3983!

[DTG]

What a fantastic result and a great game to listen to(well the 2nd half was). The boys are playing well, scoring goals and conceding few. So why is it we can only attract 3983 for a massive local derby game? This is quite frankly an embarrassment.

I believe the biggest mistake is listening to the "advice" of safety officers and the local plod. The safety officer is paid to justify his unecessary position by coming up with stupid rules and conditions. Like, making the game all ticket. This, whether you like it or not, puts off customers from buying your product. Why make it more difficult thatn it needs to be? Maybe for the away fans cos they have a large following. But for home fans? Completely stupid. Any floating fan is not going to bother. And before we get the "well, they're not real fans then" rubbish let's not forget these are the very people we're trying to lure back. What a missed opportunity to appeal to the Premiershite population to give it a go up at Plainmoor.

I really get tired of the lazy "it's the recession" argument. It's not, it's rank bad advice and poor marketing.

My solution (apart from hire me to do it) is to ramp up the image of the club. Sell, Sell, Sell for gods sake. SACK the muppet who suggested the game be all ticket. He's probably the same idiot who painted yellow lines on the Pop.......it's Plainmoor FFS not Heysel. Do not listen to any civil servant i.e the local plod. The next bit is probably the most radical........revert back to saturday night kick offs. This will maximise our customer potential amongst the locals and also give the away fans more time to get down here and more inclined to stay over boosting the local economy. I would refuse to listen to the wimps who tell me it can't be done and make it happen. I would also consider making the Pop the Away fans enclosure. It has greater capacity and the acoustics are crap. Stick our noisy fans in the Babbacombe end and house the rest in the Bench or Family stand.

(By the way, they couldn't afford me. I'm too busy picking up Awards over here)

[Southampton Gull]

Wasn't much room for any more Dave.

The stewards cordoned off the very end of the Popside nearest the Argyle fans and the rest of the ground was pretty much jammed.

I think the last part of your post is a fantastic idea and like you say would boost local trade into the bargain.

[DTG]

Saturday night games would become our unique selling point again and a marketing dream. It's not just the fans of the team we are playing we should look to attract. If the opposition of the scum or cornish fancy a footie weekend, where better to spend it than the Bay? They can watch their team take the points from our neighbours and then take in our game before returning to their weekend retreat or a night on the lash at our local hostelries. Of course the reverse is true also. The fans of our oppos could take in an afternnon game on the way here as well. There are all sorts of revenue possibilities.

[Modgull]

Ignore the authorities??? Are you serious???

That sounds like a recipe for the Club to be punished with fines or made to play behind closed doors.

And if anyone gets hurt (remember the collapsed wall last season against Reading?) exemplary damages.

Which means, of course, the Club's insurers would step in to prevent it happening.

No, if the authorities say "all ticket" then all ticket it is.

[DTG]

Ignore the authorities??? Are you serious???

That sounds like a recipe for the Club to be punished with fines or made to play behind closed doors.

And if anyone gets hurt (remember the collapsed wall last season against Reading?) exemplary damages.

Which means, of course, the Club's insurers would step in to prevent it happening.

No, if the authorities say "all ticket" then all ticket it is.

Which authorities would these be then? The local plod whose double standards when it comes to football is laughable. Or the local jobsworth Safety idiot whose only objective is to come up with stupid rules to justify his flexitime and golden pension. Haven't we already strengthened the perimeter walls? As I said, I wouldn't let the wimps get in the way and get it done. There is no good reason why it can't be, just limpwristed jobsworth ones. I would make public the stupidity of their arguments against and show them up for the idiots that they are.

[tufcbrett]

I understand what your saying, but its football league rules to have the go ahead from the authorities. If they dont like something and you ignore it then the game doesnt go ahead or its played behined closed doors. How much would the club loose then?

Just under 4 thousand isnt to bad really, considering theres only 3 sides of the ground to use. We normally get what 2-2.5 k per home game, so 4k is a lot better. I know quite a few fans including my self who couldnt make the game and not everyone can go to the football every week. Even if we was playing Man Utd at home yesterday i still couldnt have gone.

