Well if we can’t discuss anything where the decision is not ours to make, this will be a very dull and lightly used forum.
Shame about the posters. If it can be done, hard to see a downside, so was interested why it didnt work when suggested previously. Thanks for illuminating. Always genuinely interesting to hear the inside story.
It doesn’t have to be an empty shop, a fancy pop up gazebo decorated in light and dark blue balloons,flags and other chairboys merchandise strategically placed in the octagon or Eden which can be set up during the run up to a big game. Even if we pick up 10 new fans with this initiative tickets and on site spend should generate income of about 4K over 23 games.
Experience tells us that fans are keen to take a poster but it probably ends up in their home rather than out in the community - ie in shops etc where they can be seen. I have also found that many shops (especially the national names) will not display them so you do have to rely on the local traders eg barbers, fish and chip shops etc
The club should consider reaching out to awareness raising and campaigning charities to further Wycombe's outreach and engagement plans.
These charities specialise in outreach work, raising the profile of the causes they want to promote and working with external organisations in short term partnerships that potentially benefit both parties. They also have methodology on how to maximise these endeavours as the vast majority also work with limited budgets and, for the most part, have to justify their expenditure to those who provide their funding.
When I was at college in bucks in the mid 90s the posters with the next 2 or 3 home games were all over the place. As a footy fan new to the town I might have got there anyway but they highlight what is happening and it sparks an idea. Wonder if the council noticeboards still exist.
I remember going to what was then the WDC tourist office in Marlow a few years ago and we didn’t even have a poster up in there. There are lots of missed opportunities.
@StrongestTeam I moved to Wycombe mid-90s also and remember those upcoming match posters well. I used to make an effort to collect each one from the ground, post it up at work (I was then working in Slough, so essentially local) and try to encourage colleagues to come along. I wasn't greatly successful, but did get a few people to come along for the odd game or too; admittedly, more often fans of the visiting team who would not otherwise have gone but were up for joining me incognito on the home terrace for a little friendly rivalry and banter.
I downloaded one of the official fixture posters that @AlanCecil has posted a reminder about for printing and posting in my office, but I now work in Loughborough and, regardless of how much encouragement I give to my colleagues, it is unlikely to result in them attending Adams Park. I did get a couple of them to join me supporting Wycombe in the away end at Burton a few years back, but they both live only 7 or 8 miles from Burton, it was local for them and I gave them a lift.
Another poster recently speculated on how many season ticket holders - a key group with regard to being interested enough to take posters and promote the club - actually live in High Wycombe. I no longer do. Those who I sit with and talk to at each home game also no longer do, living an hour or more drive away. I am aware of a number of others.
In typing out this post (apologies if it has become overly long) I realise that a common factor in my successes in getting people along to watch Wycombe Wanderers is that they have all already been football fans, either fans of the opposition or fans of other teams that were not playing matches at conflicting times. The only exceptions to this are family members and, on one occasion, a visiting US colleague who would otherwise have been stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere for the evening. Perhaps there are a couple of tips here to where marketing efforts could/should be focussed:
bring your family along (a tactic that is already being used)
posters and promotion in local hotels, particularly for mid-week games when football fans visiting the area on business may find themselves stuck for entertainment; perhaps even coordinating a shuttle between hotel and ground
getting fans of other teams to come along to Adams Park when their team is not playing and/or they cannot get to their teams matches (having both the early kick off and late kick off Premier League matches viewable in full at the ground and strongly publicising that may help to get a few PL fans in who would otherwise not want to miss watching their team on TV).
I confess to having no idea of how to get local residents to come along to Adams Park who are not already football fans and who don't have relatives who are fans, although that in numbers must be the biggest potential audience. Would they even come along if they were given free tickets?
My first encounter with Wanderers was being handed a small card fixture list by an old guy in a park in Hazlemere before the start of the 79-80 season. My limited experience of football until then was a couple of Chelsea games. My mum was keen for me to go along as the one time she took me to Stamford Bridge it was a near-riot and Loakes park seemed a safe alternative. 40 years on I'm still coming along every other week, so however scattershot such an approach might seem, it can work. Sadly, living in Oxford, I'm not sure I could make much difference beyond inflicting a lifetime of Wycombe fanaticism on my son.
Ought to be able to get some kind of a stall in Eden (bit like the dunkin' artery cloggers, and the phone repair guys). Wouldn't have to be there every day. Sure it would be much cheaper than a shop.
Picking up on Uncle T’s excellent post, the idea of targeting fans of other clubs is something I’ve suggested to the new regime. On any given Saturday there’ll be hordes of football fans leaving HW train station to go into London to watch their favourite PL or Championship team. What do they do when their team is away or when they can’t afford or obtain tickets? Everyone has a favourite second team, why not make it Wycombe?
