Attendances and the next generation of fans

[Midlandgull]

I've seen discussion of getting fans to watch Torquay on different threads and felt it worthy of its own thread as I see it as a key pillar going forward.

Torbay has a population of 130,000 approx, South Hams 84,000 approx and Teignbridge 129,000 approx (Wikipedia). That totals 343,000 in close proximity which seems like quite a healthy number of people to go at to establish a strong club. Certainly appears more than other places where clubs have done well.

So out of those 343k, obviously some won't be interested in football, some will follow other teams locally like Plymouth and Exeter and sadly some will follow other clubs like Man Utd etc but lets say there is a potential 100k to go at (obviously a complete guess).

What can Torquay United do to engage more supporters to follow Torquay United as their main club or at least as a second team? I've got some ideas and I'll list them below.

• Engage with young people at Primary School age and invite say 5 different schools to come and watch Torquay for free every single home game and ensure every single school in the area is involved at some point each season - there is plenty of space
  
  Get the players/coaches to go into schools to talk and inspire kids about sport in general and perhaps even run a session - something they won't get from Premier League players
  
  Offer affordable deals to get families to turn up - perhaps a "4 for £40" kind of deal which includes a programme and food coupon
  
  Obviously the owners setting out a clearer vision and answering long standing questions to engage with fans who feel alienated
  
  Getting the fans on the board to have a real say about the future so we can all feel more involved
  
  Develop a proper academy that compete with other academies so we have local players filtering into the first team that know what it means to represent Torquay
  
  Offer more competitions for tickets, merchandise etc to build up a strong email database
  
  Perhaps offering something that no other clubs do very well - good quality locally sourced food and drink. Kidderminster Harriers have proven a lower level club can do this.
  
  Offer season ticket holders money can't buy experiences

Just some quick ideas but maybe if/when we get a place on the board these are some of the things we can develop properly which will underpin the future of the club.

[Teigngull]

In the knowledge I'll get s!aughtered again by a few supporters but I honestly feel there is a large element of TUFC fans who are quite fickle (Fickle :- marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments. Or characterized by erratic changeableness or instability ) with their attitudes towards attending games.
I cast my mind back to a certain era in the 80's when we regularly had crowds around 1300 or 1400.
Its never been easy to attract fans to plainmoor even in the 60's crowds were near 7 or 8000 when other teams such as Oldham for e.g. were attracting 12- 14000 I. Div iv .

[westyorkshiregull]

Based on league position and level of performance.

Player quality and feel good factor

That's 90% of it
The points you make make the 10% remaining

[Plainmoor78]

I wouldn't say the point raised only contribute 10%, the club really needs to make full of any existing revenue stream.
But that said if you have a shit product then you are going to struggle. By the way ladies team have reached the Devon cup final and play like they really want to wear the shirt, so why aren't the club promoting them more?

[Midlandgull]

Based on league position and level of performance.

Player quality and feel good factor

That's 90% of it
The points you make make the 10% remaining

Yes a large chunk is about how well the team plays etc for regular fans, however when I was 7 or 8 years old and my dad took me to watch Torquay v Cheltenham in the nineties it sewed the seeds for my following of the club, even after relocating - Torquay lost 1-0 that evening. I'm talking about all of the untapped potential in the area to engage with and give them a fantastic experience (e.g locally sourced food, family days out at reasonable prices, maybe even a 2 for 1 kind of deal on another local attraction). Many things are in the hands of the club and we're not trying hard enough to get people involved with the club in some kind of way. What happens on the pitch is in the hands of the club to some extent but less so than the other things I've mentioned.

Can Torquay guarantee a win? Obviously not. But they can guarantee to invite schools etc etc and engage with people.

[hector]

My first season as a regular was as a 10 year old during the 79/80 season. Mike Green was the manager and he had assembled a very exciting team with the likes Steve Cooper/Les Lawrence up front, Donal Murphy, Tommy Sermanni, Peter Coffill, John Turner etc and for the first part of that season we were challenging for promotion with the likes of Portsmouth, Huddersfield, Walsall. We were alsmot unbeatable at home, until the new year and games were played on Saturday evenings, with midweek games at 7.30 on Wednesday nights.

