Reason for poor gates?

[Baudelaire]

To be honest the season's hardly started yet, it's the middle of summer, people are on hols, playing cricket, having barbecues etc.

BTW Morecambe got only 50% of normal gate on Saturday versus the mighty Brewers.

[maccawozzagod]

we all have a favourite pub that we go to through pretty much thick and thin. Favourite bar staff come and go, landlords who give tick come and go, the guest beers change frequently and the prices go up but never come down. Sometimes a new regular may come and sit on your chair at the bar or a non-local may raid your bandit. BUt you still go back every day/week.

Now imagine if that same bar that you love so much put the prices up but stopped giving you beer for 105 minutes during the afternoon. Imagine if the slates blew off and the rain leaked in whilst the central heating also failed. No product, no shelter, no heat and no money in your pocket.....would you still go back every week?


The club needs to get more money off the people who do go. Sounds money grabbing but if you look at the fact that they are losing a hell of a lot of pre-match and halft time bar takings as well as the increase in wages but no increase in attendances then you see the point. The only money they are taking off us is £13/£15 and maybe a programme.

There should be an afternoon out and all your money going to the club.

There should be three bars (affiliated to each stand) and each should be different in ambience to the others. Every pint a Stanley fan has in another pub is a pint lost. 1000 fans having five pints in an afternoon is about four grand lost per match.

There should be a larger shop selling things other than just ASFC merchandise, big enough for a family of four to browse around whilst other customers are in.

The catering facilities should be a bit cheaper to encourage a higher turnover but more importantly they should be owned by the club. The deal was no doubt negotiated quite a while back but just charging a flat rent on a lucrative source of income is negative economy. I dont know what they charge in rent but if 500 people visit the vans and spend three quid each say then we have lost some more money. I bet away fans spend a fortune. Two pies and two bottles of coke cost eight pound at Chester and about £1.75 at ASDA. How do I tender for the next contract Eric?

Has anybody seen things to spend your money at other grounds that seem a good idea? Maybe a funfair on the car park just to really please Livingstone Road Residents committee.

Maybe we should have a designated family stand where any entertainment such as The Angels could perform directly in front of. The sound system, whilst better than last year is still bad. Every word needs to be crystal clear at the right volume. Getting to the ground early enough to guarantee your spot is very lonely with struggling sound for company.

Yes we need to brainwash the kids from young. Free tickets for under 10's when accompanied by an adult. Over 10 for a fiver (at the most),

Same price for pensioners or registered disabled. Students I would charge a little more for as it their choice to learn (). And they could get jobs working in our bars to pay for the admission.

Season tickets should be a real incentive. 20% off the cost of attending all the matches (£239 this year). Kids should be an absolute maximum charge at £50. There is no way on this planet that we, as the smallest and least successfull (in terms of football league standing) should be outpriced by either Blackburn or Burnley. They are our competition and we cannot sell an inferior product for more money than they do. To any age group.

Finally, and most importantly, we must, must, must look after the existing fan. We have waited patiently (ish) for too long for a roof over at least one end. We have no hope of retaining a large number of new fans without it. Dry and warm go hand in hand with comfort, wet and cold go hand in hand with miserable. Also it goes without saying that the Ultras would ensure that the Clayton End rock like no other ground at our level if you keep the noise in!

Yes Kitchener I agree with you that most businessmen would be more than happy with a 10% increase in turnover year on year and viewing it from that angle then we are already really successfull. However, if anybody at the club starts to think that the margins are getting too tight then what are they going to squeeze next for extra revenue? Where could they cut back?

As far as the success of the team is concerned I dont care if we go back to the Conference next year, or the Unibond the year after, because I'll still be there. But, I would rather be at the top of this league under a roof as part of a fervent swaying full capacity crowd.

