how to get the fans going

[ferrarilover]

This is simple! Get Howe to state if we stay up he will sign a new contract with the club!

To be honest, I'd cheer louder if he promised to leave. Another game without a goal today, although he hit the post, which is an improvement.

Matt.

[diamondgirl]

Yes,there is still a group off fans who meet with the club,through the season. Things have progressed through this fans forum.

As for attracting more supporters. The only time that is going to happen is when the team starts to give supporters reasons to attend matches. There is no point in trying to tempt people with one of offers. It won't, significantly, increase support, it will only serve to bankrupt the club into mon existence.

[Modgull]

Yes,there is still a group off fans who meet with the club,through the season. Things have progressed through this fans forum.

As for attracting more supporters. The only time that is going to happen is when the team starts to give supporters reasons to attend matches. There is no point in trying to tempt people with one of offers. It won't, significantly, increase support, it will only serve to bankrupt the club into mon existence.

Rather agree with your second para Di - if people aren't motivated enough to attend what is the most important game since THAT Wembley final then a maximum £10 discount won't do it!

[vinny]

Well iv'e received an email back from the club, kindly from Deano, who agrees with all i said. But as we know its not up to him to admission prices....... he will pass email onto the powers that be.

We shall see......

[AustrianAndyGull]

Top marks for giving it a go Vinny and at least you are prepared to put your point across to them even if they probably will never get to read it let alone act on it but that's what we need more of, fans becoming more involved and interactive and trying to make those who make the decisions listen once in a while.

Like others have said, i doubt there would be a significant increase in attendance even if the prices were slashed to a fiver such as is the total disinterest in the club from local people. I do however think that the club laying on a few coaches with free travel to Morecambe would be a great step in the right direction and may lead to a swell in numbers up in Lancashire for what is just as an important match. They won't do this either though. Makes you wonder if anyone at our club actually HAS much going on upstairs to be honest. Free coaches would be a great PR exercise at a time when everyone is down on their knees and it wouldn't cost anywhere near the money they'd lose from slashing prices for the Barnet game. The board could begin to claw back some degree of respect if not confidence from lots of us fans by making this happen.

Like i said though, they won't.

[vinny]

It was actually a pleasant surprise to be acknowledged.

I do take your points Andy with the total apathy of south devon folk getting their arses up to plainmoor, and its something thats infuriated me for donkey's years. However every now and again it does happen. Take the Crawley game just over 2 years ago. I didn't expect the queues that i witnessed, and hadn't seen that since 03/04 season.

Somehow, we have got to get as many people through the gates as possible, and create an atmosphere that will spur the players onto 3 valuable points.

[ferrarilover]

I almost want the club to do as Vinny has suggested now, if only to prove that it won't work. I'm not repeating myself (again) as to why it won't work, I've said it often enough on here that, if you care, you can find out relatively easily.

Please, can we have no more threads calling for a price reduction to entice these mythical 4000 fans who baulk £15 but are happy to spunk a tenner. If only it was that easy to get so many people through the door, do you not think the Board would have done it already? Hell, if you can get 6000 people paying a tenner apiece, I'm starting my own club, nice easy way to make £1,380,000/year.

Matt.

[DevonYellow]

I agree that a tenner won't make a difference, don't forget that many of the areas of Torbay rank in the most deprived of the country, it is still a lot of money for some people to find.

I started a thread a while ago suggesting a fiver, or a quid, accy even managed to do a game for free a few years ago. Most of the crowd probably wouldn't come back but if it did inspire the lads to victory (unfortunately no guarantee it would) it would have to be worth it.

If nothing else price reduction threads seem to p!ss Matt off so that in itself is enough reason to carry them on?

[Modgull]

If you really want to get people in the following needs to done and does take years.

Cut the price to £1 entry for every one

take back the catering and wack up the prices there to try and recoup some lost on the gate (once a tenner is broken people will spend the coins).

This gets younger fans and new people attending which over the years get used to / enjoy tufc (if possible) and then the prices can start to increase.

Its most likely agasnt all fl rules but no one else plays by them.

Give a pro player the choice of playing reserve football or in front of 4k each week most will go where the money is but then they will go ehere they will get most exposure

And bankrupt the Club out of existence - great idea - doh!!!

[Scott Brehaut]

£1 for all - good way to pi*s off season ticket holders I guess.

[ROADRUNNER]

i think most season tickets holders wouldnt mind if it meant getting a decent crowd into the game, morecambe did it and attracted another 3000 on top of there normal crowd and bradford also did it and got 18000 in , i think the club could try a tenner for the barnet game and see how it goes.

[wivelgull]

The trick is: a winning team. Oh, and, yes, exciting football.