Everyone has a favourite second team? Do I need to get one?
Even if that's a thing how many would actually go to a few games? For me the blanket coverage of the millionaires league means it's just easier to watch that from your armchair or bar stool.
Wycombe even use the lunchtime game as a marketing tool to sell more alcohol.
I remember when football did not take place so early, Now it is a more or less year round business so has to contend with other activities and what about holidays?
RITM, I’m sure that many Wycombe fans will have a PL club they prefer over the others and I personally know of WW fans who also ‘support’ Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham etc. They may have relocated from areas where their original club was based.
Anyway, if you don’t try these ideas you’ll never know whether they’ll be successful. It wouldn’t cost much to send someone down to the train station (our cheerleaders troupe perhaps?) on a couple of Saturday mornings to distribute leaflets/fixture cards etc.
@Right_in_the_Middle said:
Everyone has a favourite second team? Do I need to get one?
Even if that's a thing how many would actually go to a few games? For me the blanket coverage of the millionaires league means it's just easier to watch that from your armchair or bar stool.
Wycombe even use the lunchtime game as a marketing tool to sell more alcohol.
Pretty easy just to knock down everyone else's ideas. What are yours?
Could we do a tie-up with Rebellion Brewery? Perhaps develop an ale exclusively for us but sold at their outlets, and imaginatively named every other week with a connection with our next opponents at AP. Perhaps make it a competition to name it with the winner being given free tickets to the relevant home game (and ideally free Rebellion beer on the day too)
@Right_in_the_Middle said:
Everyone has a favourite second team? Do I need to get one?
Even if that's a thing how many would actually go to a few games? For me the blanket coverage of the millionaires league means it's just easier to watch that from your armchair or bar stool.
Wycombe even use the lunchtime game as a marketing tool to sell more alcohol.
Pretty easy just to knock down everyone else's ideas. What are yours?
I have to assume you are posting with irony as your general modus operandi is exactly what you describe.
I have no ideas at all on how to get more people watching other than the obvious one of building a winning team playing amazing flowing football. The first is what is getting clubs in to financial meltdown and the Ainsworth approach to game management isn't going to persuade that many neutrals (or these second teamers)
I've watched the team for long enough to have seen every type of incentive to get more to watch. Winning us the only one that doesn't devalue the general offering. The £5 Bolton offer was great but when it went to £21 for the next game that seemed really expensive, especially when you only get the £2 off using the app.
Using cheerleaders or beer might work for some. For a little while. I am just concerned about Couhig building up debt trying too many of these schemes at time when it's holiday season.
Whilst he may be both supporting and encouraging it, it is not Rob Couhig that is building up the debt: it is the Football Club board and Trust board that are doing that.
Surely to increase the fan base by the roughly 2000 that will be required for sustainability we have to try all the above suggestions and other too as each is only likely to add another maybe 100 at best.
Playing at a higher level against better opposition might encourage those casual fans who do attend to come back again.
I think RITM has been unfair in suggesting that ‘the Ainsworth approach to game management’ would put off potential new fans. That might have been the case in the past, although I’ve always thought this was exaggerated, but with the new players we’ve signed, all four home games this season have seen us play some excellent football and produce real drama.
@bookertease said:
Could we do a tie-up with Rebellion Brewery? Perhaps develop an ale exclusively for us but sold at their outlets, and imaginatively named every other week with a connection with our next opponents at AP. Perhaps make it a competition to name it with the winner being given free tickets to the relevant home game (and ideally free Rebellion beer on the day too)
For me, our best way to acquiring new fans is through our existing fan base. I think that'll be far more successful than posters and banners. Give season ticket holders something in return for bringing a friend (the cheap ticket only benefits the mate), and make it easy for those who want to do 5-10 games a season - coffee shop style cards etc. where you pay for 9 matches and your 10th is free. Some sort of kids club too - I notice we had a kids programme for the first game of the season - can we expand this out to a proper kids club that parents pay a nominal fee to subscribe to? It's great that we offer free STs to kids, but we should look to gain revenue in other ways from that demographic.
To contradict myself though - I would look to install a big next fixture board though on the roundabout at the end of Hillbottom Road - every other club I've ever been to has one, and it would at least remind passers by that there is a football stadium half a mile away.
I mentioned to the club the idea about getting a ticket for, say, 10 matches which can be used any time during the season when I went off to uni but don't remember it ever being offered. Would have been great to be able to use it when I was back for holidays/the odd weekend to replace a full season ticket.
We put so much effort into getting kids in so seems a sensible way of continuing their connection to club during the uni years when they'll likely not be in the area, and then hopefully they return to full season ticket holders once graduated.
