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Future cup games - fan experience and incentives to go

I never used to miss all would go to all home cup games, I may just be getting old and the appeal isn’t there, I’m not alone on this there’s was 25,000 missing from yesterdays game
 

Georgewhitt said:
Agree.
Depends on your prefered dictionary marra.

OED.

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Aye see to me a fan is just someone who enjoys something and respects it and might spectate them once in a while. Like I'm a music fan of numerous bands and enjoy listening to them but wouldn't really go to their gigs if they came around.

A fanatic is someone who is obsessed and would literally do anything to see them including spending £1k for a ticket like a lot of people have done for Oasis. Bonkers if you ask me but each to their own.

Someone who bought a kit and goes to a game once or twice a season is as much as a fan as someone who goes to every game imo.

The worst 'fans' are the ones who don't go to games then create threads on how bad the atmosphere is on the TV which is becoming a bit common on here lately. Ironic since they're doing nothing.
 
I can understand not opening the full ground but I don't think it helps. We started closing the ground in League One for the Checkatrade games but it gives off the feeling that we don't value the FA Cup any higher than the games against Leicester/Stoke U21s etc. I didn't have any problem with the team yesterday - would have made 1-2 more changes personally - but I never got the impression at all that we were taking the cup seriously. I went but can understand those who didn't.

Our cup attendances have never been great, but compare that with the Fulham replay two years ago when it appeared as though we were going to give it a good go and there was a lot of promotion around it - we got 29k for a televised midweek replay.

If we're only going to open the East and South Stands, can we at least sell all blocks there from the start? People who don't want to sit in the middle of the East Stand will naturally wait until the last minute to see if we open up the South Stand but by not getting them to commit early you will naturally lose people if the weather is shit, can't be bothered, had better offers etc who would have otherwise bought a ticket at the start if there was an incentive to do so.

There's wider issues with the FA Cup though - people are (understandably) very reluctant to move away from tradition but I always think the timing of the 3rd round doesn't help - you play loads of league games in quick succession over Christmas, sometimes a bit of football fatigue kicks in, players are knackered too which encourages rotation and weakened teams, everyone is skint after Christmas etc.
 
Twisted said:
All of those points are true, doesn't stop what i said being true either.

If Isidor isn't gonna play why was he on the bench? I watch the u21s a fair bit, i love seeing them get their opportunities but that doesn't mean picking them ahead of first teamers gives us a better chance of winning, it just doesn't doesn't.
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But you said we didn't go out to twin the game. For me everyone apart from Connolly gave it their all to win the game.
 
garyeaststand said:
Rather than penny pinching for our next home cup match the club should prioritise the fan experience, and as much as people say they don’t care what other fans think it doesn’t look good closing 70% of the stadium, also the player experience must be effected playing with only 1 and a half stands open.

Start by making it as easy as possible for season ticket holders to continue their habit of going using tech, and use incentives to encourage all fans to go
  • text, email etc to season card holder confirming their seat is waiting for them with a link to the basket that allows you to purchase in a couple of clicks
  • Trial an option for season ticket holders to add home cup games to your next renewal, this can be charged and included in your direct payments, anything not used can be rolled over to next season.
  • £15 special offer as a season ticket holder (i think this is minimum allowed in cup), extend offer to members for first 48 hours of tickets sales following season card period.
  • 1 or 2 loyalty points for attending (ticket must be scanned in) stating loyalty points will be used if any Wembley visit this season is oversubscribed. Someone mentioned boro offer 2, and I’m sure you get more caps with England for home games than aways which they put in place because the home friendlies etc were badly attended.
  • 50% off voucher for the club shop to be used on the day of the game on 1 item (encourage people to use the shop and some may buy more than one item)
  • Free pint and a pie before 2:30pm - encourage people to get in the ground early and some of these may buy additional pints etc after the free one
I get the argument that if you want to go you will go, but it was hard work from the off just buying the tickets and it must have put some off, it took me over 10 clicks to purchase a seat with a decent view for example which is ridiculous. and so limited choice many were waiting to see if they would open up more areas. At one point on Friday which was prime time for people deciding what to do at the weekend, the available seats was limited to a few hundred in the corner. The club put zero effort into any marketing or selling the tickets and all this created a we don’t care if you come feel about it.

We are creatures of habits as fans, make it as easy as possible to buy tickets, use incentivise to encourage people to go and put a bit effort into the marketing.
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All of these are good ideas.

They should also make clear that if we got to a cup final, people who attended early rounds games would get priority.
When renewing your season ticket they should ask you to choose:

Option A: Yes I would like to join the home game cup scheme and be automatically debited for home cup matches with a £5 discount applied for each game and priority for cup final tickets.

Option B: No I would not like to join the home game cup scheme. I understand I will miss out on the £5 discount and cup final tickets priority.

