Bradford city it can be done i.e. Season Tickets

[Emile]

My post was in relation to the poster raising his ugly moronic head every time we don't have a great result.

 

Smurf should sell up, if someone wants to buy that is.

 

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[Valiant in Brum]

No comparison, they are a much bigger club.

 

Not really they get bigger crowds due to their pricing check out their history, they spent much more below Port Vale than above.

[Valiant in Brum]

Potteries negativity and pessimism at its finest. Think small, know your place, don't try anything different, look downwards.

 

That is the attitude with a large number of PVFC fans, 'we can't have a new stadium, we can't think big, well things are back to how they were in the 70s we are where we belong'. Its all rubbish why can't Port Vale do what teams like Charlton did in the past, Like Bradford have been doing for year. Smurf came in charging over the odds for tickets thinking he would get crowds to the same level as we did against Burton and Northampton.

 

WE may not sell 20,000 but why not aim for 6,500 again, then try and get it up to 10,00 etc.

[Valiant in Brum]

Realism, half the Championship have foreign owners, Bradford has the population to easily support a Championship club and significant current attendances, thus will attract foreign interest with the financial rewards in the Championship, they can also point to their recent spell in the Prem. The financial potential at a mid L1 club is different, even if we hang onto our status this season. All we need is an exceptional selling point.

 

Think of the area around the potteries well lest just say there are 3 league teams in Staffordshire, Staffordshire only has 3 teams with a population of 1,114,200. Now that can support more than just Stoke doing well easily. I suppose Walsall seeing as they are surrounded by Wolves, Birmingham, Aston Villa, West Brom etc should give up as well ? I suppose also Fleetwood should have decided they were too small to take on Blackpool ever ? Imagine if Wimbledon fans had of had the spirit of Vale fans they would not be looking forward to finishing above MK Dons this season.

[darren1810]

17 of the last 21 years Bradford have averaged over 10'000 gates.....simply no comparison with Vale.

 

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/brac.htm

[Fosse69]

Think of the area around the potteries well lest just say there are 3 league teams in Staffordshire, Staffordshire only has 3 teams with a population of 1,114,200. Now that can support more than just Stoke doing well easily. I suppose Walsall seeing as they are surrounded by Wolves, Birmingham, Aston Villa, West Brom etc should give up as well ? I suppose also Fleetwood should have decided they were too small to take on Blackpool ever ? Imagine if Wimbledon fans had of had the spirit of Vale fans they would not be looking forward to finishing above MK Dons this season.

Walsall are similar to us just better run, Fleetwood have money poured into them by a local fan. Wimbledon have a reasonable catchment area, good period in the top tier after nearly a century in non-league, had their club stolen from them, no wonder they had such a spirit. I am not saying give up, surely a mid-L1 status is worth it, gives a chance of odd seasons or so in the Championship as lots do like Walsall, Burton, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, etc. non of which compare themselves to Bradford City, but enjoy the £6M or so of TV money when they are there.

[Family Stand Terrier]

17 of the last 21 years Bradford have averaged over 10'000 gates.....simply no comparison with Vale.

 

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/brac.htm

 

Bradford are bigger than us now, and have been for probably the last 20 years or so. However, the point here is not about matching them, it's about emulating their model. The current method of freezing season tickets has seen a decline in sales over the last 4 years. Yes, if the product on the pitch is good then more people will turn up, that's true, but that's not to say that that's the only approach the club should be taking. We've had one promotion since 1994, so it's not good enough to just throw all of our eggs into that basket and just hope the fans return. The club has to do more.

 

The model Bradford implemented meant their support went from 8k to 13k. Since then it dipped to 10k/11k but following promotion has steadily increased to the point they're now targeting 20k.

 

In our first season of target 5,000 we sold 6,500. We didn't repeat it again. Now almost 10 years later we're down to 3,500 regulars. We have to look at this as a long term plan to negate the risk posed to us from Stoke. We can't expect them to change their prices or hope they fall out of the prem, we need to grow the next crop of Vale fans with attractive prices. Bradford started off targeting 10,000, 10 years later it's 20,000. If we'd have stuck with our scheme over the years, what's to say we couldn't be targeting 10,000? (before anyone laughs at that figure, imagine how Bradford fans would have laughed at the thought of targeting 20k 10 years ago) If we can sell 6,500 after relegation, how many do you think we'd have sold at that price after promotion?

 

As our owners since then haven't had the energy to bother with these incentives, we have to go back to square one. Such is the damage caused by Smurf, I think our initial target needs to be lower. Next season we'd do well to shift 2,000 at the price they are. We should try to sell 4,000 at £180. Then over time keep on promoting it, shout about the scheme every year, and keep increasing the target.

 

I honestly think the threat to the club is so severe that this is no longer up for debate. It simply has to happen.

