[cite]Posted By: LargeAddick[/cite]most of us, if assigned a particular job, hadn't made a single phone call in two months as we'd been instructed to do, would be sacked. Not much of a Chief Exec if he couldn't even delegate the job to someone else or speak to Dave Archer and ask for his assistance.
spot on, an important revenue source for the club and he went TWO MONTHS without making a single call or even delegating it out....if I were a corporate client paying a substantial amount of money I wouldn't be feeling very loved reading this thread.
We did realise that these were potentially attractive fixtures that could be promoted and put in place plans to do so, e.g. contact every supporter who has supplied an email address, write to remaining fans with a purchase history and run extensive newspaper ads in SE London and Kent, as well as promote heavily through usual channels. We also discussed, back in January, offering a multi-game ticket at a discounted rate not as favourable as Dave's suggestion and this more modest proposal was rejected (by the Target 40,000 committee). We have withdrawn the comps for Norwich and Leeds, but sold 1,500 extra tickets to organised groups at £5 a head. In other words, I'm not criticising the fans' forum's input, but I think the inference that the club didn't realise it should try to maximise income and support at these games and needed to be told is a bit unfair.
[cite]Posted By: Airman Brown[/cite]I'm not criticising the fans' forum's input, but I think the inference that the club didn't realise it should try to maximise income and support at these games and needed to be told is a bit unfair.
The Fans' Forum has no intention of being 'unfair'. But, whether the Club realised the importance of these fixtures or not, precious little in the way of creative marketing has happened. We have said that cheap tickets may or may not have been the way to go, and appreciate the difficulties involved. But, if the objective is to fill the stadium, other options apart from cheap ticketing are available. The rallying call is an obvious one. That needs to come from the Club, and we are hopeful now that this will happen.
I think this is a time for positive, creative thinking ... and action on the part of all of us, made as easy as possible for fans by the actions and attitude of the Club. We won't really get anywhere if we persist with the "here's what we thought about, but rejected it" approach.
There's no harm in a "rallying call" but the idea it is a game-changer is a bit fanciful, in my opinion. The largest influence on attendance at big games is the circumstances - we didn't get nearly 25,000 for the 1975 promotion clincher against Preston because Andy Nelson or Michael Gliksten issued a rallying call or the board cut the prices.
We did get one-off bigger crowds in the 1990s by offering bargain prices, but that wasn't for important games. It was for matches when the ticket revenue was likely to be modest in the first place.
The club needs to optimise the chances of a surge in interest happening, by publicising its offer as widely as possible within available resources and making it as easy as possible for fans to attend. This we have done. Fans can play their part in encouraging others, but in the end the offer on the pitch has to be credible. The event most likely to improve that credibility is victory at Southampton or at least a draw and a win over Colchester, next to which anything else the club, fans or staff does is likely to have only a minor impact.
Comments
spot on, an important revenue source for the club and he went TWO MONTHS without making a single call or even delegating it out....if I were a corporate client paying a substantial amount of money I wouldn't be feeling very loved reading this thread.
The Fans' Forum has no intention of being 'unfair'. But, whether the Club realised the importance of these fixtures or not, precious little in the way of creative marketing has happened. We have said that cheap tickets may or may not have been the way to go, and appreciate the difficulties involved. But, if the objective is to fill the stadium, other options apart from cheap ticketing are available. The rallying call is an obvious one. That needs to come from the Club, and we are hopeful now that this will happen.
I think this is a time for positive, creative thinking ... and action on the part of all of us, made as easy as possible for fans by the actions and attitude of the Club. We won't really get anywhere if we persist with the "here's what we thought about, but rejected it" approach.
We did get one-off bigger crowds in the 1990s by offering bargain prices, but that wasn't for important games. It was for matches when the ticket revenue was likely to be modest in the first place.
The club needs to optimise the chances of a surge in interest happening, by publicising its offer as widely as possible within available resources and making it as easy as possible for fans to attend. This we have done. Fans can play their part in encouraging others, but in the end the offer on the pitch has to be credible. The event most likely to improve that credibility is victory at Southampton or at least a draw and a win over Colchester, next to which anything else the club, fans or staff does is likely to have only a minor impact.
As you say, Rick ... in your opinion.
Jean