The one snag with the A block offer, is that it's in the one stand that can't be seen from the TV cameras!
I remember Millwall have this problem, in that the upper tiers behind the goals are more popular than the lower tiers, so that even if they have (an occasional) good attendance, none of them are visible to the main TV cameras!
The real problem Millwall has is the tiers you can't see are populated by Millwall fans.
They should have done the £150 season ticket offer in the North Lower, i think more would have taken it up.
The £150 offer was for around 4-500 seats whereas the North Lower holds up to 3,000.
Granted. Perhaps they could have done it for E & F block or done the whole North Lower for £200, but i guess im looking at it from an atmosphere perspective and not a commercial one.
Early season home games fail to attract large(r) actual crowds as many are on holiday. Although the school kids are back in school, we have to remember that our average attendee age is high and many of us with grown up kids enjoy time away when travel costs are lower.
We can only gauge our 'pulling power' come October and given the post World Cup malaise in general attendances, we need the team to continue to produce attractive and progressive football and win more than lose.
As already mentioned, the move away from hoofball can only help!
My two suggestions,which I hope will be helpful,are
1.offer free coach travel from Primary Schools,maybe Secondary Schools and youth clubs etc. from local Boroughs including Bromley...kids for a quid and several adults for a fiver.From my experience ,there was never a problem filling the coaches and the younger children enjoyed their day out. These would be for selective matches.
2.offer 5year/ 10 year season tickets at a much reduced price to loyal supporters. If we are promoted then they have a bargain and will still be able to attend when prices will increase substantially in the Premiership.
I was shocked at how empty the south end of the west stand looked in those David Whyte photos. I've been in L block for a while now and had no idea how few people there were on the other side of the hospitality seats. I think the Premier League years might have slightly distorted expectations. An average of about 16000 is good for us IMO.
Bolton only got 15,000+ yesterday - they are a well supported club, usually. What I find difficult to understand is that Charlton must have some of the cheapest ticket prices at this level. As such, with current player investment and continuing good results, it must be just a matter of time before the lost hordes return
Early season home games fail to attract large(r) actual crowds as many are on holiday. Although the school kids are back in school, we have to remember that our average attendee age is high and many of us with grown up kids enjoy time away when travel costs are lower.
We can only gauge our 'pulling power' come October and given the post World Cup malaise in general attendances, we need the team to continue to produce attractive and progressive football and win more than lose.
As already mentioned, the move away from hoofball can only help!
Not sure that's much of an issue, absent season ticket holders are counted anyway!
2.offer 5year/ 10 year season tickets at a much reduced price to loyal supporters. If we are promoted then they have a bargain and will still be able to attend when prices will increase substantially in the Premiership.
Just a thought !
Would be better just to give the current 5 year season ticket holders a discount on next seasons ticket from what they are out of pocket from the current arrangement.
My two suggestions,which I hope will be helpful,are
1.offer free coach travel from Primary Schools,maybe Secondary Schools and youth clubs etc. from local Boroughs including Bromley...kids for a quid and several adults for a fiver.From my experience ,there was never a problem filling the coaches and the younger children enjoyed their day out. These would be for selective matches.
2.offer 5year/ 10 year season tickets at a much reduced price to loyal supporters. If we are promoted then they have a bargain and will still be able to attend when prices will increase substantially in the Premiership.
Just a thought !
Sound ideas that have both been tried before.
The drawbacks are the cost of the coaches and that you are undercutting the value of the STs if you have too many such offers. And it needs a lot of organisation. But it does get people in the ground and if the food service is better (some people are saying still some issues here) we might sell more food. But the food service has been outsourced so not sure that adds much to CAFC's income now.
Personally I think the club needs to move away from large scale comps or £1 tickets and work on getting fewer people to pay a reasobable price.
One of the reasons we think 17k+ was poor on Saturday is because in the past attendances were boosted with lots of freebies. We actually had 14k home fans v non-glamorous Watford. I would guess upto 1,000 comps. That really isn't that bad IMHO. Not great but not a disaster either.
There is currently a five year ST in its last season called the VIP . Ben Kensell was meeting with the rep for the five year ST holders some months ago but I've heard nothing about what the plans are for repeating it.
It was a good offer for me at the time but for the club the danger is you take a lot of money now but then aren't able to count on it in future seasons (although for accounting purposes you need to spread it over the lifetime of the ST). If, as we all hope, we go up it's a great deal for fans, less so for the club as now you have five hundred ST sold a much lower price. Jordan got Palace into Admin in part by taking next years income now.
