2nd in the table, 18th in attendances

[royalgull]

I've only been skimming so sorry if this is repeating what someone else has said but one of the biggest problems for me is the proximity to a train station or the town centre.

Yes most people drive up to Plainmoor but let's be honest, it's not the easiest ground to get to, which I'm sure a lot of away fans will support me on. This will always put off the casual punter. As an example, I live in Wimbledon and have actually gone along to a couple of Wimbledon games when i've had nothing better to do on a Saturday, and the reason? Because it was easy to get to.

The club needs to work with some of the local bus firms to get a match day service going, and not just from the town centre and the train station but also from some of the surrounding areas. Oxford are an example of doing this well.

Like the rest of us i despised Roberts but his idea about moving the club to the seafront would have increased attendances purely for this reason.

it's also a valid point and where Exeter are lucky to have a station connecting the ground to the station we don't have but i'm not sure that's feasible as the line goes down to Paignton and not really towards Plainmoor at all does it?. The only option would be to relocate but again that's not going to happen. if the demand is there Bus's would be a great idea, this is from someone that does use the train option quite a bit. I know where I'm going and I enjoy a walk by the seaside via a few establishments. But that won't be for everyone.

This is a bit catch 22 but if crowds were to go up demand is there I think the club might well do something about that. But then obviously there could be people not going because of this etc. It would be very helpful for away supporters as well, might increase a few numbers on the away gates.

[Dave]

Some real quailty posts, and good points made can't shout everyone out, however Ben and Royal have exellent posts, I am not going to even try to add to much to what has already been said.

Other than to suggest the club does take a long hard look at family ticket scheme, also spread the cost of season tickets , either by monthly d/d, or 4 installments etc,etc, or look at a scheme that Northampton offer group tickets.......http://www.ntfc.co.uk/page/GroupTickets ... 34,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And shout it from the rooftops, not just put it on the O/S or Herald Express that no one hardly reads anymore.

[WestLondonYellow]

I've only been skimming so sorry if this is repeating what someone else has said but one of the biggest problems for me is the proximity to a train station or the town centre.

Yes most people drive up to Plainmoor but let's be honest, it's not the easiest ground to get to, which I'm sure a lot of away fans will support me on. This will always put off the casual punter. As an example, I live in Wimbledon and have actually gone along to a couple of Wimbledon games when i've had nothing better to do on a Saturday, and the reason? Because it was easy to get to.

The club needs to work with some of the local bus firms to get a match day service going, and not just from the town centre and the train station but also from some of the surrounding areas. Oxford are an example of doing this well.

Like the rest of us i despised Roberts but his idea about moving the club to the seafront would have increased attendances purely for this reason.

Accessibilty is a valid issue. You have to be dedicated if are one who attends without a car. Also, how would Plainmoor cope with 6 to 7000 fans at home games if most did arrive by car.

Despised Roberts, yes, his idea for the Seafront was interesting. What about a new stadium in the future somewhere in the gap between Edginswell and Kingskerswell, next to the rail line (new station) and the new dual carriageway. Only thing to consider is, it must retain character and not be a plastic stadium.

Now you may say that this is unfeasable due to the cost s invovled, but think about it this way. That lovely littel area is going to be turned into a busy concrete area, with dual carriageway (coming soon) and Office park already there. Most likely further retail space as well, maybe a multiplex, maybe Frankie and Bennies, all the standard outlets, if the council is wise, they would come up with a plan to hellp build a new stadium here, and use that projected footfall to entice leisure retail operators to invest in this area as well. The building of the stadium would be funded by the other aspects of the development.
Saying all this, it is a shame to imagine a nice quiet and green area like that being turned into this.

[Craney TUFC11]

Firstly i am pleased this issued has been raised as i have been coming away from great results at home thinking we got a great side but its no point having a league one side with blue square attendances.

I agree with almost every point that has been raised by other users but thought i would add a little:

the main factors why we only get average of 2.6k at home is;
1. if you draw a circle round torquay for its catchment area half of it is the english channel
2. average wage in the bay is probably around £16k
3. the tv coverage of football
4. small population to support the team in general, Torquay 60,000 Paignton 45,000 Newton Abbot 25,000 Brixham 20,000 = catchment, compare this to Exeter's, Exeter 110,000 Exmouth 35,000 plus the whole area towards north and east Devon as a whole. In general terms as far as Taunton before you get rovers fans and say Chard before you get Yeovil fans.
5. Ticketing, why cannot a professional football club sell tickets online. How many times have you had to make an uneccessary trip to plainmoor in work time to get those hallowed tickets.
6. Everytime we get a chance of getting a bigger crowd, we alienate the people who may come by either duff information or inflated ticket sale figures like the rovers game.

