Summary of the Chairman Q&A so far

[SMURF]

If this is the type of intelligent thinking and analysis we're doing regarding key decisions at the club, then what hope have we got?

 

Well my thinking was if we set a figure lets say 3500 at 250 then we only did 3000 l would need to ask for 70 more just could not see that being well received

Bradford know they will do 18k plus so can set their price at 149

[Family Stand Terrier]

Well my thinking was if we set a figure lets say 3500 at 250 then we only did 3000 l would need to ask for 70 more just could not see that being well received

Bradford know they will do 18k plus so can set their price at 149

 

I keep seeing you refer to Bradford on twitter, where you've said, get me 18,000 fans and I'll set the price at £150. You're not comparing like for like. How many fans, at £150, would we need to match the income we received from this season's season ticket sales? I don't know the answer to that, I'm just asking the question.

 

As I've said previously. The danger, right now is that we keep setting our sights on 3,500, and settle for low attendances. As others have said, the profile of our supporters seems to be that we're an aging group, and the number of youngsters at VP is dwindling. We have the capacity available to replicate Bradford's scheme, and the size of city and surrounding areas to tap into potential fans of the future. We need bums on seats, first and foremost. As a long term plan, that has to be our number one aim. In the short term, the added support may just help to securing our L1 status, so a scheme similar to Rochdale's, may just pay for itself in the short to medium term.

[SMURF]

Genuine question have you or any of your staff been to Fulham, Cardiff, Man City, Middlesbrough, Bolton and other clubs and seen their family stands?

 

What are the club doing to address the fact that Stoke have one of the youngest fanbases in the country and potentially increasing their family area next season with the capacity increase?

 

I look around Vale Park and I see a load of predominantly 40+ males, what is your strategy for addressing this before the club falls on its knees in 10 years time?

 

It's a problem but it's one that's not going away, how about doing something radical and making the Loren Street into an all singing all dancing family stand like those mentioned above? Make the matchday experience fun for youngsters and try and nail down the next generation of Vale fans. Sorry to be facecius but you could pay for it by trimming the matchday squad to a reasonable level by getting rid of some of the deadwood.....

I have seen some very well run family zones and community schemes

As with everything at VP 10 plus years of neglect come at a price

l am not sure if you recall the coverage when l kicked out the previous Community Scheme

IZt then took a year with the help of the FL to set up another(it is a Charity) Now that is just over a year old and making slow but constructive progress.

It will take about 260k to finish Lorne St. 60k is being spent on Stand toilets and it will cost 200k for new concourse/pub for Railway. Which do you think l should do first and will the cry be more debt

[jjvale_03]

Well my thinking was if we set a figure lets say 3500 at 250 then we only did 3000 l would need to ask for 70 more just could not see that being well received

Bradford know they will do 18k plus so can set their price at 149

 

With an intelligent and vibrant marketing campaign around the sale of ST's coupled with a general positive and measured approach to running the club, you wouldn't need to be worrying about selling 3500 ST's.

 

As it is, we've banned the local paper and simply stick up a spreadsheet on the club website.

[Family Stand Terrier]

I have seen some very well run family zones and community schemes

As with everything at VP 10 plus years of neglect come at a price

l am not sure if you recall the coverage when l kicked out the previous Community Scheme

IZt then took a year with the help of the FL to set up another(it is a Charity) Now that is just over a year old and making slow but constructive progress.

It will take about 260k to finish Lorne St. 60k is being spent on Stand toilets and it will cost 200k for new concourse/pub for Railway. Which do you think l should do first and will the cry be more debt

 

Come on Norman people are asking some good questions, and you're answering a lot of them which is a good start. So don't reply with sarcastic patronising posts. You've just asked a good question back, there are options there for consideration. This forum is a great way of consulting with fans on those kind of options. But without the "will the cry be more debt" comment at the end.

[smithie]

Norman,

 

Can you shed some light on why the visiting supporters have been shifted to a distant corner at Vale Park, and who took the decision to do so.

 

I and many, many people note how the atmosphere has suffered as a result of this move.

 

Some of the best atmospheres come from good-natured exchanges between home and away fans up and down the country. This is NOT to be confused with hooliganism!

 

I strongly suggest this decision be reversed. You cannot have failed to notice how quiet the ground is on match-days.

[1977Valiant]

Well my thinking was if we set a figure lets say 3500 at 250 then we only did 3000 l would need to ask for 70 more just could not see that being well received

Bradford know they will do 18k plus so can set their price at 149

 

Bradford know they will get 18k plus now but when they started this scheme over 10 years ago I believe they were getting less than 5000k. They have built the fan base every season since.

 

Bradford in a way are similar to us, whereby we have Stoke just up the road who have 25k plus crowds, whereas Bradford have both Leeds and Huddersfield in their catchment area both of which have 20k plus crowds, however, due to Bradford ticketing model/scheme they still attract 18k plus crowds.

