Bell bemoans dwindling attendances

[Alvin the chipmunk]

From BBC website: BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Accrington Stanley | Bell bemoans dwindling fan base

[Tin Monkey]

The club really needs to do something about attendances.

I wonder if they're thought about changing the name of the club, or maybe moving to another town?

[maccawozzagod]

the simple answer is that something has to be done about the lack of marketing. The club has for too long relied on the goodwill of the name and expected things to happen on the back of that and free advertsing in the newspapers.

Driving to work in a morning I hear two adverts on the radio for Burnley's 'early bird' initiative (that had more notice given). Now I realise that we don't have the money that other clubs have to aim for blanket media coverage, but even a partial amount of the money would be a start. 5 times a week during drive time? We now have fantastic prices for students, but are probably missing out because we are not aggressively marketing them.

Stay away fans are not necesssarily 'staying away' they may simply be just not interested in us. Lets accept that and move on.

We don't necessarily need them to come to games. We can get money out of them via things like scratchcards. Rovers or Burnley have little plastic merchandisers on the counter of many local shops, pubs, butchers throughout the borough. Next time you see one in your local ask the owner why. More often than not they will tell you it is becasue it was there when they came or because they asked. We should do them.

I personally think that no matter how successful the Gold Bond may or not be it could be done differently. It could be something that the whole town plays as opposed to the National Lottery (well maybe not) but should be something that the whole town knows about and has access to play. Did you know the the Supporters Club in the forties and fifties were making around £150,000 a year through the lotteries? Translate that to todays money and it is probably more than the entire turnover of the club.

Two problems we have though.

No money from the club to fund or promote any ideas like these
Not interest from the existing fans to inititiate them.

[Oggy]

Penetrating stuff from Mr.Bell, makes you think, doesn't it?

[Stanleymad]

Thing also to add to maccas post - is that the main reason why crowds have dwindled over past 12 mnths is that the play on the pitch has been rubbish especially at home !! It all well & good Jimmy pointing out the fact of crap gates, blame this & that, BUT doesn't the main aspect comes down to Jimmy himself & Coley as management for the team & play !!!

Yeh Rob Heys - the LSU was a dig at those that dont attend but in same reference insulted the ones that do come to support the club best ways they can.

[mab]

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Think this say's it all really 13 L2 home defeats sofar 3 home cup games thats 16 plus the 11 away..27 in total with 4 games left,think mr Bell should focus more on playing matters and sorting that out with john

[JEFF]

Originally Posted by Stanleymad

BUT doesn't the main aspect comes down to Jimmy himself & Coley as management for the team & play !!!

Spot on. Coley was even complaining on Friday after the game that we defended too deep in the second half. What does he expect when he takes off the two attacking midfielders (Whalley and Todd) and replaces them with defensive midfielders (Harris and Mannix). People will not come to Stanley to watch negative football. They will not come to Stanley to watch a losing team. Get it right on the field of play and people will come to watch. Remember Farsley Celtic at home in Unibond Div 1, 2468 attended that game when the average attendance was probably about 400.

[Forever Red]

We can get crowds in. Our averages in the conference were good because we were up there. But we have no god given right to assume that we will be up near the top of league two. We had hardly any rersources when we got into the league and what's changed? I just think the organisation of the club is still learning and has a lot to learn. But we've got to give it time. Last season we had a number of matches where we looked like the non-league kids playing out of their depth. this season we look like a league team.

I think that things like selling beer behind the Clayton End is starting to come into its own now and I noticed the bar queue was as long as the brew queue last Friday so it just shows what revenue we were missing out on before. I think they could really make more of the concourse area at that end. More people are spending half time there but there'd probably be even more if it was covered and/or at least lit.

The pitch needs to be improved and maybe if we had more cover at the away end visiting teams fans would be more keen to return - its been clear this year that most fans have thought 'been there and won't bother coming back'. the atmosphere at matches is great - I have a friend who's a Rovers fan but he can't help coming back to Stanley because in spite of the football on offer its actually fun! But for away fans the facilities are c**p.

