Oh dear, Mr Rowe...

[fentiger]

He really has excelled here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-51803164

[JP14]

Bit of a grumpy miser here.

[kk20gb30]

Great Public Relations here - could have been handled a good deal better.

[RichieB]

The picture of him on that link reminds me of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars. About as charitable too.

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

Letting them in would have cost nothing but potentially generated revenue from programs, food & drink etc.

Then if he must ensure that they're aware they won't be allowed in next time

[POSTIGER]

Nice touch Tony. I'm sure a few hundred pounds would have made a huge difference to Chiefs. As he says, no compassion in business. Lovely.

[LE18]

I don't feel too sorry for Flybe staff being denied free entry to see a Rugby match, but have they thought about the poor folk who paid a lot of money and were denied their flights? They need to get a sense of proportion, but I do feel sorry for them losing their jobs!

[CitizenSmiff]

What the article doesn't mention is how many tickets and if they'd already been re-sold. Looks like the game was a sell-out so if there physically wasn't a ticket available there's not a lot the club could do, though it does appear to have been handled very badly.

[wormus]

I wonder if there is an opportunity here for Tigers to gain from this appalling Exeter fiasco, where for years FlyBe have transported Exeter players and fans only to be shut out by the vindictive Rowe.
Many FlyBe staff were redundant from Birmingham and I wonder if Tigers would offer FlyBe staff a cheap ticket package for the Castres game where tickets for season ticket holders were £10. Let us fill the stadium and hope the FlyBe staff enjoy & spend on our bars, cheer on Tigers and then Tigers get great press coverage..... (Coronavirus permitting of course!)

[speedski]

I don't feel too sorry for Flybe staff being denied free entry to see a Rugby match, but have they thought about the poor folk who paid a lot of money and were denied their flights? They need to get a sense of proportion, but I do feel sorry for them losing their jobs!

Wow. So you buy a flight and get a refund (unless you paid the wrong way) for the business collapsing - which the staff had no control over. Yet you have no sympathy for people loosing their livelihoods over a few tickets for a rugby match?

Rowe got this seriously wrong and though he wouldn’t be called out on it. Fair play to those staff who did. You can tell it was a money grab by the fact they have ALL been offered free tickets to the braves game. A stupid idea that from Rowe if he was trying to come across as accommodating. Sheesh.

[wellstiger]

Bah Humbug.

[Noggs]

What the article doesn't mention is how many tickets and if they'd already been re-sold. Looks like the game was a sell-out so if there physically wasn't a ticket available there's not a lot the club could do, though it does appear to have been handled very badly.

This is the only scenario that would excuse this response and f it was the case it should have been explained at the time. Otherwise, it is commercially inept in that for a small financial cost they would have generated positive publicity rather than the negativity we now see.

[hooking_king]

I think it’s fairly obvious that Rowe has done absolutely nothing wrong. As always the press are selling this on the sensitivities of the public. The fault lies with FlyBe for not telling their staff their tickets were no longer valid. FlyBe have also failed in the commercial sponsorship obligations to Exeter and have therefore actually cost the Chiefs money. I absolutely agree with Rowe - Exeter did nothing wrong, probably cancelled and resold those tickets to true fans and still received match day revenue.

[Longshanks]

What the article doesn't mention is how many tickets and if they'd already been re-sold. Looks like the game was a sell-out so if there physically wasn't a ticket available there's not a lot the club could do, though it does appear to have been handled very badly.

This is the only scenario that would excuse this response and f it was the case it should have been explained at the time. Otherwise, it is commercially inept in that for a small financial cost they would have generated positive publicity rather than the negativity we now see.

It does appear the tickets were re-sold unless there were only a couple of dozen (official attendance stated as 13,571 against capacity of 13,593). The full statement from the club included: "The Rugby Club had no idea as to who these tickets were issued to, nor for what reason they would be used. We are now aware that some of these tickets have been used for staff incentives.
Detailed information, however, was sent to senior Flybe management informing them of the fact that any future benefits would no longer be in place. It appears this key information was not forwarded onto those staff who had been allocated tickets for this game and that of future games."

Whether or not that detail represents the complete story, Rowe's choice of language was insensitive to say the least and I doubt many club members are happy with the handling of what could have been a positive story for the Chiefs.

[jgriffin]

Tony Rowe is not known as Mr Sensitive down in Exe.