Other things to consider for League One is that last time we were there we had Sheff Weds at home and they wanted to bring 2,500 down, but we could only accomodate 1,000. A club like ours cannot afford to turn away definate numbers like that, this time around.

I could really go on, but im at work

[AlexGulls]

Didnt Wednesday bring about 1800? Remember they filled behind the goal the seats and the then open terrace down the side along to the Grandstand..

[Awayday]

Craney - With point 5, not many lower league clubs have an online facility, I guess it is because all the clubs have signed up to this FL Interactive web hosts and to run an online ticket shop would mean creating and hosting a seperate site.

I have never thought the club have alienated their own fans. There has been some games where ticket handling could have been better, but they have always been as helpful as they can when it comes to selling tickets.

We have always said our catchment area is much smaller than Argyle and Exeter, we know many Devon based football fans would rather go to Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal etc etc. Not everyone can afford to go week in week out, and only those in the CJTC are daft enough to go to every home and away game just to honour Chris McPhee. Look at when we had our time(s) at Wembley, most clubs would have filled at least the lower tier, but we still managed to only fill 3 quarters with 10,000. It is these games where we show the full support of Torquay, so if we only do about 10K at Wembley I am sure we will never see a full Plainmoor unless the away fans bring a vast number of fans.

It takes years to build up a base of supporters, and until such time Torquay are playing regular Championship football we will struggle to build our fan base up. We are always going to be a league 2 / 1 yo yo team with 2.5K average attendance and those out of the catchment area prefering to go to Exeter or Argyle.

We all know if we go up, we need to work bloody hard to stay there, and hopefully this is where Ling comes in. Martin Ling has a much better list of contacts than Buckle ever had. He does well with his loan signings and can bring League 1 / Championship players into the club to help support our stay in League 1.

If you want to see Torquay in Championship football then I am sorry but I think you are at the wrong club, league 1 is the desire but we are league 2 and proud of it.

If we can keep the finances in the plus and not get relegated from League 1, then maybe we can have a good run in League 1 (better than last time please). We will be that lower league team struggling to survive but we will do our hardest to do it.

If the bigger clubs want to bring more fans down than is actually allocated then they can't, simple as that. If we cannot fit them in the ground, then they cannot come down. Appreciate some games will be made all ticket if we go up, but even when we play these bigger teams, are we really going to bring in more home fans?

Therefore we should be proud that we have such low attendances and still getting the results that the much larger clubs desire.

[Southampton Gull]

Online ticketing is a MUST.

It's already been well-documented that the stadium is in an awkward place for most, so having to make an extra trip to buy tickets is just an unnecessary hassle that most fans can and will do without. You only need look at the Crawley game last year to see the chaos that ensues by not being able to purchase tickets online prior to arrival. In this day and age it really is ridiculous for a club like us not to tap into that valuable resource.

There were some suggestions put forward by certain members of the Board that were stifled by those controlling matters and while it might be too much for selling a few potted plants and packets of seeds it really is something we need to develop as a Club. If I couldn't rely on certain friends getting me tickets from time to time there are plenty of games that I would miss out on rather than risk travelling all that way only to find I can't get in or need to queue for hours to get a ticket. We have a large amount of exiles as already explained, surely this is a market that needs to be looked after? Online ticketing would make it much easier for us all.

[Richinns]

Online ticketing is a MUST.

It's already been well-documented that the stadium is in an awkward place for most, so having to make an extra trip to buy tickets is just an unnecessary hassle that most fans can and will do without. You only need look at the Crawley game last year to see the chaos that ensues by not being able to purchase tickets online prior to arrival. In this day and age it really is ridiculous for a club like us not to tap into that valuable resource.

There were some suggestions put forward by certain members of the Board that were stifled by those controlling matters and while it might be too much for selling a few potted plants and packets of seeds it really is something we need to develop as a Club. If I couldn't rely on certain friends gertting me tickets from time to time there are plenty of games that I would miss out on rather than risk travelling all that way only to find I can't get in or need to queueu for hours to get a ticket. We have a large amount of exiles as already explained, surely this is a market that needs to be looked after? Online ticketing would make it much easier for us all.