Very good idea FmG a sort of Wycombe Wanderers Oyster card also like the idea of the next fixture board ,Chesham have one by that roundabout. Would have thought we could dodge any planning permission by maybe getting one of the companies on the corner there to display and sponser it?
@FmG said:
I mentioned to the club the idea about getting a ticket for, say, 10 matches which can be used any time during the season when I went off to uni but don't remember it ever being offered. Would have been great to be able to use it when I was back for holidays/the odd weekend to replace a full season ticket.
We put so much effort into getting kids in so seems a sensible way of continuing their connection to club during the uni years when they'll likely not be in the area, and then hopefully they return to full season ticket holders once graduated.
If nothing else the new technology must make this a possible goer...
Comments
Well if we can’t discuss anything where the decision is not ours to make, this will be a very dull and lightly used forum.
Shame about the posters. If it can be done, hard to see a downside, so was interested why it didnt work when suggested previously. Thanks for illuminating. Always genuinely interesting to hear the inside story.
It doesn’t have to be an empty shop, a fancy pop up gazebo decorated in light and dark blue balloons,flags and other chairboys merchandise strategically placed in the octagon or Eden which can be set up during the run up to a big game. Even if we pick up 10 new fans with this initiative tickets and on site spend should generate income of about 4K over 23 games.
https://www.wycombewanderers.co.uk/news/2019/july/fixture-posters-ready-to-collect/
Experience tells us that fans are keen to take a poster but it probably ends up in their home rather than out in the community - ie in shops etc where they can be seen. I have also found that many shops (especially the national names) will not display them so you do have to rely on the local traders eg barbers, fish and chip shops etc
The club should consider reaching out to awareness raising and campaigning charities to further Wycombe's outreach and engagement plans.
These charities specialise in outreach work, raising the profile of the causes they want to promote and working with external organisations in short term partnerships that potentially benefit both parties. They also have methodology on how to maximise these endeavours as the vast majority also work with limited budgets and, for the most part, have to justify their expenditure to those who provide their funding.
When I was at college in bucks in the mid 90s the posters with the next 2 or 3 home games were all over the place. As a footy fan new to the town I might have got there anyway but they highlight what is happening and it sparks an idea. Wonder if the council noticeboards still exist.
I remember going to what was then the WDC tourist office in Marlow a few years ago and we didn’t even have a poster up in there. There are lots of missed opportunities.
@StrongestTeam I moved to Wycombe mid-90s also and remember those upcoming match posters well. I used to make an effort to collect each one from the ground, post it up at work (I was then working in Slough, so essentially local) and try to encourage colleagues to come along. I wasn't greatly successful, but did get a few people to come along for the odd game or too; admittedly, more often fans of the visiting team who would not otherwise have gone but were up for joining me incognito on the home terrace for a little friendly rivalry and banter.
I downloaded one of the official fixture posters that @AlanCecil has posted a reminder about for printing and posting in my office, but I now work in Loughborough and, regardless of how much encouragement I give to my colleagues, it is unlikely to result in them attending Adams Park. I did get a couple of them to join me supporting Wycombe in the away end at Burton a few years back, but they both live only 7 or 8 miles from Burton, it was local for them and I gave them a lift.
Another poster recently speculated on how many season ticket holders - a key group with regard to being interested enough to take posters and promote the club - actually live in High Wycombe. I no longer do. Those who I sit with and talk to at each home game also no longer do, living an hour or more drive away. I am aware of a number of others.
In typing out this post (apologies if it has become overly long) I realise that a common factor in my successes in getting people along to watch Wycombe Wanderers is that they have all already been football fans, either fans of the opposition or fans of other teams that were not playing matches at conflicting times. The only exceptions to this are family members and, on one occasion, a visiting US colleague who would otherwise have been stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere for the evening. Perhaps there are a couple of tips here to where marketing efforts could/should be focussed:
I confess to having no idea of how to get local residents to come along to Adams Park who are not already football fans and who don't have relatives who are fans, although that in numbers must be the biggest potential audience. Would they even come along if they were given free tickets?
My first encounter with Wanderers was being handed a small card fixture list by an old guy in a park in Hazlemere before the start of the 79-80 season. My limited experience of football until then was a couple of Chelsea games. My mum was keen for me to go along as the one time she took me to Stamford Bridge it was a near-riot and Loakes park seemed a safe alternative. 40 years on I'm still coming along every other week, so however scattershot such an approach might seem, it can work. Sadly, living in Oxford, I'm not sure I could make much difference beyond inflicting a lifetime of Wycombe fanaticism on my son.
Ought to be able to get some kind of a stall in Eden (bit like the dunkin' artery cloggers, and the phone repair guys). Wouldn't have to be there every day. Sure it would be much cheaper than a shop.
