Friday night football.

I see Tamworth played at home to Kettering on Friday night in the league, I believe this was an experiment to see if they got more supporters through the turnstiles. Apparently the crowd was a bit more than the average, but not a great deal!! That said, they've already played the likes of Telford and Stockport at home this season, who both took around 500 supporters, whereas Kettering took 150 (which may have been more had it been a Saturday!!!) I think they are considering it as a success, if not a massive one. With us suffering the same problems as Tamworth, with a vast number of football supporters from the town choosing to watch Villa, Blues, Albion, Wolves, Man Utd etc etc.. instead of Redditch, what would peoples thoughts be on playing home games on a Friday night!!! I would normally be dead set against anything like this, but at the end of the day we need more supporters through the turnstiles!!! Away supports in this league are pretty low anyway, so losing up to 50% of them wouldn't be a major loss if we could get an extra 50-100 Redditch supporters in (who would be watching their league teams on the Saturday!!) I believe it could be worth looking into/trying it out. I know Tranmere used to do it a lot, don't think they do these days though!!!!

Right, i'm going to brace myself to be shot down in flames

I'm not trolling by the way, it's a genuine idea, and like I say, I would normally be dead set against it, football is 3pm on a Saturday!!! I just wondered how much opposition there would be to the idea!!!
Also, bit of an after thought, would the opposition club have to agree? Can't see many teams being to pleased about it!!!

not sure a friday night would work with the costs of floodlights maybe a sunday would work better. dont think other clubs would want to play on any day except saturdays

Agree Floodlights would cancel most of the extra income, I still doubt there would be extra income as these said extra fans would still want to see the prem teams. would they/can they afford to do both in the week?, also when we talk about price Weymouth were £11 to get in, £2.50 for programme (nowhere near as good as ours) and pints started at £3, our prices and quality are right where they should be imo.

I for one would be able to attend much more frequently on a Friday night than I can at the moment on a Saturday.

I tend to think that we would get a better crowd on a Friday night and we should give this a go and trial it as I think if it was marketed correctly we would get a better crowd. As always the latter seems to be a problem the club cannot seem to improve on albeit it is better than the previous regime.

I also think another idea is buying early bird tickets for a game where you could say get these for £7 where you know that games against average/poorly supported clubs mean that you are going to get a crowd.

I also think that in general football at all levels really need to look at reality. All levels of football down to step 5 IMO are overpriced. I think £9 to watch Redditch is excessive and from my travels this season to watch other games I think value for money at Step 5 (eg Studley & Stratford games I have watched) offers so much more value, £5 entrance, programmes good, food good, bar facilities good. I would even go as far as actually saying the end product on the pitch at most of the games I have watched has been a hell of a lot better than the games I have watched at Redditch this season. The few games I have watched at Kiddy (£16 entrance) have been brilliant neutral entertainment and the food is the best at a ground anywhere, Evesham, Solihull & Worcester have been poor in terms of value, quality and entertainment.

The MFA/Vase games have been brilliant, seen the following games:

Stratford v Atherstone - The football played was a lot better than anything seen at RUFC
Studley v Alvechurch
Stratford v RC Warwick - Superb game of which RCW post 30 minutes were quality
Studley v Tividale - Tivvy were absolute class, easily the best side I have seen this season

Redditch have improved significantly but I still think £9 in the current climate is not realistic, especially on a Tuesday evening as we are now in the midst of winter people won't bother. They may still not bother but picking out games where you know the attendance is going to be rubbish (eg Red Insure Cup) you may as well take a punt on reducing or offering special offers (eg attend this at full price and get a discount at the next game, or attend the previous match and get a reduction at this game or a free programme or £5 off a club shirt).

I also want to take up the element about the floodlights and power, how many times are the floodlights used for 1st team, under 21, training games/nights? Midweek games, training etc mean they are on with no income, Sat games for the next few months mean they will be on for a good few hours so the Friday game should not be underestimated.

Cheltenham have done it a number of times the last few seasons and seen attendances rise in a healthy way, I would like to see this given a shot personally

I think it is a great idea.

