I have noticed the club's lacking effort in community for quite a while.
There was a match (I believe last season) where they gave Millbrook children, parents and staff free tickets but I think that was just as a thank you for letting them use their school for parking!
Ever since the half-time penalty shoot-outs (in the real goals) disappeared, so did the effort. However there are very few situations now where the club properly engages with the children in the community. I remember players coming to 6-a-sides or prize givings, all small events that they had a targetted audience.
There was also one summer ages ago where the club hired out some of Handy Cross facilities, split all the club into teams that was led by a player and then did activities / games with the winning team being mascots for a pre-season game. The people invited were ST holders, but I think other could have booked on too. None of the players even engaged with the soccer schools that the club runs, its just poor showing.
I know things like safeguarding have changed, but some of these things can't be that difficult to restart!
With snow receding at pace in the Alps a cheeky offer to buy a couple of low altitude lifts might just be the answer. Only question now is, what was the question?
Need to send a message over to Rob & Pete. Stop wasting money on fireworks and put it towards this button lift. Do you think the FA / Council would accept this as another access point to the stadium?
A great hypothetical, but how many extra is that, 2,500 or so?
The town centre isn't particularly heaving these days, so would you get 500 or so extras just stumbling across a game while they're out anyway?
Would 2,000 others make the effort to walk/drive/bus to the town centre, but not make the extra 2mile effort to the current ground?
I reckon in the championship we'd probably only have a few games a season where we didn't average 8,000+, but in league 1 i'm not sure it's there even where we are, bar the really big draws.
The players do attend the WW Foundation school holiday clubs. I went along to one last Summer with Josh Scowen and Jasper Pattenden. They are really well run sessions and I particularly enjoyed the players getting grilled by the kids at the end of the session.
Years ago when the club shop was in the town centre.... that gave a little bit of a shout out to the club past the gates at AP...
Also I used to see lots more posters and advertising of games around the town... in local shop windows and such like. I see nothing of the sort now.
I disagree that the target audience should be primary age kids.
This age needs adults to attend with them.... so yeah... I get the club giving out free young kids tickets.... as I guess an adult would have to pay full whack??
Primary age kids unless they have the attention span and/or have even a mild interest in football.... won't give much of a sh%t.
The parents will begrudge forking out even if just for themselves. Especially if they themselves have little or no interest in the sport.
Its a waste of time and effort for all involved.
We need to target teens. Secondary school/ collage aged kids.
These are the ones that can come to games off their own back and own spend without parents. These are the ones who will, if interested in football... really will get into it.
These are the ones that will get hooked, then get their mates to come along with them.... these are the future generation of our club...(as annoying and dickhe%dish some of them will be until they grow up a bit.... these are the ones we need to be promoting to!! Seriously!
I know numerous teens (Including my young self) that are/ were only influenced by the premiership teams...
However... to many/ most... watching live premiership football regularly is out of the realms of possibility and affordability.
As a 14/15 year old i was introduced to wwfc by a mate back in 1999/2000
And I was instantly hooked to the live game. The wycombe club mentality, the atmosphere, the sense of belonging... the extra excitement of away games!!!
This is the audience we need to attract... the next lifers.
Free/ mega discounted tickets occasionally to local secondary schools. 100%
Did we establish the reason they stopped the kid's half time stuff?
Was it not to mess the pitch up? Or was the theory that they want people buying stuff at half time?
Either seem daft, as if it's number 1, then we've gone full circle from allowing 15 stone oafs to wrestle on the pitch, to not allowing a bunch of tiny kids to spend a few seconds running 20 yards and kicking a ball each.
And if it's reason 2 - it'd help if the whole kiosks scenario with lack of staff options etc wasn't such a sham.
To be fair to the club, the warm bank thing is a pretty good example of making an effort with the local community.
And on the subject of the Chairboy Lift, there’s the opportunity to upsell with branded photographs of the travellers traversing the Chiltern hills, complete with a nice cardboard frame with the date and the opponent’s name embossed on it. Perhaps injured players could randomly ride the lift, engaging with the community by pointing out landmarks and rare birds, while subtly remarking how warm they are in that £125 club puffer jacket.
Would be a great Apprentice episode if nothing else.
If the Chairlift is to takeoff it would need to be done in a green and energy efficient way. Therefore I propose it should be pedal-powered. A potential problem may arise however if the operator gets tired and fans end up stranded mid flight...
I like the chairlift idea, but wouldn't it still be prohibitively expensive? I believe ski resorts here in Colorado have to spend a couple of million to install one. We might not be going up a mountain, but if the distance was the same...
Used to download the fixture list and game posters from the club site and stick them up each week in work, not sure if it attracted any more folks to games but I liked annoying the Liverpool supporting majority (all locals btw) in the tea room.
Comments
I have noticed the club's lacking effort in community for quite a while.
There was a match (I believe last season) where they gave Millbrook children, parents and staff free tickets but I think that was just as a thank you for letting them use their school for parking!
Ever since the half-time penalty shoot-outs (in the real goals) disappeared, so did the effort. However there are very few situations now where the club properly engages with the children in the community. I remember players coming to 6-a-sides or prize givings, all small events that they had a targetted audience.
There was also one summer ages ago where the club hired out some of Handy Cross facilities, split all the club into teams that was led by a player and then did activities / games with the winning team being mascots for a pre-season game. The people invited were ST holders, but I think other could have booked on too. None of the players even engaged with the soccer schools that the club runs, its just poor showing.
I know things like safeguarding have changed, but some of these things can't be that difficult to restart!
You are never going to let that go..... 🤣
With snow receding at pace in the Alps a cheeky offer to buy a couple of low altitude lifts might just be the answer. Only question now is, what was the question?
