I see the EFL have announced that 63 clubs have achieved “Family Excellence” status. Unsurprisingly GTFC are one of the 9 who haven’t managed it.

[url=https://www.efl.com/news/2019/april/record-breaking-number-of-efl-clubs-achieve-family-excellence-status/]Click here[/url]

Embarrassing for the club, Fenty & the Trust.

Scunny get Gold Award status. Wow..you can actually run your club badly and have a relegation dogfight while still managing to treat your fans with respect!

Except at Grimsby Town. Boy are we overdue a huge change.

Apart from GTFC the other 8 who failed were:-

Accrington Stanley
Blackpool
Bradford City
Bury
Fleetwood Town
Gillingham
Macclesfield Town
Morecambe

Not doubting the club do need to work on these things.

But an award status that's championed by Shaun Harvey....nah, I'll pass.

I'm sure we can all take this with a pinch of salt seeing as though it includes Hull City as having Family Excellence Status   ;D

Having listened to RH often enough, hearing everyone moaning about the way their families are (mis)treated by the Allam's policies, for example charging a 4 year old 20 odd quid to watch a match,  maybe the criteria that the "EFL" use need to be reconsidered

Harvey stating the clubs are "being recognised for offering true family value and a consistently high level of service" …. you're having a laugh man!!  ::)

Shameful whatever the criteria can we have a response from the club please ?

Lincoln must have a platinum award for family excellence.

They have 8000 people all related at  every match 😉

Quoted from Civvy at last

Lincoln must have a platinum award for family excellence.

They have 8000 people all related at  every match 😉

high sixing each other at the news

More and more young people are making their way through the turnstiles in the EFL as clubs continue to find innovative ways to attract fans and their families.

New figures show that junior season ticket sales have increased by 37% over the past 10 years with 20% of all EFL club match attendees now under 16 years old.

Such an increase is testament to the efforts and evolving attitudes of clubs to attract new fans to their grounds with improved matchday experiences for all ages. These efforts are once again set to be recognised by the EFL’s Family Excellence Awards – an initiative rewarding clubs that deliver an outstanding experience for families.

Celebrating its 10th Anniversary this season, the Awards ensure each club receives two ‘mystery’ visits from families each season, who describe and score their experiences across six areas including first impressions; stadium vicinity; refreshments and everything that happens inside the stadium, as well as indicating overall ratings on friendliness and intention to recommend.

We want our clubs to be family friendly, to be welcoming, exciting and entertaining places to go, so that ultimately attendances continue to increase across the leagues."

The early indications this season are that clubs are increasingly turning to new technology to help recognise and welcome first time family attendees. The use of big screens for dancing and waving games, gaming consoles, and other technology, is also helping to provide interaction between clubs and young fans.

Across the vast majority of clubs the family experience in 2016 is almost unrecognisable to that which was on offer in 2007 with the majority of EFL clubs now offering specific family fun zones, access to games consoles, children’s entertainers, concourse entertainment, innovative locally-sourced refreshments, first time family/fan guides, family helpers, along with ‘magic moments’ with club mascots, players and enthusiastic family-friendly staff.

Thats the kind of thing we need to qualify.....not having a junior of that age i dont know what the club does do nowadays but pretty sure we dont do half of the things mentioned in that list.

Having read all that can see why we never got the award.. 2007, don't think the BP experience has changed much since I started going in the 80's!!

Quoted from TwoLeftFeet

Having read all that can see why we never got the award.. 2007, don't think the BP experience has changed much since I started going in the 80's!!

Not changed much since I started in the early 70s...apart from removing the picket fences around the edge of the pitch..

My 5 year old lad was a mascot last year and the club were really good with him. What made me laugh was they gave him a goody bag with some bits of merchandise including a DVD of the 2-0 Paint Trophy defeat to MK Dons. Must have had some stock left!

In terms of anything on a game by game basis for kids I'm not aware of anything other than concession tickets.

Quoted from RoboCod

Scunny get Gold Award status. Wow..you can actually run your club badly and have a relegation dogfight while still managing to treat your fans with respect!

Except at Grimsby Town. Boy are we overdue a huge change.

It is quite a few years since I went to Glanford Park on business, but it was like walking into another world to be honest.

Everything was very professional, well run with all the staff treating fans, business people and tradespeople with the utmost respect and courtesy.

The Town set up was the complete opposite sad to say, like they had the life sucked out of them.

Obviously these were snapshots in time, but the difference was striking and ever since I have realised that our set up is a million miles away from even being average.

The only way it will ever change is of course a new regime, with a greater understanding of what a well run football club looks like.

You could argue that it hasn't done the Iron much good, in terms of fan numbers and their current troubles, but that misses the point. In a business, any business, the customer is king.

Does anybody actually know why Town failed?

Quoted from mimma

Does anybody actually know why Town failed?

It's probably the fans' fault.

This bit that Moosey quoted is the crux of the issue:

'New figures show that junior season ticket sales have increased by 37% over the past 10 years with 20% of all EFL club match attendees now under 16 years old.'

How do we compare? I bet the club don't even know the answer let alone know how to address it.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

This bit that Moosey quoted is the crux of the issue:

'New figures show that junior season ticket sales have increased by 37% over the past 10 years with 20% of all EFL club match attendees now under 16 years old.'

