Attendances this season

Despite all of the excellent work that has been going on round the club since March...I am a little disappointed not to see any special initiatives to increase match day attendances?

I still think $9 is still too high to watch this level of football.....it may be comparible, but still too high.

Our dear friends over in Bromsgrove charge $3 and get 400...at a much lower level...but then benefit on the secondary spend with more people in the ground.

I would like to see some offers/discounts to encourage more people over the hard-core 200.

1. Free childrens season ticket with any adult ticket
2. Pay the kid $5 for bringing his dad along (who pays $9)
3. Buy 4 games, get one free
4. Donate a fee game (as suggested many times)
5. Concessions on Blues/Villa/WBA/Wolves season tickets
6. Charity day...$2 from admission donated to cancer research
7. Invite a school...invite a business
8. Refresh the idea with Mcdonalds

etc.etc.

I am aware Chris said he was the safety net if the attendances do not go above the budget...but the club should not rely on this and keep trying to get more people down at discounted levels.

I do not think by having a side in the top half of the table is enough to encourage people to spend $9 and give up their Saturday afternoon with Sky sports.

Agree Steve. I think £7 is a more realistic admission charge at this level and I am slightly dissapointed we are not reducing it. To expensive for families to come to games in the current climate.

I agree with a lot of that Steve; I made a similar point quite recently. Maybe such promotions are in the pipeline? The fixtures haven’t yet been released so I guess that makes it harder for the club to make any kind of promotion. I hope to see some kind of initiative come the start of the season.

On this forum, we’ve all seen and appreciate the good work that has been going on. But for want of a better phrase, promoting the clubs improvements on here is kind of like “preaching to the choir”. Your average, ignorant, armchair sky sports fan would be difficult to engage no matter what we do, what we charge etc.

Comparing our attendances with Bromsgrove is not quite so simple. Whatever their level and whatever their admission fee; they enjoy a sense of club loyalty and community spirit that we can only dream of.

I don’t think that there is any quick fix to improving our attendances, it is going to take time, patience and lots of work. Anyone who can solve the riddle of how to improve our attendances is a genius!

It's the level of football that will make people not come down.

We're not Conference Premier, we're not Blue Square, we're EVOSKIT!

If people didn't come down before because of our league then chances are we face a mighty challenge getting them down now.
-end negative-

Fortunatly, i believe we have people at the club now that like a challenge! People that want the club to prosper and do well.

I also think taking the club to the people will help a great deal, it'll show we're not tucked away in our old ways, but willing to make an effort!
And perhaps they'll get so annoyed with us, they'll come down just to shut us up.

Then there's the club itself. Say what you like about it, It's OUR club, it's had/having work done to it and everyone will agree that it looks 100% better than what it did (apart from DelBoy, how would you like it to look sir? )

I don't think £9 is an issue for an adult ticket, 400 people at £3 is £1200 per game, that may be fine for a club of that level to survive. I think we'd need to keep it at £9 or there abouts to keep the club self sufficient.

Keeping that in mind, those ideas are very good and should be used once a month or so.

It doesn't matter what i think, it's what is DONE that matters.

UTR!!!

To engage the armchair fan is very difficult...

To engage father and son is easier...to engage current football fans is easier...to encourage youngsters is easier...

When I moved to the US, I went to buy a fishing licence (yes, Porrohman!) from my local Walmart store.
Walmart in Hampton Roads is 10 times the size of Tescos in Oakenshaw...so you can imagine the number of customers everyday.
The guy serving was named 'Herbert'...he has worked at Walmart for 30 years. He recognised my accent and asked me where I was from and if I knew his friend 'Mike' who lived in Leeds (typical Yank). Besides this, he was a really nice guy.

4 weeks later I returned to buy something for my fishing (yes, Porrohman!) boat.

Herbert remembered my name, asked me how I was settling in and offered to show me around the local area if I needed any help...I could not believe he remembered me out of the 1000's of customers this guy must serve.....I was so impressed, whenever I need to buy anything, I go to see my mate Herbert......of course, Walmart is very happy for me doing that!!

We need this kind of welcome at the Reds...we can all play a part in that as we need to create a real 'club' feeling..to make people want to come back and be part of something.
What makes us enjoy the Reds so much?
Knowing people, socializing, supporting one another, enjoyment...oh, and a decent game of football....these are the principles that make people want to come back for more.

We can all start by building a catalyst from the people on this forum....meet before the game, share a pint, get to know one another, discuss ideas, support the social events etc etc. When people feel part of something, they tend to want to play on.

NB - I still think the entry should be $7!

rawlings09 wrote:
Then there's the club itself. Say what you like about it, It's OUR club, it's had/having work done to it and everyone will agree that it looks 100% better than what it did (apart from DelBoy, how would you like it to look sir? )

I'm not really sure how to answer that?! I can't see how you think I'm being negative?