[Bagpuss]

There are plenty of ideas come from the forum but its very rare we get any feedback from the club, we all know that Rob Heys reads the postings but I doubt Eric does. Rob I challenge you to show us you are Chief Executive material and give us some feedback on Maccas post, one of the best I've read on the accyweb, I do understand as Kipax has said before that why should you, simple because we the fans want you to.

[pipinfort]

lets have a round of applause for macca.......top flight post. now will they listen?

[Chimer]

I feel a remake of a Hollywood classic coming on .....

Opening shot - aerial, zooming in on a northern town, then a football ground and finally on an individual standing at the back of a terrace in the pouring rain.

Pan round to show that Eric (for it is he) is counting 48 Ultras in pink shirts, with 96 flags and one illegal drum, outsinging 800 Hereford fans packing the Coppice end. The cowshed is empty, and the main stand nearly so.

As Eric turns away in despair, pan again to show him against a background of the town, damp grey slate roofs shining palely through the rain, chimneys smoking, milk bottles on the dorsteps, other northern cliches in abundance .... (OK I know you can't really pose the shot that way, give me some artistic licence)

And a ghostly whisper can be heard, becoming more insistent with repetition. as if the town itself is speaking ...

"If you build it they will come"

"If you build it they will come"

"If you build it they will come"

"If you build it they will come"

"Build what ?" Eric asks the rain clouds.... and as one the Ultras turn and cry

"The 'F' in Roof"

(Apologies to people who haven't seen Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams")

[Ber999T]

Hmmmmmmmmm open shot of Kes is of Accrington

[Chimer]

P.S. Didn't mean to take anything away from Macca's much more serious point - he posted while I was typing .....

[Tin Monkey]

Originally Posted by Ber999T

Hmmmmmmmmm open shot of Kes is of Accrington

Is that right? I always thought that Loach filmed the whole thing in Barnsley.

[longballking]

Originally Posted by Doug

I was driving this afternoon listening to BBC Lancashire. PB was responding to comments made about the council not being fully behind the club. He made several calls for local support to be increased stating that Accrington Stanley deserved to have double the gate than it was currently getting. Nothing was said that I heard that related to financial support or ground development.

I regularly attend the Bloomfield Road Ground for non football meetings; those that have been to Bloomfield Road recently might agree that should there be a similar development in Accrington the club could only benefit beyond our wildest dreams. I think the key to the future now is in how the town responds to developing the ground. HBC and the Club need to be focusing on the ground now, you’ve got a talented team and a good manager, sort the ground out and the crowds will follow.

I would also suggest that a discounted gate for the winter months with plenty of hot drinks and grub available at reasonable prices will swill the numbers. Accrington Stanley is now a business, treat it like one and all of us will benefit.

You have got to look on the positives. I actually like the ground how it is, ok if it rains and your on the terraces you get wet but we're northerners we can take it. We do have possibly the worst ground in the league but this is an advantage in my eyes as other so called bigger teams won't like coming here. A perminant bar at the back of the Clayton End would be appreciated though. As for the low gates, lets see how many come to the Forest game, most clubs moan about low attendances for televised games but for some reason our gates double???

[maccawozzagod]

and we always win on the telly!

[Ber999T]

Originally Posted by Tin Monkey

Is that right? I always thought that Loach filmed the whole thing in Barnsley.

am sure that if i'm wrong someone will tell me but think about it it may not have been Kes afterall but another film and that has been in the threads and I can't think of it just now

[Tin Monkey]

There was a film made in Accrington in the mid-80s called Nature of the Beast, which some people have compared to Kes. It might have been that you were thinking of?

[John_Timmins]

Just a suggestion what ever happened to the fans forum??? where fans could ask the club questions? can we not have it back please rob???

cause as you can see theres loads of ideas which can get overlooked on her

[maccawozzagod]

Nature of the Beast, Hetty Wainthrop, or Oranges are not the Only fruit?

or even Stanley always win on the telly

[Ber999T]

TM yes that the film

we'll see macca on monday lol