Squad Retention and Attendances

I wonder if PH saying that it will be hard financially to keep the squad together was actually aimed at some of the players and their agents.

It's hardly a great position to be in by saying "yeah, we got loads of extra cash from this match and next season we can push the boat out".

Quoted from maxfox44

I wonder if PH saying that it will be hard financially to keep the squad together was actually aimed at some of the players and their agents.

It's hardly a great position to be in by saying "yeah, we got loads of extra cash from this match and next season we can push the boat out".

Good point

Some good suggestions.

I have put an e-mail together following a PM from Grim Rob and sent it to the Trust board to see if they think they can help/assist either directly or hopefully in conjunction with the club

I know it has been mentioned umpteen times before but the Pontoon singeing section really needs to move to the middle. Look at the atmosphere created at Wembley as the noise spread in BOTH directions throughout the crowd. Get the Ponny bouncing every game and people will want to come, the attendence will rise naturally.

Great stuff everyone!

I think it's absolutely essential that the club capitalise on this wave of determination in the face of Sunday's defeat.  

As soul-destroying as it was to lose on penalties, it seems to have made the fan-base even more determined.  

A point me and the people travelling with me on Sunday made was that even though the 13,000 was deemed a disappointing number we compared it to the higher numbers that went to the Wrexham and MK Dons finals.  The difference was that previously it felt like it was a smaller number of those really invested in the game with the rest day-trippers, Sunday felt like everyone of the 13,000 bought into it.   That's a wonderful footing for the club this summer to work on.  

Quoted from diehardmariner

Great stuff everyone!

I think it's absolutely essential that the club capitalise on this wave of determination in the face of Sunday's defeat.  

As soul-destroying as it was to lose on penalties, it seems to have made the fan-base even more determined.  

A point me and the people travelling with me on Sunday made was that even though the 13,000 was deemed a disappointing number we compared it to the higher numbers that went to the Wrexham and MK Dons finals.  The difference was that previously it felt like it was a smaller number of those really invested in the game with the rest day-trippers, Sunday felt like everyone of the 13,000 bought into it.   That's a wonderful footing for the club this summer to work on.  

Exactly. We commented that Rovers had 20,000 tourists in their27,000 whilst our lot bought into being a fan

Yep, my usually quiet Dad and (Portsmouth supporting!) girlfriend were joining in with the singing all match. Really hope this enthusiasm continues into next season and spurs the players on.

After reading this thread and some of the ideas, putting some of those ideas together I've come up with this...

Putting the idea of crowd funding and child sponsorship together.

What about an initiative to perhaps fund 50/100 junior season tickets (for arguments sake I'm talking senior school age). So what happens is, we fund the cost of say 100 season tickets, all allocated in the same section of the ground so they are all sat together.
Every week, 2/3/4 schools in the local area are allocated an amount of tickets (lets say 4 a week so that they each get 25). The schools are notified well in advance when it will be their turn and any child at the school has the option to enter a ballot to "win" a free ticket to a game.
I suppose the schools could run a permission slip system in case some parents are not happy about little Johnny going all the way to BP without them.
The club could perhaps provide 1 or 2 free adult tickets for each school so that there is some sort of adult supervision as I'm sure there would be one or two teachers that wouldn't mind going along for the chance to go to a game for free.
I don't know how many schools there are in the area so I don't know if this would cover them all, I cant see that it wouldn't and perhaps some schools would get the opportunity to run this twice in the season.
I'm not a parent, but I would be more than happy to donate the cost of one or two season tickets if something like this was implemented. With 23 home games a season, this could effectively give the opportunity for 2300 different kids to get to watch one home game of the season for "free". Even if just 10% of that number started attending more regularly that would boost us massively.
Maybe the trust could even take on the administrative role of organising it to boost their profile and take some of the burden away from the club.

Just my thoughts.

Multibuy tickets were mentioned above and have been numerous times in the past. Surely it's worth a trial for a season? I like the fixed price for 3 games but how about an alternative idea of paying full price for 3 games and then getting a fourth for say a tenner? That keeps someone interested for as long as 2 months and would surely bring in some matchday revenue on those days too.

Another idea I've seen mentioned before is a season card which would be in addition to season tickets for regulars who may not attend every game or those who need to pick and choose their games. They would pay a fee (£20 maybe) for a card that guarantees a seat of their choice for every game of the season provided they "activated" their seat by purchasing their ticket before say Friday evening or lunchtime on matchday. This could prove popular amongst shift workers etc and even some exiles. The two lads I have a season ticket with are looking like they won't be renewing this time due to work and financial reasons. I know that when we've tried to get extra tickets near us in the past we have sometimes struggled to get near us so if they're wanting to sit with me for bigger games (and who could blame them) they either need to be in early in ticket sales or lucky.

I appreciate their may be logistical problems with this idea but even with my limited knowledge this could even be done on a spreadsheet. This could also be used as another stage in the sales of away tickets as I know some have been disappointed in the past despite attending many games over a season.

Finally, we find ourselves involved in the FA Trophy and the FAC4QR again this season. How about anyone who buys a ticket to these games gets £2 off their next match ticket as a reward? Possibly boost gates and therefore is unexpected cash in both ticket and matchday income. The problems I can see with this one is ticket prices have to be agreed by the two clubs and the FAT being the worst competition of all time and even if we had strippers and free beer in the trust bar for those games people still wouldn't come.

Oh and extend the Young Adult season ticket age range up to 22/23/24/25. Get kids involed and keep them involved by not pricing them out when they turn 18/21 or whatever it is now.