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DAGGERS DICTIONARY "Heffer" Either (1) the act of getting sent off for no discernable reason at all, the opposite of a "Vickers", or (2) a player that you don't notice at all until they aren't playing.

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No fixtures played on 24/5

Har Har Prices, prices! by Hardy on 30/07/2003 With stealth taxes coming in from all angles via Mr Brown at the Treasury, the Daggers have added a few of their own. Hardy has a rant and Steve Thompson replies for the club. Prices, prices One of the advantages of helping run a web site is that you can have the occasional rant about things that wind us up about the football club that otherwise is so great to follow in so many ways. Last season it was the sneaky price increase for family entry into the Barking College Family Stand and the debacle over not taking the full allocation of tickets for the Norwich City game. This season the club made a lot of the fact that ticket prices have not gone up, however there have been a few little increases in some of the extras which have been slid in again without any announcement. The Dagger, our superb prize winning match day programme, will be going up to £2.50 for the coming season. This equates to a price rise of 25% on last season's £2 cover price. In return the size of the programme will go up by just 4 pages to 60 pages, and no doubt some of the extra pages will be adverts. The cover will be of a higher quality paper though, similar to that used for the play off game v Morecambe last season. While quality does cost, and DiggerDagger understands that the programme had made a minor loss in the last season, the price rise seems a little excessive. Maybe if the people that decide the prices actually bought a programme instead of getting them complimentary... Meanwhile, after my kids had a brilliant time as mascots at the Forest Green Rovers game last season (below), I have been badgered to get them in as mascots again "after all dad, you will only have to buy us the new kit anyway." I was a little surprised when I enquired about this to find the price for mascots has gone up this season, again by 25% from £80 to £100. Finally, anyone who sponsors players kit will also have noticed that the cost for this has also gone up for 2003/04 to £120. All of these items are extras that we don't necessarily have to pay for in order to follow the Daggers, but which undermine the trust between the club and it's supporters by smacking of profiting from the good will of fans. Rant over for now. Official Response The Daggers Financial Secretary & Commercial Manager, Steve Thompson, gave this response to the comments made above and at the Unofficial Forum. Hi Everyone In reply to some of the comments on this thread and in particular Mike Wainwright's comments on the DiggerDagger site I would like to pass on a few observations. The last season matchday programme was voted the No.1 Nationwide Conference programme and deservedly so. IMO we should have won the year before as well. Under Simmo's excellent editorship along with the other contributors we have something to be proud of. However lets not forget that the programme size was increased last season from 48 pages to 56 with no extra charge. If we take the increase from 48 pages to 60 this is an increase of 25%. The cost of mascots has increased to £100.00 this season, the first increase for 3 years. If you breakdown what the mascot gets for their parents outlay you will realise that this is still great value. A full Dagenham & Redbridge kit, 3 tickets to the Carling Stand, a football, a programme, a bag of "goodies" from the shop, and a framed photo of the mascot with the two captains & match officials. With regard to the kit sponsorship this is the first increase for 6 years. Unfortunately we do have to continually look at our costs and sources of income. Much is made of the fact that we are a Members Club but with that comes the responsibility of ensuring that we spend within our means. It therefore equates that the more that we can reasonably earn, without "ripping anyone off" the more that is available to invest in the team. The three price rises you refer to are steep in percentage terms and it maybe that the Club is at fault by not raising the prices annually so as to avoid these sharp increases. With regard to the increases on the ground catering this is indeed a franchise. I will however raise your concerns but I would be surprised to learn that the new prices were excessive. However I am sure people will let me know if they think they are. Regards Steve Thompson. Financial Secretary & Commercial Manager Dagenham & Redbridge F.C.