I would use it like Maccy D'd use the McRib...not too often...but great in early season or approaching Xmas.

Work, pub, footy, town, kebab...great man time.

I would discount it to take up Leethal's point.

Leethall wrote:I tend to think that we would get a better crowd on a Friday night and we should give this a go and trial it as I think if it was marketed correctly we would get a better crowd. As always the latter seems to be a problem the club cannot seem to improve on albeit it is better than the previous regime.

I also think another idea is buying early bird tickets for a game where you could say get these for £7 where you know that games against average/poorly supported clubs mean that you are going to get a crowd.

I also think that in general football at all levels really need to look at reality. All levels of football down to step 5 IMO are overpriced. I think £9 to watch Redditch is excessive and from my travels this season to watch other games I think value for money at Step 5 (eg Studley & Stratford games I have watched) offers so much more value, £5 entrance, programmes good, food good, bar facilities good. I would even go as far as actually saying the end product on the pitch at most of the games I have watched has been a hell of a lot better than the games I have watched at Redditch this season. The few games I have watched at Kiddy (£16 entrance) have been brilliant neutral entertainment and the food is the best at a ground anywhere, Evesham, Solihull & Worcester have been poor in terms of value, quality and entertainment.

The MFA/Vase games have been brilliant, seen the following games:

Stratford v Atherstone - The football played was a lot better than anything seen at RUFC
Studley v Alvechurch
Stratford v RC Warwick - Superb game of which RCW post 30 minutes were quality
Studley v Tividale - Tivvy were absolute class, easily the best side I have seen this season

Redditch have improved significantly but I still think £9 in the current climate is not realistic, especially on a Tuesday evening as we are now in the midst of winter people won't bother. They may still not bother but picking out games where you know the attendance is going to be rubbish (eg Red Insure Cup) you may as well take a punt on reducing or offering special offers (eg attend this at full price and get a discount at the next game, or attend the previous match and get a reduction at this game or a free programme or £5 off a club shirt).

I also want to take up the element about the floodlights and power, how many times are the floodlights used for 1st team, under 21, training games/nights? Midweek games, training etc mean they are on with no income, Sat games for the next few months mean they will be on for a good few hours so the Friday game should not be underestimated.

Cheltenham have done it a number of times the last few seasons and seen attendances rise in a healthy way, I would like to see this given a shot personally

will discuss with Chairmen when he is back later this week and let you know if the club will give this a go.

I work on a friday night, this would mean i miss a home game for the first time in nearly two seasons and someone else would have to run the shop

I don't think it matters what day we play midweek games... We played Nuneaton on tuesday night last year... 161 turned up. Personally i think if it was on a friday night, it wouldn't have been a great deal more. Then we play our weekend games when? Sunday? When parents have kids that might play for sunday league teams or even play themselves.

I don't think its a good idea.

rawlings09 wrote:I work on a friday night, this would mean i miss a home game for the first time in nearly two seasons and someone else would have to run the shop

I don't think it matters what day we play midweek games... We played Nuneaton on tuesday night last year... 161 turned up. Personally i think if it was on a friday night, it wouldn't have been a great deal more. Then we play our weekend games when? Sunday? When parents have kids that might play for sunday league teams or even play themselves.

I don't think its a good idea.

The idea is to actually move your Saturday home game to Friday night and the official midweek games would stay on a Tuesday!!!

So what you're effectively doing is moving your better attended match days, to a the lesser attended midweeks?

And if people don't come on a tuesday, what makes people think they'll come in their droves on a friday night? Isn't it likely to decrease away supporters?

150 hardcore reds fans standing on the terraces on a freeing cold tuesday night are going to stand on the freezing cold terraces on a friday night too?

I'm either being thick and completely missing the point or it's not a great idea.

Means no clash with big premier league teams in the midlands on saturdays. Might attract few more fans.

