Twenty's Plenty makes great progress

[silent majority]

Thought you may be interested in reading about the progress the campaign is making;

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/exclusive-newcastle-united-lead-the-way-towards-20-away-tickets-as-fans-pressure-forces-price-cuts-by-manchester-united-liverpool-and-arsenal-8867482.html

[German Rover]

that's a really good start,  fans are the lifeblood of the game and the sooner people realise that the better.

I know you don't hear this much but well done SM.

[drfcsteve]

Making it cheaper to go to premiership games won't help the football league very much, good news if you're a fan of a premiership team but a bit worrying for everyone else unless the football league also has a pot of money to make tickets more affordable?

[scaley back rover]

maybe so steve, however if the top flight sides only charge£20 a ticket its going to be hard for those further down the pyramid to justify higher prices than that. Its certainley a step in the right direction and gets a thumbs up from me.

[silent majority]

that's a really good start,  fans are the lifeblood of the game and the sooner people realise that the better.

I know you don't hear this much but well done SM.

No I don't hear it very much, not on here anyway, but as a campaign I'm responsible for I'm very happy it's going the way we hoped. Not only that but we have some big guns to roll out in the near future.

And to assure others, we are not concentrating solely on the PL, but tell me, if the PL clubs only charge £20 how can Wednesday charge £29? 

[swintonrover]

To be fair, if we were working to that standard of team, Wednesday would be paying us £29 to go to Hillsborough!

[Sammy Chung was King]

I was reading today that each Premier league club has £200,000 put aside,so that they can encourage fans to go to away games,if i remember right each fan will get four pound knocked off their ticket price.

[twinkletoes]

Well done to the FSF. A great and worthy campaign which I for one will be happy to support. We all need to spread the word and stop these club charging the extortionate prices for fans to watch a game of football. Twenty nine pounds at Sheffield Wednesday and from what I gather Leeds will be charging thirty four. It's crazy. So if the above mentioned had a twenty pound cap that would be twenty three pounds saving for me just over two games. Yes please. So come on people lets get behind this campaign and back the FSF in the brilliant work they are doing!!

[wilts rover]

Not quite Sammy. Each PL club is doing something different with the money, most are using it to subsidise away travel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24446082

[Jenny]

This just goes to show how the gap between the PL and FL will just continue to get bigger. By the FA pumping money into the PL clubs to allow them to do this, anything done by the FL teams has to come out of their playing budget - how do you balance keeping fans happy with prices and players happy with wages?

The PL and the FA make me sick.

[silent majority]

Jenny the FA aren't guilty this time though. The money always belonged to the clubs, its just that this time the PL board instructed the clubs to use this money for the exclusive use of away fans, (essentially steering it away from the playing budget)

Away fans are reducing at alarming numbers, something we have been poiniting out to the FL and PL. The PL have the funds to do this, however the FL are also paying attention to this and we are meeting with them again shortly to try and find some solutions to the issue.

[Jenny]

The BBC article suggests that the clubs have been given the money rather than it being theirs to start with - never knowingly right eh!

[silent majority]

I didn't read that one. The money was part of the new increased tv deal. Rather than just hand it all over like they normally would some of it was reserved for this purpose, which is what our point was all along, i.e. the increase meant they could afford to do what we asked. However when our proposals reached the PL conference all the clubs voted them down, so this is their compromise. Its a start, but only that, we have someway to go.

Just to add, I know I keep asking people to fill in the Away Fans survey, but its that information that we gather that enables us to sit and discuss these issues. Data is a great currency, it buys concessions.

[CusworthRovers]

This is fantastic for the humble Footy Fan. Well done.

To play the Devils Advocate somewhat, if the FL don't come into line with this (ideally charge a couple of quid less than the Prem Clubs), it may cause some fans to actually leave their local clubs and go and watch Prem Footy for a cheaper or equivalent price.

It may not effect us, as there are no Prem Clubs nearby, but some Lancashire, London, Nth East or Midlands FL clubs may see their fans move to one of the Prem Clubs, if it becomes cheaper or as cheap to watch.

