Preston v Blackpool. How do they do it?

[mrfrostsdad]

Couldn't help but notice the attendance at the Preston v Blackpool game last night, almost 17,500.

Ok, so it's a local derby and Blackpool took 4500 with them, but that still leaves 13000 there from Preston. It's a poxy 1st round League Cup game for heavens sake that's live on Sky and they get a crowd like that to watch a team that's lets face it, have been crap for the last couple of seasons. Were they giving tickets away or what?

What do we have to do to get the people of Doncaster to support their team like that? God knows!

[docothered]

Never going to happen I've brought my son since he was 7 years old but he's not bothered no more in Doncaster but  rather watch chelsea with his m8.
Nothing I can do to change his mind sad state of affairs.

[The Beast]

Never going to happen I've brought my son since he was 7 years old but he's not bothered no more in Doncaster but  rather watch chelsea with his m8.
Nothing I can do to change his mind sad state of affairs.

Ground him, stop pocket money, simple!

[docothered]

Trying my best to convince him that the keepmoat is far superior than Stamford Bridge doesn't seem to be working though !!!!!!!!!

[mrfrostsdad]

Well, I can understand that doco. I once took Mr Frost to watch..............no, I can't bear to say who! But this is Preston we're talking about, not Chelsea

[DRNaith]

It's a big grudge Derby that's not been able to happen for a few years plus one of the managers used to manage the other team and left under a bit of a cloud, all those ingredients led to a large gate and a pitch invasion requiring a police horse or two to calm things down.

[SoundbiteBarmyArmy]

Rov'rum vs Wendies is same tonight, according to RUFC fan at work, complete sell-out at the NY.

[IDM]

It is a massive local derby, regardless of the cup. 

Why compare our attendance with this?  On Saturday there were approximately 7,800 home fans at the KM?  Apart from a couple of games (Sheff U, Notts Co) what was our average home crowd attendance last year?

[mrfrostsdad]

IDM,
I compare our attendances for several reasons.

1) As I said, it was a poxy round 1 League cup game.

2) It was live in Sky

3) Preston have been rubbish for the last couple of seasons. In case you hadn't noticed we were promoted to the Championship.

4) The population of Doncaster Borough is apparently around 302,000. About double that of Preston 

It's beyond me why they can command such an attendance whilst our fan base is so small. I don't know how much they charged last night, and I suspect it wasn't the full league prices. Just think what we could do if we had 13000 home supporters every game. 5000 at an average of say 15 quid each. £75k a game? Or about £1.7m a season.

Now who could we bring back to the Keepmoat with that sort of money??

[bobjimwilly]

I would guess there are a lot more preston fans than Doncaster fans because of their history.

[dickos1]

Population etc is irrelevant if the majority of that population support other football teams. Preston are a bigger club than us, always have been, better history, always had better crowds. And they were playing their biggest rivals, If we were playing Leeds tonight we'd probably be selling out

[River Don]

It's partly to do with history.
Preston have in their past been the greatest club in the country. The world even.

It may have been long ago but that has built a bedrock of support that Rovers never had.

[DonnyNoel]

Also the population figure of the "borough" is misleading. As a geographical area its bigger than Sheffield but places are so far away they can't be considered "Doncaster". They won't even have a Doncaster dialling code or in some cases a Doncaster postcode.

The population of the "town" of Doncaster is perhaps more relevant in this case - circa 110k I believe. Should we ever get to the Premiership of course then I believe the 302k figure comes more into play.

That's before you consider competition between so many local clubs and Preston's history.

[Surrey Rover]

Population etc is irrelevant if the majority of that population support other football teams. Preston are a bigger club than us, always have been, better history, always had better crowds. And they were playing their biggest rivals, If we were playing Leeds tonight we'd probably be selling out

We played Leeds in the second round of the very same competition two seasons ago and didn't come even close to selling out.

[silent majority]

It is a massive local derby, regardless of the cup. 

Why compare our attendance with this?  On Saturday there were approximately 7,800 home fans at the KM?  Apart from a couple of games (Sheff U, Notts Co) what was our average home crowd attendance last year?

Our average gate was 7,200 last season (thereabouts) which made us the 7th best attended side in the division.

[dickos1]

Population etc is irrelevant if the majority of that population support other football teams. Preston are a bigger club than us, always have been, better history, always had better crowds. And they were playing their biggest rivals, If we were playing Leeds tonight we'd probably be selling out

We played Leeds in the second round of the very same competition two seasons ago and didn't come even close to selling out.

Probably cause the novelty factor wasn't there as we were in the same league, and played each other many times over the previous 3 or 4 seasons.
It's been a while since they were in the same division.
And because we weren't here last year I think we'd get a much bigger crowd were we to draw Leeds this year.

[ad1982]

Another question.....how do Barnsley shift twice as many season tickets as us?

[silent majority]

Another question.....how do Barnsley shift twice as many season tickets as us?

History.

[IDM]

It is a massive local derby, regardless of the cup. 

Why compare our attendance with this?  On Saturday there were approximately 7,800 home fans at the KM?  Apart from a couple of games (Sheff U, Notts Co) what was our average home crowd attendance last year?

Our average gate was 7,200 last season (thereabouts) which made us the 7th best attended side in the division.

Precisely, so our home turn out on Saturday was great at 7,800 ish.  I don't see the point in comparing us against a traditional Preston/Blackpool derby!

[Boomstick]

Another question.....how do Barnsley shift twice as many season tickets as us?

History.

Might have a slight bearing on it. I think it's more down to lack of marketing by Rovers

[dickos1]

Don't think marketing has much to do with it, everybody knows the season started this weekend, if you support another club, your not going to change your mind just because of an advert.

[ad1982]

As a marketing professional, I can safely say DRFC marketing is nothing short of shambolic. If you Wales through the town centre you wouldn't even know we had a football team.
Walk through Barnsley and they promote the club on a huge scale.

[silent majority]

Shaun made the offer on here to meet with any fans who thought they had something to offer, he's been inundated with responses! 

[ad1982]

What does that say about the clubs marketing staff?

[silent majority]

What does that say about the clubs marketing staff?

What it says is we have a club that is prepared to listen to its supporters. What it says about the supporters is that quite a few like to pass opinion on here but fail to follow up on a genuine gesture.

[Boomstick]

So do the club actually employ a full time university trained marketing manager? Also what is Rovers marketing budget?
If they are asking fans for ideas, then it's a bad job.

[DRNaith]

Fan engagement is a bad thing?

[docothered]

As ive mentioned before I work in Sheffield and as much as I dislike the way Sheffield fan's never stop giving where bigger than you there right.
God knows why and how there fan's keep going rain or shine good or bad they never stop supporting their sides. 

[ponte_ricky]

I wouldn't say that makes it a bad job at all really. Look at all major companies. Marketing is all about getting feedback from your customers. You cannot ignore your customers at all.

As someone said, with football people aren't just going to change who they support. so why would you litter the streets with posters and adverts? it would be a waste of what i can only imagine is already a small budget. instead they're better off marketing through engaging with the fanbase and customers, providing genuine value for money and enaging with the community. all of these are things that they do. they don't always do it right but they do a pretty good job in my opinion.

we're limited on resources and we're never going to have premiership quality (any time soon anyway) to attract a wider audience.

[Boomstick]

Ok, perhaps fan engagement is a good thing, but again, what is Rovers marketing budget, and do Rovers employ a full time university trained marketing manager?