Fans of the Future

Quoted from Bristol Mariner

Brilliant! Maybe some local businesses can sponsor this to increase funds.

They already are. There’s a great trip round Docks Beers with Jolly Macca and pizza plus beer. There are a couple of other big pledges and one excellent pledge that can’t be shared just yet. We’ll keep the info coming. If anyone knows anyone that would sponsor/pledge then point them in our direction.

I just can't get my head around the fact that a professional lg2 football club which is breaking even profit wise has to rely on its fans to dip into their pockets for a venture like this . Also just by giving a year 6 pupil a shirt doesn't mean he/she will suddenly switch teams . Children can be very funny about what they wear . Before I get a mauling for my opinion iam playing a bit of devils advocate here and I do agree that young fans need engaging.  Just not at my expense .....

Great initiative.. good luck, and hope it will be a successful venture for the long term and a start in the long road of re-engagement..

Quoted from fleabag1970

I just can't get my head around the fact that a professional lg2 football club which is breaking even profit wise has to rely on its fans to dip into their pockets for a venture like this . Also just by giving a year 6 pupil a shirt doesn't mean he/she will suddenly switch teams . Children can be very funny about what they wear . Before I get a mauling for my opinion iam playing a bit of devils advocate here and I do agree that young fans need engaging.  Just not at my expense .....

Me too. Kids dictate what they like to wear, ask any parent. Just buying kids a shirt is no guarantee of future loyalty and there has to be an incentive, it has to be the fashionable thing to do or some other persuasive reason before they will wholeheartedly participate.  If we want future loyalty, money might be better spent in trying to get reduction in ticket prices for kids. If we must have this gimmick however, then link the two - persuade the club to join in by offering that reduction to kids who wear one of the Town shirts to matches.

With FOTF seemingly having the backing of the MT and GTFC I would like to see the cost of junior season tickets revised ASAP and klets get the Main Stand or an area packed with youngsters and a paying adult.

Great initiative and well done to all involved, but I do have to echo some of the other thoughts around it should go further (and this is down to the club to deliver that part).

Fantastic idea from RRFC about reduced tickets for kids who wear a shirt to the game.  

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Me too. Kids dictate what they like to wear, ask any parent. Just buying kids a shirt is no guarantee of future loyalty and there has to be an incentive, it has to be the fashionable thing to do or some other persuasive reason before they will wholeheartedly participate.  If we want future loyalty, money might be better spent in trying to get reduction in ticket prices for kids. If we must have this gimmick however, then link the two - persuade the club to join in by offering that reduction to kids who wear one of the Town shirts to matches.

While I agree with yours and Fleabag's sentiments, someone has to start somewhere and this well meaning group of fans have to be applauded for making a start and launching something that can be built upon. And this is a fact not a crticism, we have a club that does not fully understand the term "long term investment". Its modus operandi is to strip out as much cost as possible to free up playing budget. That's a fair enough policy for the here and now but stretched over a long period it creates large blackholes in current incomes because money wasn't invested in covering eventual future blackholes in support like the decline in younger supporters. The answer is to have the most expensive kids season ticket prices in League Two and hope that the take up covers lessening numbers of purchases. It's not an outward policy trying to widen support, it's milking the remaining diehards for what they can to keep income at a steady level. The 30k represents less than 1% of the club's turnover. Why they can't match the sum themselves and invest in Fans Of The Future, I don't know. A more rounded package could then be offered including a reworking of kids season ticket pricing or a free shirt with a season ticket. Investment is just not in the club's psyche. The cost of essential running repairs like the floodlights and showers at BP are called investment by the club when really they're repairs and renewals that were deemed necessary. Investment is cash introduced into schemes where it's hoped there will be future returns on investment for sums introduced.

Fans Of The Future can't be crticised for having a go at filling voids in our club's operation, it's not their fault, and they must be supported as much as possible for taking a lead. Hopefully it can kickstart something bigger and better with hopefully new custodians. If there's no change at the top, then if we can make it a success, it may trigger our current board into thinking a little deeper into laudible investment rather than just a cut and spend attitude..

Quoted from Bigdog

While I agree with you and Fleabag's sentiments, someone has to start somewhere and this well meaning group of fans have to be applauded for making a start and launching something that can be built upon. And this is a fact not a crticism, we have a club that does not fully understand the term "long term investment". Its modus operandi is to strip out as much cost as possible to free up playing budget. That's a fair enough policy for the here and now but stretched over a long period it creates large blackholes in current incomes because money wasn't invested in covering eventual future blackholes in support like the decline in younger supporters. The answer is to have the most expensive kids season ticket prices in League Two and hope that the take up covers lessening numbers of purchases. It's not an outward policy trying to widen support, it's milking the remaining diehards for what they can to keep income at a steady level. The 30k represents less than 1% of the club's turnover. Why they can't match the sum themselves and invest in Fans Of The Future, I don't know. A more rounded package could then be offered including a reworking of kids season ticket pricing or a free shirt with a season ticket. Investment is just not in the club's psyche. The cost of essential running repairs like the fllodlights and shoers at BP are called investment by the club when really they're repairs and renewals that were deemed necessary. Investment is cash introduced into schemes where it's hoped there will be future returns on investment for sums introduced.

Fans Of The Future can't be crticised for having a go at filling voids in our club's operation, it's not their fault, and they must be supported as much as possible for taking a lead. Hopefully it can kickstart something bigger and better with hopefully new custodians. If there's no change at the top, then if we can make it a success, it may trigger our current board into thinking a little deeper into laudible investment rather than just a cut and spend attitude..

The club will just say “great lads, keep it up, good community spirit chaps!” You might get a better reaction from the club to go the other way round and supporters boycott the purchase and wearing of club shirts until a sensible pricing system is established.

Here's the problem though...

League Two under 11's cheapest season ticket prices...

£90 - Mansfield Town (U6s FREE)
£70 - GRIMSBY TOWN
£65 - Plymouth Argyle (U8s £10)
£62.50 - Salford City
£59 - Leyton Orient
£50 - Stevenage (includes replica shirt)
£50 - Northampton Town (U7s FREE)
£46 - Exeter City
£45 - Cheltenham Town (includes replica shirt)
£30 - Swindon Town
£30 - Macclesfield Town
£26 - Newport County (U6s FREE)
£25 - Bradford City
£20 - Crawley Town
£10 - Cambridge United
£10 - Forest Green Rovers
£10 - Carlisle United (U7s FREE)
FREE* - Walsall (additional U11s £99)
FREE* - Morecambe (additional U11s £50)
FREE* - Oldham Athletic (additional U11s £48 / U5s FREE)
FREE* - Crewe Alexandra (additional U11s £46)
FREE* - Colchester United (additional U11s £26.50)
FREE* - Scunthorpe United (third U11s £60)
FREE* - Port Vale

*FREE when purchased with an adult ST)

Not good at all for a club like Grimsby, in a low income area, to be so expensive.

As has been suggested by Barralad I intend to donate the 25% I raise from The Fishy Buster which I normally donate to The Mariners Trust to The Fans Of The Future appeal as long as there are no objections from people in the buster.

Therefore £2.50 of every £10 entry I take will be donated to this cause. If you want to join in and give yourself a bit of extra interest in the football results on at the weekend just post your interest on The Fishy Buster thread.