So far on this thread, we seem to have forgot about the initiative that is Graham Hydes new role. If he can encourage more local kids to come and support the club, that is a big step in the right direction.

Even though I completely agree that £9 is far too expensive at this level, isn't the club's budget based around 250 people paying this amount?

I guess this is the club's decision, as they've put alot of money in already. I'd be willing to pay £9, as long as the price has been looked into before setting in stone.

We won't know what our fanbase will be like next season until a few months of the season have elapsed, so maybe this will be looked into later in the season when we know how great the risk is by discounting ticket prices?

I don't think stepping down a league will harm our attendances, at the end of the day non-league is non-league to your average Premiership/Championship fan, but results and value for money (decent football) will keep fans coming.

If it's £9 a ticket, then I'd like to see a few 'one-off' ticket offers thrown into the mix throughout the season (ie. Family Tickets for £12, £1 entry & kids for free etc...).

£7 entry is a much more realistic amount that people would expect to pay to watch football at this level.

I think we will struggle to get to the 250 budget...I hope I am 100% wrong.

Even the local Prem sides are offering specials...$20 a game at Villa (season ticket price)? then discounts off everything.

Del Boy made a good point about Graham's role..I completely overlooked that but I have always been disappointed with the youth teams presence at home games...we are always saying how many teams play under the RUFC banner but see very few of them and parents at The Valley....the same for social events?


I have seen the quality of player we have for next season....good news...but I am still concerned that on a Tuesday night v Chumps League, we will be down in the mid 100's.

I would like to see discounted tickets, special offers etc to encourage people to give the Reds a shot.

NB I will be buying my season ticket to continue my support

Bob Marley wrote:I have seen the quality of player we have for next season....good news...but I am still concerned that on a Tuesday night v Chumps League, we will be down in the mid 100's.

There was a time when 3pm games on a Saturday afternoon weren’t allowed to be televised, in order to protect match day attendances. Recently, this ruling has been quite openly ignored by pubs across the country, who show live premiership games from foreign TV providers on a Saturday afternoon. I’m concerned that this will eventually impact weekend attendances in the same way that Champions League games do during the week. (not just Redditch, but many other clubs will suffer in the same way)

I have to take up a couple of issues with this post, firstly the price.
Has anyone here researched the gate prices at the other clubs in this level? If you had you would see that we are not the only £9 ticket and yet again we are not the most expensive ticket (20 cigarettes cost over £6 pound) so £9 I think is more than reasonable, also we had 250 people coming through gate last season paying £9 and pretty much knowing they were going to see the team lose(look at the predictions thread) .
What has also not been mentioned here is what are we the fans going to do to help improve attendances?, its all been about what is the club going to do and i'd have thought saving Redditch United and continuing to pay bad debts off was more than enough!.
There are initiatives been set up to entice new fans and these will be mentioned at the trust meeting on monday, people said the club looked crap so its been tidied, people said that the stairs and toilets were crap so they are being improved as is disabled access, People say there is nothing going on outside the football but there is now and its being worked on massively, on top of this we now have the summer camps, the youth academy, 16 youth teams, revamped pitch, new mowers and equipment, new beer's, a functions and entertainments drive and fully working kitchen etc etc.
All this stuff has been paid for out of season when incomes are at there lowest and the club has to cover the cost, lets remember that word we all happily banded about during the take over with regards to the future running of the club - Sustainable!
Now I think £9 aint bad.

Good points here but lets remember that we are the Evostick now but Leamongton charge £9 and Evesham do as well I believe. What I was hoping was for the admission charge to have been reduced slightly to try and get more people to come to the games. Do this and try and get people to then buy a programme, golden goal, burger & chips, pint etc. Sometimes the reduction on the gate brings positives when people are in the ground.

Obviously the club has got to run to a budget and it will. I just hope we hit the ground running and start the season off well as that will get people interested. Hopefully we will see some advertising once the fixtures are out where we get fixture sheets plastered in chip shops, take-aways, pubs etc as this gives out info to people where games are.

We were speaking to Hydey a few weeks ago just before he was off out to promote his soccer school. Top bloke and you can see the passion, pride and will to make this a success and I have no doubt that he will that would prove that Mr Swan's comment at the fans forum of involving the community is no spin. This in itself could have massive benefits for the whole football club!

With all of the work completed by Jeff and co to make the ground look a lot tidier then there is no harm in getting this promoted and to see if the Advertiser/Standard would run a full page focus on the club (or a mid page pull out) where all of the fixtures can be printed, photos of the renevations, interviews with the new personnel at the club, club ambitions etc. This really would be a great thing to do and doing it at the right time of the season (post fixtures once home pre season games start) would be perfect!

