The club needs fans....
 

Just flicked over to BBC2, caught the last goal. Was good to hear someone else say we need fans. 12k have left Blackburn because of Venkys, why have we not got some of them on. With everything going on at Ewood, we need to cash in. There gates are falling and we don't seem to capable of making money from the stay always.

We offer better football, it needs a commercial push over there. Tell them there's decent footy without the bull.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Something along the lines of £10 coach trip for 300 Blackburn school kids from the bus depot return trip. Each child gets a program,key ring,badge,sandwich/pie,fruit juice etc...

Once they are on, they will get the buzz. And be asking their parents to take them again.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Children's Prices at Stanley:

U18 £20
U16 £15
U12 £10

Designed to cash in on away fans and stop home support growing. Whilst there are good offers with season tickets etc, fans don't buy a Season Ticket then decide to be a fan.

If there was a coach trip for £10 a child, I doubt there would be many takers in Blackburn.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Fallen at the first hurdle...

I wouldn't expect a ticket fee, just £10 for everything. Bums on seats, and a new blood of supporters.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Those prices seem way too high for teenagers and children.
£10 for a kid still at Primary School !?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

It's a joke £10... my original idea is only to get them through the gate. But price should be looked at

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Unfortunately just because someone has become disillusioned with their own club, as I believe is happening regularly at Rovers, it doesn't mean they'll automatically defect & start supporting a different team.
Even if they stop attending games at Ewood I'd imagine the majority would still be supporting their team from their armchairs - takes a hell of a lot to abandon your team even if you don't agree with the way the club is being run.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Given that the Stone Roses can charge £50 a pop and sell out the Ethiad four days running despite being sh*te, and Peter Perrett the god like lead singer of the Only Ones can't fill Hebden Bridge Trades Club at a tenner it tells you all you need to know about people's approach to spending money on things.

People want the the big experience... the selfies on FB to prove you were there, the merchandise etc. They want to live the dream.

Honestly I've talked up the Accy Stanley experience to friends and family so much (the roar of the ultras, the history of the club that wouldn't die, the cozy halftime clubhouse and "Wake me up before you go go") that I have several people telling me that Stanley is now the first result they look for, after their own. My daughter is travelling from Glasgow to Luton next weekend. I've even got a Watford supporter coming too.

I'm not sure how you can mass market that (it's always easier said than done) but I reckon dressing it up as something special to be a Stanley fan could be the way to go if it could be done. Man Utd may be a decent side but people buy more into the legend don't they?

Mind you, it would help if they played like they did on Satdi every week. No marketing required then - just a ground twice the size.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

[QUOTE=Lord Didsbury;1180796]Given that the Stone Roses can charge £50 a pop and sell out the Ethiad four days running despite being sh*te, and Peter Perrett the god like lead singer of the Only Ones can't fill Hebden Bridge Trades Club at a tenner it tells you all you need to know about people's approach to spending money on things.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

There seems to be a problem with your smartphone as it appears that you have included the words sh*te and Stone Roses in the same sentence.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Ok, inspector. To be fair "overrated" was probably the word I was looking for. I have seen them a couple of times - little dots on a far off stage with the music (even if you really like it) drifting away on the wind.

I believe it's £85 for Kraftwerk - with only one original member. Same sort of prices for Radiohead....and £200 for a Stanley season ticket.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

It's a sad fact that, in today's media obsessed world, nothing breeds success like success.
People want to be associated with winners, hence last seasons sudden surge in attendances when Stanley looked like they might actually get promoted.
Unfortunately, armchair fans loathe mediocrity and will only return if they think they can identify themselves as 'winners'.
If Stanley manage to get into the FA Cup 3rd round & draw say Man U at home, watch all the 'lifelong' Stanley fans come crawling out the woodwork.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I think its best leaving the old Kraftwerk v Stanley debate to one side just now.Some wounds are just too raw in our house.