Agreed. I live an hour and more away from Plainmoor so getting to the ground other than match days is a real pain is the @rse!

[bixieupnorth]

i completely disagree with you awayday, we cant afford to turn down a single paying fan, if by a miracle we do go up and both sheffield weds and united stay down then we have to think about handing over the pop side and the away end so that they can bring as many fans as they want to. we probably wouldnt sell out our areas anyway, witness the poor home turnouts for gas and argyle games, therefore to maximise potential revenue just give them as many tickets as they want.

i can see quite a few games being made category a in league one, several being all ticket, so the online thing needs to be sorted asap, because its been proven time and time again that people who arent season ticket holders or regulars will not make that extra trip to the ground to get tickets for all ticket games. the voucher system is a good idea as it may bring a few extra heads to the previous few matches, but then people still have to queue up to get them. a temporary ticket booth at local co-ops thru newton to brixham would be an idea, if the double glazing people and AA can do it, then why not TUFC

[bixieupnorth]

this is a better link to northamptons group ticketing site:-

http://www.ntfc-groups.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i wonder if this is run in house, cos i'd hate to see an outside company creaming off money, and dont get me started on the ludicrous booking fees that are added to everything these days, ffs, its just greed, you dont see it added to the price of a pint of milk, so why should on sports tickets and music events?

[Dave]

i completly disagree with you awayday, we cant afford to turn down a single paying fan, if by a miracle we do go up and both sheffield weds and united stay down then we have to think about handing over the pop side and the away end so that they can bring as many fans as they want to. we probably wouldnt sell out our areas anyway, witness the poor home turnouts for gas and argyle games, therefore to maximise potential revenue just give them as many tickets as they want.

i can see quite a few games being made category a in league one, several being all ticket, so the online thing needs to be sorted asap, because its been proven time and time again that people who arent season ticket holders or regulars will not make that extra trip to the ground to get tickets for all ticket games. the voucher system is a good idea as it may bring a few extra heads to the previous few matches, but then people still have to queue up to get them. a temporary ticket booth at local co-ops thru newton to brixham would be an idea, if the double glazing people and AA can do it, then why not TUFC

Have to honest here Bix, and say I would be totaly against that, as a TUFC I would find that embarrasing, and as a popside season ticket holder I would utterly furious, in fact I might even be angered enough to return my season ticket and ask for a refund, I have been a season ticket holder for 6 season's, if the club did that they would lose me straight away, never put £ signs ahead of your own loyal fan's.

I would however be in favour of the club doing what they did for Notts.C a couple of seasons ago and section of a third of the popside for the bigger clubs should we find ourselves in league 1 next season,

[bixieupnorth]

if they wanted to bring 3-3500 down and we could only give them 1050 tickets, we surely cant afford to turn that amount of money down, if it upsets a few season ticket holders who are so short sighted to see that a temporary move is for the overall good of the club, then so what? 2500 x £18 is a hell of a lot of money to miss out on in this day and age

[Dave]

One way the group tickets could work, is if the youth dept, ran football tournements, not for the centre of exellence teams, but for the local league team's, invite from the Plymouth based D/J/M the Devon and Exeter youth league and the local pioneer league, this would make some money for the club, not much, however would have added benefits, scouting untapped ,local players, and offer each team who enter a discounted group ticket deal for a home match.

Also go into local secondery schools offer them and thier feeder primary schools group tickets, with a sliding discount scale more tickets you sell bigger discount, Torquay is not a hotbed of football, make it one, get the kids interested, hopefully before they find sky.

[Dave]

if they wanted to bring 3-3500 down and we could only give them 1050 tickets, we surely cant afford to turn that amount of money down, if it upsets a few season ticket holders who are so short sighted to see that a temporary move is for the overall good of the club, then so what? 2500 x £18 is a hell of a lot of money to miss out on in this day and age

Don't dissargee with your sentiment, however if we are league 1 next season their is likely to be no more than 4-5 clubs capable of completely out selling the away end.

It's short term gain, why risk compleetly pi@'@ing of half if not more of your home support, who could turn thier backs on the club, the club has 1000 season ticket holder many of whom are popside based, they are vital to the future health of the club, never give your home end up, not for anything.

[Behind-the-Gulls]

On-line ticketing was discussed at the last Focus group meeting.The club want to do it but it would need specialist support to set-up-which wouldn't be cheap.We all agreed it was a priority for the future and if we do get promoted,would be essential I think. Cheltenham's on-line service was mentioned as being one the club would like to emulate.