Wot? No season ticket sales thread?

I just don't get all this talk about whether to either renew or get a ST due to the clubs deals/marketing/signings. It's not as if every other club in the country or even our division is conjuring up fantastic deals to increase ST sales and we are the odd ones out. You either want to watch town or you don't. I don't let the boardroom politics impact on my decision to get a ST. I go to BP to watch GTFC play football and to me everything else is immaterial. I actually renewed mine late May and got the extra voucher for a reduction on a town shirt. Since Jolley came I've been more confident about towns chances of success than I have for a long time.

Quoted from rancido

I just don't get all this talk about whether to either renew or get a ST due to the clubs deals/marketing/signings. It's not as if every other club in the country or even our division is conjuring up fantastic deals to increase ST sales and we are the odd ones out. You either want to watch town or you don't. I don't let the boardroom politics impact on my decision to get a ST. I go to BP to watch GTFC play football and to me everything else is immaterial. I actually renewed mine late May and got the extra voucher for a reduction on a town shirt. Since Jolley came I've been more confident about towns chances of success than I have for a long time.

Yeah, but you don't need a season ticket to watch games.

Quoted from rancido

I just don't get all this talk about whether to either renew or get a ST due to the clubs deals/marketing/signings. It's not as if every other club in the country or even our division is conjuring up fantastic deals to increase ST sales and we are the odd ones out. You either want to watch town or you don't. I don't let the boardroom politics impact on my decision to get a ST. I go to BP to watch GTFC play football and to me everything else is immaterial. I actually renewed mine late May and got the extra voucher for a reduction on a town shirt. Since Jolley came I've been more confident about towns chances of success than I have for a long time.

*warning - long, rambling post. TL: DR - Fenty Out*

This is a perfect example of the thinking that goes on at the club, and why we struggle to get over 4500 even on a good run. It’s a basic, fundamental misunderstanding about who the club’s competitors are, the thought process of potential fans and the reasons people go to watch the club.

You might not see other clubs lowering prices or putting offers on but this is completely irrelevant - they’re not our competitors. If Yeovil are doing tickets at a tenner, someone from Carlisle isn’t going to watch them if it’s £15 cheaper. Watching football is, at its most base level, entertainment (don’t start...). Town are competing with everything else someone might want to do on a Saturday afternoon - like going to the cinema, going to...I dunno...playtowers or, increasingly, sitting in front of a TV with a few pints watching Jeff Stelling and crossing off your goals galore coupon.

You need to provide people with a reason to stop doing all that and spend their hard earned cash to sit in the cold during the darkest and dampest part of the year, in the main. There are a couple of ways to do that - basically tell people it’s their duty to do so and hope that they buy-in to this call to arms based on geography, history, community (you know, all the romantic stuff you don’t care about when you’re potless), or give them a product & experience that’s enjoyable and good value for money.

GTFC have spent too long banging the first drum. They’ve sucked every bit of civic duty out of their long suffering fan base to the point where people are starting to resent them for it. I certainly am. What they’ve not done is look at the other option because that requires brains, money and effort. For a kick off, it requires a basic understanding about who your target market is - the message you put out to a family with 2 under-10-year-olds isn’t going to resonate with a group of 19-year-olds with a crate watching Soccer Saturday in between the midday and tea-time kick off. Have the club identified where they might be able to make inroads in the local population? Course not.

Even when you get people through the door, the product needs to be as good as possible, and by that, I mean making sure everything you can control is done to the absolute best of your ability. For too long, the board have hidden behind what has been taking place on the pitch and used that as an excuse for poor attendances. It's a lazy, defeatist attitude that has been shown up for the garbage. Look around you at BP on a matchday - it's dull, drab, there's nothing for people to do other than turn up and sit in the cold, damp stands in an atmosphere reminiscent of death row. The staff are unprofessional, the management is dangerously incompetent (Port Vale?!) and the catering is the absolute bargain-basement, lowest-possible passable quality - think you deserve better? The board don't.

So we've seen that the board aren't arsed about attracting new fans, how about the idiots who throw their money at the club regardless. There are people who, for the last three years, have been begging for the option to buy a ticket to suit their shift work - an issue that would affect something like 15% of the local population. Have the club bothered their bottom to even look at how they could take this money the fans are desperate to throw their way? No. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that people have asked. The fans are taken for granted, year after year after year. The club even put a statement out a few weeks back saying that they thought the might sell about the same number as the past two years, as they've got the "traditional two massive weeks" left. Really? What if nobody buys during this massive two weeks? Happy to just sit back and rest on their laurels. People are sick to death of it - even people on this messageboard which is the inhabited by absolute diehard fans/borderline headcases. The "if people want a to watch town, they will" attitude is wrong.

Why does it all matter? Why can't we afford top quality players? Not enough money. Where does the money come from? Through the gate. Who's trying to increase the money coming in through the gate? No frigger. And THAT'S why we'll never progress within the current set up.

Absolutely in a nutshell.