My fear is what will happen to season ticket sales next season when confronted with the additional entertainment option of watching Phil Collins live.Hope to god we have a plan B.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

If Stanley manage to get into the FA Cup 3rd round & draw say Man U at home, watch all the 'lifelong' Stanley fans come crawling out the woodwork.[/QUOTE]

you mean like they did when we played burnley in the league cup earlier this season.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Nothing i think apart from failing health,would make me pack me season ticket in, but i would certainly reconsider that stance if Phil Collins was on the menu.:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Phil Collins to play the Wham Stadium ?

I'm sure even we could sell-out that one. :D

Or just stick Ashley Hoskin on Stage and hope nobody notices......

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Cos they're Germings "Innit"! (see Audi-BMW-Mercs :D)

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Phil Collins you say? That gives me an idea.

Now, if Oasis can play at Maine Road why can't Jon Anderson get off his lazy prog rock dreams and have Yes play a one off homecoming show at the Wham?

Obviously the local residents, who object to the prospect of a few more ultras joining in the Billy Kee song may not take to kindly to 10,000 watts of Anderson's falsetto rattling the windows, and the streets being filled with long haired stoned old men in leather trousers trying to find their cars but just think what that would do to our profile?

Shay Stadium, Spike Island, Wham Stadium.

Surely to god there must be those 70 year olds on this forum who could look him up on FriendsReunited and call in some decades long favours?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

jon lives in the states,and heard he aint been too well.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Think JA is feeling a bit better now as I recently saw an advert for a gig somewhere in the UK.
(Last time I saw him was when getting my boots on in St.Augustine's Hall, ready to take on the might of Huncoat in the Boys' League, and The Warriors had just finished a practice).
I suspect there a few too many glass conservatories in the immediate vicinity for the Health & Safety Police to approve Mr. Anderson's singing.:rolleyes:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Friends reunited is no longer here.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Well that was a waste of time. You bemoan poor crowds and I come up with something. Only to get Phill Colins and some outdated Accy star who's in ill health.

The dingles have got the glory hunters,Bolton are doing 12-14k,Preston doing well...

Most Blackburn fans who are stay away were their in the premiership years,what about their kids? They don't see anything other than Sky. It's a target market, get the kids on. Even Cashy came back after following the resurrection

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I would never have gone odders, but fer the fact we didn't have a team in 62, and i always loved me football,;)

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Well Odders. I have, in addition to a Watford fan, now got a Spurs fan coming to Luton with me. (Both more Joy Division than prog rock). I just told them it would be magnificent.
I reckon we need to be more like mormons and evangelise and indoctrinate with the personal touch. It's not hard.
Once there, they must be shepherded to the Clayton End where the atmosphere is. The drumming and singing needs to be jolly noisy and with some attractive football on display.
They'll come back for more.

A Yes concert would still be a good idea.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Or do you mean Vangelis?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

With Christmas approaching, why don't the club come up with some sort of Xmas gift voucher to encourage extra attendance in the bleak midwinter?
For example, a father & son ticket for £20, or an under 12 ticket giving admission to 4 games for £20.
With the right advertising, I'm sure plenty of mums & Grandad's would consider this a perfect gift for their husbands, sons or grandkids.
Especially if they throw in a free mince pie!
Ho, Ho, Ho!
:balloon::balloon2::balloon::balloon2:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Even if you made it 50p entry it won't encourage fans to go (but high prices will discourage people).

Draw them in, get them hooked. We need to be sporting drug dealers.

What drew you in? What made you hooked?

As a recent fan, it was an off chance visit to the York cup match. I loved the whacky ground, loved the ultras singing, the warmth of the bar at half time and the football was ace. I also loved it because I knew the history of the club.

Contrast to the previous match several years earlier where the ground was ****, the football was awful, we sat well away from the Clayton end and it ****ed it down and the match abandoned.

However, by that logic everyone who went to Burnley would have been hooked!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Perhaps we could add something to the mince pie?
:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

[QUOTE=Lord Didsbury;1180921]Even if you made it 50p entry it won't encourage fans to go (but high prices will discourage people).


