Thinking outside of the box...

[johnnykicksass]

(this is a serious post BTW.. not a spoof like my past few;) )

For once in my life I have to disagree with JR, Doncaster does have potential for support. It needs nurturing though, encouraging. From an average home support of 2,000 15 years ago, we've increased this 5 fold. It would be nice to see the Keepmoat full every week but under current conditions it just isn't happening. This doesn't mean the town doesn't have potential though !!

If every ticket to every match cost a fiver and you could pay on the turnstile, I'm sure we'd be locking out thousands at every home game. I'm not going to dwell on that point, it's an obvious statement and with some tweaking... we could see a fuller stadium...

However, the club needs to charge the fans more, and for that pleasure we have to deal with SMC and Marketing ineptness:facepalm:  To this end, it seems our current \"max\" attendance is 13.5k (as per the Leeds game). This leaves a minimum shortfall of 1.5k seats left empty. JR has thought \"outside of the box\" in trying to deal with the budget constraints he's faced with as the attendances slowly dwindle. Now I'm going to suggest something to deal with the empty seats...

1) Identify sections of seating up to 1.5k
2) Make them available for fans to \"sponsor\" for £100 each per season.
3) Offer those seats for free to Barnardo's, special schools, primary schools, OAP homes etc, etc... (you get the gist)
4) Don't just restrict the geography to Doncaster... the whole of South Yorkshire

I'm pretty damn sure fans, businesses would respond to such an initiative, better than simply holding out the cap and asking folks to chip in for a striker, for example. For my part, if this initiative was launched, I'd readily sponsor 10 seats for the next season. I'll give my bank details to Gartom right now to prove the point. The more people we can get into the stadium that wouldn't (or couldn't) normally come the better. I'd be investing in Rovers future and a fuller stadium

One word of caution though, I'd hope that such an initiative would be properly managed and marketed. I'd hate to see it suffer (and hence the goodwill of the sponsors) due to poor organisation. I believe there are plenty of \"spin off\" ideas that could be utilised against this idea, such as offering \"sponsored\" seat opportunities for £50 for fans renewing season tickets etc... anything to get those empty seats full of people that have no chance of being there under normal circumstances.

I'll leave this idea out there for discussion. Perhaps it's already been through the mill a few times, don't know...

Cheers
John

[JonWallsend]

It all seems perfectly logical to me and, while it night need some tweeking, it is yet another fan driven inititive/suggestion that should be given the serious consideration it merits and not dismissed or inefficiently, inappropriately and generally be badly administered by the marketing department.

Good effort.

[DearneValleyRover]

We lost upto 3 generations of fans, of recent times there have been plenty of threads talking about the number of kids wearing Rovers shirts, it will take 10 years with active targeting of these kids plus staying at our current level or higher before we see a more stable large support.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I think it's clear that more would watch Rovers if it was affordable.  The marketing strategy of the club is shite at best, no doubt there.  We have Doncaster to target but largely North Lincolnshire.  No doubt that would piss Scunny etc off but would you rather watch Scunthorpe or Doncaster?  The stadium makes us far more attractive.  We really should be focussing on a big push to grow the crowds.

The club strategy for me would be to grow the club sustainably by increasing the fanbase as a main area (look at what Charlton do that's the model to follow).  Also, to get the youth strategy up to scratch.  The more young players start to come through the more interst will grow.  THe potential is there with our crowds, the shear number of kids shows that, but it needs much more effort than it's had so far.

[Filo]

We lost upto 3 generations of fans, of recent times there have been plenty of threads talking about the number of kids wearing Rovers shirts, it will take 10 years with active targeting of these kids plus staying at our current level or higher before we see a more stable large support.

Exactly! these kids we see today wearing Rovers shirts are Rovers fans, when they eventually have kids themselves there`s more chance that those kids will become Rovers fans, when their dad takes them, growing the fanbase is a long term plan. One child fan today, could potentially equate to 2 or 3 child fans of the future when they have kids!

[prince]

I don't think we should be encouraging kids to have children tbh!

[RedJ]

I don't think we should be encouraging kids to have children tbh!

Agreed but no harm in them getting a bit of practice in

[Berkshire Rover]

Let's get this back on topic, as I think the basic idea is a good one, as others have said, great ideas like this need to be embraced by the club, enhanced and put into a long term plan to grow the fan base and get away from the current short term ism that seems to be at the centre of the strategy being promoted by our Chief Executive.

[Padge_DRFC]

Hopefully if we get the ground the prices of tickets may come down slightly, due to the fact if we get more in we will end up making more from food and drink sold.
Where as at the min it just goes to the Council or Keepmoat or wherever not us.

[jmt]

The people/fans are in Doncaster , BUT, its all about price, we need a sustained period of \"cheap prices\" over two to three seasons! Get them hooked into coming , Then the club can SLOWLY raise the prices.
There is only two real ways to get the crowds in-: Cheap prices or sucsess.
Cheap prices is a guarantee, basing your prices on sucsess is a gamble.