Quoted from ska face

*warning - long, rambling post. TL: DR - Fenty Out*

This is a perfect example of the thinking that goes on at the club, and why we struggle to get over 4500 even on a good run. It’s a basic, fundamental misunderstanding about who the club’s competitors are, the thought process of potential fans and the reasons people go to watch the club.

You might not see other clubs lowering prices or putting offers on but this is completely irrelevant - they’re not our competitors. If Yeovil are doing tickets at a tenner, someone from Carlisle isn’t going to watch them if it’s £15 cheaper. Watching football is, at its most base level, entertainment (don’t start...). Town are competing with everything else someone might want to do on a Saturday afternoon - like going to the cinema, going to...I dunno...playtowers or, increasingly, sitting in front of a TV with a few pints watching Jeff Stelling and crossing off your goals galore coupon.

You need to provide people with a reason to stop doing all that and spend their hard earned cash to sit in the cold during the darkest and dampest part of the year, in the main. There are a couple of ways to do that - basically tell people it’s their duty to do so and hope that they buy-in to this call to arms based on geography, history, community (you know, all the romantic stuff you don’t care about when you’re potless), or give them a product & experience that’s enjoyable and good value for money.

GTFC have spent too long banging the first drum. They’ve sucked every bit of civic duty out of their long suffering fan base to the point where people are starting to resent them for it. I certainly am. What they’ve not done is look at the other option because that requires brains, money and effort. For a kick off, it requires a basic understanding about who your target market is - the message you put out to a family with 2 under-10-year-olds isn’t going to resonate with a group of 19-year-olds with a crate watching Soccer Saturday in between the midday and tea-time kick off. Have the club identified where they might be able to make inroads in the local population? Course not.

Even when you get people through the door, the product needs to be as good as possible, and by that, I mean making sure everything you can control is done to the absolute best of your ability. For too long, the board have hidden behind what has been taking place on the pitch and used that as an excuse for poor attendances. It's a lazy, defeatist attitude that has been shown up for the garbage. Look around you at BP on a matchday - it's dull, drab, there's nothing for people to do other than turn up and sit in the cold, damp stands in an atmosphere reminiscent of death row. The staff are unprofessional, the management is dangerously incompetent (Port Vale?!) and the catering is the absolute bargain-basement, lowest-possible passable quality - think you deserve better? The board don't.

So we've seen that the board aren't arsed about attracting new fans, how about the idiots who throw their money at the club regardless. There are people who, for the last three years, have been begging for the option to buy a ticket to suit their shift work - an issue that would affect something like 15% of the local population. Have the club bothered their bottom to even look at how they could take this money the fans are desperate to throw their way? No. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that people have asked. The fans are taken for granted, year after year after year. The club even put a statement out a few weeks back saying that they thought the might sell about the same number as the past two years, as they've got the "traditional two massive weeks" left. Really? What if nobody buys during this massive two weeks? Happy to just sit back and rest on their laurels. People are sick to death of it - even people on this messageboard which is the inhabited by absolute diehard fans/borderline headcases. The "if people want a to watch town, they will" attitude is wrong.

Why does it all matter? Why can't we afford top quality players? Not enough money. Where does the money come from? Through the gate. Who's trying to increase the money coming in through the gate? No frigger. And THAT'S why we'll never progress within the current set up.

Post of the week no matter how many ticks it gets. Well done.. The frustrating thing is that when you see the stuff we've done on social media
(The shop Xmas video onwards) there are imaginative innovative people out there, but We just fail to have them influencing enough aspects

Aye. Very eloquently put Ska.

Re Ska Face post-Is it the board to blame as all bar one are really very inconspicuous . Is it that the board all bar one have no say in any decisions made. Does the board all bar one just sit there reaping the benefits of being directors. Or is it those employed by the board who are incompetent ?  It doesn't look as though we will be changing our address in the near future so why hasn't just a little bit been spent on B.P. If your house is up for sale you still have to keep up maintenance with a lick of paint here and there. Doesn't anybody walk around the ground with a clipboard taking note of anything that can be done to improve the spectators lot-it wouldn't take the crown jewels

Agree with most of what ska posted but rather than 'brains,  money and effort' I'd say it is attitude that is missing. Maybe even an adventurous attitude.

Too much, if not everything, is done because that's the way it is always done, no evolution, no change. Everything is a safe option, mainly because they have done it before and are still here.
I'd lay money that often the most successful clubs who rise up a division or two are also the most innovative.

They try something different, whether that is on or off the field ( usually both).

Michael Jolley is a start but unless we revolutionise the attitude of the back office and board I feel it will not get close to the clubs potential

Quoted from ska face

*warning - long, rambling post. TL: DR - Fenty Out*

This is a perfect example of the thinking that goes on at the club, and why we struggle to get over 4500 even on a good run. It’s a basic, fundamental misunderstanding about who the club’s competitors are, the thought process of potential fans and the reasons people go to watch the club.

