Sutton United - an opportunity missed
Last season I was particularly annoyed by the fact we didn’t play a full first team in any of the 3 cup competitions we play in (excluding the B & B). I can appreciate the reason in so far as GA’s remit (on a shit or bust budget) was to get promotion. That didn’t work, nor did our chance of additional cup revenue.
I’m extremely glad that MB took beating the Franchise seriously and with a home draw v Sutton United we have a great chance of getting to R3 and drawing a big club.
However, the response from WWFC has been to downgrade this game by closing the Frank Adams Stand and Family Stand. That will put many people off coming for a start. However, do the powers that be not realise that this is the last midweek game before the schools go back? Kids will be allowed to stay up late and go to football but this won’t be allowed for many during term-time. I know - let’s close the Family Stand & put all our marketing & social media messages into “upgrading” to the Legends Lounge for £60 for this game. Words fail me…..
Why not keep the Family Stand open and promote this as a game to take your kids to before term starts again? It’s a one-off cup-tie with penalties as a possibility as well. If I get any more emails asking me to upgrade to this or that I shall unsubscribe them all. A lot of people are having a hard time financially at the moment. Let’s do a really good deal for families for the Sutton game and “upgrade” the match by opening the Family Stand.
Comments
Seems sensible to me to close the stands. Even with both of them shut we will have thousands of empty seats.
Can't argue with that.
Are Sutton in the whole of the WhiffAway stand or do home fans have one end next to the FA. Opening the Family Stand is inevitable and a missed opportunity if we have no home seats in the WhiffAway stand.
If we close the Frank Adams upper and lower and the away end is only for the away fans then we only have 1000 seats left in the Old Main stand for all home fans, plus the terrace.
I can easily see us selling out those seats and then having to open the Family Stand.
I don't see the issue - sell out what's initially on sale, then open the family stand if need be. We've done this countless times before for minor cup games anyway, haven't we?
I knew who'd written this thread before even entering, it's Peak Worbs.
Not one mention of praise about dropping pricing to half price, despite you specifically saying how many are struggling financially.
It's a league 2 team in midweek, in a month many are on holiday, and where we have lots of other fixtures.
It's a shame to have the stand I sit in shut, but if it doesn't make financial sense to open it, it has to be this way.
I doubt we'll get more than 2,000 for this one - which, unless my maths is wildly off, fits into the terrace, main stand and half of the away end (Sutton won't bring more than 500 tops, surely).
The only thing I agree with you on is that the club need to stop ramming the legend lounge upgrade down my throat. Everything else they are doing is sensible. We will have had 13 games in two months by the end of September. Eight of those are/were at home. Sutton are historically a non-league side, so no big draw to non-fans. Seems like a sensible commercial decision to cut costs on this one as the attendance for this cup game will be very low.
Personally I agree that it sends totally the wrong message. I'm not averse to shutting off some segments - limit entry to one end of the FA (closest to the terrace) and only allow entry from that end, for example.
But shutting the main stand completely will put of loads of people.
As per the first post, we should have pitched this as an opportunity to bring kids along for £2-3.
I admit it is difficult to judge without knowing the cost of staffing, cleaning and stewarding the FA/family stand. But if it is really so prohibitively expensive then there are plenty of league games where the total crowd could easily fit into fewer stands.
with the F Adams and family stands closed sitting outside the Legends Lounge for the game will be tranquil to say the least.
It says on the WWFC website: 'The Frank Adams and Family Stand will be closed for this fixture unless demand for tickets dictates otherwise.'
So where's the problem? If all the open stand tickets are sold, and more people want tickets, they will then open one or both of those stands. It's a matter of supply and demand.
Why would anyone expect the club to not promote the legends lounge? It’s new and it aims to make them money.
Like anything, if you’re not interested, move on.
Because if people want to come but only if they can sit in the Family or FA stand then they are rely on people buying seats elsewhere first. So there could be people who want to come but won't.
What happens if the "locals" from the FA stand have to buy their tickets else where and then the FA Stand opens up? Will the club allow them to transfer back to their normal seats?
Will they be half-ing the WhiffAway stand to allow home fans to sit there? I'm not sure what type of following Sutton will bring but I can't see it being many?
If people are that precious when there are perfectly good seats available - all at the same price - they need to get a grip.
Giving ST holders a four-day priority window for a Carabao game vs League Two opposition seems a bit pointless
This has been done lots of time and I don't think there's ever been a precedent for us suddenly selling an extra 3 or 4000 seats in these cases causing us to need to open the stand.
I agree it does send a signal that it's not a priority but AP can be a faff to get to and from midweek for lots of people and there's lots of other games. It'd be lovely if more people wanted to go but expecting them to open your favoured stand for the sake of a few people isn't reasonable.
The Beechdean stand is very nice. Children will like it. Sometimes business decisions have to made. I cannot make it but I can recommend the back row (G) as you can stand without bothering anyone and it's a great view of the pitch and you can shout 'Oi Bloomfield what's the Plan B???'
I don't believe anyone planning to go will be put off. I hope not to be proved wrong.
The problem is the perennial moaners like @A_Worboys.
Moaners? In the Gasroom? Surely not, I've never seen any evidence of that 😉
It's a brilliant idea to try and recapture that link between fans and players.
The Worbs "opportunity missed" posts 4 or 5 times a season are almost as big a gasroom traditional as the Oily Sailor FA cup poem now.
I'm surprised it took this long into the season for one.
You can almost write your own.
"It's Burton in the league on Saturday, and what an opportunity missed by Wycombe.
They're a tiny club, and won't bring many fans.
Why aren't the club offering a deal where if you turn up wearing gear from Burtons clothes emporium, you'll get 20% off a ticket and a free handshake from your choice of Wanderers player. This is such an easy win for the club, I can't understand why they aren't offering it.
It's like they're treating us as mere customers, not as loyal fans"
Rather than the club adopting a negative ticketing policy for these cup games, i.e. we mustn't risk losing money, I would like them to be positive and offer incentives for fans to attend in the FA and Family stands.
I really don't understand closing the Family stand during a school holiday, surely that is relatively economical to open, with stewards, one kiosk, one set of toilets.
One benefit of that is having fans on four sides, giving an improved atmosphere, which helps the team. We poke fun at PNL for their three sided stadium, think before you do that again if you are happy to have one side closed at AP.
Loads of clubs do this btw
It's never a great look, as it always makes the game feel a bit pre season / friendly esque.
But you simply won't get a packed house, whatever freebies you lash around.
And I believe the Couhigs aren't big on discounts.
And if we progress the fans who went can ask fair weather fans 'Were you there for Sutton in the Cup?'
The new Carlisle away.
On another note it was amusing seeing some of the old set of terrace singers (sing up gasroom!) Feeling affronted at the new 1887 lot getting praise at their noise!
There's something to be said for being hesitant to give hugely discounted of free tickets to people who would come anyway, it's a nice loyalty bonus but probably won't boost the gate significantly.
"Just £50" for the new baby kit probably tells you all you need to know about Couhig pricing tbh
The only dead set way to capture fans is to get local kids from young ages before they become armchair to clubs they'll never see live.
I remember the £1 a kid stuff, and some incredibly cheap prices as a kid through to a 3 year student ticket for £120!
I didn't for a second think roll on 20 years and 1 year would be £500!
Don't agree with any of that but I'd imagine the playing budget amongst other costs has also heavily increased in that time.