What drew you in? What made you hooked?

As a recent fan, it was an off chance visit to the York cup match. I loved the whacky ground, loved the ultras singing, the warmth of the bar at half time and the football was ace. I also loved it because I knew the history of the club.

think my experiance of first going to stanley was similar to yours. first visit in 2009 knowing i was coming back up north the next year. good game and loved the atmosphere and couldn,t wait to become a regular the following season. why did i try stanley anyway as rochdale or say oldham were a similar distance and bradford nearer. well the reason was history and nothing else. we should push this as far as we can. we,ve tried cheap tickets for games but they haven,t worked as its the same old lot that attend. we should also push the ease of parking near the ground and cheap parking as some places once you get past the residents only streets you need a taxi to get to the ground or pay 5 quid plus to park your car at the ground. we,ve a lot to offer and future fans don,t need to live within the boundary of accrington.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Gentlemen,
We 'regulars' all have our own reasons why we devote our time & money in supporting our beloved club. It's convincing the uncommitted 'armchair' fans of Accrington to get off their backsides and experience the atmosphere that only live football can provide.
How can we all help the club to achieve this? Well, we all have family & friends. If every 'regular' brought just one mate along, we'd almost double the attendance!
The club must play their part in this, as you won't hook anything without bait.
What about 'bring a friend for ten' (£10) or 'bring a kid for a quid', aimed at season ticket & loyalty card holders.
Yes, these fans would benefit from a discount, but they are people who would not normally even be there. The club would get some extra income and more importantly, the gates would increase.
The club could run this for a limited time only. As Lord D has inferred, once we've 'hooked-em', hopefully some of them will start to crave the drug that is Accrington Stanley and come back for more.
This season, I've cajoled a couple of friends to attend and they've found that they loved it and now look forward to home games.
So come on Stanley, give your regular fans an incentive and we'll all bust-a-gut to help improve things for everyone.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Could be a pyramid selling scheme opportunity,

Bring a friend and get £10 off YOUR ticket
Sign em up for a season ticket and get £100 off yours
If the people you've introduced introduce others you get an additional £25 back.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I have no family that lives anywhere near here, and yer sadly mistaken if yeh think i got friends.:D apart from the gang i go stanley with,

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Oh, Cashy .... :(:(

:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Don't feel sorry for him, he's got Davo as a best mate.;)

Re: The club needs fans....
 

That explains why he hasn't got any others :D. - sorry Cashy, couldn't resist!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Cashy - you need to get yersen on Twitter. Loads of new mates await you there.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Lord D, as an expert on the Twittersphere, surely you could launch your pyramid scheme to double the gates single handed. I guarantee you'd be given the freedom of Accrington.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Could be a nice incentive but think £100 of your season ticket is way too much!

Maybe something more realistic like a few beer tokens to get say 3 pints free over the season as an incentive.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Ok Mr Baldy. You choose:

In My pyramid scheme I find a new fan. He/she pays £200, I only pay £100. Increased revenue = £100.

In your scheme what's the overall benefit to the club?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I'm friends with you Cashy!:drunk:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

What happens in your scheme when the 2nd person would have bought a season ticket anyway then the club loses £100.

Invariably schemes like this mean roughly the same number of people attend but generate less income or create bad feeling among existing fans if they are excluded but others are eligible who don't normally follow the team.

