2010 Travelling Supportah Packages ADVANCE INFORMATION

[Mark from Brisbane]

Following the release of the 2010 draw yesterday my assistant Chris and I are working on the following.

First cab off the rank.

The "World Club Challenge Practice Tour" (New Zealand)

Round 4 -Easter long weekend, this will be HUGE and our first tour for 2010 so "come one come all". Will either be a Saturday 5.30pm game or the more likely a Sunday midday game. I will put more up on this reasonably soon as you'll be able to book on this trip as soon as we have details. You won't need to outlay huge sums of money just a small deposit to hold your seats with the balance due about the end of February so LOTS of time to save up for the balance that will be due. With four days (and maybe an extension prior to this) we'll be able to do a lot of sightseeing and maybe imbibe in the odd ale or two, so it's sure to be a lot of fun.

Round 6-Melbourne...much to our surprise over 200 people travelled to Melbourne in 2009 over two weekends, let's make it 200 in one weekend for 2009...April 16-19 weekend, date/time should be known in January (I hope) which makes it good for getting cheaper flights.

Round-12- Cowboys....we had only a small group (about 25) up in Townsville this year BUT let's "pack the joint" full of Sea Eagles fans in 2010. Sadly we won't know the game day / time until a month out BUT 99.9% of games in Townsville are Saturday night. so pencil in Saturday 29th May AND yes I'll look at "group flights" for this one (on the assumption it is a Saturday night) and that will also mean you won't need to fork out huge sums of money on non refundable tickets now. Groups flights can be a little more expensive that the cheapest possible fares (not by much I must say) but there's a lot going for them. NOT having to pay in full months and months in advance, all on the same flights together (meaning we can include bulk airport/hotel/airport transfers). Naturally if you want to use frequent flyer points that's fine or if you want to do your own thing that's fine as well BUT we hope to make the planning for this as easy as possible so it's "your choice".

Round 14-Titans....and with NO Brisbane game (boo hoo) this year the Titans weekend will be of "EPIC PROPORTIONS"...last year we filled 2 bays at Skilled Stadium, next year it's "time for redemption" and let's fill the whole place with a sea of Maroon and White. PLUS it's the June LONG WEEKEND...so we'll look at making a whole weekend for you, bring the kids up, do the theme parks and ENJOY THE SUNSHINE!!

And that will be the last of the Travelling Supportahs trips for 2010, all over and done with (sadly) by that weekend.

However for those of us in Queensland and other states we'll be organising a big weekend at Brookvale for the last home game (V the Bulldogs so should be a ripper game as well).

So providing it's not a Monday night (can't imagine it would be be) we'll have our end of season Travelling Supportahs Lunch / Dinner, a Football Club end of season Function and of course the game and we'll block off accommodation at the Travelodge to make things nice and easy.

That will be Round 26, so on weekend of September 3 to 5 next year.

So there's lots and LOTS of things to look forward to in 2010.

Any comments you may have on the plans feel free to let me know, New Zealand (where we can charge ahead regardless of day / time) is being planned right now. The other games we will block off accommodation but may need to wait for a while until we release further details.

Cheers guys, and hope to see as many of you as possible on the 2010 trips!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Proud supporter of the Eagles for over 45 years!!
Official operator of the Manly Sea Eagles Supporters Tours
Proud Screaming Eagles Member and Football Club member 2226

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[byso]

Why "supportah"?

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

That has been covered off before Byso

Vid said it has a bit of a Warringah ring to it so that was good enough for me

Mark, I may head up to the Auckland game. Wouldn't need the full package obviously but perhaps a ticket and accommodation amongst you guys could be handy. Is that workable ?

 

[vidmar]

One of the chants over the years has been "Manly Warringahs Travelling Supporters" on away trips to dispel the myth that Manly fans don't travel.

It was adapted as Supportahs (probably because of the pommie accent lol) or more likely because it rhymed with "Warringahs" and it just stuck and is now used by the group that meet up at the away games

 

[byso]

All good, just has more of a rugby feel to it.

 

[Volley]

Word Byso, word. Not a fan of Supportah, but the overrall concept is a solid one.

