I can, as do the board understand why the crowds are so low after the 2 defeats and a draw in the last few games but the article above is just a stark warning and alarm bells must be ringing if after the first crowd below the 1800 mark this season has the board issuing this kind of warning.
Hard times at TUFC but we as supports must do our bit to stay above that 1800 benchmark.
Does the club even advertise fixtures in Newton Abbot/Torquay high street? (Honestly have no idea) if not why not?
We lost 200-250 fans from the Cheltenham game (taking into consideration 250 odd of the 2000 were Cheltenham fans, it is alarming, however unless the football gets better results wise, unfortunately some fans like in the past few seasons wont come back.
Im confident that Paul Cox will get results, however I hope for the clubs sake that we get some positive results from our next few away games. It will be a lot worse if we lose at Welling and Kiddy.
I know absolutely nothing about the clubs finances and whether ticket prices need to be kept as they are, but will it damage the club that much if ticket prices were cut for one game only? Might be an idea to see if that has any substantial effect on the gate.
Hopefully the board put the extra income from the first two games away for such an occasion. Not sure whether the club still has a family deal or anything but would be good to see some more seats filled in the family stand.
Agreed. To get 1500 on a Saturday was a massive blow. It would have been understandable had it been a midweek game. I'm no economist and this might be a little naive but would it be worth trialing £10 per adult for the Pop Side and Family Stand for midweek games?! Maybe this would disadvantage season ticket holders? Not sure what the answer is but I think some sort of subsidy should be made, especially for midweek games.
Don't believe this, its nothing to do with the numbers attending its down to the money, the total gate receipts. if one fan turned up and paid 50k the club would survive. lets say for simplicity each fans pays £20 then thats 1800 * 20 = 36000.
If you drop the price to say £10 like you say that's 36000 / 10 = 3600. Do you really believe we would get in excess of 3600, your mad, no way.
The town either wants a football club or it doesn't. If 1800 is break even then we are hovering on that, and yes we could possibly go under if we don't get that. Its up to the area of Torbay to step up and go to matches or we will be history.
The only thing Im surprised about is that back in the early 80's 1800 was a good gate and that was in league 2. So I guess footballers even at this level get paid much more relatively.
Seeing the article on Facebook and there are a lot of comments on it, mainly the concerns are the ticket prices. The problem is that most of the Premier League sides are able to offer mainly low ticket prices, season tickets etc because most of their revenue is coming in commercially and the Sky/BT TV deal and as such is not their main revenue stream where as little old Torquay relies mainly on the attendances. I agree that the club should be doing more to attract people to the club, lower prices for mid week matches, maybe a loyalty card where you collect points (a little like a nectar card etc) every time you attend a match, buy something in the club shop etc and it all goes towards discounts at the club, or even a card like the McDonalds coffee, go to 6 games get one free etc. I'm just thinking of ideas here but the club needs to do something. It is all good going to the local rag and appealing for supporters to attend, but more needs to be done to get people to attend, pre match and after match entertainment, kids club etc.
Special offers are not what's needed right, people can moan about the admission price all they like, the club could drop that to £12 tomorrow they still wont come, it will only serve to damage the clubs finances further. What's needed right now is a massive chance in mind set, and attitude from us fans.
I've to the point where I'm sick of hearing "the footballs poor, results aren't good, people just wont come, you can't blame them" if we all maintain that attitude, no, of course they wont come, and if I had £1 for every tine I've heard this season, would be rich now.
We've got good people working their nuts of the club, people that have taken a great personal risk to keep the club going for us fans. They're showing the fight and passion for our club, it's time we backed them in return, they've taken that risk so there can be more magical days at Wembley, and hopefully bring the club back into a position where by, it will strong enough to push back into the football league, they deserve our support unconditionally.
If we can accept, that short term we're going to be a non-league club, short term results and performances are not going to be where any of us will like them to be, you'll start enjoying being a TUFC fan again.
I fully understand only to well the problem of wage compression in this area and a poor jobs market, no, not everyone can afford to go to every game, I know I will not be able afford to go to them all, but I am going to stretch my money out as far as I can, to get to as many games as I can , regardless of results and performances.
My message to all fans would be, if you can afford 1 game a month go, if you afford every game go to every game, your club needs you, end of.
My take on this is promoting a product. Promoting this product to the kids. As a child I used to love going to Plainmoor to see my idols play and at the end of the game running onto the pitch match program in hand to get it signed by the players. I still have them including a Lee Sharpe signed program from that famous Newport game. I can remember Kenny Allen talking to us during the game as fetched the ball behind his goal. These things are a huge part of being a child. I supported MUFC too and was fortunate enough to go watch them a fair few times a season but those player you could not get to see all the time. Torquay needs to get to the schools and get the kids involved. A good dad will take his kid to see them game. The players need to be involved with the youth of the area.
tktufc91 wrote:Does the club even advertise fixtures in Newton Abbot/Torquay high street? (Honestly have no idea) if not why not?
We lost 200-250 fans from the Cheltenham game (taking into consideration 250 odd of the 2000 were Cheltenham fans, it is alarming, however unless the football gets better results wise, unfortunately some fans like in the past few seasons wont come back.
Im confident that Paul Cox will get results, however I hope for the clubs sake that we get some positive results from our next few away games. It will be a lot worse if we lose at Welling and Kiddy.
See plenty of posters advertising the games around Torquay-not sure about Paignton,Brixham and Newton Abbot?
I Live in newton abbot and I was thinking about contacting the club about dropping leaflets around the area, if we could get a small group of volunteers together just to have a small area each one or two nights a week leading up to the next match we might just catch the eye of a few people.
With all due respect to the teams concerned how many floating adult supporters are going to pay a minimum of £32 to see Bromley & Boreham Wood on the 19th & 22nd of this month? That excludes transport, programme, refreshments etc.
1800 for Halifax on a Tuesday next February not a chance unless top of the league or play off position.
As a season ticket holder this breaks my heart but despite all the great effort made by the new board the writngs very much still on the wall and getting bigger again.