Incidentally, I would be worried if Leeds/Blades/Owls (esp Leeds) got into the Prem and charged £20 to watch a game.

Another Incidentally, if it wasn't for Hull, Man U/City would be our nearest Prem Club

[Jenny]

Do you think people would really 'leave'? I don't think we would lose our core fan base, I wouldn't decide to go and support Leeds just because it was a couple of quid cheaper to get in. Football isn't the same as going to Sainsburys for years but then deciding to switch to Aldi because its cheaper....

What I imagine is that we would lose the next generation of support.

[CusworthRovers]

I don't think we really know the answer to that Jennifer. Some may leave their clubs (I could see that happening...Fickle fans and all that. Lure of the Prem to the younger person).
There's plenty going to Rovers that I know would leave at the drop of a hat.

Then again, the likes of me and you, et al (probably the majority) won't leave.

We are certainly a club that needs the next generation, as we've missed this one en masse. In fairness, we do look good for the future, but we need to keep them here.

[Jenny]

Please, not Jennifer....

I think we look good for the future as well, the IRWT programme has brought about a lot of positive changes and I think in terms of engagement and offers for youngsters etc, we are miles further forward than we were a decade ago when I was a lass (okay, two decades ago...)

I don't think many away fans could have major gripes with our prices etc - it is just a shame that we seem to be one of not many clubs that actually cares about the fans and is doing the right thing.

Hopefully twenties plenty may encourage more to do the same.

[normal rules]

we should all consider boycotting the leeds game.

if it was 20 quid - I have no doubt we would sell our allocation.

£34 though.....simply outrageous. dated ground, terrible facilities and crap view.

and don't get me going on the kids prices....

#twentysplenty

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Do you think people would really 'leave'? I don't think we would lose our core fan base

Define or quantify our core fan base? We may not lose fans to other clubs, we just may lose fans. There are many other distractions that can turn people away from the club or the game as a whole.

As we are finding now, winning people back that we have lost over the last 4 or 5 seasons is much more difficult even when all the conditions are positive. When folk get out of the 'habit' it's much more difficult to switch people back on again as they will have no doubt filled their time with other pastimes and commitments.

Are we taking about our core 3000 to 4000 under Stan Anderson, 4000 to 5000 under Billy Bremner, anything between 1500 to 2000 in the subsequent years that eventually saw us drop in to the Conference. Gradually back up to 5000/6000 plus as we went back up the leagues.

We achieved a high point of around 9000 average home attendance in the first season in the Championship. Where have those 3000 disappeared to?

The only analogy I can think of is, the size of our core must depend on the size of our apple. In other words, we so called core Rovers fans need to breed at a faster rate and make sure we raise our offspring as such.

So, the future of the club may not be as dependant performances on the pitch as we think. Do your duty. Go forth and multiply. 

 

 

[Sammy Chung was King]

Not quite Sammy. Each PL club is doing something different with the money, most are using it to subsidise away travel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24446082

I Remember now Wilts,it was from The Sun(The Font of Knowledge) that i got it from,and it was focusing on what man utd were doing,thanks for the pointer to the full story

[Jenny]

Do you think people would really 'leave'? I don't think we would lose our core fan base

Define or quantify our core fan base? We may not lose fans to other clubs, we just may lose fans. There are many other distractions that can turn people away from the club or the game as a whole.

As we are finding now, winning people back that we have lost over the last 4 or 5 seasons is much more difficult even when all the conditions are positive. When folk get out of the 'habit' it's much more difficult to switch people back on again as they will have no doubt filled their time with other pastimes and commitments.

Are we taking about our core 3000 to 4000 under Stan Anderson, 4000 to 5000 under Billy Bremner, anything between 1500 to 2000 in the subsequent years that eventually saw us drop in to the Conference. Gradually back up to 5000/6000 plus as we went back up the leagues.

We achieved a high point of around 9000 average home attendance in the first season in the Championship. Where have those 3000 disappeared to?