Also the people who will buy 5 or 10 year ST are already ST holders so it isn't going to boost gates now. Take up last time was about 450, less than the 500 maximum. Yes, the club was in a bad way at the time but they needed a cash injection and got it. Maybe more would do it now with RD and KM sorting out the "mess" that KM said was there when she joined so I think it is worth offering again but it needs to be thought thru carefully. Which gets us back to the T27k focus group.
My impression is that the club are more interested in building crowds and emotional engagement for the long term, rather than looking at short term income. But I agree that it is not just about cheap offers - we need to get more people more into the habit. The approach should be more focussed on getting people to attend regularly rather than one-off giveaways eg rewarding new fans who attend five matches out of ten (though appreciate this has systems implications).
I like the T27k idea, but think the remit should go beyond specific schemes, and also look at "brand CAFC" (sorry, Len, and those who hate marketing jargon). The image of Charlton currently is wholesome, worthy, family -friendly, which are good values as a foundation, but perhaps we need to add a bit more glamour and excitement (no I don't mean cheerleaders etc) - just raising CAFC's profile in the media, getting more televised games, getting talked about more. We have a pretty strong presence on social media, which is a good starting point, but we are quite low on celebrity support/appeal.
The cost of coaches is now prohibitive for us. in fact everything is now prohibitively too costly. The club can't do anything about that but it could and should have provided value for money and decent service. Football in general has been straining at the boundaries of tolerance by loyal supporters, treated us very poorly whilst greedy footballers and Sky grow ever richer. For us, when our 5 year S/T expire, we will have a clear cut choice, season ticket and home games or four months in our caravan in S of France. The cost is the same and we can't have both.
My impression is that the club are more interested in building crowds and emotional engagement for the long term, rather than looking at short term income. But I agree that it is not just about cheap offers - we need to get more people more into the habit. The approach should be more focussed on getting people to attend regularly rather than one-off giveaways eg rewarding new fans who attend five matches out of ten (though appreciate this has systems implications).
I like the T27k idea, but think the remit should go beyond specific schemes, and also look at "brand CAFC" (sorry, Len, and those who hate marketing jargon). The image of Charlton currently is wholesome, worthy, family -friendly, which are good values as a foundation, but perhaps we need to add a bit more glamour and excitement (no I don't mean cheerleaders etc) - just raising CAFC's profile in the media, getting more televised games, getting talked about more. We have a pretty strong presence on social media, which is a good starting point, but we are quite low on celebrity support/appeal.
I agree that it should be long term and not just one off offers and giveaways which means a bit of long term planning.
A strap line around "get back into the Valley habit" (OK, OK, I know I'm not a marketeer but first rule of brainstorms is all ideas are valid).
The club does, IMHO, new to tell people that things have changed and are changing. That is hard to do but Skoda is a good example of how you can change perceptions over time.
Agree with Eltham but the club are far more likely to do it for a visiting club with a poor away support - Wolves, Boro and Birmingham are next up and they will all bring 1500+
Bolton on a Tuesday night might be a good option but then it rules out a lot of kids as a week before half term
EA has is spot on IMO. I brought 2 other dads with their boys to the Wigan game last year and one of the main reasons they didn't come back was because frankly, it was sh*t. The football we played was terrible and it was boring to watch for myself, let alone the 4/5 year olds.
I know we can't guarantee an exciting game, but at least while there is a chance we might get a win and a couple of goals we should be maximizing the opportunity. I took my son on Saturday and for the first time ever he asked when we can go again because he enjoyed it so much. While we're playing a bit of decent football and winning games we should try and get the ground as full as possible.
In the CAS Trust News there is a very insightful interview with Katrien Meirkle. She made it very clear that one of the objectives is that the club must breakeven and we all know how that can be achieved. You cannot blame the owner for that as it is the correct way to run a business. Equally, he cannot throw buckets of money at it as FFP regulations would not allow that. I wonder whether we could focus on giving tickets to secondary schools. Although they would have to be supervised initially, from that point on they are in a position to attend on their own. On another note I do get fed up when stayaways come up to me with conversation pieces like " Vetokele looks like a find" " The pitch looks great" " I must get down there one day". These guys have the wherewithal and the time to get down there; however, will be the first to complain when players have to be sold.