Its down to the club to really try and get back into the heart of the community and try make the area proud of there football team. Loads of towns and citys love there club and torquay just doesnt seem to have that. I would love to moved to the away end, i enjoyed it loads during the Histon play off game and it really worked. But putting the away fans in a part of the pop will then remove boots from being avaliable to many fans.

[DTG]

That's the point tho Brett. If the authorities don't like it. Let's hear their pathetic jobsworth excuses and blow them out of the water, name and shame them for the joyless tw@ts they are. Marketing the club is all about putting it back into the heart of the community. It will take time, effort, patience, innovative and creative thinking. It can be done, even if it raised our average from 2.5 to 3.5 it would make a big difference and I believe that could be done relatively quickly.

[Enzo]

Live in the real world for pity sake - or choose something other than TUFC to bring the revolution. Coming out with this kind of cr@p is pie in the sky. No football club is going to ignore the advice of the police and health and safety issues - live with it. I'd much rather take the advice of the Police over some marketing guru who is only interested in money. That is not to say that the club should not employ an aggressive marketing strategy - just to say that your focus on ignoring authority undermines your view (imo). If you are the perosn I think you are, you live in a country where a bung with the local authority will get you everywhere - I have lived in Asia too and have a decent idea of how to get on in life over there. I'm not saying that corruption does not exist here, but certainy not to the level in Asia. If you are not this person then ignore that last few sentences!

The attendance yesterday was awful - even with our record it was a new low. I can't explain it, but to blame anyone other than the fans (on this occassion) is laughable. After the Crawley experience this game had to be all ticket - you had a much bigger team with a much larger fan base on our doorstep - what is the best way to ensure that the home fans get tickets? Unlike Crawley, the club played this by the book and gave TUFC fans every opportunity to get tickets. We let the club down. There are so many ways for us to buy tickets right up until Friday - anyone with a complaint really could not be bothered too much anyway. This is nothing new - the Saturday after we had a fantastic result at Wolves to reach the Sherpa Van Final, we played Exeter at home - we were playing ok under Cyril and still in with a decent shout of the play offs - we got under three thousand for that game, with a few City fans dotted about (although, I don't think away fans were allowed that season). I started watching the Gulls around 81 / 82. Decent mid table sides with a shout of promotion given a bit of luck were the norm up to 85. Very similar to today's side - We played many Saturday evening kick offs up to when Dave Webb took over - I can't be bothered to look at the stats, but I would say our average crowd was about 2,700. Hardly a great shift.

Have we not tried the Saturday evening fixture on several occasions since we scrapped it? With little effect if I recall, but I would not be adverse to trying it again. I think yesterday proves that it can't do any harm. Having had a read of the Argyle site , it really did bring it home to me how many of their fans have a real soft spot for us. Now is the time to cash in on their potential dissaffection with their club. I think it could potentially harm the number of away fans, but that would not have a massive effect. Do we not need the permission of the away side to move from 3pm? Not sure about that.

For about fifteen years, we were owned by an ambitious bloke, who made millions by selling windows to people who already owned them. Certainly, for the first 5 years of Mike Bateson's tenure, we tried every marketing strategy going. We had newspapers, bringalongafriend, policies, free buses, Friday night kick offs, Saturday night kick offs, new stands, press adverts, parrots, record signings and a promotion. None of it had too much of an effect. I'm all for new ideas and am sure you have many good ones - Oher than Saturday evening kicks off and ignoring authority what else do you suggest?

[Father Jack]

Overall, League 2 attendances are already down on last seasons averages and thats before the usual drop that comes with the colder, wetter weather. We've not dropped as much as the average so are not getting hit as badly as some (Hereford down nearly 20% compared to our just over 1% drop).
Saying the recession has nothing to do with it is just absurd by the time you add in the cost of getting there, along with getting in.

edit: Enzo, yes it is cloud-cuckoo-land Shaw again

[DTG]

Yeah Enzo you've got the right guy. I'm not saying ignore them but challenge the stupid reasons they put forward. Most of them are lame and ridiculous just like the yellow lines in the Pop. What health and safety issues? Would they tell Tesco's to close on the run up to xmas cos it's going to get a bit busy? Football has been the whipping boy of these idiots for too long and it's about time it was challenged. They are determined to take the joy out of attending, in effect their stupid regulations could be seen as a restraint of trade. As for MB, yeah he tried a few things but I don't think he went far or persevered enough and then he gave up. I'm sure you have 100's a reasons why we can't do it, you're not related to my ex are you? ;o)

[Enzo]

I'm not knowingly related to your ex, but it was a murky year or two in South east asia back in 1999!