I was hooked immediately, and when I cast my mind back, I think of floodlights, the bukta Kit with white shirts and shiny blue shorts the team sported and the excitement I felt as we generally won most of the games. We were pretty decent, so that helped and there is no way the current days are going to encourage youngsters to get hooked because everything is so depressing. As it turned out, 79/80 flopped. New Years Day saw us win 2-1 at Bournemouth and then we failed to win in any of the next 15 games but up until the Christmas period, it was amazing, including two titanic cup ties with Swindon, who then drew Tottenham.

From the 1980s onwards until 2013, we have had a mixture of poor and good seasons but enough to sustain interest of the core 2500 but nothing will change now until the fortunes on the field do.

[Yorkieandy]

When you get youngsters into attending lower / non league football they usually do so primarily as it's a event that they go to with mates and not necessarily because the team are winning every week and playing scintillating football.

In the early 90's when i was still at school we all used to pile down the old Belle Vue ground to watch Donny Rovers play who in that era were a local laughing stock much like many elude to about Torquay. Most kids went with their dads to watch Sheff Wednesday or Leeds but a lot of us loved the reality of a football on a cold tuesday night under the lights against the likes of Bury and Stockport. It became a 'thing to do' despite the team being awful and the ground ramshackle.

Sadly though most of my mates at the time eventually drifted away to the bigger clubs such as Wednesday etc partly because they were on telly a lot and had big stars playing for them but also partly because even back then, the clubs like Donny Rovers did feck all to keep us coming.

I found myself standing on the terraces at Belle Vue with fewer and fewer friends each year and i too stopped going altogether but only because despite being the area's most prolific striker for years on end in youth football, i was ousted at Doncaster Rovers Boys in favour of a lad who was behind me in the pecking order in terms of goals scored but he was mates with a lad whose dad was manager. That's when i felt wronged and bitter and winded up at Hull City instead.

Anyway that's by the by but the key thing is that young lads now they either go with mates as schoolkids and build up a routine or they find other things to do. That's why getting to these kids whilst they are in their formative years is absolutely vital. They need to get into a routine of going when they are young so that this behaviour can be cemented in for when they leave school and it's harder to shift to something else.

Give schools tickets. Give them free days out at games and let them behind the scenes. Get representatives of the club into schools to talk and do interactive presentations. Get some coaching in schools. Run competitions for schools to win things, run football competitions between schools to win things. Just do anything and everything but schools are the number 1 target and they should be bombarded with freebies, incentives and every week too. Th club needs to be in their faces and put out vastly improved social media output for these youngsters.

Schools hold the key so they should be the total focus of everyone's attention at the club when trying to hook the fans of the future. There is so much other stuff for youngsters to do nowadays so if they aren't hooked by the time they've left school then you've lost. It's not like back when i was a kid when we had no mobile phones, internet, games consoles, playcentres, activity centres, multiplex cinemas etc etc etc. So many more things to do now than spend 90 minutes in the rain watching a shit non league side lose in front of 1,000 and odd fans.

Hit the schools from middle school onwards.

[Midlandgull]

When you get youngsters into attending lower / non league football they usually do so primarily as it's a event that they go to with mates and not necessarily because the team are winning every week and playing scintillating football.

In the early 90's when i was still at school we all used to pile down the old Belle Vue ground to watch Donny Rovers play who in that era were a local laughing stock much like many elude to about Torquay. Most kids went with their dads to watch Sheff Wednesday or Leeds but a lot of us loved the reality of a football on a cold tuesday night under the lights against the likes of Bury and Stockport. It became a 'thing to do' despite the team being awful and the ground ramshackle.

Sadly though most of my mates at the time eventually drifted away to the bigger clubs such as Wednesday etc partly because they were on telly a lot and had big stars playing for them but also partly because even back then, the clubs like Donny Rovers did feck all to keep us coming.

I found myself standing on the terraces at Belle Vue with fewer and fewer friends each year and i too stopped going altogether but only because despite being the area's most prolific striker for years on end in youth football, i was ousted at Doncaster Rovers Boys in favour of a lad who was behind me in the pecking order in terms of goals scored but he was mates with a lad whose dad was manager. That's when i felt wronged and bitter and winded up at Hull City instead.