You might not see other clubs lowering prices or putting offers on but this is completely irrelevant - they’re not our competitors. If Yeovil are doing tickets at a tenner, someone from Carlisle isn’t going to watch them if it’s £15 cheaper. Watching football is, at its most base level, entertainment (don’t start...). Town are competing with everything else someone might want to do on a Saturday afternoon - like going to the cinema, going to...I dunno...playtowers or, increasingly, sitting in front of a TV with a few pints watching Jeff Stelling and crossing off your goals galore coupon.

You need to provide people with a reason to stop doing all that and spend their hard earned cash to sit in the cold during the darkest and dampest part of the year, in the main. There are a couple of ways to do that - basically tell people it’s their duty to do so and hope that they buy-in to this call to arms based on geography, history, community (you know, all the romantic stuff you don’t care about when you’re potless), or give them a product & experience that’s enjoyable and good value for money.

GTFC have spent too long banging the first drum. They’ve sucked every bit of civic duty out of their long suffering fan base to the point where people are starting to resent them for it. I certainly am. What they’ve not done is look at the other option because that requires brains, money and effort. For a kick off, it requires a basic understanding about who your target market is - the message you put out to a family with 2 under-10-year-olds isn’t going to resonate with a group of 19-year-olds with a crate watching Soccer Saturday in between the midday and tea-time kick off. Have the club identified where they might be able to make inroads in the local population? Course not.

Even when you get people through the door, the product needs to be as good as possible, and by that, I mean making sure everything you can control is done to the absolute best of your ability. For too long, the board have hidden behind what has been taking place on the pitch and used that as an excuse for poor attendances. It's a lazy, defeatist attitude that has been shown up for the garbage. Look around you at BP on a matchday - it's dull, drab, there's nothing for people to do other than turn up and sit in the cold, damp stands in an atmosphere reminiscent of death row. The staff are unprofessional, the management is dangerously incompetent (Port Vale?!) and the catering is the absolute bargain-basement, lowest-possible passable quality - think you deserve better? The board don't.

So we've seen that the board aren't arsed about attracting new fans, how about the idiots who throw their money at the club regardless. There are people who, for the last three years, have been begging for the option to buy a ticket to suit their shift work - an issue that would affect something like 15% of the local population. Have the club bothered their bottom to even look at how they could take this money the fans are desperate to throw their way? No. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that people have asked. The fans are taken for granted, year after year after year. The club even put a statement out a few weeks back saying that they thought the might sell about the same number as the past two years, as they've got the "traditional two massive weeks" left. Really? What if nobody buys during this massive two weeks? Happy to just sit back and rest on their laurels. People are sick to death of it - even people on this messageboard which is the inhabited by absolute diehard fans/borderline headcases. The "if people want a to watch town, they will" attitude is wrong.

Why does it all matter? Why can't we afford top quality players? Not enough money. Where does the money come from? Through the gate. Who's trying to increase the money coming in through the gate? No frigger. And THAT'S why we'll never progress within the current set up.

On top of this.. there has been no inward investment, no new directors offering new ideas, no change in key staff for years and years. We are dying a long and slow lingering death if nothing changes regarding the running of the club. There is no doubt that the people at the top have good intentions and work hard for the club, but is their best good enough to take the club forward? Season after season the resulting evidence points to a resounding no. Players washing their own kit while a director says our rightful place is at the top end of League One is as much laughable as it is frightening. In fact if it wasn't for Jolley and his heroics the club looked like it was going to implode from within. A board of directors bereft of ideas blaming all and sundry around them including their long suffering paying customers who hand out hard earned cash for them to spend in the way they see fit.

We haven't seen any new significant ideas from the board since having having been saved by MJ. The biggest fear is.. as they still don't have any big new ideas in how to take the club forward.. they look like they are riding the Jolley bandwagon and that bandwagon only. They should look at those last five games as the biggest let off that a board has had in the history of the club. They need to use this unexpected period of grace to put all of their energies into finding ways to advance our club off the pitch. If it's beyond their capabilities then they're going to have to look to step aside and make the club as attractive as possible financially and operationally for new blood to take over. The best a solicitor, accountant and a fish wholesaler can achieve may not be anywhere near the potential a club like GTFC could achieve and one day they may have to sit down, take an honest look at themselves and say we've taken the club as far as we can and not be so up themselves in believing that absolutely nobody else could do better..

The harsh reality is that the club has gone backwards in relative terms over the past twenty years, you only have to look at every single Football League club within a 50 mile radius. The old "we've saved you from being a Stockport, York or Darlington" line that keeps getting trotted out is about as boring and pointless in 2018 as mentioning ITV Digital. If it's ever uttered again as a justification for existing positions on the board, it should be taken as a marker for lack of ambition and a narrow-minded admission of a total lack of ability to deliver a progressive future under their tenure. Managing the status quo of GTFC in its present state should never be considered as an achievement or a justification of position on the board..

Just to nail the point Home. Today is meant to be the last day of discounted sales so is likely to be a busy and positive one. If you ring the club you can’t get through because all the options tell you the ticket office and club shop are closed even though it is clearly open.

I’m sure the season ticket discount period will be extended but ffs make sure people can ring up.