We must be positive - we will be in the league next season so we've got another few months to plan for the future. Perhaps the supporters club should have some fundraising campaigns?

[Stanleymad]

The Supporters Club are running events - especially this summer, with the Exhibition 'The Club That Wouldn't Die' running July-Aug at the Library, we've been doing a lot of promotion with having Granada TV doing the documentary, with the OSC, Ultra's & the Club & we've got the upcoming event of 'The End of Season Presentation Night' on the 3rd May with player of the year awards.

We have been & are doing our bit in every way to promote Stanley, even helping with the Les Cocker Campaign, which got stanley in the press over the Yorks border

[Forever Red]

Please don't think I'm criticising the supporter's club. Things that are happening are really excellent. What I'm saying is maybe a single season long campaign with a specific target in mind. I always remember that stone plaque on the wall at Peel Park saying how the changing room block was constructed using funds provided by the supporters club. If we could identify something that the club really needs and then say for instance, up to Christmas we will have a special raffle with a big prize and aim to raise £50000 or something. I think we need to be open to any ideas.

[maccawozzagod]

Definitely,

we may look to next season as being a fundraiser towards a marketing budget possibly. But that will be for next seasons committee to decide.

The problem, as in previous years, is there are too few of us to really get stuck into anything worthwhile. Some of us spend hours a week, extra to the footy, chasing leads and ideas around that eventually come to nothing. The Open Day was a 6-8 months worth of hard work for nothing, the Exhibition is being run by around 1/3 of what should be involved, only about four or five peeople ever volunteer to hand out leaflets. Without the input of people how could we ever hope to run things like an OSC shop perhaps, or without folk handing out leaflets every week how could we ever hope to get the entire crowd aware of our every turn, next meeting, next event, newsletter etc

The Exhibition was decided upon as being more important than anything else this season so consequently we have not concentrated any efforts on organising functions that nobody attends, merchandise that few folk (other than Ebay) buy, sponsored events that nobody takes part in etc.

Next season with the Exhibition out of the way we can again begin to think of things to do that could benefit us and the club.

[harwood red]

damn it my internet connection went down after posting a long reply

oh well shorter version...

we (the supporters club) have helped the club in many ways but obviously you can't put plaques everywhere. Yes as has been stated we have been putting all our efforts into the build up to the exhibition in summer and working with granada tv on the forthcoming documentary, but we are a few active members who are trying our best...

Have to agree that with macca that we need to look at maybe raising a marketing budget for the club to work with and if we can increase numbers of active osc members then we may be able to increase ideas into other areas where we can help out the club

[John_Timmins]

Originally Posted by harwood red

that we need to look at maybe raising a marketing budget for the club to work with

i can see that ending in tears

[Gayle]

I want to add my huge thanks to the few regular supporters that are actively involved in the exhibition. There is a strong core of people who are so keen and so dedicated to the club that it's really heartening to see. These are people who are doing it for free - but at the end of the day it is the same few that are doing everything. When I said I needed a small group of people to help out at a school open day at the beginning of May the same three people agreed to turn up. When it comes to researching information about things again, it's the same few people that work really hard to get things sorted.

But they are just a small group. The exhibition has taken a lot of their time this year and will do for the next few months. But I'm sure that if there are great ideas for events or activities for next year to raise money for things then I'm sure they'd be thrilled if you pitched in and organised them. I've been made to feel really welcome at supporters club meetings, as have other volunteers, what we really need to do now is capitalise on all the work for the exhibition and try to grab some of the people who come to see it.

[harwood red]

Originally Posted by John_Timmins

i can see that ending in tears

and why's that? the club have stated they would love to push things more, advertise etc, but all their money is taken on maintaining and developing the club and paying the wages so the marketing budget is one of those things that slips of the end of the desk or put to the bottom of the to do pile!!

We're not planning on raising the money for marketing and doing it ourselves but ask David what more he could do if he had a budget to work with!!