A good idea in theory but may have unintended consequences.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Deeayess - that is true, and there is scope for skullduggery.
Maybe the club caveats the scheme by saying that money will be paid out to the season ticket holders who introduce new ones only if the overall season ticket revenue increases.
Since we are all in this together (ultimately we all want gates to increase) that doesn't seem unreasonable. it means it could be piloted with no one losing out?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Nice to read some creative thinking on how to increase the gates.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

could say the same for a lot of us. i,ve got friends who are committed to other clubs or other sports and would no more go to stanley than i would a barry mannilo concert. i,ve got relatives in hartlepool and my son lives in rugby. i,m not knocking any ideas that people come out with to increase gates but i do think its harder than people think without promotion. we might be happy supporting a side in the 4th tier but some people will only watch football down to a certain level.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Lord D, I admire your unbounded optimism and visions of serious amounts of commission coming your way via your pyramid scheme.
It's hard enough getting the uncommitted to even attend a game, let alone sign em up for a season ticket!
All I'm suggesting is for the club to encourage our regular fans to bring a chum along by providing an incentive, i.e. - a small discount on ticket price.
It's easier to convince a friend to give it a try when it's only going to cost them £10, as opposed to £20.
Blimey! If they're a good mate, I'd even pay for the bleeding ticket (as long as they got the drinks in!) :D:D:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

...... while some of us will probably only watch football up to a certain level (until the day Stanley make the Prem, of course :D)

Re: The club needs fans....
 

"Hard to attract fans" - This why I said we should do £5 for under 16s, Not that we should forget about the adults but we've tried different things over the years to attract adults and not really succeeded, So why not start from scratch?

Like already said most adults have their own team that isn't Stanley and will be hard to change that so starting with the kids will hopefully change the cycle of it being only Blackburn, Burnley or United fans in the playground...As soon as 1 kid tells his mate about Stanley it's a domino effect that will then hopefully pay off long term!

We took the Clayton End seats out to improve the atmosphere, Before the seats were put in the front section was filled with kids who just wanted to jump and shout about Stanley, The seats killed that so why not entice them back and get the Clayton End rocking again as it's relatively empty without the seats?

Not to mention all the extra shirts we would sell as they grow out of them and every Christmas I knew what I wanted, the new Stanley shirt!

I'm not saying thousands of kids would come out of the woodwork but I'm sure there would be enough to compensate knocking it down to £5

Re: The club needs fans....
 

"Start from scratch"

How true. We've only ever had a short term plan, in fact more of a 'now plan' - but we really do need to work out the 5 year plan

Re: The club needs fans....
 

If it's a 5 year plan then perhaps start with a target? Increase the average gate from 1,400 to 2,000? Season tickets from 700 to 1,200?
Fight on three fronts: kids as Baldy (I think) mentioned. Get them to the front of the Clayton End.
Hand out free vouchers to season ticket holders to entice friends to come along.
Get the word out generally around the area about the history and wonder of the Wham and carry on with ground improvements.
Each of those only needs to make a 2.5% increase year on year and the target is hit.

Obviously my pyramid selling scheme would treble the gates, but maybe that's to be brought in in year 6 when the new stand is in place, and I've had chance to refine it a little.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

agree with baldy. kids are the future for stanley and all clubs. should be targeting the senior school kids 11 upwards as they can come with their mates and not having to have a parent with them. 5 quid is about right for all kids in full time education including 16 to 18 year olds.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Fully agree. But I'd still do 'Kid for a quid' for say a month, to get em through the door. Once they're hooked £5 is perfect.
This would be a real pull to any boy or girl interested in football and with their obsession with social media, would be self advertising.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

could not something be done to cut the cost for large families, with the Adult fee (£20) +
1 child (£10) Total = £30 but for a family with 4 children it would cost £60 not a very encouriging day out for the large families

Re: The club needs fans....
 

