You never know. This time round there were a lot more parents with kids this time....ok result might been brilliant and the performance not that great, but do you remember your first game? If Charlton lost on their first game, what made you come back "the buzz of a live game", "your mates going?"..... You went again in the "hope of seeing them win the next time". I started out as a west ham fan and then a liverpool fan, took the piss out of Charlton as to how bad they were.. they nearly went bacnkrupt at the time, started to go with me mates..... coz "i felt sorry" for them. and I was a season ticket holder 4 years later. I also noticed this time round..... there wern't that many people leaving before the end of the game like last games.. Tofay's fiver is a tomorrows regular
I arrived by train and there were a number of families on there - kids going to their first Charlton game with their Charlton caps and shirts on - it was good to see. Shame the team couldn't put in a performance.
It kills the atmosphere dead. Many people I know dont usually sit in their seats but all move up and sit together, all singing etc. But you can't do this when its full, (i know you should all buy your st's next to eachother to get around it) and the singing is more subdued. Didn't really help that we played hoofball nothingness and our 5 man midfield played really narrow and still got overran though tbh.
Remember 10,000 £5 tickets is only 2,500 £20 tickets, so I expect most of the revenue we gain is from merchandise etc.
The ticket revenue today will have been higher than it would have been at full price. Easily.
Not forgetting that we generate new support from first timers.
Depends what you class as 'working'. Did it put bums on seats and make money on additional merchandise yesterday? Yes. Are the vast majority of those 10,000 who wouldn't normally come going to come back again (which is surely the main aim)? Based on that performance, I'd suggest possibly not.
I'd suggest that the majority of the 10,000 will have been at least once before. Remember, the club knows who bought the tickets.
Of the rest, I wouldn't necessarily expect most to come back any time soon. Otherwise building support would be easy. But if, say, 3,000 were there for the first time, 250 come back this season, 25 go on become season ticket holders next year and half a dozen remain so for ten or 20 years it is still worthwhile. And in the meantime you make more money than otherwise from the match because of the people who don't come back.
It doesn't become a failure because most people are not persuaded to come back. It's unrealistic to expect they would be.
Of course it works. The club and all who worked on these projects deserve a huge "well done" A West Ham mate took his two grand kids and he has already posted on FB that they want to go again.
In theory it works, but when you spend most of the game asking the children that sit behind you not to kick the back of the seats. They play around taking no interest in the game that is being played. Does it really work I am not sure it does.
I was pleasantly surprised at the number of non whites who attended - particularly families with young kids.
With all the bad publicity of racism in football and the perceived negativity to anyone but white working class fans, it was a joy to see.
It's the one area of our local fanbase I feel we can significnatly improve on as without doubt matchday Charlton fans are not completely representative of the diverse population in the region.
I came on train from Sidcup, 8 young lads 13/14 years old got on. Listen to their conversation, and 5 never been before to any charlton game. Claimed to support Chelsea, but never been types. These promotions get kids like this to a game, they have a laugh and hopefully come back. Just shame we chose this day, to have an absolute stinker, against an average Barnsley side.
If in a normal weekend game, seats are empty, these promotions make sense in many ways. The seats are sold, more programmes are sold, more merchandise sold, hopefully sales of everything goes up. There is also the chance of these 'new fans' returning. In the middle 1950's my father was given complimentary tickets. I was hooked from then on. I had my scarf, wooden rattle (oh I wish they would return). In the 1980's, I stopped going to raise a family. Then in the 1990's, my sons were encouraged to go by my 2 uncles. This got me back to The Valley. A few weeks ago, we bought our grand-daughter a season ticket. So from those complimentary tickets: my father still goes many times a season. I have a season ticket, as does my wife, my sons have one and now my grand-daughter. Where I sit in Upper North - the lads and lassies around us kept up the chants and yelling all through the game - it sounded loud to me! I have to say promotions work! Thanks for listening!
Playing poorly before 26,000 is not a reason for dropping Football for a Fiver, more a case for dropping players who don't put in the performance needed to lift the crowd. Sure a vocal crowd can lift a team but these are professionals who sho want to put their best efforts in to giving first-timers something to cheer about.
Here's a good one.. Forget the financial side and the amount of tickets that could have been sold for it etc... This is entirely retrospective but what game so far would you have most liked to have seen football for a fiver for (with the idea of it being such an exciting game people will come back)
For me it would be the Leicester game, absolute cracker.
The question is what can the club do to improve the atmosphere on match days?
Play better.
This. And move the away fans which for a variety of logistical reason they almost certainly won't I imagine.
This
To be fair we did have half of the South Stand yesterday. If we put home fans in that only came as it's a fiver then they won't sing so it doesn't market where they sit.
I've always thought having the whole of the jimmy sees stand for home fans would be better and putting away fans in the end of the east (nearest the big screen) would be a lot better. However achieving that with safety etc would be difficult.
Comments
You snooze you lose mate!
;o)
Of the rest, I wouldn't necessarily expect most to come back any time soon. Otherwise building support would be easy. But if, say, 3,000 were there for the first time, 250 come back this season, 25 go on become season ticket holders next year and half a dozen remain so for ten or 20 years it is still worthwhile. And in the meantime you make more money than otherwise from the match because of the people who don't come back.
It doesn't become a failure because most people are not persuaded to come back. It's unrealistic to expect they would be.
The club and all who worked on these projects deserve a huge "well done"
A West Ham mate took his two grand kids and he has already posted on FB that they want to go again.
With all the bad publicity of racism in football and the perceived negativity to anyone but white working class fans, it was a joy to see.
It's the one area of our local fanbase I feel we can significnatly improve on as without doubt matchday Charlton fans are not completely representative of the diverse population in the region.
For me it would be the Leicester game, absolute cracker.