Jeff...my point is that $9 is too much at this level...as I said, it is comparible but that doesn't mean it's right.

I think everyone on here is amazed by the hard work that has been done on the ground...well done to everyone involved, but as Del Boy says, we are only preaching to the converted by advertising it on here.

I think it's a fair point to highlight that I am concerned that not enough has been done to entice new punters to enjoy everything that has been accomplished so far? I have seen no advertising for the pre-season friendlies...the Bromsgrove game is a great opportunity...etc.

With no promotion with incentives etc, I think $9 is too much to get any other punters above the regulars.

As I have said, I hope I am 100% wrong.

Just spoke to Jeff....oops...

I don’t have a problem with a £9 admission fee and fully understand why clubs at this level need to charge this amount. As a fan, I’m forever telling anyone who will listen how the clubs ownership has changed, how things are improving etc. I’m always encouraging others to come to games as I’m sure we all do. Every one of us just needs to get 1 extra friend to come to a game and that will double our attendance; it sounds easy to do, but it’s not!

People outside of us regulars do think that £9 is a lot of money for this level. They don’t appreciate the necessity of it due to the cost of running a club. Maybe the problem is that these casual fans see Premier League clubs offering discounted tickets at £15-£20. They then believe that all lower league clubs should be priced relative to the Premier League. The reality is that Premier League clubs can do this because they receive £40m a year in TV money. Clubs lower down don’t have this luxury so matchday admission is more crucial.

As I have said to Marley there will be a release of info from Monday on the initiatives that are being put in place and what will be done for the 23rd of this month (home to Bromsgrove) which is our first Home Friendly.
The Club is putting in every effort to make sure that the new match day experience is as good as it could be, im sure that with all the plans that are in place and all the things that will come from the match day ticket, it will show old and new fans that the £9 is not only good value but it will help to bring success and joy for the whole town.
and thank god we get to see some football tomorrow

I don't think $9 is too much at this level, but then I don't pay to get in.
I guess it is four pints in the social club but for one game a week (or maybe two) most people will be ok with that - as long as the football is good and the team is winning.
That for me is the bottom line, the team need to be winning and playing good football, then the attendances will increase, whether you agree with a $9 entrance fee or not. We will have to see whether that happens this season - can't wait to find out.
Oh and Bob, that welcome and customer service you experienced in America is, as you know, par for the course there.
It doesn't have to be drummed into staff through training or initiatives , but here it appears to be an alien concept.

100% correct Jenko, it's the combination of a winning team that play good football. Let's not forget it wasn't too long ago we were getting dicked 4,5,6 every week, but....we tried to play football most of the time and we appreciated that, hence the reason the crowd didn't turn on Matt and Snapper...or Redders for that matter.
Admission at £9.00? Acceptable. More would come if it was £7, but then again I'd buy more Chomps if they put them down to 10p.
Have a nice y'all.

You buy enough Chomps as it is Porrohman!

I will be surprised if we get over the 250 this season, even if we are in the top half of the table.

On the 23rd July We play our first home game against Bromsgrove Sporting, on the morning trust and club members will be in the town promoting this game and the club. We will handing out the following leaflets that will with email address or phone number give you £1 off the ticket price, so for the price of £4 you can watch the NEW reds under 21's play Bromsgrove's Reserves, Redditch United vs Sporting Bromsgrove and then a Live Band right after the game.This added to quality food and new beers + new club house layout, just some of the initiatives that are being introduced this season to improve crowed and income.
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I was speaking to a Redditch fan last night who will be attending the Bromsgrove game - his 1st game in nearly 2 seasons!

It will be intersting to get his feedback after the 'event' to guage the impact of all the recent improvements.

had to chuckle when I saw we are playing BS reserves, does this mean that Bromsgrove are still full of it ??



UTR

It's only our U21's playing BS reserves. Our 1st team are playing their 1st team.

Hartlepool United averaged just under 3000 a game last season. By offering fans season tickets for £100, they have sold over 5300 and may extend the offer because it has been so successful. It's nice to see an example of discounted pricing having such a positive effect.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2015235/Fans-rush-buy-Hartlepool-season-tickets--just-100.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Could a similar offer work for us? Would it be viable?

del boy wrote:Hartlepool United averaged just under 3000 a game last season. By offering fans season tickets for £100, they have sold over 5300 and may extend the offer because it has been so successful. It's nice to see an example of discounted pricing having such a positive effect.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2015235/Fans-rush-buy-Hartlepool-season-tickets--just-100.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Could a similar offer work for us? Would it be viable?

It may work, however, Hartlepool have 3000 fans to fall back on if the 2300 give up...
My only worry is if the same 250 keep coming in for the discounted rates we may struggle.
But it's a good initiative... The Chairman is a bussiness man... he'd be the guy to talk to