Anthony Grant's New Contract

[melv]

No one player is bigger than the club on 4000+ gates what exactly do you expect Smurf to do we live within our means if it means Grant and more recently Andoh are off because of greed then I dont want the club to suffer another Admin because of it!!!

 

There will always be other clubs that will want and able to sign our 'better' players and until Vale fans get off their backsides and start supporting the club at home a bit better then thats the reality!!

 

I agree with you on that

 

But when players put a show on like some of the recent games then the chances of the attendance improving are slim.Considering what Saturday was like and it looks like rain later then we might not even make the 4000 mark for tonights game.

[fairportnick]

until Vale fans get off their backsides and start supporting the club at home a bit better then thats the reality!!

 

Isnt that cart before the horse?.

Fans are staying away because they don't want to watch the team. They are hardly going to fork out for something they don't want. It is up to the club to go out and get them not the other way round. It doesn't work that way.

[Howjy04]

Considering we only sold 2k+ season tickets it seems more people are paying on the day,compared to last season?

[smithie]

Isnt that cart before the horse?.

Fans are staying away because they don't want to watch the team. They are hardly going to fork out for something they don't want. It is up to the club to go out and get them not the other way round. It doesn't work that way.

 

Short of going top of the league, there's not much else the team can do. We've been fourth recently which must be our highest placing in a decade.

 

Cutting admission prices had been tried and it failed....so what do you suggest?

[valeparklife]

Who is our highest paid player?

[Guppy 4 England]

Isnt that cart before the horse?.

Fans are staying away because they don't want to watch the team. They are hardly going to fork out for something they don't want. It is up to the club to go out and get them not the other way round. It doesn't work that way.

 

Dunno why fans are staying away, 7th in league one, highest we have been for years.

[Guppy 4 England]

Some on here do make me chuckle. Surely we all agree that Grant is vital to our team and yet you appear not to want him to get a wage increase. Remember Papa Smurf commented on the radio that he couldn't believe that Page had secured such a good player on the contract that the then out of a club Anthony Grant signed. Now he has proved his worth big time and was last year's 'Player of the Year' yet still you support an owner who doesn't want to give him a long and improved deal. I'm speechless and that doesn't happen too often.

 

Doesnt want to? I thought he had offered him a better deal, but he swapped agents and his agent touted him around to every club in Britain.

 

Nathan smith recently signed a new contract, so pretty much flaws your argument. Still dont miss those opportunities to bash the chairman.

[fairportnick]

Dunno why fans are staying away,

 

Wouldn't you expect a proactive business to make some effort to find out?

[Tenement Funster]

Wouldn't you expect a proactive business to make some effort to find out?

 

But the stay aways find a new excuse every week if you ask around / look on social media. I know plenty of people who've not been for a long time. Some of their excuses change by the week but ultimately I still think unless we're sustaining a promotion push we'll struggle to get more than around 4500 home fans through the gates at the moment. Too many people have rubbishy excuses blaming the chairman, the managers, the players, the price but ultimately the first three aren't doing a bad job and the latter is little different to most other teams in the league.

[fairportnick]

But the stay aways find a new excuse every week if you ask around / look on social media. I know plenty of people who've not been for a long time. Some of their excuses change by the week but ultimately I still think unless we're sustaining a promotion push we'll struggle to get more than around 4500 home fans through the gates at the moment. Too many people have rubbishy excuses blaming the chairman, the managers, the players, the price but ultimately the first three aren't doing a bad job and the latter is little different to most other teams in the league.

 

Why should stay aways need an excuse. If they don't feel as though they want to go , they don't. Its not an obligation , you don't need a note for sir. That's the whole point. The club need to be actively seeking a way to bring to bring people in not sitting back and expecting them to come.

[cheshirevaliant]

I can see how people get out of the habit of going. Looking out of my office window 30 miles away now at the weather, I'm not sure I would fancy the drive, then 90 minutes sitting in the cold watching potentially a repeat of Saturday/Coventry (albeit there could also be a repeat of Scunthorpe or Gillingham) then the drive home if I didn't already have a season ticket.

 

The onus is on the club to make people want to go. For all Paul Wildes' apparent faults, he understood this and gates were consistently high. I know we were top 2 for most of that season, but we have been top 6 for most of this season in the league above.

[TheSage]

I notice that Charlton are offering kids for a quid, I think, at their next home game.

 

You have to capture supporters with your season ticket offers. We missed the boat then because we were in the process of finding a manager and 2/3 of a team. But to get them back in numbers now you do have to be proactive and encourage them to return. The team, of course, has to play its part, by winning games (home and away), playing entertaining football and scoring goals. Sadly, on a wet night like tonight, some will think it isn't worth it as we lost 0-4 last time out.

 

We have to find ways of enticing people back, as nick says. I assume they have meetings about this on a weekly basis and scour the country for ideas and suggestions as to how other clubs go about it. Or do they?

 

It's not that long ago really since we took over 20,000 to Cardiff and had, what was it, 12,000 in for the Burton match. There are folk out there who would consider coming again but only in the right circumstances.

 

Anything is worth trying. We've had threads on this ad infinitum. But do the kids for a quid again. Or try £10 each. Or buy one get one free. Or even give away to kids a few hundred tickets. Just keep on trying and trying and not taking it for granted that people will come back if we do nothing.

[pjg1876]

Why should stay aways need an excuse. If they don't feel as though they want to go , they don't. Its not an obligation , you don't need a note for sir. That's the whole point. The club need to be actively seeking a way to bring to bring people in not sitting back and expecting them to come.

 

I know what you are saying Nick but the perverse thing is that those that don't go anymore are the ones who are depriving the club of funds to entice better players to come to the club who in turn would make the football more attractive for people to go and watch. Bit of a vicious circle really but what would your view be, seriously, if the club went out of business leaving the city with just the one team.

[beasty77]

Why should stay aways need an excuse. If they don't feel as though they want to go , they don't. Its not an obligation , you don't need a note for sir. That's the whole point. The club need to be actively seeking a way to bring to bring people in not sitting back and expecting them to come.

 

Giving free tickets to local schools would be a start.

[fairportnick]

I know what you are saying Nick but the perverse thing is that those that don't go anymore are the ones who are depriving the club of funds to entice better players to come to the club who in turn would make the football more attractive for people to go and watch. Bit of a vicious circle really but what would your view be, seriously, if the club went out of business leaving the city with just the one team.

 

I hate cheesecake so I wouldn't be bothered if Cheesecake Ltd closed down. I wouldn't contribute to them to make cheesecake taste better for those that eat it.