[robf]

A further update on the OVF front page containing quotes about the value of Vale Park and improvement works:

 

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/2017/02/smurthwaite-on-vale-park-valuation-and-ground-improvements/

[TylerB]

What a vote of confidence for Michael Brown!!! Another gaff.

 

Brown's record is shocking. Sure, he's been dealt a bad hand, but what makes some people believe how a guy who has absolutely no managerial experience can somehow be some sort of saviour with the way the club is at this moment in time is beyond belief. I think even taking the results out of the equation for a moment he's already shown he's not capable of man-management.

[smithie]

Brown's record is shocking. Sure, he's been dealt a bad hand, but what makes some people believe how a guy who has absolutely no managerial experience can somehow be some sort of saviour with the way the club is at this moment in time is beyond belief. I think even taking the results out of the equation for a moment he's already shown he's not capable of man-management.

 

I'd say it's a bit early to judge him after so few games in charge. He was old-school in how he played the game and I suspect he expects the same attitude from his players. He's got my support, and i definitely feel we look better under him than we did Bruno.

 

That said, we need wins pretty damned quickly!

[rsb]

To the chairman what do the Community Scheme do for the junior supporters on a Saturday home match, I ask this as when the J V's first started it was backed by the club and run by volunteers they used the old gym for 2/3 hrs before a game to have a kick around before going to watch the game as the junior fan base grew at other clubs exchanges where made where they would visit each others grounds play football against each other, have there lunch sit together to watch the game have penalty shoot outs at half time a chance to be a mascot at home or away for free, there membership package cost £2 for this they received a scarf with Junior Valiants on one side and port vale f c on the other a signed birthday card by there favorited player xmas party's where the local players would attend and one would be santa cluse, before the old community trust took over there where 600+ junior valiant members and the membership fee was £5 and the junior vailants player of the year used to be asked if they would like to be president of the J V's if they where still at the club. Sorry if this is long winded but keep seeing on the score board J V,s relurnched. sorry for spelling mistakes

[osprey]

I have seen some very well run family zones and community schemes

As with everything at VP 10 plus years of neglect come at a price

l am not sure if you recall the coverage when l kicked out the previous Community Scheme

IZt then took a year with the help of the FL to set up another(it is a Charity) Now that is just over a year old and making slow but constructive progress.

It will take about 260k to finish Lorne St. 60k is being spent on Stand toilets and it will cost 200k for new concourse/pub for Railway. Which do you think l should do first and will the cry be more debt

 

Personally i would not bother finishing the Lorne st at the moment. I would prefer to see the 260K invested in the team. We cant fill the seats we have now never mind any new ones.

 

To me, progression on the field is pretty much the only way to increase our fan numbers. You can have the nicest seats, nicest pies etc but if we are in Div 2 people still wont come as long as we have SCFC down the road in the Premiership as comptetition. Realistically we need to be at least competing high in Div 1 or in the Championship to have any chance of making anything like substantial increase in attendance ( plus relying on bigger away followings that would give us as well )

 

of course to keep the fans we have the match day experience has to be at least tolerable but its on the field that would make the biggest difference every time

[robf]

I have probably missed some replies and quotes but for a summary of what I have produced so far you can also go to this link:

 

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/category/norman-smurthwaite/

 

There are currently six features produced from various Norman Smurthwaite replies on the forum. I hope it helps those of you who just want a summary of what has been said.

 

Again, if I have missed anything do let me know as I don't read every post so there is always the chance I have missed something.

[werstayinup]

I have seen some very well run family zones and community schemes

As with everything at VP 10 plus years of neglect come at a price

l am not sure if you recall the coverage when l kicked out the previous Community Scheme

IZt then took a year with the help of the FL to set up another(it is a Charity) Now that is just over a year old and making slow but constructive progress.

It will take about 260k to finish Lorne St. 60k is being spent on Stand toilets and it will cost 200k for new concourse/pub for Railway. Which do you think l should do first and will the cry be more debt

 

Maybe spend the 200k for the pub on a manager or a couple of players

[Timothius]

l did than on 10 ticket deal very poor take up

 

Because you brought it out with a very small timescale to buy one, for one stand and never marketed it, a bit like every other scheme you bring out. I said to you in 2014 that some of your deals were excellent but nobody knew about them so they were next to no use. Its pointless advertising deals on the scoreboard at home games as the people you want to get back aren't there to read it. Similarly they also don't read the club twitter or website. If you went on the club website when you announced the last 10 game deal at chrsitmas, you had to search the site to find the details so if you were just visiting the site but didn't know about the scheme you would be none the wiser. The club took details when I last bought a season ticket, of email addresses etc and you say you still have a database. Why aren't the people on the database being bombarded with emails offering deals. Why aren't fans who haven't renewed season tickets been contacted via email to ask why. Why hasn't Colin Garlick used the database to introduce himself to the fanbase via email and give his vision for the club going forward, especially if he is taking over the day to day running from yourself?

 

All basic, free ways to engage with your customer base, but absolutely nothing done in that respect.