Agree with Eltham but the club are far more likely to do it for a visiting club with a poor away support - Wolves, Boro and Birmingham are next up and they will all bring 1500+
Bolton on a Tuesday night might be a good option but then it rules out a lot of kids as a week before half term
I'll be amazed if Boro bring 1,500 to us and even if they filled the away end (which they wont) and there were no CAFC in there, there's still 10k empty home seat to fill at a fiver a go...announce it now and with 2 weeks till the game the home areas would sell out
EA has is spot on IMO. I brought 2 other dads with their boys to the Wigan game last year and one of the main reasons they didn't come back was because frankly, it was sh*t. The football we played was terrible and it was boring to watch for myself, let alone the 4/5 year olds.
I know we can't guarantee an exciting game, but at least while there is a chance we might get a win and a couple of goals we should be maximizing the opportunity. I took my son on Saturday and for the first time ever he asked when we can go again because he enjoyed it so much. While we're playing a bit of decent football and winning games we should try and get the ground as full as possible.
Agree, Plaaayer that we need to think about "striking whilst the iron's hot " or rather whilst our players are hot.
Leafletting at local stations has been a strategy in previous seasons although I have no idea how successful this has been in terms of increasing matchday attendance.
But banner headlines like " Want to see the Championship's joint top scorer ? And find out why one new acquisition has been called The Beast ? Then get yourself a ticket for Charlton's next match on *** against ***when every under 16 accompanied by an adult can watch for only £1!! You know it makes sense to support your local team"
Agree with Eltham but the club are far more likely to do it for a visiting club with a poor away support - Wolves, Boro and Birmingham are next up and they will all bring 1500+
Bolton on a Tuesday night might be a good option but then it rules out a lot of kids as a week before half term
I'll be amazed if Boro bring 1,500 to us and even if they filled the away end (which they wont) and there were no CAFC in there, there's still 10k empty home seat to fill at a fiver a go...announce it now and with 2 weeks till the game the home areas would sell out
The trouble is the tickets have been on sale for the past week, so refunds would have to be arranged for those who have already bought tickets and that would include the Middlesborough fans.
Surely over many years(prem years apart) we have never drawn huge crowds, imo prices will always need to kept low if we are to attract 20,000+ a very attractive side.
I can't blame people for not renewing their season tickets after a sub standard pitch and team , everything about last season stank , for any reading this who haven't been to the valley yet this season because they were totally hacked off , give it a go , they've even got wifi so you can check your dream team whilst the goals are flying in at the valley :-0
I agree. Last season may have worn down some people's resolve and I think the atmosphere throughout the whole club was off until midway through Riga's reign. I noticed a turn once Riga got a few wins and people sensed we had a chance of staying up. Mendonca is correct because the whole presentation of last season would have been off putting. Plus, I'm pretty sure a few might not have bought in to the RD transformation that seems to have happened over the summer. I seem to remember seeing the odd post flying about on here about those dissatisfied with the new regime, CP getting the sack etc and saying they won't renew. I don't know if people have stayed away because of that. If this is the case, I would ask those people return, because ultimately we are the lifeblood of the club. You may not have agreed with some of the decisions made in the early days, but we need everyone back to help build on the momentum we have so far. I also think people will be pleasantly surprised at the football and the changes we have made.
Personally, I would welcome more football for a fiver games. I know some of us have chosen to buy season tickets which means economically we lose out. But my own personal opinion is that is was my choice to part with the money, I wouldn't mind if the club did 4 games where it charged a fiver. I understand other people may not agree as they would've paid more. I'm just saying I would be okay with 4, if it ramped up attendance/atmosphere.
It took years to bring down the attendances and will take longer to bring them back up again. Not gonna change drastically with 6 good games in this season. If we finish in playoffs this year there might be a bit of an increase next but realistically it would take a prem promotion to bring attendances back up and maybe not even up to previous levels immediately.
Also agree with more £5 games, a few of those every season gets people actively looking out for more if we dont completely cock it up on the day.
Would it be worth doing one 'FFA5' pcm up until Christmas? By the time Christmas is in most people's minds (say mid-November) we could plaster the concourses with half season ticket posters and fliers: "the perfect Christmas present" etc.
Honestly think the NU needs to relocate down into the original covered end, it looks so weird having the upper tier fuller than the lower
Completely agree. Would help hugely with the atmosphere, having the old Covered End Choir back downstairs when you might actually hear them and right by the players tunnel.
Comments
We can only gauge our 'pulling power' come October and given the post World Cup malaise in general attendances, we need the team to continue to produce attractive and progressive football and win more than lose.
As already mentioned, the move away from hoofball can only help!
1.offer free coach travel from Primary Schools,maybe Secondary Schools and youth clubs etc. from local Boroughs including Bromley...kids for a quid and several adults for a fiver.From my experience ,there was never a problem filling the coaches and the younger children enjoyed their day out. These would be for selective matches.
