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Of course the football team came first, it also came before the stands, terraces, shirt sponsors, bar, food outlet. It wouldnt still exist without the revenue from them though. And adding additional money, if someone is willing to pay, during the match, is one of the more sensible decisions the board has made.

Cup runs? How about every year for the last five barring this one, we've just had no luck with the draw. We've probably beaten more higher league opposition than any other team over the last 5 years (not a fact, cant be bothered to look it up), so whilst we had a shocker this year, its not a criticism that can be aimed at the club.

If you offered enough, and there were no legal problems with the tv company, I don't see why not.

taxilady wrote:I mentioned this on another thread a while ago ! But that screen is so under-used in terms of match information...it just tells us the score & we know that! Maybe it could display the scorers as well? Don't always hear the announcements (hopefully because of all the cheering!) 'cos the PA system isn't brilliant! Sometimes better than it used to be...

yeah the scorers and a clock would be fab! sound system seems a lot better recently.

Hi Andrew. Have you looked at the Loyalty Card schemes run by several other clubs? A great way of giving back to the fans, supporting local businesses, offering deals and incentives to home AND away fans who hold their clubs loyalty card. Not least being able to collect data on fans buying habits to tailor future incentives.

Cheers,

Dave Shaw

Sorry, just a quick question on Bristows Bench. I see from the Official Site that BB is sold out. Can you confirm the number of seats sold out of the 1750 available? Assuming the "segregation" of fans, how many seats do we lose to the flag? Was there any consideration of this at design stage that the BB could never actually sell out? Can this design fault be rectified so we can benefit from the extra seat sales?

Cheers,

Dave Shaw

Hi Dave,
Thank you for your recent ideas. The Loyalty Card is a good idea but will take a fair amount of time to organise. I think we will have partially addressed some (but not all) of the benefits through a combination of the season ticket deals( which offers discounted prices over several years) and the yet to be launched (coming soon) Membership Scheme which incorporates some of the ideas sent to me from fans.
As far as the Bench is concerned the capacity including the area for away fans is 1772. The flag will be removed on Saturday to be replaced by a line of stewards which enables us to sell more seats (it frees up about 135 seats but not all can be sold because some still have to be kept empty for safety/security reasons as required by the Police) but costs us more on steward costs. For games that will not be sold out we use the flag as a separation line and fewer stewards.
Hope this helps.
Andrew

Thanks for the reply Andrew. I appreciate you have a time and bodies problem to manage. I'm not suggesting you go down the Chelsea route.

http://www.chelseafc.com/teamcard

There are many examples of small clubs exploiting this useful Marketing tool

http://www.hornchurchfc.com/LoyaltyCard.html
http://www.eskmillfc.co.uk/our-loyalty-card
http://www.dorchestertownfc.com/?p=718
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/aylesbury ... _id=811169

And other league teams embracing the concept

http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co ... p?a=193149
http://www.saddlers.co.uk/news/article/ ... 89977.aspx
http://www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk/news/a ... 43812.aspx
http://www.harriers.co.uk/tickets/loyaltycard/

I could go on but I think you get my point.

Maybe this project would be a good one for a Marketing Intern to get to grips with. This would provide a low cost solution.

Cheers,

Dave Shaw

Tim Herbert wrote:Hi Guys

We have looked into the idea of linking our twitter feed to Facebook but a Social Media guru has advised against the plan, as we want to keep the two mediums separate. I will very soon sound like a broken record but one of our many summer plans is to develop our Facebook site and hopefully provide a separate source of information to the official website and twitter.

"social media guru"? If he/she called him/herself that, you should administer a swift slap, post-haste. My own experience with twitter/facebook integration suggests that it makes sense to include tweets on your facebook page, but not as the only thing you post. Facebook obviously allows you post longer items and (in my opinion) it's easy to ascertain how much effect what you're saying is having on your audience. But I really don't think that keeping the two entirely separate is a good idea, especially since it's apparent that some of the stuff on Twitter isn't getting shared on facebook (which, in theory, should have a larger potential audience)

forevertufc wrote:Mr Candy, I was suggesting a family ticket( family stand only ) not so much as promotion more as something to be put a place for the entire season. However just done a quick trawl through other clubs websites and see there are no other club doing this, so maybe there is a good reason for that.

