoccerHQ]

Yes I'm all for the scarves protest, got mind knocking around somewhere.

[myf]

Balls to that....Newcastle is the only home fixture left I'm actually looking forward to.

I'll go anyway as that could well be our final premier league home fixture for quite some time.

the Geordies will be unbearable if they manage to survive after we sent them down under MON.  I wont be going again this season. Keeping my kids away from the place but will be back like a shot as soon as randy and the merceneries have fucked off

[Des Little]

Money is the only route here. Emotions and feelings don't matter one iota to these people...after all we are simply customers. A mass avoidance of any revenue source to the club by fans is possibly the route, but given that there'll be a huge drop following relegation means that any effect will be nullified.

[Nelly]

Another vote for the scarf throwing protest. I'm another one who thinks fuck it, the current circumstances mean mean that a 'protest' will fall on deaf ears, it won't change anything. We're waiting for Lerner to sell. Meanwhile let's represent Aston Villa loudly and proudly. It's a visual way of showing our utter disapproval. Not turning up is too run-of-the-mill, in that whenever we're beaten in a game people leave early. There's nothing different about that. Let's turn up, BE Aston Villa, and be the constant reminder of who and what we really are.

[Nelly]

Also will not turning up actually make any discernible difference to the club financially? I can't imagine match day revenue is more that 1% of what the club makes from TV and sponsorships?

[liam]

The Leeds protest is quite clever tonight - projecting massive images onto the side of the stand against the owner

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/35525494

[PeterWithesShin]

Those Liverpool protests etc are different to our situation though. I'd hope we'd do the same if faced with the Hillsborough lies, £77 tickets etc. The problem is our protest would be that we're shit. That we want a new owner. But everyone on the planet with the slightest interest in football knows we're shit. Us protesting isn't going to stop us being shit. I'd imagine the vast majority want Randy gone, problem is he wants to be gone. When we protested against Doug it was because we knew he had no interest in leaving, so there was a 'thing' to protest about. I genuinely don't know what, apart from something like the white hankie or scarf type thing we can do. And certainly not one that is reasonably easy to organise, will be effective, and that a large number of people will get behind and support.

And this really isn't meant to be 'better fan' or anything, but to me, it needs to be something that is mainly (or can be) done by the those that can go to games. Only because it would need to be a visible protest. Which is why things like not buying a pie, or boycotting wouldn't work. Who is going to know if the ground is half empty out of protest or just a crap attendance? All of that is just in my opinion of course.

[PeterWithesShin]

The 19th minute started on here and was spread using social media in less than a day. It can be done, the problem is making it effective. It may seem a success if say 5K boycott, but that would still be a high 20K at least attendance because of ST sales and away fans plus those that will turn up anyway on a match ticket, so it would just look like a shit attendance unless the majority stay away.

I genuinely didn't know that the 19th minute applause had started here. It shows what can be achieved, you just need a popular cause and an agreed action at a set time.

So how about something that doesn't need a boycott but can be joined in with? How about on the 20th minute of our remaining home games, everyone stands up and points at the Directors Box (I assume its in the middle of the second tier of the Trinity) while chanting "we want our Villa back" for two or three minutes?

Yep, it was started on here by someone devilishly handsome!

See my above post as i'm quite stumped on what would be effective.