Further to old posts about buying/renting a square foot of pitch, trusts and the viability of the OS thought I'd share some ideas.
I nearly got a job in the commercial department in 2006 (dunno why I didnt get it as I thought the interview went well) but as I didnt get the gig I didnt submit the ideas I had at the time. A lot of the ideas are still viable although some are more long-term money making ideas as the costs to initiate the ideas would be highish.
Come take a dive in my think-tank and add to the possible ways for the club to make more moola...
1. Electronic ticketing (like Oyster cards) where your ST's and Cup tickets are stored etc. The card could be updated on the OS or ticket machines (reducing the commercial departments size) and could be used to load credit onto the card to buy stuff in the superstore, in the bars and catering in the ground and programmes etc at a discounted rate (10% off or something...?) with the idea being that by having the money on the card at least CAFC know that this is money that is likely to be spent with them.
2. The Oyster type card could offer a rebate for people who go in the ground early. For everyone that goes through the gate at least an hour before kick-off credit £1 to their account because going in early increases the chances of more sales in the stadium's fine food and drink outlets. Get people in early to socialise, after all that's what most 'clubs' in general are all about. With local pubs closing and pre-match drink options getting more limited the club should be taking the initative to drum up more business. Get a decent beer on the taps too!
3. Dunno if they already do this one but if not then they should asap - Matchday programmes sent out by email as a PDF on the Saturday morning for half the price of the hard copy. It might not be that popular but would cost next-to-nothing to arrange. Overseas fans may jump at the chance of reading the matchday proggy on a regular basis. The readership may go up which in turn would create more revenue from the advertising space.
4. CATV Matchday Live - on the screens next to the bars and on the big screen in the ground. Have 2hr live show chatting to old players, match highlights, team news, interviewing Parky before the game, treatment room news etc. If there was more to do in the gound before the match a lot more people might turn up earlier (and spend more money on booze and food). Would also be a good advert for the in-stadium bookies who could advertise the prices for the match (1st goalscorer etc) and then more people would have a flutter and CAFC should take a cut from the bookies.
5. Have better prizes on Valley Gold. Cash prizes are great but there are so many other things they could have as prizes that money cannot buy eg; day at the training ground, seat on the 1st team bench, travel to an away game like a squad player, matchday with the chairman, score a goal at the Covered End just before kick-off etc. Keith Peacock and his schpeil is OK but I would DEFFO join VG if they had those sort of money-can't-buy prizes.
6. Ebay - auction 'money-can't-buy' experiences (mentioned above) on ebay. They all cost the club nothing, could generate a lot of interest and ultimately would make the club a bit of wonga.
7. If the OS site were to need funds to keep going, make it a subscription service for the full version of the site (£1 or £2 a month) but make it worth while with CATV included and have live webinars with Q&A's for Parky and RM etc.
8. Get Michael Grade to insert subliminal messages in every ITV programme to influence folk to come to The Valley - just kidding I've run out of ideas for now.
Anyways like I say, just thought I'd open up this thread to see if there were any more ideas out there and then they can be sent to SE7 to read/discuss.
Any thoughts?
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Comments
Particularly the decent beer one......
Also the ideas of building in regular 'drip-feed' income - and the intangible value prizes with VG, etc.
Just for a laugh, love the Michael Grade one. We could get BDL to do subliminal messages on the Big screen in the ground.
One could be to tell the crowd that Parkinson is a better manager than Ferguson or Wenger.
Or hypnotize Burton that he is the new Thierry Henry and that he will score with every single chance he gets.
See, easy!
Good luck...we need people like you around for the future when we have the right management on board.
If anyone has any ideas in their heads that would make the club some more dosh (however ridiculous or trivial they may sound) lets collate them together and forward to the money-men of Floyd Rd.
Another idea, sounds really stupid, but have a 2/3 seater sofa right by the Covered End goal, charge £150pp to sit there for a match and that's an extra £10,350 a season (minus the cost of the sofa)
Lets keep'em comin
I think some of them need to be costed out to see if the outlay in setting them up is justified and maybe some market research on the Valley Gold prizes for example would be good.
Maybe AFKA or Lookie could set up a poll to see if they would interest current VG members and would such prizes encourage non-members to join.
Maybe a cafeteria of prizes ie £100 or a day at the training ground or a personalised signed shirt
The set-up costs of an Oyster-type arrangement would probably rule it out and may not be cost effective against the actual potential usage. The Red Card is a version of this already, but you'd need a lot more terminals and staff who could use them.
I doubt if there would be much take-up of the programme as a paid pdf, which I believe has already been tried. I don't think people buy the programme to read it, odd as that sounds. I think they buy it as a souvenir.