I'll give any marketing scheme a go. You come up with it and I'll support it. However, yesterday, I fully supported the match being all ticket - it was the only way! I can take or leave the yellow lines and don't think this puts people off coming. It just wrankles with your anti authority niggles!! - does me at times too. What other ideas have you got? There is a big difference between an aggresive marketing policy and an anti authority rant!!

Have we tried selling the tickets at an outlet in town when we have a big all ticket game?. As an exile, I honestly don't know. We have to think quickly about how to manage the Swindon and Rovers games. I am beginning to think that, in the current economic climate, in a "season of consolidation" (which was a huge communication mistake by the club), the fans are not going to turn up. We tried a cheap season ticket offer and it nearly put the club out of business - with the hardcore 1,500 or so getting in for less. They would have come anyway at the more expensive price!!

It has been mentioned elsewhere, but I am starting to think that the lack of grandstand is putting people off. The family stand does not cut it for many and nor does standing on the pop side with the odd argyle fan next to you.

[Dutchgull]

I was speaking to a guy yesterday who has friends who will not come until the new stand is built as they are a bit elderly and cant stand on the pop side and the family stand is bloody uncomfortable to sit in ! Hopefully the new stand seats will be better !!

I have two friends who used to come regularly but now they both have young families they just cannot afford to go. There are probably a lot more out there in a similar position.

[Modgull]

I was speaking to a guy yesterday who has friends who will not come until the new stand is built as they are a bit elderly and cant stand on the pop side and the family stand is bloody uncomfortable to sit in ! Hopefully the new stand seats will be better !!

I have two friends who used to come regularly but now they both have young families they just cannot afford to go. There are probably a lot more out there in a similar position.

Good point Dutch, I too believe attendances would be higher were the grandstand still here and I reckon new fans will be attracted by the new stand. In a sense the new stand/bench is the best marketing tool for next season and beyond.

[Gulliball]

Yesterdays game had to be all ticket, that was the correct decision.

With a reduced capacity it should have sold out weeks ago. That's what we were all expecting, and the fact that it didn't happen is a very poor reflection on our own fanbase, nothing else.

The alternative is to have the situation at Barnet in 2001, when more people than the capacity travel to the game and people are left locked out. Imagine the fuss if people had travelled from Manchester/Southampton/London/wherever for the game and had been locked out because it wasn't all ticket. Or if a regular fan wasn't able to get into the ground because Plymouth fans or 'day trippers' had turned up at 1pm to queue.

For any game that's likely to sell out it's pure common sense to make it all-ticket.

[Father Jack]

Yesterdays game had to be all ticket, that was the correct decision.

With a reduced capacity it should have sold out weeks ago. That's what we were all expecting, and the fact that it didn't happen is a very poor reflection on our own fanbase, nothing else.

The alternative is to have the situation at Barnet in 2001, when more people than the capacity travel to the game and people are left locked out. Imagine the fuss if people had travelled from Manchester/Southampton/London/wherever for the game and had been locked out because it wasn't all ticket. Or if a regular fan wasn't able to get into the ground because Plymouth fans or 'day trippers' had turned up at 1pm to queue.

For any game that's likely to sell out it's pure common sense to make it all-ticket.

Quite correct.
I also dont think the spin from the club/herald saying tickets were "selling out fast and only a few remaining" did anything to help the attendance either.
I got mine when they went on sale but know a couple of people that would probably have gone at the last minute but didnt think there would be any left due to the messages put out.
By the time it was announced there were tickets left on wednesday/thursday, they had made other plans for Saturday.