Email sent FAO Raj singh re: Darlo Attendances

[bishopsmike]

It is a good idea but there is a danger he might feel patronised by you telling him how we cant cope with low attendences

[Mullet69]

Quite well written, but I'm not sure why there is this huge hangup about the attendance. A few years ago 1800 was a pretty good crowd for a Saturday game, and 600 higher than the usual Tuesday night crowds. We are now back to that standard and will have to get used to it again.

If Raj Singh took this club over expecting 2500 upwards every week with a fresh new team of nobodies, hasbeens and plodders (no disrespect intended to any player) fighting at the lower end of the table, then he is a very very naive businessman. He will have budgeted for low crowds, especially Tuesday nights with the extra floodlighting/lighting costs and extra low gate due to other football attractions.

[quakermass]

There's the danger (and likelyhood) that punters who would otherwise have paid anyway will hang on the coat tails of season ticket holders and get a free ticket, losing the club money.
It's the same old...play decent football, get results and the crowds will return. Only thing I agree with is the free tickets for local school kids within say a 15 mile radius.
At the end of the day the likes of myself have watched 4 and a half hours at the arena this season and not seen one ball nestled into the opposition net. Also in those 4 and a half hours we've had about 2 shots. Even for free this wont attract fans.
Something needs to be done and Raj isn't daft.

[Magical Quakers]

Exactly, it depends on what you feel is more important to the football club, money or atmosphere.

I would imagine that given our recent past then money through the turnstile is more important to Raj than getting an extra 1000 bums on seats (for no money), especially when the most loyal, probably noisiest fans are already going to be there. An extra 1000 moaners when we are going through a tough time is probably what we don't need.

[cwisstoffhur]

it wont get too many extra bums on seats it will just mean people who dont have a season ticket but go to games anyway (such as myself) will just use their mates with season tickets VIP place.

[Quakerz]

I dunno why people keep on banging on about £18 tickets. They cost me £16.

[mobi]

it wont get too many extra bums on seats it will just mean people who dont have a season ticket but go to games anyway (such as myself) will just use their mates with season tickets VIP place.

Also means that some if not most supporters will also bring people along who wouldn't usually go to the games

No it doesn't. As has been pointed out, those who normally pay on the day will tag along with a season ticket holder. Chances are we'd see a marginal increase in the attendance accompanied by a substantial decrease in revenue.

Do not assume that the football club have not considered these things. They have probably spent far more time trying to work these things out than you have.

[fcdarlo]

It is in the interests of the Football league to get attendances up across the board. Could the club contact them to see what has worked elsewhere, contact other clubs too see what has worked elsewhere ?

Just a random thought and not sure how often it occurs, Boro / Sunderland play on a Saturday and we are at home on the Tuesday, if you have a ticket from the Boro / Sunderland game you get in free to Darlo. If you only offer this when the bigger clubs are away from home, you are hopefully not going to upset them (by trying to steal there fans) and as we have some of there younger talent on show you never know.

Those Boro fans that work away from Boro and drive past the Arena may just call in on one or two occasion on the way home from work if its free.

[TFDM]

Sorry why should we be giving tickets out for free to Boro fans.

When I randomly go to Boro I am expected to pay full price.

Besides Boro are a Football League club now and will be, more than likely playing the same days as us.

[Onion]

Thought I would add my idea to this, probably the last thing everyone needs!

As i see it trying to increase the attendence is going to be difficult until the team starts getting some wins on the board as the floaters/'glory supporters' are going to stay away until this happens. I think we have to face fact that there is only about 2000 regular attendees of home matches. The larger crowds are probably down to floaters/'glory supporters' and people like myself who just pyshically can't make matches usually.

Anyway to my idea. I thought so as not to upset the season ticket holders and to minimise the chances of taking a hit on a league game why not do some sort of deal for the JPT match against Lincoln at the arena!
Say make it £5 in advance £10 on the night flat fee. Advertise it around town and in the papers, maybe giving free tickets to primary schools in the area as well.
Hopefully with something like this we could double what we would normally get for the match.

Just an idea.

