Quotes

This Quote is from A Club Act who regularly treads the boards at Leeds Clubs.

"Clubs are taking a pasting at the moment, especially Leeds clubs - we are going to ever increasing low audience gatherings.

 Reasons:

Smoking ban. 

This has really slammed nails in the coffin. The older end (really the founders of club life) whose only means of meeting people of like nature are not going out, preferring to stay at home, with cheap drinks and able to smoke to their hearts content. To go out means, big lumps out of their pensions, standing outside for a smoke in all weathers - watch out Pneumonia here it comes. Once you loose them, they don't come back! These people who introduce these laws etc have no comprehension of what life at grass roots is about. I do not advocate concert rooms or lounges been full of smoke for all to breath in, but no thought was given to the repercussions on business by this draconian law. Why they did not allow a smoking room in establishments is beyond reason. Such a room with high volume extraction, plus a warning to non smokers not to enter if smoke offends them, would have been a big help in preventing the demise we are witnessing. These figures bandying around from so called Government sources are total Bullshit. How the hell do they know that 250,000 have stopped smoking - yes! every year thousands attempt to stop smoking, and then restart be it in within weeks or months, so this figure is baloney, typical of this governments many faces of deceit, just to get a point over, the tell massive exaggerated lies, where no retaliation to prove otherwise can be made. Check out just how many clubs in Leeds area have either closed completely, or now open only 3 to 4 days a week. Very sad! once more London stamps all over the North as they just do not understand what it means to be an ordinary person trying to get through life as well as can be only to be shat on at every juncture.

High price of drinks.

These have become ridiculously high. Once upon a time Working Mens Clubs encouraged customers by having the drinks priced upto 25% + lower than local pub prices. This no longer applies in many establishments, the price is equal to and sometimes slightly more than in the local pub. A good example is our local club charges £2.20 for Carling - the local pub charges £2.10. Also during the week 2 nights the pub charges £1.59. How can Brewers and clubs encourage real drinkers to use their establishments when this goes on. This week end, Supermarkets had specials on with 25 x 500ml cans of Carling at 24 for £10 - that's .24p a can - ie: £2.00 less than the local club!! Ridiculous - how can they survive??

Dirty Venues - 

Some clubs (not all) when you walk in have a smell of dirt, dust, rancid, old smoke and beer enough to turn anyone away whose brought his wife out for a nice night. So off putting, makes you want to turn around a walk out for a breath of fresh air. Old fashioned 1970's décor, probably not been refurbed or even decorated for many years. Tables when you lean on them your clothing sticks to the grimy sticky surface. carpets threadbare, stained with foot traffic and spilled drinks. Upholstery torn, so squashed flat by millions of bottoms such that they are uncomfortable or the opposite when the seating is so hard you go home with piles! In artists dressing rooms, rat and mice traps. drink glasses with green mould in them as they have been there for months. Means no cleaner has been in to tidy up at all. This then makes you think what the rest of the place behind the scenes is like, and what sterilization of drinking glasses etc has been done where you as the individual puts lips and sips the liquid from.

A resistance to change by old style committee's: Committees still ran by older generation members who are totally against any change to go with the times. People who live with their heads well and truly in the past when times were really good, and all you had to do was open the doors and people flocked in and the tills rang merrily. No effort was needed to make good profits. Therefore they sit on their hands convinced that the old days will return and until they do they aint going to spend money to improve or encourage people as they feel its not necessary. Get a younger man on the committee looking to make change and they make his life a misery, refusing to listen to any idea's that could be introduced to improve the club's attendance, and therefore this new spark of life in a dark old set in their ways long term committee, next election does not stand thinking what a waste of precious time.

So I think that the good enjoyable club life of old has finally got put to rest and that there is little or no way back for the great majority, and on our travels Leeds seems to be at the top of the list for demise.

We were at a Leeds Club recently, a 250 seater capacity? - average through the night 26 people in. Six of those had come specifically to see us - No club can continue without cashing its reserves (which eventually comes to an end ) in to keep floating along. We are told this has been the situation for many months. End Game?? makes one think so!

Editors discretion:-

The Club Acts name has been deleted from this posting

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