compare it with going to the cinema in a warm room in winter it looks even worse.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Nice to see people are waking up to the serious reality of what I have been saying for about 3 years. People who seemed to have their heads in the sand are actually waking up. It is a serious state of affairs that needs to be stemmed immediately. We all know that gates of less than 2000 is a loss. All the ideas of lowering prices have been dealt a savage blow by the senior management saying that they can't afford it. Sorry but we can't afford to let the gates keep dropping again. It does seem that greed is the rule of the day at Stanley at the moment. This is why it is so important that we have a plan and stick with it.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Chrisr, there are non so blind as those who will not see!
There have been some positive, constructive ideas on this thread on ways we, the regular fans, feel the club could help to increase attendance.
We're not advocating letting people in for free, or offering discounts to regular fans. The ideas have all been aimed at attracting fans who would not normally attend.
It's no good the club keep repeating 'we can't afford it', the current admission prices to watch league 2 football in what is an economically depressed area, are too high.
Surely it's better getting 100 new fans through the gates paying £10 each than no new fans! As far as I'm aware, 100% of nothing is still exactly- nothing!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I agree that there has been some good positive ideas on this thread and welcome them. Many have been suggested previously and as I say were shot down by those in the clubs hierarchy that we can't afford it. I am delighted that the points you are making are now being given consideration. I am not blind to any of this. The simple argument for letting new fans in is the same as you have made that 100 new fans at a tenner is better than 100 empty seats. I have said that 100%of nothing is nothing several times. I have said many times it is the stay away people we need to attract. actually doing it is another task, reducing prices has not worked much in the past so we need to be a little more creative in our ideas. The wham should be the place to want to be.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I dont know who in the clubs hierarchy has been shooting ideas down?


being considered by whom?


I dont intend to have a go at you in partcularly Chris, just using quoting that before I start. Sometimes we may assume that by having a discussion on here that the club has read it and somehow joined in - and then by not acting upon it they have dismissed it.

The problem with Accrington Stanley of 2016 is that it had been neglected for many years. Ground developments other than compulsory work (ie seats put in) was 1 in 10 years (the roof). Nothing had been done regards infrastructure in that same timescale, there was no plan b. Ever.

For over a decade it was a struggle to get through the day and still have electricity to set the alarm. All of Eric's money went daily on wages, and there was nothing left to put into a fund for getting things going. The word marketing was alien to him. Post Eric we had Ilyas who was only ever an interim helmsman and had been there to fight off the wolves. He stated that he wouldn't be a fairy godmother or sugar daddy and he was right. He passed the baton to Peter who again, could only afford to put in the minimum requirements to keep the club afloat.

Now we have Andy Holt. He too has stated that he won't be a sugar daddy, but he WAS able to put in enough money to pay off all creditors and stop us wasting thousands of pounds a month on interest payments, or late payment penalties. He HAS put in tens of thousands (if not hundreds) to start tidying the place up and making it capable of retaining fans. We have lost dozens of fans due to leaky rooves and waterlogged bogs. That's no longer an option.

He HAS got a plan regarding the development of the ground to enable it start attracting and keeping new fans. He wants the ground to make money for us which it has NEVER done in the past.

So, we have an owner who is willing and capable of developing the club. He has ideas of his own and will hopefully listen to the ideas of others in how to progress the profile of the club. Every prospective fan who doesnt yet attend we must consider to be a 'no'. Yet every salesman will tell you there is no such word as no = just 'not yet'. Find the objection and then overcome it.

What are the objections?

1. crap ground, crap footy
Yes it's a crap ground but its improving. The footy is usually fairly good but is still League 2 and that is something we can do little about
2. Overpriced.
We can do something about this but unless you expect AH to keep footing the bill then we need to spend what we can at the ground rather than elsewhere. Once the club can recover the lost revenue it can start to do something about the prices - but the turnover simply HAS to improve
3. The club has a bad reputation
Yes it has. Gambling problems, poor disciplinary record over the years, bills unpaid, constant bucket rattling. This is something that we can do little to improve on other than allowing time to forget. We have to stop griping in public about the fans that dont come. They dont come because they arent fans.

The club has to be seen in a positive light to attract the attention of the potential fan. Results do this. Big cup games, strong league runs etc. But you need a strong element of luck to achieve this, particularly when you haven't got a quarter the budget of other clubs in this league.

