4-07-2012
Membership
Campaign to start on Monday: the press conference
With the dedicated (?) press conference, held earlier
today at the Friuli stadium press room, the new season of Udinese Calcio has
officialy (“officially”?) started. 2012/13 Season Tickets will be sold starting
from Monday. The slogan “BIANCONERO VERO” (“real Udinese supporter”) represents
the first step of a campaign aiming (“aimed”?) at reuniting all Friulian
supporters during home games of the three competitions Francesco Guidolin’s
squad is playing for.
The press conference was opened (“began”?), as a representative of the Pozzo
family, by the President Franco Soldati, who thanked all the journalists for
the interest towards the Club: “We are making several efforts to raise the
number of Season Tickets in the next few years, our aim is to bring as many
people as possible to the stadium”.
The floor was then given to Udinese General Manager Franco Collavino, who
explained all the fundamental steps of the new campaign: “We start on Monday,
the prices remain the same, subscribers can choose whether to pay outright or
in installments. Subscribers will have the chance to enter the Coppa Italia
games for free – semi-final excluded – and will be granted a 40% discount on
UEFA games. New Season Ticket subscribers will not pay the Supporter Card
quota. The modernization works (“work”?) on the stalls have already begun with
the installation of new seats in the West side: more comfort without having to
wait for the new stadium. More comfortable, large seats to allow a quicker access
without bothering the other supporters sitting in the same line (“row”?). Bars
will also be improved with a renewed facility. We are racing against time (“racing
against the clock”?) to have the works (“work”?) finished by the beginning of
the Champions League (“Champions’ Leageu”?) and the championship”. The Manager
then illustrated the two phases of the campaign: “From July 16 to August 3 old
subscribers can confirm their seat or chose a new one. They can renew their
Season Ticket in a few minutes by going in one of the 140 branches of the bank.
From Augst (“August”?) 7 to August 23 there will be the free sale (??) when
everyone can subscribe. 3 documents are needed: ID card, tax code and a
passport-size (“passport sized”?) photo. We have decided to give assistance to
the supporters at the Udinese Point, so that the process can be completed in
one of the branches of the Cassa di Risparmio del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Payment in installments does not require any formalities, it’s a free choice:
you can break the sum into three parts, by paying 30% immediately. Opening
hours are those of the bank, plus the branch at the “Città Fiera” in Udine that
is open on Saturday too. Unvaried prices should not be taken for granted, it is
an important sacrifice. In 2001/2002 prices were higher than now: I think this
effort will be appreciated by all supporters”.
Udinese Administrative Manager Alberto Rigotto then faced the “stadium” issue,
an important step in the development of Udinese’s future projects: “This summer
we are experiencing an anticipation of what we would like the new home of
Udinese to be, the new Friuli stadium. The works (“work”?) done in the stalls
will modify some 300 seats, so some seats will be taken off and we will ask for
a bit of patience from those who want to confirm their usual seat there, since
some of those seats will be eliminated. All info is available at the Udinese
Store. New seats are more comfortable and represent an anticipation of what
happens in the next few months. Works (“work”?) have started and we are going to see
some concrete result soon. South Terrace Season Tickets will not be sold and we
might have to ask to North Terrace members to move in the last two months of
the championship, because works there should start in April and that area might
become impracticable. We will have those supporters moved to the stalls, which
I believe is appreciated by everybody. The first works concern the two
terraces, that will be pulled down and re-built within next summer”.
The Membership Campaign involves a number of initiatives undertaken by Udinese,
thanks to the contribution of Aipem for the communication campaign and of AUC,
with whom we are going to undertake new important initiatives aimed at uniting
the fans to the Club. The campaign will be also a social one thanks to the
Facebook initiative: supporters have the chance to play a friendly match with
Udinese footballers.
The event was attended also by Giampiero Pinzi and Maurizio Domizzi, two of the
main footballers of the squad, who expressed their feelings on these first
training days. Udinese’s 66 commented the first training sessions at the
Bruseschi before the training camp in Arta Terme: “It’s still an initial phase,
we are getting to know each other by working on the athletic part. We know the
policy of the Club, we’ve been here for many years: it’s good to see new faces,
we can get to know loads of people every year. We leave tomorrow and we’ll
start playing seriously, we have an historical match to play and we are
focusing on that”. Udinese midfielder (“The Udinese midfielder”?), who has just
signed the renewal of his contract with Udinese, agrees: “The coach will be
here too tomorrow, so the real phase will begin. We have recovered the pace in
this first phase. By staying together for 20 days we will start the most
important phase: just like one year ago, we are focused on one match. We have
one goal. We can’t look forward, we don’t know the opponent, but we have
started focusing on that”.
Finally, Udinese Manager Franco Collavino renewed his wish to break the record
of 20.000 (“20,000”?) Season Ticket holders: “I insist, this is our dream. This
path aims at developing loyalty and (“a sense”?) sense of belonging. Last year
we passed from 11.000 to 13.000 (“11,000 to 13,000”?) so we are on the right
way. The Club wants to keep the relationship with its subscribers by trying to
listen to their requests, and the renewal of the stadium is one of these. The
relationship with supporters should be dynamic, not static.
