I don’t think the profile of people attending the market is similar to demographic of football fans. A market stall doesn’t feel a priority to me to build attendances.
Success will be the ultimate driver of attendances. A season or two in the division above would see regular crowds of 7k-8k and above and press the flesh on the stadium question. Talk of new roads still appears to be fanciful. Prices would inevitably rise and access would be an even thornier discussion point but those are the trappings. Reinstating matchday programmes and club shops are likely to remain cosmetic side issues.
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What if programmes are only brought back for certain games, 3rd Round of FA Cup, Round 3 & onwards for League Cup & maybe quarterly ones throughout the year, start of season, Boxing Day, Easter & last day of season?
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Give it a go I guess and try something different if the money is there to absorb likely loss leaders. Could even try a nicely printed and glossy ‘season review’. I used to like the old VHS season review tapes and wonder if this could be replicated on YouTube but time and effort vs return is always the definitive factor.
The club needs to have more of a presence in the town centre, maybe some well placed advertising signs (that are updated & not forgotten about) or reminder to the community that the club exists & needs their help & support.
Another thing the club need to do is bring the community back to the club. Letting grassroot clubs do the penalty shoot-outs at half time or doing events focused on kids will encourage parents to bring them down. Things like end of season kids party or beginning of the season kick-off event will get children interested in the club again. If you hook 100 young minds, you then get a fan for life and hopefully more ticket sales as they get older?
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Having a good following on social media is a massive money spinner atm and a way of grabbing people’s attention when they mind not see or hear from us.
Just look at Bayo & Taff’s following, the club was using them (Bayo more than Taff) to get people interested in the club
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Very anecdotal but amongst my son’s local club, there are a few ‘of us ‘hardcore’ Wycombe fans but still plenty of floaters who come every so often and bring their children, particularly if we’re doing well and in warmer weather. The interest is there amongst the local football community, at least within a 10-mile radius, and hopefully the extension of the bus services will pick up a few more further afield.
But really we’re banking on promotion(s) to grow the hardened support and hope that it becomes ingrained enough to stick around for the dips to the 3rd/4th tiers.
Agree that more could be done to build presence in town but I think it’ll take something generational/previously uncharted to break through the glass ceiling.
Did someone mention the club needs more of a presence in the town centre . It’s nice to know that as I approach my retirement club traditions live on.
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Very lucky to have Michael Duff at this level. With every sentence he makes everything seem so simple, but he’ll occasionally frame sentences with such fluidity and depth of vocabulary and remind you that he’s deceivingly intelligent. Seriously impressed. He harnesses his brainpower very well. Fantastic communicator. Steers himself away from so much of the ‘safe answer’ corporate guff that is adopted by Jeremy Sauer and Dan Rice. It would be so easy for Duff to take the safe clichéd answers like the rest of the panel. He’s too credible and authentic for that. Get him a long term contract. He is crucial to restoring the identity of our club.
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The problem is, with the starting XI and subs not announced until an hour before kick off, there isn’t time to print that in a programme.
Some rugby clubs still have them, as they have to announce the starting XV and subs 24 hours before the game.
But as suggested above, printed programmes have probably gone the way of cloth caps and wooden rattles, given the ubiquity of instant online information.
Squad lists (which are announced in the first weeks of September and February) so fans know all the numbers not team sheets that are announced 75 minutes before kick off!
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If I want a squad list, I can print one off at home.
Or use this
And with Bobby C’s magnificent WiFi, it’s never been easier to view.
That said, I do think there’s some merit in @Midlander 8-pager idea. People love a freebie and it’s a little souvenir / reminder of the day.
And it saves you having to keep your phone out all game. That was fine in the Dodds era, but there’s a risk of spontaneous excitement these days, which increases the likelihood of breakages.
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This campaign for matchday programmes appears to be self serving rather than something that’s actually good for the club.
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I always wondered what the blokes in the anoraks with the little pens were doing 10 minutes before kick off.
The questioner the other evening made a very good point about how kids read and re-read programmes over and over again and learn all about the players and study that season’s results and line-ups and attendances etc
I agree that it’s a shame they are no longer able to do so.
Kids generally of course (and quite rightly) don’t carry smart phones around with them
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Perhaps its our younger supporter that any form of match day production could be aimed at
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What the kids really need then is some kind of player photos and an album to stick them all in. If only someone would bring back those old Panini sticker books.
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The problem even with a freebie 8 pager is the resources required to produce it every other week. Or maybe sometimes even three times a week.
I personally think Matt made an excellent point that seemed to be poo poo’d by some in the audience about creatable content and man hours.
Personally, I think there has been a huge drop off in available content from the club since Phil left. That’s not to take away from the efforts put in by those there now but there’s no podcast, weekly videos seem to have dropped off (which admittedly became part of the podcast) and Matt seems to have had to pick up duties Phil covered while presumably still carrying out what he did before.
And we are suggesting we throw in a free 8 pager - one that needs to be unique week on week because otherwise why bother? People will get bored and it gets rejected, or worse, just binned every week. Not very sustainable and that’s before you take into account the cost of producing it.
Now, I get there’s some and I would suggest older supporters, that hark back to the days of the program and I understand that. It’s part of their routine they miss. It’s a familiarity we are all comfortable with. But at the risk of being down thumbed to death, but that market is niche and as years go by will be increasingly so.
So, we wave a magic wand and a free 8 pager is handed out today. How many years do we really think those that would appreciate would be around to make it a viable and used enough to produce? When the alternative is producing content for a media we all have in our pockets. All day. Every day.
Now, to summarise my Ted Talk. I heard an interesting theory the other day about Turkish Barbers and Vape shops and why they are taking over town centres. And it’s not the standard “it’s a front” theory - They are just about the only thing Amazon can’t compete with and absolutely NEED a bricks and mortar premises. The internet, access and convenience killed the historical high street we might romanticise today.
The internet, either with or without Bobby C’s class leading WiFi gives as the access and convenience of information that killed everything about a weekly program other than sentiment.
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I’m Not doubting the questioners version of events but I do wonder how old those kids were. Because my 8 and 10 year old would have zero interest.
A kids part of the website where they could watch videos of goals and interviews aimed at them, yes, but the amount of £25+ programs we have bought them when we go to theatre shows etc so they can look back or read about the perforers and perforce tellS me they would have zero interest. Unless the alternative is them doing absolutely nothing else but complain about the cold.