Need to send a message over to Rob & Pete. Stop wasting money on fireworks and put it towards this button lift. Do you think the FA / Council would accept this as another access point to the stadium?
I just think it would be fun to see fans try to navigate it after having a couple too many
A great hypothetical, but how many extra is that, 2,500 or so?
The town centre isn't particularly heaving these days, so would you get 500 or so extras just stumbling across a game while they're out anyway?
Would 2,000 others make the effort to walk/drive/bus to the town centre, but not make the extra 2mile effort to the current ground?
I reckon in the championship we'd probably only have a few games a season where we didn't average 8,000+, but in league 1 i'm not sure it's there even where we are, bar the really big draws.
Competes with Lx's Sheffield Wednesday but it's a Saturday weekly one.
The players do attend the WW Foundation school holiday clubs. I went along to one last Summer with Josh Scowen and Jasper Pattenden. They are really well run sessions and I particularly enjoyed the players getting grilled by the kids at the end of the session.
Years ago when the club shop was in the town centre.... that gave a little bit of a shout out to the club past the gates at AP...
Also I used to see lots more posters and advertising of games around the town... in local shop windows and such like. I see nothing of the sort now.
I disagree that the target audience should be primary age kids.
This age needs adults to attend with them.... so yeah... I get the club giving out free young kids tickets.... as I guess an adult would have to pay full whack??
Primary age kids unless they have the attention span and/or have even a mild interest in football.... won't give much of a sh%t.
The parents will begrudge forking out even if just for themselves. Especially if they themselves have little or no interest in the sport.
Its a waste of time and effort for all involved.
We need to target teens. Secondary school/ collage aged kids.
These are the ones that can come to games off their own back and own spend without parents. These are the ones who will, if interested in football... really will get into it.
These are the ones that will get hooked, then get their mates to come along with them.... these are the future generation of our club...(as annoying and dickhe%dish some of them will be until they grow up a bit.... these are the ones we need to be promoting to!! Seriously!
I know numerous teens (Including my young self) that are/ were only influenced by the premiership teams...
However... to many/ most... watching live premiership football regularly is out of the realms of possibility and affordability.
As a 14/15 year old i was introduced to wwfc by a mate back in 1999/2000
And I was instantly hooked to the live game. The wycombe club mentality, the atmosphere, the sense of belonging... the extra excitement of away games!!!
This is the audience we need to attract... the next lifers.
Free/ mega discounted tickets occasionally to local secondary schools. 100%
In a previous life I coached for the community scheme.
We went in all the local schools every week and ran after school clubs.
My best session 70 kids over half in Wycombe shirts.
We did penalties on the pitch at half time, involving local grassroots football teams, churches, schools and youth clubs.
Most penalty shoot outs kids were very cheap, but they bought mum, dad, grandparents, brothers and sisters, eat more chips than you can imagine.
I am not sure why the disconnect came about but it is an easy fix. (in my mind)
Did we establish the reason they stopped the kid's half time stuff?
Was it not to mess the pitch up? Or was the theory that they want people buying stuff at half time?
Either seem daft, as if it's number 1, then we've gone full circle from allowing 15 stone oafs to wrestle on the pitch, to not allowing a bunch of tiny kids to spend a few seconds running 20 yards and kicking a ball each.
And if it's reason 2 - it'd help if the whole kiosks scenario with lack of staff options etc wasn't such a sham.
Show replays of Palace humiliating Manu?
Slightly off subject but it strikes me that there is no acknowledgment that we played in the town centre for 94 years.
many clubs arrange for plaques to be put up on the sites of old stadiums
would be nice if there was one on the site of the hospital building that is there now
To be fair to the club, the warm bank thing is a pretty good example of making an effort with the local community.
And on the subject of the Chairboy Lift, there’s the opportunity to upsell with branded photographs of the travellers traversing the Chiltern hills, complete with a nice cardboard frame with the date and the opponent’s name embossed on it. Perhaps injured players could randomly ride the lift, engaging with the community by pointing out landmarks and rare birds, while subtly remarking how warm they are in that £125 club puffer jacket.
Would be a great Apprentice episode if nothing else.
If the Chairlift is to takeoff it would need to be done in a green and energy efficient way. Therefore I propose it should be pedal-powered. A potential problem may arise however if the operator gets tired and fans end up stranded mid flight...
Maybe wind power as a back up? Plenty of hot air being generated down Hillbottom Rd on match days.
I like the chairlift idea, but wouldn't it still be prohibitively expensive? I believe ski resorts here in Colorado have to spend a couple of million to install one. We might not be going up a mountain, but if the distance was the same...
If the chairlift takes off then surely it becomes an airplane?
Actually @Erroll_Sims this is not even done by the club. The junior club has to approach them!!
You mean a chairplane
Despite it all being tongue in cheek, I'm genuinely coming round to the Chairlift idea.
Whatever the cost it would surely be cheaper than a road.
Would be incredibly novel, probably acting as a tourist attraction for the foreign daytrippers going from London to Bicester Village and beyond.
Regular users can collect chairmiles to cash in at the club shop.
It would be very on trend for a club that's often labelled as favouring the aerial option
Used to download the fixture list and game posters from the club site and stick them up each week in work, not sure if it attracted any more folks to games but I liked annoying the Liverpool supporting majority (all locals btw) in the tea room.
The question is who would you want to unveil the new chairlift @ReturnToSenda? Tim Peake? Lionel Richie?
Tony Adams
Got to be Westlife surely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bxc9hbwkkw
Perhaps our defenders could simply boot people back into town after games?
Richard Hill would be ideal.
Eddie the Eagle Edwards