Picking up on Uncle T’s excellent post, the idea of targeting fans of other clubs is something I’ve suggested to the new regime. On any given Saturday there’ll be hordes of football fans leaving HW train station to go into London to watch their favourite PL or Championship team. What do they do when their team is away or when they can’t afford or obtain tickets? Everyone has a favourite second team, why not make it Wycombe?
Everyone has a favourite second team? Do I need to get one?
Even if that's a thing how many would actually go to a few games? For me the blanket coverage of the millionaires league means it's just easier to watch that from your armchair or bar stool.
Wycombe even use the lunchtime game as a marketing tool to sell more alcohol.
I remember when football did not take place so early, Now it is a more or less year round business so has to contend with other activities and what about holidays?
RITM, I’m sure that many Wycombe fans will have a PL club they prefer over the others and I personally know of WW fans who also ‘support’ Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham etc. They may have relocated from areas where their original club was based.
Anyway, if you don’t try these ideas you’ll never know whether they’ll be successful. It wouldn’t cost much to send someone down to the train station (our cheerleaders troupe perhaps?) on a couple of Saturday mornings to distribute leaflets/fixture cards etc.
Pretty easy just to knock down everyone else's ideas. What are yours?
Could we do a tie-up with Rebellion Brewery? Perhaps develop an ale exclusively for us but sold at their outlets, and imaginatively named every other week with a connection with our next opponents at AP. Perhaps make it a competition to name it with the winner being given free tickets to the relevant home game (and ideally free Rebellion beer on the day too)
We had a beer called Ainsworth's Gold in the real ale corner of the bar once. It's was delicious.
I have to assume you are posting with irony as your general modus operandi is exactly what you describe.
I have no ideas at all on how to get more people watching other than the obvious one of building a winning team playing amazing flowing football. The first is what is getting clubs in to financial meltdown and the Ainsworth approach to game management isn't going to persuade that many neutrals (or these second teamers)
I've watched the team for long enough to have seen every type of incentive to get more to watch. Winning us the only one that doesn't devalue the general offering. The £5 Bolton offer was great but when it went to £21 for the next game that seemed really expensive, especially when you only get the £2 off using the app.
Using cheerleaders or beer might work for some. For a little while. I am just concerned about Couhig building up debt trying too many of these schemes at time when it's holiday season.
Whilst he may be both supporting and encouraging it, it is not Rob Couhig that is building up the debt: it is the Football Club board and Trust board that are doing that.
Surely to increase the fan base by the roughly 2000 that will be required for sustainability we have to try all the above suggestions and other too as each is only likely to add another maybe 100 at best.
Playing at a higher level against better opposition might encourage those casual fans who do attend to come back again.
I think RITM has been unfair in suggesting that ‘the Ainsworth approach to game management’ would put off potential new fans. That might have been the case in the past, although I’ve always thought this was exaggerated, but with the new players we’ve signed, all four home games this season have seen us play some excellent football and produce real drama.
I’d buy the that
Or even the fixture list printed on one side of Rebellion IPA beer mats?
Not that all my ideas are beer-based.
Well they probably are
50,000 would cost less than £1000. Just saying...
For me, our best way to acquiring new fans is through our existing fan base. I think that'll be far more successful than posters and banners. Give season ticket holders something in return for bringing a friend (the cheap ticket only benefits the mate), and make it easy for those who want to do 5-10 games a season - coffee shop style cards etc. where you pay for 9 matches and your 10th is free. Some sort of kids club too - I notice we had a kids programme for the first game of the season - can we expand this out to a proper kids club that parents pay a nominal fee to subscribe to? It's great that we offer free STs to kids, but we should look to gain revenue in other ways from that demographic.
To contradict myself though - I would look to install a big next fixture board though on the roundabout at the end of Hillbottom Road - every other club I've ever been to has one, and it would at least remind passers by that there is a football stadium half a mile away.
Yes @Last_Quarter, the next fixture board is a great idea.
All good ideas @Last_Quarter
Agree that Last Quarter has some excellent ideas. I promise to pass them on to Mark Palmer.
I mentioned to the club the idea about getting a ticket for, say, 10 matches which can be used any time during the season when I went off to uni but don't remember it ever being offered. Would have been great to be able to use it when I was back for holidays/the odd weekend to replace a full season ticket.
We put so much effort into getting kids in so seems a sensible way of continuing their connection to club during the uni years when they'll likely not be in the area, and then hopefully they return to full season ticket holders once graduated.
Very good idea FmG a sort of Wycombe Wanderers Oyster card also like the idea of the next fixture board ,Chesham have one by that roundabout. Would have thought we could dodge any planning permission by maybe getting one of the companies on the corner there to display and sponser it?
If nothing else the new technology must make this a possible goer...