When you've got 4 premier league teams within a 40 minute (Wolves is 40 minutes on a good day ) drive of you, that's a lot of football fans who in their eyes have something better to do on a Saturday!!! If however, Redditch moved the Saturday home game to a Friday night it won't clash with them, and some might decide an evening down the Valley is 'too tempting' to miss out on

I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but there must have been plenty of times when a Saturday afternoon game didn’t clash with Villa, Blues or WBA I.e. when they are playing away in the FA Cup, playing on a Sunday, international weekends etc. Whenever those weekends have cropped up, I can’t recall a time when it has ever made a difference.

For me, Saturday games should remain on a Saturday. I don’t know how much it costs to run floodlights for a couple of hours, but it can’t be cheap. I like the idea of non league games kicking off at 2pm on Saturdays during the winter, eliminating the need for floodlights to be used. As non league clubs are generally all strapped for cash, any saving could make a difference.

I do think that the club should look at changing midweek games to a different night midweek, maybe a Monday or Thursday. Clashing with Champions League football has to be a big reason for poorer crowds on a Tuesday.

You'd still need lights even if you kicked off at 2 in the winter surely?Totally agree though on the night of our evening matches Del Tuesday is the worst possible night.

O.k. then, start them at 1.45pm!

Leethall wrote:I tend to think that we would get a better crowd on a Friday night and we should give this a go and trial it as I think if it was marketed correctly we would get a better crowd. As always the latter seems to be a problem the club cannot seem to improve on albeit it is better than the previous regime.

I also think another idea is buying early bird tickets for a game where you could say get these for £7 where you know that games against average/poorly supported clubs mean that you are going to get a crowd.

I also think that in general football at all levels really need to look at reality. All levels of football down to step 5 IMO are overpriced. I think £9 to watch Redditch is excessive and from my travels this season to watch other games I think value for money at Step 5 (eg Studley & Stratford games I have watched) offers so much more value, £5 entrance, programmes good, food good, bar facilities good. I would even go as far as actually saying the end product on the pitch at most of the games I have watched has been a hell of a lot better than the games I have watched at Redditch this season. The few games I have watched at Kiddy (£16 entrance) have been brilliant neutral entertainment and the food is the best at a ground anywhere, Evesham, Solihull & Worcester have been poor in terms of value, quality and entertainment.

The MFA/Vase games have been brilliant, seen the following games:

Stratford v Atherstone - The football played was a lot better than anything seen at RUFC
Studley v Alvechurch
Stratford v RC Warwick - Superb game of which RCW post 30 minutes were quality
Studley v Tividale - Tivvy were absolute class, easily the best side I have seen this season

Redditch have improved significantly but I still think £9 in the current climate is not realistic, especially on a Tuesday evening as we are now in the midst of winter people won't bother. They may still not bother but picking out games where you know the attendance is going to be rubbish (eg Red Insure Cup) you may as well take a punt on reducing or offering special offers (eg attend this at full price and get a discount at the next game, or attend the previous match and get a reduction at this game or a free programme or £5 off a club shirt).

I also want to take up the element about the floodlights and power, how many times are the floodlights used for 1st team, under 21, training games/nights? Midweek games, training etc mean they are on with no income, Sat games for the next few months mean they will be on for a good few hours so the Friday game should not be underestimated.

Cheltenham have done it a number of times the last few seasons and seen attendances rise in a healthy way, I would like to see this given a shot personally

im not too sure but i heard the weekend that kiddy gave someone food posioning and they were changing catering companys only what i overheard at the under 21s game

There have always been blues/Villa/wba/wolves fans in Redditch i presume? They would never come on a tuesday night, they have never been on a tuesday night, they have never been on a saturday, they would never come on saturday.

Doesn't matter what day of the week we chose, they support premier/championship clubs, they don't understand non-league football and clearly don't care for it!

Those fans aren't going to think "oh wow, it's friday night, i'm going to watch Redditch United play, then go and spend more money watching the blues tomorrow!"

They don't even come down during the international break...