Anyway that's by the by but the key thing is that young lads now they either go with mates as schoolkids and build up a routine or they find other things to do. That's why getting to these kids whilst they are in their formative years is absolutely vital. They need to get into a routine of going when they are young so that this behaviour can be cemented in for when they leave school and it's harder to shift to something else.

Give schools tickets. Give them free days out at games and let them behind the scenes. Get representatives of the club into schools to talk and do interactive presentations. Get some coaching in schools. Run competitions for schools to win things, run football competitions between schools to win things. Just do anything and everything but schools are the number 1 target and they should be bombarded with freebies, incentives and every week too. Th club needs to be in their faces and put out vastly improved social media output for these youngsters.

Schools hold the key so they should be the total focus of everyone's attention at the club when trying to hook the fans of the future. There is so much other stuff for youngsters to do nowadays so if they aren't hooked by the time they've left school then you've lost. It's not like back when i was a kid when we had no mobile phones, internet, games consoles, playcentres, activity centres, multiplex cinemas etc etc etc. So many more things to do now than spend 90 minutes in the rain watching a shit non league side lose in front of 1,000 and odd fans.

Hit the schools from middle school onwards.

[Parkys People]

https://www.efl.com/news/2018/february/ ... promotion/

And the result was
League Two game

17,274

Wow

[Yorkieandy]

https://www.efl.com/news/2018/february/ ... promotion/

And the result was
League Two game

17,274

Wow

At last. A chairman who is pro active and knows that matchday is not just about the match. Also another thing about Notts County is they have the only sensory rooms for autistic kids / adults in the EFL. I was very kindly invited down last year to give one a try as i am writing a book. Certainly not Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab but i'm sure it will be a great read nonetheless. Apparently their groundsman has kids with autism and he wanted to raise awareness and make clubs take notice that autistic fans do exist even though some of us might not be obviously recognisable as having autism and that there are fans out there at both ends of the spectrum who live for football but who do find matchdays stressful. Amazing strides that club have made and best of luck to them.

[desperado]

Reading Hectors post, that 79/80 first half of the season was probably the best football since the late sixties
and until Leroys team. Tommy Sermannis goalscoring runs into the box from midfield were incredible. His late
winner in the Boxing Day game v Newport was the best individual goal I have seen at Plainmoor. Took a throw
from John Turner 30 yards out and ran through the middle of a mudbath pitch beating 4 or 5 players before
slotting home.

[westyorkshiregull]

Actually thinking about it
..closest league club to me ...look up bradford city's policy over last few years with season tickets ....i am sure I'm right in saying 150 quid a season for a adult and the attendance has been decent for league 1 football.

[Yorkieandy]

Correction: Sunderland also have sensory rooms at the Stadium of Light. Just remembered that they are now in the EFL too and not Prem. No Prem sides have sensory rooms either.

[Colorado Gull]

Midlandgull, all of those points are fantastic and really well made. I've made those same sort of suggestions many times. But, guess what? Once again, it has never and will never happen because the ownership and running of the club has been dire for years. We can all come up with great ideas, but the guys at the top don't listen, the TUFC fans aren't important to the likes of Osborne, etc. The ONLY way for the aforementioned suggestions to become a reality is if the fanbase (for once) STOP abusing each other, come together and create a proper strategic plan for ownership.

[Midlandgull]

Midlandgull, all of those points are fantastic and really well made. I've made those same sort of suggestions many times. But, guess what? Once again, it has never and will never happen because the ownership and running of the club has been dire for years. We can all come up with great ideas, but the guys at the top don't listen, the TUFC fans aren't important to the likes of Osborne, etc. The ONLY way for the aforementioned suggestions to become a reality is if the fanbase (for once) STOP abusing each other, come together and create a proper strategic plan for ownership.

Thanks! I agree that we all need to come together. I've joined the TUST within the last month and I believe many others have done the same - we all have to channel our energy into the TUST in my opinion. If it isn't quite set up/doing the things we want it to right now, the only way to make change is to join and become a force together - I feel the TUST has a long way to go at the moment but I'm prepared to stay a member and give them a chance to outline the plans/goals etc and make it happen!