Would add at least 10k per match imo. Though they'd have to go to the trouble of opening the whole stadium.
 
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It was arguably the least interesting match up. Stoke aren't the most interesting opposition at the best of times but especially not when it's the 3rd game in a month and the other 2 weren't exactly classics. I assume Stoke felt the same about us.
If it was a PL club they would have been more on the gate, if it was a lower league the same amount of our fans would have probably turned up but more away fans might have fancied like Mansfield did a few years back. If it was a more local club it would have had more interest and even a more intriguing Championship club would have better.
 
Hulkster said:
They should also make clear that if we got to a cup final, people who attended early rounds games would get priority.
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Don't agree there mind. Season tickets should be priority with a second phase for those with a high number of BCP without a season tickets as they only go to away games living miles away. Someone who turns upto 2 games a season shouldn't be higher priority than a season ticket holder.

You could make an argument for them being Phase 3 which would definitely open up as there's not enough people to fill the first 2 phases rather than giving them to friends of season tickets or what not.
 
Zimba said:
Don't agree there mind. Season tickets should be priority with a second phase for those with a high number of BCP without a season tickets as they only go to away games living miles away. Someone who turns upto 2 games a season shouldn't be higher priority.

You could make an argument for them being Phase 3 which would definitely open up as there's not enough Season Tickets holders.
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The cup scheme would only be available to season ticket holders, so it would still be season ticket holders getting priority.

If we got to the FA Cup final we'd get about 20k tickets with 30k season ticket holders, the vast majority of who are on 0 to 4 points.

Those who went to the earlier rounds should obviously be given priority.
 
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garyeaststand said:
Rather than penny pinching for our next home cup match the club should prioritise the fan experience, and as much as people say they don’t care what other fans think it doesn’t look good closing 70% of the stadium, also the player experience must be effected playing with only 1 and a half stands open.

Start by making it as easy as possible for season ticket holders to continue their habit of going using tech, and use incentives to encourage all fans to go
  • text, email etc to season card holder confirming their seat is waiting for them with a link to the basket that allows you to purchase in a couple of clicks
  • Trial an option for season ticket holders to add home cup games to your next renewal, this can be charged and included in your direct payments, anything not used can be rolled over to next season.
  • £15 special offer as a season ticket holder (i think this is minimum allowed in cup), extend offer to members for first 48 hours of tickets sales following season card period.
  • 1 or 2 loyalty points for attending (ticket must be scanned in) stating loyalty points will be used if any Wembley visit this season is oversubscribed. Someone mentioned boro offer 2, and I’m sure you get more caps with England for home games than aways which they put in place because the home friendlies etc were badly attended.
  • 50% off voucher for the club shop to be used on the day of the game on 1 item (encourage people to use the shop and some may buy more than one item)
  • Free pint and a pie before 2:30pm - encourage people to get in the ground early and some of these may buy additional pints etc after the free one
I get the argument that if you want to go you will go, but it was hard work from the off just buying the tickets and it must have put some off, it took me over 10 clicks to purchase a seat with a decent view for example which is ridiculous. and so limited choice many were waiting to see if they would open up more areas. At one point on Friday which was prime time for people deciding what to do at the weekend, the available seats was limited to a few hundred in the corner. The club put zero effort into any marketing or selling the tickets and all this created a we don’t care if you come feel about it.

We are creatures of habits as fans, make it as easy as possible to buy tickets, use incentivise to encourage people to go and put a bit effort into the marketing.
Click to expand...
£1 a ticket
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
Think that was what was happening yesterday. Water vapour from the crowd breathing out rising and condensing on the roof. Made worse by their being no wind. Hard to see how it could be a leak when it hadn't rained for days.

FA impose a £10 minimum.
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Just give them free to season ticket holders. Or £10, buy one get one free. And the club make up the difference.
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
Think that was what was happening yesterday. Water vapour from the crowd breathing out rising and condensing on the roof. Made worse by their being no wind. Hard to see how it could be a leak when it hadn't rained for days.

FA impose a £10 minimum.
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Club subsidise it then. FA still gets their money, fans turn up in bigger numbers.
 
42 said:
Problem is that if we get another mag game scenario, then can't guarantee you your own seat. Or maybe they could use that as justification for not moving people & say it's upstairs, if authorities don't like it, it's tough you get less tickets
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Fair point, it used to be straightforward as there were no season tickets in the South Stand and we could allocate the whole of that end to away fans when necessary.

We might not be able to allocate away fans the North Upper anyway if we get promoted to the Premier League due to their away seating rules around pitchside allocations (
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) so maybe its time to makes some changes in the North Stand or corners? Whatever we do, if we reserve a section for match-day sales as opposed to season tickets we can always give that to away fans when necessary.
 
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