Will budget cut be that bad??

[werstayinup]

Who knows? We are in real terms closer to the top of the league (9 points) than anytime I can remember approaching Christmas since we returned to league 1. I believe we can dream of promotion. If crowds were say 6,000 instead of a dire 4,500 for Saturday's we would be doing even better. Tuesday nights attendance of 3560 was unacceptable. No vale fan can say the club can thrive on that. I heard excuses of rain, but there was nothing else to do on that night and the football we are playing is much better than the league 2 days.

 

I dont know what else Smurf can do tbh,people say they wont return until we win more,now we are doing that they still dont come,we have lost ONE home game in the League all season for goodness sake.

 

I have no doubt that if we were getting 6k crowds then Smurf would be opening that sweety jar in January to keep us up there..on a plus point i didn't realise we were only 9 points off the top spot

[cpade]

If the average wage for each player is 600 quid a week then they are on a good thing for this club and it's attendances. Plenty of money left over to pay the bills I should think. If the wage bill needs to be reduced I say do it in the event of a premature exit from the cup.

 

£600 per week , what planet are you on ?

[smithie]

Who knows? We are in real terms closer to the top of the league (9 points) than anytime I can remember approaching Christmas since we returned to league 1. I believe we can dream of promotion. If crowds were say 6,000 instead of a dire 4,500 for Saturday's we would be doing even better. Tuesday nights attendance of 3560 was unacceptable. No vale fan can say the club can thrive on that. I heard excuses of rain, but there was nothing else to do on that night and the football we are playing is much better than the league 2 days.

 

I too thought the last two home gates have been very poor.....but I'm not altogether surprised.

 

However, nearly all of Tuesday's attendances were poor - Gillingham could only muster 5088 despite being second in the table.

 

The trouble is, there's thousands of dipsticks out there who would rather watch some Champions League game (yawn, yawn, yawn) than actually go to a game.

[j_grainger10]

We have a dwindling fan base and any kids just starting to get into football will be asking their parents to take them to Stoke. It's as simple as that.

[whotobeakiller]

£600 per week , what planet are you on ?

 

Planet Earth why?

[smithie]

Planet Earth why?

 

I would imagine that the average pay packet across the squad is closer to £1k a week than £600 a week...and even then some, in several cases.

[whotobeakiller]

I would imagine that the average pay packet across the squad is closer to £1k a week than £600 a week...and even then some, in several cases.

 

I was using that figure as a minimum to be fair. I can imagine some of the players in the squad are on at least £2,500 a week hence I was using the whole squad and turning it into an estimated average. Going back to my initial post though, it reinforces the argument that the players should be happy on those wages when you consider the average attendance at the moment.

[whotobeakiller]

We have a dwindling fan base and any kids just starting to get into football will be asking their parents to take them to Stoke. It's as simple as that.

 

It's up to those running the club to address those issues. Are they doing enough?

[Another shropshire valiant]

The club certainly needs to be more proactive in attracting a new generation of fans to the club, I was at the Blackpool game on Tuesday evening and I took a few minutes to look around the crowd, males in the 35-60 age bracket were the vast majority and I only saw a handful of children, of course it was an evening game during a school week, but I would have thought there would have been a few more youngsters there..... One though that occurred to me was a possible discount on your ticket if you bring a child with you.... £23 for an adult, but if you bring a child it could both get in for £20...... There would have to be some sort of age restriction, but it may encourage parents to make that extra effort to bring the next generation of fans along....thought?

[ELDERBEZZA]

The club certainly needs to be more proactive in attracting a new generation of fans to the club, I was at the Blackpool game on Tuesday evening and I took a few minutes to look around the crowd, males in the 35-60 age bracket were the vast majority and I only saw a handful of children, of course it was an evening game during a school week, but I would have thought there would have been a few more youngsters there..... One though that occurred to me was a possible discount on your ticket if you bring a child with you.... £23 for an adult, but if you bring a child it could both get in for £20...... There would have to be some sort of age restriction, but it may encourage parents to make that extra effort to bring the next generation of fans along....thought?

 

Exactly!We took 1 instead of the 3 we take at weekend games. It is a struggle getting them up the next morning after a late return from night games :(Another idea would be to reinstate the under 12's go free promotion !!

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

The club certainly needs to be more proactive in attracting a new generation of fans to the club, I was at the Blackpool game on Tuesday evening and I took a few minutes to look around the crowd, males in the 35-60 age bracket were the vast majority and I only saw a handful of children, of course it was an evening game during a school week, but I would have thought there would have been a few more youngsters there..... One though that occurred to me was a possible discount on your ticket if you bring a child with you.... £23 for an adult, but if you bring a child it could both get in for £20...... There would have to be some sort of age restriction, but it may encourage parents to make that extra effort to bring the next generation of fans along....thought?

 

Under 9 is free though. From a marketing perspective the walk up price is incorrect. You don't see many things priced at 23 quid. They need to be more imaginative.

[werstayinup]

We have a dwindling fan base and any kids just starting to get into football will be asking their parents to take them to Stoke. It's as simple as that.

 

My 2 nephews were Stoke fans and attended some of their games,they are both(now 18) Vale season ticket holders but i do agree that it is difficult to get kids interested in the Vale especially where i live in the Longton/Dresden/Fenton areas,we need to do a lot more in ALL local schools.

 

As a local parcel courier i couldn't believe how many Vale fans there are in these areas,more than i thought BUT a fair few no longer go

[carpetman123]

The Kids issue with School the next day is also tied in with Older fans (past 65-70 or onwards) who feel the cold and dont attend as well which in turn knocks the gate, I know my Dad who is a season ticket holder and at 92 doesn't go night games as he feels the cold so unless its a big game you will always have the absentees i,m afraid!

[bar1]

The club certainly needs to be more proactive in attracting a new generation of fans to the club, I was at the Blackpool game on Tuesday evening and I took a few minutes to look around the crowd, males in the 35-60 age bracket were the vast majority and I only saw a handful of children, of course it was an evening game during a school week, but I would have thought there would have been a few more youngsters there..... One though that occurred to me was a possible discount on your ticket if you bring a child with you.... £23 for an adult, but if you bring a child it could both get in for £20...... There would have to be some sort of age restriction, but it may encourage parents to make that extra effort to bring the next generation of fans along....thought?

 

Good idea but i think more simply, Kids should just simply be allowed in free of charge. Yes it's easy for me to say that but I don't imagine we make much ticket revenue from the under 14's anyhow? Some of this loss would be offset by increased club shop merchandise sold etc. Unless more kids start attending now, in15-20 years we really will have a dwindling fanbase.