2.offer 5year/ 10 year season tickets at a much reduced price to loyal supporters.
If we are promoted then they have a bargain and will still be able to attend when prices will increase substantially in the Premiership.
Just a thought !
What I find difficult to understand is that Charlton must have some of the cheapest ticket prices at this level.
As such, with current player investment and continuing good results, it must be just a matter of time before the lost hordes return
Thanks
Sound ideas that have both been tried before.
The drawbacks are the cost of the coaches and that you are undercutting the value of the STs if you have too many such offers. And it needs a lot of organisation. But it does get people in the ground and if the food service is better (some people are saying still some issues here) we might sell more food. But the food service has been outsourced so not sure that adds much to CAFC's income now.
Personally I think the club needs to move away from large scale comps or £1 tickets and work on getting fewer people to pay a reasobable price.
One of the reasons we think 17k+ was poor on Saturday is because in the past attendances were boosted with lots of freebies. We actually had 14k home fans v non-glamorous Watford. I would guess upto 1,000 comps. That really isn't that bad IMHO. Not great but not a disaster either.
There is currently a five year ST in its last season called the VIP . Ben Kensell was meeting with the rep for the five year ST holders some months ago but I've heard nothing about what the plans are for repeating it.
It was a good offer for me at the time but for the club the danger is you take a lot of money now but then aren't able to count on it in future seasons (although for accounting purposes you need to spread it over the lifetime of the ST). If, as we all hope, we go up it's a great deal for fans, less so for the club as now you have five hundred ST sold a much lower price. Jordan got Palace into Admin in part by taking next years income now.
Also the people who will buy 5 or 10 year ST are already ST holders so it isn't going to boost gates now. Take up last time was about 450, less than the 500 maximum. Yes, the club was in a bad way at the time but they needed a cash injection and got it. Maybe more would do it now with RD and KM sorting out the "mess" that KM said was there when she joined so I think it is worth offering again but it needs to be thought thru carefully. Which gets us back to the T27k focus group.
I like the T27k idea, but think the remit should go beyond specific schemes, and also look at "brand CAFC" (sorry, Len, and those who hate marketing jargon). The image of Charlton currently is wholesome, worthy, family -friendly, which are good values as a foundation, but perhaps we need to add a bit more glamour and excitement (no I don't mean cheerleaders etc) - just raising CAFC's profile in the media, getting more televised games, getting talked about more. We have a pretty strong presence on social media, which is a good starting point, but we are quite low on celebrity support/appeal.
A strap line around "get back into the Valley habit" (OK, OK, I know I'm not a marketeer but first rule of brainstorms is all ideas are valid).
The club does, IMHO, new to tell people that things have changed and are changing. That is hard to do but Skoda is a good example of how you can change perceptions over time.
Bolton on a Tuesday night might be a good option but then it rules out a lot of kids as a week before half term
I know we can't guarantee an exciting game, but at least while there is a chance we might get a win and a couple of goals we should be maximizing the opportunity. I took my son on Saturday and for the first time ever he asked when we can go again because he enjoyed it so much. While we're playing a bit of decent football and winning games we should try and get the ground as full as possible.
She made it very clear that one of the objectives is that the club must breakeven and we all know how that can be achieved.
You cannot blame the owner for that as it is the correct way to run a business. Equally, he cannot throw buckets of money at it as FFP regulations would not allow that.
I wonder whether we could focus on giving tickets to secondary schools. Although they would have to be supervised initially, from that point on they are in a position to attend on their own.
On another note I do get fed up when stayaways come up to me with conversation pieces like
" Vetokele looks like a find"
" The pitch looks great"
" I must get down there one day".
These guys have the wherewithal and the time to get down there; however, will be the first to complain when players have to be sold.
Leafletting at local stations has been a strategy in previous seasons although I have no idea how successful this has been in terms of increasing matchday attendance.
But banner headlines like " Want to see the Championship's joint top scorer ? And find out why one new acquisition has been called The Beast ? Then get yourself a ticket for Charlton's next match on *** against ***when every under 16 accompanied by an adult can watch for only £1!! You know it makes sense to support your local team"
Personally, I would welcome more football for a fiver games. I know some of us have chosen to buy season tickets which means economically we lose out. But my own personal opinion is that is was my choice to part with the money, I wouldn't mind if the club did 4 games where it charged a fiver. I understand other people may not agree as they would've paid more. I'm just saying I would be okay with 4, if it ramped up attendance/atmosphere.
Also agree with more £5 games, a few of those every season gets people actively looking out for more if we dont completely cock it up on the day.