We can attract positive attention by highlighting the good things that we do. The Community Team do a fantastic job and occasionally get stories into the press, this needs to be improved upon. Everything should be highlighted. We should, as a club, nominate a local charity that we publicly back and try to raise funds for. We frequently allow certain charities to attend a game and shake their buckets, but how about WE decide on who to raise funds for, WE shake the buckets then present to aforementioned charity. It amounts to the same thing but we also gain positive exposure. Our players must be able to spare an hour after training to go into town and do meet and greets? shake collection tins? speak to local business owners?

We all know that there is far too few staff members at the club, yet we still slate them for not doing enough. Another thread on here is for RIP Jim Shaw. He was our groundsman in the 90's and spent every single waking hour at the club. He did security, caretaker, groundsman, kitman, bar manager .... far too many hours to count. Mick Schultz was the same, and so were many others - Dave Burgess will be no different. We can't knock the man who wears many hats when we find that he doesn't suit one.

I'm hoping that we will soon have a major something to sink our collective teeth into, and will post accordingly at the time. For now though keep thinking of the ideas and the positivity, and lets try to keep a lid on the negative things. It's really not all that terrible at the moment and I personally feel its a little disrespectful to moan about the tiny irrelevant things when so much good stuff is right around the corner.

KTF
OSO
COYR
StID

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Well said Macca, you have reiterated much of what I have said over the last three years and drawn the conclusion for many of the same reasons. No 3 I wouldn't beat myself up over it. Much of the reasons were dealt with at the time and people have in general forgotten. You have hit a gold nail when you say the people who don't come are not fans. Why not? this is the reason we need to get to the bottom of.
You say that nobody from the club reads this forum, I can assure you they do. When I was having a go about the loss of the Dissability concession I was ferociously attacked by one or two and a new post called King Kev. I wonder who that could have been. But everything that was wrong at that time he took as a personal attack on both himself and AndyHolt. Nobody here would ever say a wrong word about AH, full stop. You have replied with a brilliant post about positivety and I am with you all the way, we hardly ever hear a word about the academy success and the the trust's great work. yes we can do better. Everything you have said has been said before. The difference is there are enough people reading and listening and evaluating the ideas. The supporters club does not seem to have the input I expected. But if we all keep at it things can change, but to change these problems we have to understand why? that is the basic starting point. I will let others have their input. please make a suggestion or observation for discussion. everybody has view on some aspect of the experience of the club. Great post Maccca.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I suggested something to AH a few months ago with the aim of seating a thousand 11 year old bums on seats. Andy's response was that we had nowhere to put a thousand kids.

I thought it was a spot on answer. Previous Chairmen would have told me to crack on, and we'd have had a thousand disappointed kids who probably wouldnt come again.

The point is that we know what to do but the order of business has to be correct or its wasted opportunities.

Discounted games, free games ... all pointless unless you are in a position to capitalise.

I GUARANTEE that the position will be entirely different. AND TOGETHER WE WILL HELP THAT MATERIALISE

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Another great post from Macca!

Like mentioned, Only this season we have started to run our own food outlets, Not for the lack of trying but we just haven't had the money to fork out for the facilities until now...All money going back into the club rather than outside catering!

Another thing is the Sports Bar, Should be on of the first places people want to have a birthday but the state of it at the minute it's way down the pecking order in Accrington to have a party...Maybe that will change depending on Andys plans on the Main Stand?

Macca mentioned about players doing meet and greets in town on a match day, I mentioned this in the summer about getting players to stand in Asda/Tesco and hand out season ticket/loyalty card forms out. Injured players handing out cheap tickets to kids, autographs on match days in town, just to raise the profile of the club!

Maybe Andy wants to get the ground up to his standard before attracting new fans, Maybe he thinks there's no point doing incentives now with facilities that won't entice "new fans" to return..."