[prince]

Yes the sooner John Ryan realises that the thousands of fans we've lost are at home counting pennies and not at Elland Road or Bramall Lane the better.

[Berkshire Rover]

The crazy thing is (well one of them)  is that the ticket office has the database of who has bought tickets.

Any half decent marketing strategy would have targets in it for repeat purchases and would be analysing the information and using it o target particular groups.

I agree the fans are there, we need to be much smarter about how we attract them.

[johnnykicksass]

I think we all agree, cheaper and easier to buy tickets would fill the stadium in a flash, whilst we remain in the Championship at least. That said, Bradford City (with innovative cheap ticketing) are maintaining phenomenally high attendances despite their lowly position.

The thrust of my thread though is that the club's not likely to reduce prices wholesale anytime soon. Therefore, how can we fill seats in the meantime? ...i'm suggesting a way of putting bums on seats, introducing people to the club who wouldn't go regardless of price, putting some money into the club AND building for the future...

...it's all about using the spare capacity we have in innovative ways without too much else having to change.

[Wellred]

Sorry to be a killjoy and I am certainly not backing Deadly Dave but..........................as far as the club are concerned it isn't all about filling the stadium.
It is about bringing in more revenue.
Being full at cheaper prices is sometimes financially worse for the club than having  smaller crowd paying more for their tickets.
ok I am now sat back waiting for the moans about being negative.

[Padge_DRFC]

Sorry to be a killjoy and I am certainly not backing Deadly Dave but..........................as far as the club are concerned it isn't all about filling the stadium.
It is about bringing in more revenue.
Being full at cheaper prices is sometimes financially worse for the club than having smaller crowd paying more for their tickets.
ok I am now sat back waiting for the moans about being negative.

It will be if we buy or lease the ground.

[johnnykicksass]

No problem wellred, that's just your opinion. It's kinda missing the point though in that JR is complaining Doncaster doesn't have enough Rovers fans... clearly then, he wants more fans in the stadium. A full stadium is a better experience for everybody, fans and players alike... can only be a good thing... regardless of how much you charge to fill those empty seats.

[DearneValleyRover]

Will haveing cheaper prices lead to filling the ground or just getting 2/3 thousand more in? How much cheaper are you proposing and at what point does a half full full price and a packed out cheap price become the same?

[johnnykicksass]

DVR... read my opening post, that's my proposal.

[DearneValleyRover]

DVR... read my opening post, that's my proposal.

I did and don't disagree but I'm sure that's what the current holders of the purse strings have weighed up. If we reduced the prices to £10 Adult and £5 concessions we would have lots of kidsand a 1,000 more Adults based on current position which would leave us worse off. I'm basing this on Carling Cup and previous promotions. The general apathy isn't a trait solely of Doncaster but of the public in general to overpaid and ungrateful footballers coupled with the financial constraints we all are feeling. Until the Footballing world puts it's house in order and drags is employees into reality your proposal and others like it will not work. I don't say that lightly or with any enthusiasm it's just a reality of the times we live in.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Great to hear some common sense again and I think the original proposal has some merit.

I think we would all agree that if the ticketing policy and marketing strategy was anywhere near right, we would not need to firefight with short term initiatives and promotions.

I'm fed up to the back teeth hearing sides-wipes at the 'poor' fan base from within the club when it is mostly a self-inflicted consequence. We have rallied the people of Donny on a number of occasions in the last two season to demonstrate to the club that the support is there, yet time after time, fans have been allowed the drift back in to obscurity because the club will not take on board advice and suggestions about taking a step back before going forward again.

On the issue of revenue, the club know full well the consequence of fluctuating ticket prices yet they still complain about attendances.

Stabilise the prices, commit to a longer term strategy, grow the fan base, increase the revenue.  Simples (ish)

[jb stainforth]

i have been supporting rovers for years most of those years as a season ticket holder
i have been to one game this season crystal palace paid 15 quid 27 quid is out of the
question jr make it 15 quid and i wont miss another game couldnt afford to lay out
lump sum when my st was due and the easy payments were to much also

[grayx]

I'm sure there areas of the stadium that are frequently empty, so how about something along the lines of: Buy 1 get 1 free or even 5 seats for £50 in these areas?

[benaldo]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The biggest single factor stopping the club moving forward in engaging the Doncaster public is JRs view that Doncaster owes itself a big football club. It doesn't.

[hoolahoop]

I like the initial idea proposed but are our people at the club capable of 'thinking outside the box' especially when there could be some work involved ?
Time and again others (incl.myself) have also suggested involving minority groups such as the large Polish and Asian communities.
They need engaging in their own languages, invited to stadium tours and be part of OUR community in our Community stadium. I have NEVER seen any attempt to even look at this idea either.
Jeez they watch footy in their own countries why not here ?