But what I did see is clubs like Northamton do free entry to all kids under 7 in there family enclosure, and Morecambe offer free entry for kids 5-11 on there north stand, amg stand and Pmg family stand E, so wonder whether something along the lines of free entry to kids under 7 with a paying adult of course for the entire season for our family stand only would help to fill it up.

Doncaster Rovers have a Family Stand - Match day Ticket promotion (Price available at any time) where you can get an Adult and Child joint ticket (£22) and Concession and Child joint ticket (£18) - Children aged 16 and under. I'm sure that they have also had promotions for Two Adults / Two children for £20 on a couple of occassions.

My son (Donny Season Ticket holder - paid £80 for the season - aged 15) was able to get five free tickets for a game (with vouchers out of his Season ticket book) on at least 2 occassions, to give to Family and Friends - in the hope it would encourage them to attend games more often.

SORRY ANDREW BUT I FEEL THE CLUB AND POLICE GOT IT WRONG TODAY, LEAVING ROVERS FANS IN ALL AREAS SOME WERE REMOVED BUT OTHERS WERE LEFT ALONE, SOME SPOILING FOR TROUBLE, AND POLICE AND STEWARDS LEFT THEM BE, WE WERE TOLD THE GAME WAS SOLD OUT WHEN CLEARLY IY WANST, WHAT IS GOING ON, THIS COULD HAVE SPOILT WHAT WAS A GREAT DAY FOR OUR FANS.

DonnyGull wrote: Doncaster Rovers have a Family Stand - Match day Ticket promotion (Price available at any time) where you can get an Adult and Child joint ticket (£22) and Concession and Child joint ticket (£18) - Children aged 16 and under. I'm sure that they have also had promotions for Two Adults / Two children for £20 on a couple of occassions.

We do a family ticket (2 adults, 2 kids) = £40.

Hi
Would like to make a comment about tickets today.
I turned up around 1.30pm and went to the popside I asked the guy who seemed to be in charge about tickets and he abruptly tould me it was sold out. Was about to leave but thought i don't believe him so went to the ticket office where there were approx 300 unsold.
This is hardly conducive to good pr or to get nax income for a hard pressed club.
Please inform your staff about customer relations.

On a lighter note, i was at Morecambe and i was informed that it was your good self Mr Candy handing out the fiver back tickets to us fans as we came through the turnstile. I haven't met you before Mr Candy but i couldn't help thinking that you reminded me of Skinner, Mulder & Scully's FBI boss in the X-Files!

(but with more hair :~D )

The message from Neal just about sums up how far the club has to go with regard to customer service. I didn't go to the match today because Bristows Bench was sold out earlier in the week.
At the Barnet match I sat in a seat which was not my allocated one as I went with a friend who was a season ticket.
Two minutes before the game a male with a Bristolean accent told me I was sitting in his seat. Rightly or wrongly I refused to move and he sat nearby (after I recieved a mouthful of abuse) - through the entire game the male did not cheer at all. I guess he had attended with the purpose of purchasing a ticket in the home end for todays game.
I wasn't there today so can only go by the comments on here and the comments by Steve Breed on the radio concerning the number of Bristol Rovers in Bristows Bench (and indeed apparently given an area of the popside).
I would be interested in Mr Candys view of this matter. I wonder if Mr Candy would like to enlighten me as to what other football league ground you could go to - get a ticket in the home end - cheer like mad throughout the game and not be removed by the conclusion of the match?
Surely a rule that visiting supporters cannot access the home end isn't that hard to enforce.
Clearly a message via the Bristol Rovers website that ANY visiting fans found to have entered the home section would be removed would be clear enough.
Its a shame that this action wasn't enforced - its potentially a public order situation waiting to occur - we could have been relegated and tempers could have run very high.