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Andy Holt is a realist. I think if you do a trawl of my posts going back 2/3 years I have said all this. I am just glad people seem to think things are now falling into place. All the points you have mentioned are both valid and Andy knows what is needed. It may be that it takes another 12 months to sort the sports bar and venue to capitalise on the venue income. ie wedding receptions, birthdays etc. Together is the way forward but we need to make the Stanley experience something people want. This is a critical part of the recovery plan as it has to be right first time.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

And the player sues. Making injured players stand all day giving out leaflets beggars belief, the injury should be a clue. The players are not paid enough to degrade themselves, plus no one recognises them.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Surely a thousand kids would only increase our current home gate to around 2,200.
You could spread 1000 kids across the front of the Clayton end with ease, why do they need seats?
:confused:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Then how many minders, qualified in 'safeguarding' and as per the law and Regulations would be needed to care for them? Not as straightforward as it seems. It has been tried giving free season tickets to all Hyndburn junior school leavers in the recent past and takeup was negligible. :(

Re: The club needs fans....
 

In a nutshell, yes you could. If a 1000 extra people turned up at the next game then they would fit in anywhere. But in the instance of a specific invitation then you'd want to house them together somewhere - and as Sherry says, there would be adults with them numbering in the hundreds. If we had to do this now we'd look for a smaller club, house their fans in the cow shed and give the Accy End over. If it then rained all the good work goes to waste as they'd have a ruined experience.

Maybe 18 months down the line we'll see a lid over the Accy End? Maybe we'll see the Whinney Hill stand go up?

The point is that we could house an organic growth of fans but A specific promotion aiming at a thousand kids we couldn't.

Food for thought there and we find ourselves back in a chicken and egg scenario

Re: The club needs fans....
 

If memory serves, There was a match last year when loads of kids were behind the goals. It was a sunny day and think it was the one where Fosu scored In a 1-0 victory?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Sherry is right; with so many "anticapted" children there would be work to do.

When we "split" the Coppice for the "grassroots" teams it was v Cambridge; 1-1 from memory.

Sad thing was hundreds "requested" and were issued free tickets but failed to attend.:o

The whole of this post is excellant, shame we currently have limitations and experience of "been here done that" in a positive way!:eek:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Thats summat needs weighing up first if it aint been imho.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

making reasons for doing nothing for me is not on. something needs to be done quickly. there,s been various ideas posted on here and through the supporters club in the past. something must be implemented by the club as they know what can or can,t be done. try kid for a quid, give em a voucher for the next home game and see the amount of take up there will be. kids with their mates is the way forward, trying to get parents who are not interested to bring kids will never take off.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

After some of the positive ideas put forward to help the club increase home attendances, it is a little sad & disappointing to read posts making excuses why all of these ideas are doomed to failure.
'We can't afford it!'
'It's been tried before'
And perhaps the most illogical - 'We can't accommodate them!'
Well, I suppose we might as well give up bothering then.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

its also illogical pretending stuff never happened.:confused:

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Maybe try if the adult brings 2 paying children the the adult gets in free

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I believe it is very relevant. when this system first came out and was tried it was very expensive. However, the cost's have come down to affordable levels. I know many ideas have been tried and failed but that was then and we should have learned from those experiences. People like to be associated with success. Towards the end of last season, we were achieving good gates which would keep the club a lot more self sufficient. I hope we can make further suggestions with some ideas as how to implement them with a greater degree of success than previously experienced. Whatever we do we must keep the aim to have a good experience coming to the Wham. If we see things that can be done better or shouldn't be happening then we need to be making it known to the people in charge on the day. I am glad this thread is turning more positive than previous attempts. I think we all agree that the way forward is together, Criticism of the club/ Team / management is good if done as constructive. we all like to have a rant when we see the game through different eyes than the manager, I can't understand how Coley can get wrong with all the advisors in the ground. Baffling.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Now that is a good idea!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Taken out of context you're right it is a baffling and illogical statement.

Put back into the context (of a specific idea I mooted to AH) then its nothing of the sort and was entirely the right answer from him.

There's nothing to stop ideas being tried out, my only concern is the up, down, up, down pricing of the last few years. I suspect that sooner or later we will settle on a pricing structure that suits all.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

To avoid scrolling back, the "system" being the computerised ticket purchasing arrangements clever enough to let you move from your season ticket seat to be with your mates who you've persuaded to come along....

