Online Ticketing - this is easy. I could get one of my developers to knock it out in an afternoon. The only possible reason that this could cause an issue is if - for example - somebody went into the shop to buy 2000 tickets at the exact same time somebody tried to buy 2000 tickets online. there could conceivably be issues ensuring that people buying home tickets are actually home supporters, but this is where the membership scheme could work out great - you're a member, you pay even a small fee of £3 to be registered, that allows you to buy tickets even if you're not local (but are a TQ fan)
Transport to Ground - sorely lacking ; I'd like to see a shuttle run in a circular route from both train stations (torre and torquay) *and* from the seafront; especially for visiting fans who often make a weekend of it. I understand there could be security issues, but that said, making sure we know where the 500 away fans are going could be quite helpful. I'm sure this wouldn't be cheap though - and I think we'd need to make it as close to free as possible to make it worthwhile. Would be nice if we could get some council assistance, but we all know that's about as likely as my oft-dreamt of threesome with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. [edit - maybe seafront pubs might want to contribute a bit; these fans are going to spend money!]
Home support - due to the demographics of the town; people living there and then buggering off to college (or a foreign country, heh) or people moving in from outside, our away support is always going to make the home support look poor. You're not going to miraculously find 1000 extra people to show up - unless you make it free, then you lose the money for that one game and they don't show up the following week. It's a long hard grind to improve home attendances. Results and good performances help, but so does media coverage and a positive outlook. With Bateson saying "well, we can't afford to go up" you can't really blame people for staying away; so it's encumbent upon the staff - from Chairman right down throw the playing squad to the tealady - to be optimistic and set some high but realistic goals for the club. I also think the Herald going weekly will hurt us - lack of even local coverage is disappointing. I don't know what kind of relationship we have with Devonair (or is it Gemini) and Palm FM but maybe sending Mansell along now and again to get interviewed would help. Also, pushing our story in the national media would help; who wants to hear abou moneybags Crawley or moneybags Swindon or moneybags Northampton (
)? Shine a light on what we're doing and maybe we'll get a few interested people.