[Dave]

I am a season ticket holder and it would not piss me off at all, relegation will put our club in dire straights it must be avoided at all costs, if the club did go with either £1 or £5 all areas and got 5,000 in, all the regular fans have do is get chorus after chorus of Yellow army going, not a difficult song for any day tripper to learn, heck even Matt knows it, and if we talk to him nicely he might even write it out with the correct spelling and grammar..

Vinny is right about one thing, promote the offer if the club go with it, do not just put it on the o/s only diehards read it, don't wait until Thursday and rely on the H/E that hardly anyone buys anymore, local radio and T.V get the information out early.

On the subject of these promotions not working, it is not all down to apathy. It is largely down to the way the are promoted, the internet has been one of the best inventions of all time. Matt your on the focus group have you any idea why the club seem not to be getting the best use one of the best tools they have at their disposal to self promote.

Market research, club scratch card/lottery are just 2 of many ways the club can collect e-mail address's of many, not just the few, make your own generic flyers/newsletters and one click dumps them in the inbox's all over the bay and far wider.

I joined the Bristol Rovers fans forum for some Buckle style banter, until I touched a raw nerve and had a fararrilover style padlock put on my account, however I received a number of e-mails from BRFC promoting family days at the Mem amongst other things and even though I can no longer post on that forum I still am getting e-mails from BRFC even had one about there early bird season ticket offer. In the same period e-mails received from TUFC = none, nil, zilch.

I know the club has a twitter account again only TUFC fans will follow it by and large, and not everyone has a twitter account. Got to reach potential new fans.

[vinny]

For too long the club haven't utilised the media, net or any other forms of telling the South Devon public of Torquay United FC.

Time and time again, people ask 'are Torquay at home this week'....or... 'how did Torquay do at the weekend' ......The club this week, starting TODAY, they have got to get their message across the 'Bay' regardless whether prices are reduced.

And yes i hear many people's cries of not lowering gate prices. However surely anything and everything must be done to get backsides into Plainmoor this saturday.........its a must.....WE ARE DESPERATE !!!!

I love Torquay United FC.......like so many of you on this forum. I haven't all the answers.

[Yellow74]

I'm not really into the forum thing usually however watching this seasons demise really has angered me at the way things have been run, yes we have a small budget, yes we don't have big attendances, yes we need to safeguard our financial future but at the same time we must maintain our league status at all cost as relegation would make the situation at the club even worse in the long term and realistically I'm not sure we would ever return to a Football League status club if relegated, there are to many bigger more financially backed clubs in non league now.

The whole Joss Labadie thing really summed this season up, we have been naive going along believing we are to good to go down and that our loan players will be here until the end of the season! The players we have are mediocre at best and have shown no real passion look at the players twitter accounts in particular the likes of Lloyd Macklin & Niall Thompson to busy tweeting about their cars or women! Surely the club should monitor these accounts and understand that when the team have just been beaten in a big game supporters don't want to see players posting pics of their new Mercedes or that they have not slept all weekend! The likes of Manse and Nicholson may be getting to the end of their careers but at least they care about the club we just need a squad full of people with the right attitude and unfortunately the attitude that has developed especially in the younger players is down to the manager. These guys should be released at the end of the season we don't want them giving 50% effort and taking the cash there are kids out there who would give anything for a shot at league football.

The game against Barnet on Saturday is the biggest this season and will ultimately influence our fate, win and I do believe we will stay up, Lose and we are gone. We may not have a large loyal base of supporters but we do have a community which on its day can come together and come good! I remember games such as Barnet Away when we needed a win to stay up! how many travelled 3000? Southend away for promotion 1800? FA Cup games against not very fashionable teams like coventry & crawley. The support when needed is out there the club just need to learn how to get bums on seats, 2-4-1 in the family stand just isn't going to work. If the build up to this game is really pushed we can get a gate over 4000 without any discounts apart from maybe kids for a quid but that needed to start last week. How many kids do the football in the community team see each week especially during school hols this week? Get these kids in for free on Saturday they are the future of the club and the younger ones will bring an adult at full price! I don't believe that people in the area don't care I believe that they feel that the club doesn't care so why should they spend their hard earned money and give up time with family! Why last week was it not looked into to move all South Devon league fixtures this saturday to 12pm Kick off so as local players could attend the game?

Id love to see Torquay represented at Local supermarkets this week with flyers promoting the game and the significance of the match, this is how you generate interest not in the useless herald express.

Anyway rant over I needed to get it off my chest! I just pray that Alan Knill kicks some ass this week gets the 11 starting fired up and willing to take to the pitch and give everything to get the 3 points. COYY