Matchday Live we did in 1998/99. It was very expensive and few people were interested in it - we even had a problem with people turning the monitors over to watch horse racing . . .
I'm not knocking the ideas and perhaps where they haven been considered or tried there are other angles, just pointing out that it's not always as straightforward as people think. There is quite a lot we could do with more investment in the infrastructure, but that's not the direction of travel at present.
Ah, but what about subliminals on the Big Screen ? Hypnotise the crowd to sing and make a good atmosphere.
And give belief to our shot-shy and 'go-to-pieces-in-front of goal' strikers so that they score with every chance ... ?
;o)
Fish sales in the area have risen in the last two seasons.
May as well save it thought mate. As the reports of last night on the concourses show, the club dont seem interested, they're just happy to do the same old thing and treat the supporters the same old way.
AB, why don't the club use email marketing?
Living in Devon, all my childrens friends support prem teams and over the years I've had my arm twisted to buy stuff from various online club shops for birthday presents. Seldom a week goes by when my inbox doesn't get bombarded by the marketing department of Chelsea, Liverpool Arsenal etc but not Charlton, where I'm a regular internet purchaser.
I know nothing about how the concourse outlet operate, but if it was that easy to solve the problems it would have been done. My own recent experience of the outlets at The Oval and Canterbury suggest they are much worse than at The Valley and they have a lot longer time frame in which to serve.
We have an email marketing application and are almost ready to introduce it.
A pdf of the programme would be a very large file and I don't think many people would pay for it, as they didn't when the opportunity to view it online was offered previously.
I think email marketing would be great but as you say it can feel like being "bombarded" and not everyone likes that hard sell.
Airman, the club want my money (I assume) I want to give it them, I just want a return, a bit of quality service! When I ask for a pie and pint, I dont want a coffee and bag of crisps. All the local pubs are shutting and the club are missing a trick, on our return to The Valley (we 3 blokes and the children) half one and we was in the ground, drinking! now 2.40 we get in the ground and rarely have a beer. I can handle a cold pie and a warm beer, but wrap it up with appalling service and I'm off.
Once only each month with a very occasional 'special' (like Xmas) if it was warranted is usually acceptable to most.
Perhaps better is a monthly newsletter, with some chatty content or an 'insider view at Sparrows Lane' article, reader interaction features - plus some easy on the eye commercial info, tickets, club shop special offers, links to OS, etc woven in.
It shouldn't take one staff member too long to put together using a template.
And the important point is that readers have to 'opt-in' to subscribe and receive it.
It would be complimentary and interactive with the OS and shouldn't compete with the programme - and importantly fans are given the opportunity to subscribe under normal 'opt-in' invitation.
So tell me again why thats silly ???
We won't be bombarding anyone. It's really a revamp for the Bulletin, to bring it back to what it was supposed to be originally (a driver of traffic to the website), and a targeted marketing tool, e.g. we can select people who buy match tickets to receive ticket information about games they haven't bought yet. People will be able to opt out.
I hear what you say, but I wouldn't appreciate the catering guy coming on here to comment about the bits of the club I manage so I can't really add to what I've already said.
About time, the bulletin and the website have been dragging in the past for donkeys years. Do you know if there are any plans to improve the OS, I know money is tight at the moment, but surely the amount of money we've been paying the web company over the past years would justify a little modernisation every now and then without incurring costs.
yep
With some I think there's an assumption of no or low cost, but (particularly with the reduced staffing) that might not hold true, in reality.
No point in having decent beer if the service is going to be anything like the shambles that was going on in the lower west on Tuesday.
I'd hate to think how much money the club missed out on there because people got pissed of waiting!
I took up the baton on this subject in the early days of the Fans Forum...we specifically had a meeting to discuss the catering...its minuted on our website. To be totally honest, there is no point in having a Forum if the club doesnt listen to constructive crticism and new suggestions, and as far as the catering is concerned, although they accept that Agency staff are far from ideal, they seem disinclined to actually try something new......I was in Oz recently, and the catering at the Swans V Richmond AFL game was amazing...they had a machine that poured 8 pints at a time...one staff member operating it...another taking your money and another to hand you your ice cold beer...I queued no more than 3 minutes in a 25,000 crowd. Same with Fish and chips in the ground....the question is...If they can do it...why on earth cant we? The very fact that they arent even willing to try speaks volumes. Furthermore, with unemployment reaching the high levels we are currently seeing being reported on TV, then why cant we get any decent serving staff? Or, if they cant be arsed, then outsource to private smaller companies that actually give a shit about making a living.
Particularly the East has great scope as it has a much bigger concourse, although it is open to the elements a bit more than others.