‘Life is what you make it’; a phrase that commands us to
accept our ills and misfortune and to overcome them with effort and a strong
will, with the knowledge that we are more likely to prosper in the end, if we
put plenty in to begin with. As one of the most common clichés in everyday
life, it is something we should all, perhaps, aspire to. At the Old Peacock it
is an ethos we have taken on board in the last couple of years, and over at
Elland Road, it is a notion Leeds United could certainly put into practice.
You could substitute ‘life is what you make it’ for another
phrase that translates as, essentially, ‘you get out what you put in’, and that
is ‘thinking big’. We have been thinking big at the Old Peacock, in terms of
how we can serve our core customers better. On Leeds United matchdays, the main
feedback we used to get was that fans couldn’t get served quick enough.
Everybody loved the Ossett Brewery refurbishment of 2013, the Leeds
United-themed wallpaper, the stained-glass peacock and the ornate, tiled floor
motif, the new range of beers offered lots more variety and the quality of the
food was like nothing LS11 had seen before; the Old Peacock had never looked so
comfortable and resplendent in its surroundings. But that counts for nothing if
Leeds fans can’t get served quick enough on a Saturday afternoon. Word spreads,
mud sticks and everybody knows that the Old Peacock is a football pub innately
associated with Leeds United, bequeathed through generations of fans and with
more history and local standing than Don Revie, John Charles and Billy Bremner
put together. Well, sort of, anyway.
So we invested in the matchday marquee last summer to
provide another bar for our thirsty customers on Leeds United matchdays, to ensure
they could get served quicker and easier and to make the whole experience much
more pleasant. The feedback we have received has been great, and we have
permission to keep the marquee open again for the 2016/17 season.
Over the road, Leeds United are commencing what feels like
yet another pivotal season. With each campaign that ends in the thick,
disorientating fog of mid-table, and with a list of unanswered questions longer
than the Dead Sea Scrolls, Leeds United’s fanbase loses a little bit more memory
of what the club could and should be. Of course, Leeds United are currently what
they deserve to be, a mid-table Championship club. But as each season passes
and Leeds remain stuck in a quagmire with seemingly nobody willing to pull them
out, it is easy to forget what once was, and what kind of a football club we
are supporting.
History counts for nothing on the pitch, obviously, but it
is more about potential, and understanding what Leeds United could become, very
easily, if everyone was on the same page and working to the same goal. Financial
realities dictate that Leeds are currently operating with skeleton staff across
the board, and are fishing in the freebies and loan market for players, while
the clubs showing bona fide brawn and who appear to be a shoo-in for the top
six places in the Championship, are spending tens of millions bolstering their
squad with known quality.
Clearly, Leeds United need investment in order to truly
compete at that level, but in order to be big, you firstly need to think big.
Leeds United needs to ‘believe’ it can be that football club again, and go
about its business with that mentality. In Garry Monk, Leeds have a very
capable head coach who I expect is in line with that thinking, and who has the
qualities to work at both the level Leeds United are at now, and the level
Leeds United should aspire to reach.
Maybe the signing of Pablo Hernandez is the first sign that
Leeds United are thinking big again? But we should remember that thinking big
is not just attracting 30,000 crowds for the first and last home games of the
season and being content to tread water in the meantime, it is feeding off this
potential and working in between to achieve 30,000 crowds every week, with
commercial activities, solid infrastructure, and most of all, quality and
results on the pitch. From there, the rest will take care of itself, we know
this to be true. But the last five years, if not more, have seen little
evidence of Leeds United truly realising their potential, and seemingly
accepting their fate; that the football world has changed too much in the 12
years they have been absent from the Premier League. It has, of course, but
plenty of other clubs – Watford, Hull, Bournemouth, Burnley, Swansea etc, etc –
have shown what is possible by ‘thinking big’.
Back at the Old Peacock, we might not have the same ultimate
goal as Leeds United, but we have realised our potential, and made the most of
what we have got. We could have rested on our laurels, but we understand that
there is always more we can do to satisfy our customers, and to make that
precious matchday experience even better.
For the new 2016/17 season we have introduced a four-pint
pitcher; a bulk purchase, a supersize-me offering and a positive step-change
which will mean less trips to the bar, less frustration and more time for
chatting, drinking and soaking in the unique atmosphere. The four-pint pitcher
is available for lagers, ales and cider and is another key investment in a
matchday programme that requires a lot of planning and a lot of hard work. It
might not always be seamless, we may experience our ups and downs, just like
Leeds United, but we are always working hard to deliver, and at least with the
four-pint pitcher, we are ‘thinking big’.
We are looking forward to welcoming you back to the pub for
Saturday’s first home game against Birmingham City, when a 30,000 crowd is
expected, and again on Tuesday when Fulham are the visitors. Unfortunately
that’s it for home games in August, with the next scheduled Elland Road
occasion being the September 10th visit of Huddersfield Town.
Before that, we have our August Bank Holiday Family Fun Day
on Sunday August 28th. This is always well-attended by our regulars
and it would be great to see more and more visitors, for the competitions, kids
games and our famous barbecue. You will be hearing a bit more about that in the
forthcoming weeks through our social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we can’t wait to see you in the pub
during August, enjoy the four-pint pitchers and most all, keep thinking big!