The only analogy I can think of is, the size of our core must depend on the size of our apple. In other words, we so called core Rovers fans need to breed at a faster rate and make sure we raise our offspring as such.

So, the future of the club may not be as dependant performances on the pitch as we think. Do your duty. Go forth and multiply. 

 

Good points Baz, I agree, I don't believe someone who has been supporting the Rovers for some time would just leave and support Leeds, but they may just leave.

Not so long ago, we went to the football as a group of 9 people, we are now just a core of 3 with two kids.

It isn't that long ago that I wouldn't dream of missing a game, home or away, unless I really had to. Nowadays, it doesn't take much to tempt me away (normally the lure of a bottle of vodka) and price does come into that. Take Reading for example, I want to go, but as a day out I know it will cost me around £75 once taking fuel/ticket/food/drink into account and I can't really justify it so I will be giving it a miss.

Despite not being happy at prices, I am still not sure how I feel about twenty's plenty purely on the basis that most clubs struggle to keep their heads above the water as it is, never mind taking a hit on gate receipts too if the increase in attendance didn't cover the reduction in cost of tickets. It is okay for PL, but they are a completely different breed...

As for go forth and multiply - I think I will stick to trying to convert my nieces to the wonderful world of football.

[Wild Rover]

Do you think people would really 'leave'? I don't think we would lose our core fan base

The only analogy I can think of is, the size of our core must depend on the size of our apple. In other words, we so called core Rovers fans need to breed at a faster rate and make sure we raise our offspring as such.

So, the future of the club may not be as dependant performances on the pitch as we think. Do your duty. Go forth and multiply. 

I read somewhere earlier in the week that over here in Ireland the current birth rate is 2.04 or some figure similar . The birthrate in Ireland was 16.8 children per 1,000 inhabitants last year, compared to the EU average of 10.7 births per 1,000. Britain, which had the second highest EU birthrate, was at 12.8 children per 1,000 people.
So, it may take 50 years to return to 9000 crowds, by natural means. But hey get all available Child bearing female DRFC fans together with Rampant male species of same persuasion ( Fans I mean ) and lets see how it goes.

[CusworthRovers]

But hey get all available Child bearing female DRFC fans together with Rampant male species of same persuasion ( Fans I mean ) and lets see how it goes.

Good Morning everybody

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Love it. Cussy, in the spirit of Twenty's Plenty can you cover 20 fillies?

I'm beginning to wonder whether my approach to improving attendances is all wrong.

This may be controversial, and of course tongue in cheek, but may be would should be inviting those less fortunate, and on benefits, to come to Rovers for free. I'm sure we could sort something out where you can bring a kid or 3 with the child benefit forms and bobs your uncle!

It must be difficult raising kids on the breadline, so maybe providing some entertainment for them at the match is the way to go. Let's look at it as an investment for the future 

[Sammy Chung was King]

With Cussy going forth and multiplying we could end up with Pure Breed Rovers newborns,registered as soon as they are born,and when you take them to the Ground there would not even be a peep from the little sprogs as the passion for the club is already flowing through their veins!!

[Pintolager]

Love it. Cussy, in the spirit of Twenty's Plenty can you cover 20 fillies?

I'm beginning to wonder whether my approach to improving attendances is all wrong.

This may be controversial, and of course tongue in cheek, but may be would should be inviting those less fortunate, and on benefits, to come to Rovers for free. I'm sure we could sort something out where you can bring a kid or 3 with the child benefit forms and bobs your uncle!

It must be difficult raising kids on the breadline, so maybe providing some entertainment for them at the match is the way to go. Let's look at it as an investment for the future 

Love it DBR!

[Snods Shinpad 2]

But hey get all available Child bearing female DRFC fans together with Rampant male species of same persuasion ( Fans I mean ) and lets see how it goes.

Good Morning everybody

Anyone else interested in this 'future supporter facilitator scheme' should meet in the South Stand bogs at the Brighton game. Free chips to all females who attend. #IFSFSWT

[MartinB]

meet in the bogs at the Brighton game sounds a bit George Michaelish!!!