How do we compare? I bet the club don't even know the answer let alone know how to address it.

GTFC celebrated promotion back to the EFL by increasing kids season ticket prices by 40%. Says it all.

So, it is because we increased junior season ticket prices when we were promoted. I am fairly sure that bigger clubs than us have increased their prices on the back of a promotion, especially those in the premier league. We often have kids go free matches, doesn't that count?

who cares, too many families go to football anyway..

We managed it last season

https://www.efl.com/supporters/family-excellence/family-excellence-award-201617-winners/

Quoted from The Boys Paddock

who cares, too many families go to football anyway..

TROLL!!...

Quoted from mimma

So, it is because we increased junior season ticket prices when we were promoted. I am fairly sure that bigger clubs than us have increased their prices on the back of a promotion, especially those in the premier league. We often have kids go free matches, doesn't that count?

It was still a bit of a head scratcher I honestly thought Town with a push at the time could have got to on or around 5k ST sales but alas they did nothing. Lincoln showed us the way a year later and that`s got to be the yardstick off the pitch GTFC have 7k home seats to sell marketed right it should not be that difficult . I point the finger at those in charge they CBA to do anything but the bare minimum to sell seats and it`s never been any different the fans are almost an inconvenience to the Club.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

It was still a bit of a head scratcher I honestly thought Town with a push at the time could have got to on or around 5k ST sales but alas they did nothing. Lincoln showed us the way a year later and that`s got to be the yardstick off the pitch GTFC have 7k home seats to sell marketed right it should not be that difficult . I point the finger at those in charge they CBA to do anything but the bare minimum to sell seats and it`s never been any different the fans are almost an inconvenience to the Club.

I think it's incredibly difficult. Even when we were good, we didn't get close to 7k home seats sold. With so much more football on tv of a much higher standard, and most kids now supporting a prem team, there's a lot more options than people had 20 years ago.

What did Lincoln actually do to get their increase? It seemed to me like bandwagon jumping when they were the BBC darlings a couple of years ago and they've continued to win most games so not had the lull that comes when losing. It would be interesting to know what the club actually changed not involving "football fortune".

Quoted from mimma

So, it is because we increased junior season ticket prices when we were promoted. I am fairly sure that bigger clubs than us have increased their prices on the back of a promotion, especially those in the premier league. We often have kids go free matches, doesn't that count?

A 40% increase was disgraceful. If your gas and electric company did the same you’d change provider.

Kids season ticket holders are the full paying adult season ticket holders of the future.

The fact that GTFC have the most expensive cheapest option  child season ticket in  League Two is disgraceful.

Quoted from pen penfras

I think it's incredibly difficult. Even when we were good, we didn't get close to 7k home seats sold. With so much more football on tv of a much higher standard, and most kids now supporting a prem team, there's a lot more options than people had 20 years ago.

What did Lincoln actually do to get their increase? It seemed to me like bandwagon jumping when they were the BBC darlings a couple of years ago and they've continued to win most games so not had the lull that comes when losing. It would be interesting to know what the club actually changed not involving "football fortune".

Pretty sure there's a forty point plan of action somewhere online which outlines how they improved the customer experience, infrastructure of the boardroom and funding of the club that they've actually delivered upon. They definitely weren't just sitting there crossing their fingers..

Let's not forget that the initial boost they had was 350k from the South African guy, then signed the Cowleys. That got them to the top of the Conference and funded the FA Cup run, which was far less than our windfall from Mike Parker. The money from the FA Cup run was a similar amount to what we received from Wigan for Omar so Lincoln weren't just lucky, they made some good decisions, were pro-active, reaped the benefits and capitalised on their success. It would be churlish to put it all down to "football fortune" because our club haven't got the same werewithal..

Quoted from pen penfras

I think it's incredibly difficult. Even when we were good, we didn't get close to 7k home seats sold. With so much more football on tv of a much higher standard, and most kids now supporting a prem team, there's a lot more options than people had 20 years ago.

What did Lincoln actually do to get their increase? It seemed to me like bandwagon jumping when they were the BBC darlings a couple of years ago and they've continued to win most games so not had the lull that comes when losing. It would be interesting to know what the club actually changed not involving "football fortune".

Perhaps they earned their BBC darlings tag by winning football games against bigger clubs. You know, the sort of thing Grimsby Town used to do.

As you seem to back the ‘football fortune ‘ ethos and constantly make excuses for the way the club is run, I can only assume that you’re related to someone in authority at the club because there’s no excuse for this.

Lincoln just got lucky. We only had two trips to Wembley and a fanbase that had raised £100k towards the budget that had helped us get back into the football league. Couldn't really be expected to take much momentum from that.

I’ve read this BP is sh1t but I’ve been going with my dad since the mid 70’s and our kids have been with them since I didn’t have to carry them, our own “family excellence” !

The words Sean Harvey and excellence shouldn’t be uttered in the same breath.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I’ve read this BP is sh1t but I’ve been going with my dad since the mid 70’s and our kids have been with them since I didn’t have to carry them, our own “family excellence” !

The words Sean Harvey and excellence shouldn’t be uttered in the same breath.

Agreed.....an oxymoron personified