After some deliberation I've decided I'm against friday night matches. Despite horror show football for much of the season we have had pretty decent crowds on saturday afternoons and these I presume are over Swans' budget?
Also, what if this idea catches on? For those of us who went to Weymouth on saturday and couldn't stay over, a 3pm kick off was ideal. We drove down at our leisure in the morning, had a walk along the beach, saw the match suitably inebriated then got back home before stupid o'clock. If that match was scheduled for friday night I doubt many would have gone at all. For a start most of us would have had to get permission to leave work early from our bosses before rushing down for a 7.45pm kick off with nothing to look forward to afterwards. Away fans add money to gates all across the league so with their contribution reduced, added to floodlight bills and what I believe would be a reduced home attendance too (most of my mates who would go down on a saturday or a "work night" would rather be getting pissed on a friday) then this idea should be left to Tamworth!

Yeah, Tamworth who sit mid-table in the Conference Premier and get over 1,000 on a saturday and over 6/700 on a midweek.

Not Redditch who get 300 on a good saturday and 120 on a good midweek.

I don't think we have the fanbase at the moment to experiment with matchday days...

Surely that's the time to experiment then?

Two facts to consider here.

Redditch United haven't enjoyed decent gates for years, certainly not in my 16 years of following.

Redditch United have tried most things to combat this, other than trying a Friday night.

No brainer for me.

One problem could be getting opponents to play ball mind.

del boy wrote:I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but there must have been plenty of times when a Saturday afternoon game didn’t clash with Villa, Blues or WBA I.e. when they are playing away in the FA Cup, playing on a Sunday, international weekends etc. Whenever those weekends have cropped up, I can’t recall a time when it has ever made a difference.

For me, Saturday games should remain on a Saturday. I don’t know how much it costs to run floodlights for a couple of hours, but it can’t be cheap. I like the idea of non league games kicking off at 2pm on Saturdays during the winter, eliminating the need for floodlights to be used. As non league clubs are generally all strapped for cash, any saving could make a difference.

I do think that the club should look at changing midweek games to a different night midweek, maybe a Monday or Thursday. Clashing with Champions League football has to be a big reason for poorer crowds on a Tuesday.

You're not to far wrong there, we've played 4 Saturday home league games this season, only 2 have clashed with the 'big 4 ' which was Villa on both occasions.

20/08/11 home to Hemel Hempstead, attendance 267, Villa at home.
03/09/11 home to Cirencester, attendance 276, none of 'big 4' at home.
08/10/11 home to Cambridge, attendance 271, none of 'big 4' at home.
05/11/11 home to Totton, attendance 204, Villa at home.

So what can you read into that? Maybe it doesn't effect the crowds a great deal, but it is a fact that our 2 highest attendances have been when none of the 'big 4' have been at home on the same day!!!!

porrohman wrote:You'd still need lights even if you kicked off at 2 in the winter surely?Totally agree though on the night of our evening matches Del Tuesday is the worst possible night.

In my youth (a long long time ago!) when my father and I supported Dulwich Hamlet, they had no fllodlights (They were installed in 1963!) and winter games kicked off at 2.15 am ( it was pretty general then). I don't remember there being any problems with finishing the games.

Personally, I'm against changing Saturday's games to Friday. Torquay tried it for a period in the seventies but soon reverted back to Saturday. I don't honestly think it would make a lot of difference.

Agree that Tuesday is a bad night, but so is Wednesday (Champions League) and Thursday (Europa League). Mondays are out for me! (Yes, I know it's not all about me!)

arsene wrote:

porrohman wrote:You'd still need lights even if you kicked off at 2 in the winter surely?Totally agree though on the night of our evening matches Del Tuesday is the worst possible night.

In my youth (a long long time ago!) when my father and I supported Dulwich Hamlet, they had no fllodlights (They were installed in 1963!) and winter games kicked off at 2.15 am ( it was pretty general then). I don't remember there being any problems with finishing the games.

Personally, I'm against changing Saturday's games to Friday. Torquay tried it for a period in the seventies but soon reverted back to Saturday. I don't honestly think it would make a lot of difference.

Agree that Tuesday is a bad night, but so is Wednesday (Champions League) and Thursday (Europa League). Mondays are out for me! (Yes, I know it's not all about me!)

Somebody has to, and it might as well be me as anyone else.

2.15am and they didn't use floodlights? Trying to recreate that wartime spirit were they?