[divas]

dont see a problem in doing an offer like that on cup games that shouldnt really impact the budget or season ticket holders.

however, to piss on your chips, the JPT is that much of a nothing game that even with prices of £1 a kid and £5 an adult i still think we'd struggle to get a decent crowd in. im pretty sure the club would look to reduce admission for this game anyway, as if they dont we'll be lucky to get over 500 in

i would like to see it tried so that people who have called for cheaper prices can see the effect, but they'll just argue that its a nothing game anyway

if it is to be done, then it needs to be done on a saturday league game and of course advertised! (of course i dont think it'll make a difference, and definitely shouldnt be done until we put at least a decent bit of form together)

[fcdarlo]

Sorry why should we be giving tickets out for free to Boro fans.

When I randomly go to Boro I am expected to pay full price.

Besides Boro are a Football League club now and will be, more than likely playing the same days as us.

As I said it was a bit of a random thought as I was typing, but in response to your answer, why free tickets to boro fans, because they are football fans that currently do not attend darlo games and in theory are in the catchment area.

As we are relying on the help of such clubs it is not a time to piss them off. However its a a softer verions of a tried and tested product launch idea to try and take customers, eg, if you normally hire DVD's from blockbusters, then show your membership card and you can try love film free for a trail period of one month for example. You are targeting current users of your product.

The reason you pay full price at Boro is cos they are not crying out for your attendance.

[Santino]

Wouldn't you then get people unhappy that Boro fans get in for free while they have to fork out full price?

I know I'd be unhappy if a supporter of another team got a free ticket while I, a regular, had to pay £16/£18/whatever.

[fcdarlo]

Indeed you may Santino, but over the last few weeks people are upset at having to pay an extra £1 too use a bus, 50p extra for a pie etc etc, so unless you simply give everything away for free people will always moan.

It is worrying with the complete lack of positivity towards any changes at all. (I am not suggesting getting boro fans in will save the club, it was a quite the off the cuff thought). The club is in a bad way and needs support, I live away from Darlo and have for 12 years and perhaps make on average 5 - 10 home games a season (this in intself make my opinion worthless to some), but it has not stopped me buying season ticket for about 4 or 5 of those 11 years, the club does not demand my help, but as a fan and a supporter of the club I try to do all I can to do just that, support it, be it by my attendance, vocally at games, or finacilally.

I wonder how some of the people on here live with just the general price rise of any product they buy day in day out.

[collett_for_england]

If you were 18 it would be cheaper to buy a boro season ticket and turn up each week at darlo than buying a darlo season ticket... may backfire!
However cheaper tickets for boro / Newcastle / Sunderland / Hartlepool season ticket holders would be an avenue to explore, I think Dagenham do it with West Ham.

[ShrewsX]

I wonder how some of the people on here live with just the general price rise of any product they buy day in day out.

The thing is, you don't buy Darlo related products day in day out. DFC is not a necessity, its a luxury. Its expendible. Things like petrol and food are an unavoidable cost to many people, and while we whinge and complain about it, fact is we can and do shop around to get the best deal. Its part of life.

The escalating cost of football annoys me. Not so much now with Raj in charge (he hasn't had time to really adress much) but the fact that in recent years, the price has gone up, and the management in charge have done nothing in return except complain that people aren't paying it. People vote with their feet when it comes to luxury items, and I find it almost insulting that the likes of Haughton and Reynolds could sit there and raise the price while at the same time saying we NEED X amount of fans, or the club folds.

Fact is, in no other industry (except possibly the rail network), could this work. A restaurant that was poor value for money, with crap service would go bust. A shop that sold overpriced poor quality merchandise, would not be able to say "if you dont by our stuff, we'll go bust".

Football clubs (and not just Darlo) take fans for granted. Essentially we are customers, and the way they treat us, and the way they overpay players means people are becoming alienated from the game. This is reflected in falling attendances across the board.

[hodgie1]

i dont think this idea would work, all youd get would be freeloaders whod normally pay, getting in with a season ticket holder, the club would make less money, the club, rightly so wont do this

[MSG Quaker]

Not sure about many of the ideas on this thread but the one I most agree with is letting the school children in for free.

If the club provided say 100-200 free tickets to all schools within the borough and asked them to use them as an incentive for the children you would then only get the children coming who wanted to, these children would of course need to be accompanied by a full paying adult.

As someone has mentioned put them in there own stand/section and ply them with saleable gifts sort of pantomime style, big hands, flags, sweets etc.