 

[Dan]

All good, just has more of a rugby feel to it.

is that cause they can't spell?

 

[byso]

Tahs

btw the supporter tours are a great concept, hopefully I'll tag along eventually.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I have one answer to all questions Kiwi....YES

 

[clontaago]

Mark, a bit of a complaint about the Storm final mate. The package (game and function afterwards) was $95. Tickets to the game in our Cat A seats were $45. Therefore the function after was $50. That $50 included some pretty average finger food and some crap service from the staff at Rydges.

I know this isnt your fault but just wanted to provide some feedback in case you think about heading back there next year.

 

[The Gronk]

Mark, a bit of a complaint about the Storm final mate. The package (game and function afterwards) was $95. Tickets to the game in our Cat A seats were $45. Therefore the function after was $50. That $50 included some pretty average finger food and some crap service from the staff at Rydges.

I know this isnt your fault but just wanted to provide some feedback in case you think about heading back there next year.

Yeah and I had to speak to Vidmar and Corso Pete! Someone should have paid ME for that. 

Douggie is on the money though.  $50 was a lot for some party pies and zero drinks in a public bar. 

 

[vidmar]

Yeah and I had to speak to Vidmar and Corso Pete! Someone should have paid ME for that. 


Me AND Corso!..Gotta be worth at least twice what you paid? LOL

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Doug that was a Sea Eagles function not one I organised BUT I did hear that.

The previous one we did in Melbourne was much better (and I WAS involved in that).

I think the Sea Eagles are aware of the issue.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I should have mentioned as well that the "official" functions are now considered a profit making concern for the club.

And what you may not be aware is that Shane Rodney and Jason King ( who travelled back on the coach from Etihad Stadium with my group and who made appearances at this function) were in fact paid to fly up from Sydney specifically to attend that function, from the funds recieved by the attendee's. The  football club was planning on leaving them home (as they were injured) but when the numbers for this function grew rapidly a decision was made to bring these guys up to give fans some "value for money".

So whilst I didn't organise the function, there's more to the cost base than you are aware and as I said I did hear that there were some "words" with the venue as the food (in comparison with the one I organised two weeks earlier) was pretty piss poor.

Anything (function wise) I organise isn't considered a profit making concern.

My "end of season travelling supportahs" lunch held at Sea La Vie on the day of the last round home game V Titans was sold for $45.00. For that you got a $39.80 "set" menu and a glass of wine......cost to me was $44.80.

But get used to the $95.00 ticket and official function cost, because as I say it's now considered an extra profit making (albeit not huge) excercise.

 

[ManlyBacker]

Mark, I doubt you had anything to do with the following and I do appreciate the efforts made by the Club. Most functions are really about meeting fans and players but I had the same problem as Clon at the GC function. That function was held from 6.30pm to 9.30pm and at a time when a lot of people (including me) had to travel there and not had a chance to eat. The finger food was just not up to scratch and scarce and I would prefer if the function is being held at that time that I paid a bit more and the nibbles were better.

 

[clontaago]

Cheers Mark.

I will probably avoid club organised functions in the future. It was good to catch up With Shane Rodney as I grew up with him. Hadnt seen him for a while.

However the club shouldnt use function money to pay for players to attend post game functions. If the supporters go out of their way to get to games (especially interstate), the club should use thier own funds to arrange for players to be there. It's the least they could do.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Doug

I work closely with the Sea Eagles and these functions / get togethers have become part of the stuff we do for the Travelling Supportahs.Regardless of if I put something on, or the Sea Eagles put something on, they are in essence Sea Eagles functions.

The crux of the problem (and I wasn't there as I said) is that Rydges let us down on the second occasion we were there.

In Round 24 it worked a charm, the pre game get together on Saturday night (which you attended) was at no cost to anyone....the hotel and I put the food on and there was so much that you couldn't jump over it. The official pre game function on the Sunday was equally as good, lots of food and attended by Brett Stewart so everyone was happy.

I wouldn't let one bad experience put you off, as we have had a lot of functions that have been good all through the year.