ChrisR, One club's affordable levels might not be Stanley's :D, but please can you put real figures on this, for installation, customisation and then operation, so we know what ballpark we might be playing in?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Re: The club needs fans....
 

With Christmas approaching & winter setting in, we are about to enter the bleakest part of the season.
My real concern is that with Stanley's home form dipping, so will the gates.
I can't see Stevenage & Yeovil bringing many fans for the next two home games, so it will be interesting to see if we can maintain even current levels of attendance.
If they continue to fall, I think the club may have to reconsider some of the ideas put forward on this thread.
Especially the one about a free mince pie! :D:D:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

maybe do a Christmas deal 60 quid for 4 home games if you buy before christmas

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Ticket prices were slashed around this time last season.
£15
If you are not prepared to pay that for 90 mins of exhilaration at England's most iconic football ground then you are brain dead and not bothering with.
Ffs - what else is there to do on a winter Saturday/weds evening? Clear leaves out of your gutters? Watch Bake Off?

It's not Stanley's problem, it's society's problem.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

[QUOTE=Lord Didsbury;1181406]Ticket prices were slashed around this time last season.
£15
If you are not prepared to pay that for 90 mins of exhilaration at England's most iconic football ground then you are brain dead and not bothering with.


This sounds good but are you still talking about Stanley?

Re: The club needs fans....
 

If we got 90 minutes of exhilaration - We could DOUBLE the admission price.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

One thing I've noticed over the past couple of weeks is some clubs doing kids for a quid maybe we should try this for december

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Been saying this since post #31, just glad someone agrees!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Especially with it bee xhristmas people can't afford to shell out for football so even if just child prices were dropped, they're the future we need to do anything we can to get them in, even if every adult if they brought a child they could get a free pint or something

Re: The club needs fans....
 

I can't give you the up to date figures for the system today but I do know it is a lot less expensive than it was. I fully accept your point that it might be out of Stanley's range. However I don't believe that is the case but I can see that the system may not be worth while at stanley at the moment. If you see revive reds post just below yours it explains very well what I had in mind. If it proves to be a non starter at this time then there was nothing lost at looking at the idea. Just keep ideas coming, We need bums on seats and anything we can think off is worth discussing.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Last season I suggested a small indoor area for "elderly" fans to watch the match .It was poo ,pooed without discussion. I do know of a number of elderly men who have all stopped attending our games as they get too cold. Have a heart , we may be lucky enough to have the same problem one day. And yes I do know it is a winter sport , but suggestion were requested and so this is mine.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

To quote the song Greeny.....' Baby it's cold outside '... YET my octogenarious bones will be well insulated and, unless the game is off, I will be there !.

But knowing how long cold bones take to warm up again, and how aging Lungs react to the inspiration of icy air, I do see your point. Perhaps a creche for Grandads and Grandma's is already planned for we OAPs in the new Stand-to-be , with free warming beverages on tap and
nubile maidens on hand to provide a half-time rundown at half time ?.

There I go fantasising again !.... and is ' octogenarious ' really a word ?.

Re: The club needs fans....
 

If not, it certainly should be :D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

Just give em a free peppered steak pie
:D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

The only problem with doing "Kid a quid" just for December is that you cause confusion because it will take a few weeks to get round that it's "kid a quid" then come January people will moan saying "put bloody prices up"

Think it makes more sense to find the happy medium and stick to it through the season!

Also wouldn't be a bad idea the club really pushing Loyalty Cards and Half Season Tickets as Christmas presents more!

Re: The club needs fans....
 

That'll begger you up more than the cold! :D

Re: The club needs fans....
 

[QUOTE=Greeny;1181581]Last season I suggested a small indoor area for "elderly" fans to watch the match .It was poo ,pooed without discussion. I do know of a number of elderly men who have all stopped attending our games as they get too cold.

try oldham, rochdale or halifax. its quite tropical at stanley.