Bolton game
Have to say I’m utterly bemused by the club’s “Football for a Fiver” “promotion” for the Bolton game.
Kids have always been regarded as people either under 18 or 16. It would appear as if the club are now classifying kids as under 11.
A promotion therefore for under 11s for a Friday night game is very bizarre indeed. Especially as it is £5 per game for Under 11s in the Family Stand for every game anyway. The reason that kids tickets are not sold usually at similar prices in the Woodlands or Main Stands is to discourage under 11s from being around people who may not necessarily want young children near them.
The club should be doing far more to attract youngsters. This particular move is just baffling.
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There might be a few in the other stands who aren't allowed children near them.
Surely this is an initiative to be welcomed, it's exactly what many of us have argued for.
Cheaper kids seats and not just restricted to the family stand, where it's sometimes difficult to find seats anyway as there is the suggestion of "phantom" kids
It's certainly my intention to persuade my son-in-law to come along with the grandkids. Hopefully he will also be bringing at least one other adult with a couple of kids too.
Kids will have just broken up for Christmas, mum wants them out of the way for a night so no excuse for dad not to get down to AP with the brood.
It’s a test to decipher pricing elasticity / gauge wider commercial profitability. I’m all for it. I’ve been whingeing so much about the club’s inaction on its stupid pricing scheme for ages. About bloody time.
Anything that attempts to get the yoofdem in surely has to be applauded.
I don’t agree. There is nothing there to tempt kids that they don’t get from other games (other than possibility to sit in a different stand). As I said above I don’t know why 11-18 year olds are not targeted either. This particular move seems to offer nothing especially on a Friday night. And can kids under 11 really keep going until a late night after 10pm anyway? (Yes I’ll still probably take my six year old but he has a season ticket, I wouldn’t expect fans who have not been before to take young children on a Friday night).
Within reason - what currently passes as music to the uncleansed ears of yoofdem should not be allowed to sully the Adams Park tannoy, else there will be droves of Gasroomers heading for the exit.
Oh I don't want anyone under about 35 near me, just to be clear .
@Malone - solid policy there, you don't know where they've been.
I realise I may have come across as a moaner here without offering a solution. So what would I do?
Instead of the Bolton game i would do something for the Blackpool game on January 4. Just after Christmas with funds low for everyone. So why not make it £1 for all under 18s in the family stand, wings of Woodlands Upper and for 12-18s the terrace? That way all kids can benefit, parents don’t have to worry that it’s past their bed times and people that have bought season tickets in areas where there are no kids are not potentially inconvenienced?
Or maybe both initiatives?
It was a good atmosphere in the ground in the game v Reading, but the weather rather spoilt the occasion (as well as the result).
Hopefully on 20th we can attract a similarly bumper crowd and the kids will be encouraged to return in January.
Rude
Its good timing as it is school break up day. No parent in their most humbug of moments could refuse a Friday night game as the Christmas holidays begin. And a fiver anywhere in the ground just removes barriers again. It might not be the utopia of pricing or promotions but it has caught the eye of a few parents I know and it has worked based on the tiny cross-section I can report on.
Out of interest, what is the current playlist like, now that GA and PC have departed? Less rock, I assume?
They just play "Wycombe Strong" on a loop.
You're an honorary old bastad, me young mucka don't worry.
No wonder no-one turned up yesterday!
Under 11s should be £5 in any stand at all games.
We need people to bring young children and have a good time if they're going to become long-term supporters.
Current pricing incentives them to sit in the worst part of the ground.
I'm biased because I've sat there most of my Wycombe-supporting life, but I've never understood the POV that the family stand is the worst in the ground. I like the Frank Adams for the 'tactical' view, but it's nice to be close to the action - and I'm sure that's a good thing for engaging kids too.
Totally agree. We need to be getting kids in the door as they will bring dad, mum, grandparents etc. And it is habit forming.
I'm taking advantage of this by giving my 8-year-old his first taste of the Frank Adams. Would I have gone anyway? Possibly, as I only manage 8-10 games a season and I'd earmarked this fixture as a pre-Christmas treat. But it's a small incentive to try something different.
My girls finish school at midday then we're going to drive down.
Each to their own. But to me it feels quite exposed to the elements and there's no atmosphere.
In fairness, my toddler did seem to like it when the action was on that side of the pitch. So you may be right about the up close view.
I agree. Once I realised my youngling was no longer interested and I did not want to be an adult sitting in the Family Stand, I picked the Beechdean because I find it's a good view and pretty close to the action and, like the family stand @Glenactico except for a bit of grumbling it has no atmosphere. (Joking.)
It is definitely exposed to the elements - I tried to move for the Reading game but was too late to get into the terrace - but then doesn't the FA roof still leak?!
When we have acres of empty seats yes, but without sounding like Robby Cou, you probably don't want to have cheap giveaways in the premium seats.
II remember him saying they'd found if tickets up there were too cheap, people would buy for "ghost" kids just so they had a bit more leg room! Unbelievable if that actually happened to any sort of extent beyond 1 or 2 people doing it.
The central blocks are certainly a good view. I enjoyed sitting down there as a kid.
The elephant in the room issue is that groups of adults without kids seem to frequent the stand too, reducing kids having the best view.
We have heard from people who are in that boat though, saying they've been in there for many years, so you don't want to upset loyal fans. But they probably need to put in a rule of no new adult only season tickets down there, at least in certain blocks.
Without being a factitious malone, the whole ground is hardly a raging bear bit of noise.
I'm struggling to imagine a hostile Adams Park full of tifo and flares and terrifying ultras
Exactly.
Little kids kicking cartons along the stand is probably a good 70% of the atmosphere.
The other 30% is a mixture of occasional screams from middle aged blokes in the Frank Adams and the continual drummer debate.
I never realised I was responsible for 30% of the atmosphere. I’m rather proud of that, even if the screams are often from when a drop of cold water from the leaky roof goes down the back of my neck.