[Fosse69]

Bradford are bigger than us now, and have been for probably the last 20 years or so. However, the point here is not about matching them, it's about emulating their model. The current method of freezing season tickets has seen a decline in sales over the last 4 years. Yes, if the product on the pitch is good then more people will turn up, that's true, but that's not to say that that's the only approach the club should be taking. We've had one promotion since 1994, so it's not good enough to just throw all of our eggs into that basket and just hope the fans return. The club has to do more.

 

The model Bradford implemented meant their support went from 8k to 13k. Since then it dipped to 10k/11k but following promotion has steadily increased to the point they're now targeting 20k.

 

In our first season of target 5,000 we sold 6,500. We didn't repeat it again. Now almost 10 years later we're down to 3,500 regulars. We have to look at this as a long term plan to negate the risk posed to us from Stoke. We can't expect them to change their prices or hope they fall out of the prem, we need to grow the next crop of Vale fans with attractive prices. Bradford started off targeting 10,000, 10 years later it's 20,000. If we'd have stuck with our scheme over the years, what's to say we couldn't be targeting 10,000? (before anyone laughs at that figure, imagine how Bradford fans would have laughed at the thought of targeting 20k 10 years ago) If we can sell 6,500 after relegation, how many do you think we'd have sold at that price after promotion?

 

As our owners since then haven't had the energy to bother with these incentives, we have to go back to square one. Such is the damage caused by Smurf, I think our initial target needs to be lower. Next season we'd do well to shift 2,000 at the price they are. We should try to sell 4,000 at £180. Then over time keep on promoting it, shout about the scheme every year, and keep increasing the target.

 

I honestly think the threat to the club is so severe that this is no longer up for debate. It simply has to happen.

Agreed on the principle, a realistic target would be doubling the existing number of season tickets, some sort of membership scheme for under 16 giving them admission for a token amount say £10. It has to start low and then increase based on achievement, the mention of 10,000 etc turns people off. Bradford C had some good cup runs as well which boosts fan numbers, hope for those too. Nor have Bradford City always had it easy with Bradford Northern/Bulls close by.

[SuperValiant1876]

Walsall are similar to us just better run, Fleetwood have money poured into them by a local fan. Wimbledon have a reasonable catchment area, good period in the top tier after nearly a century in non-league, had their club stolen from them, no wonder they had such a spirit. I am not saying give up, surely a mid-L1 status is worth it, gives a chance of odd seasons or so in the Championship as lots do like Walsall, Burton, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, etc. non of which compare themselves to Bradford City, but enjoy the £6M or so of TV money when they are there.

 

 

And a fair few of them don't enjoy the drop from the championship when wages are too high and it cripples the club...Yeovil, Plymouth, Doncaster. All 3 teams which we are better off than right now.

[man in the pub]

We need a season ticket incentive to boost the numbers. Forget which division we are in after this seasons debacle how many will we sell if (and a big if)we do stay up. So if we do go down how many will we sell then ?

Surely now is the time for a big launch of a scheme that's hard to refuse to encourage people to renew and encourage new /lapsed fans to buy one. Unsure of the price £230 (tenner a game) and the number that would be required to make it work but lets be honest how many will we sell at the current price, 2000 ?

[JRC]

Potteries negativity and pessimism at its finest. Think small, know your place, don't try anything different, look downwards.

 

Exactly as I'm sitting here in Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to Bahrain, then Mumbai for a business conference at the weekend. I have a reasonable idea how a business works and if it was half as easy as you think I'd be paid a lot less money. If it's as easy as you think go and pitch your idea at the bank and buy the club.

[smithie]

Exactly as I'm sitting here in Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to Bahrain, then Mumbai for a business conference at the weekend. I have a reasonable idea how a business works and if it was half as easy as you think I'd be paid a lot less money. If it's as easy as you think go and pitch your idea at the bank and buy the club.

 

Good on you, that sounds a great number. I run a business that takes me to Manchester not Mumbai unfortunately.

 

However the language smacked of small-time thinking....and how is Bradford"selling" 10k different to Vale "scraping" 6500 sales? I'd give anything for a scraped 6500 season ticket-sales right now.

 

I'd guess we can agree on one thing, and that is that doing nothing is not an option.

[Santa]

I don't see why we couldn't reverse engineer a scheme similar to what Rochdale are doing now.

 

Set yourself a target for overall season ticket revenue, decide what's a good number and divide that by the relevant number of paying customers per pricing step.

[who was markin him?]

This idea of having a small mind because people are realistic over the size of vale compared to Bradford is crazy. They are a large club. Have been for years.

 

I think we need to do something though I doubt it's as simple as lash prices n try to get enough fans in to over the short fall. We need to attract students and children. I'd give ST tickets to school kids and offer an incentive to an accompanying adult. Students I'd charge a tiny fee. We need fill the ground and take a short term hit for potential long term again. Walsall have a good scheme for youngsters.

 

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[windsorvale4ever]

going by what was said at the meeting the club can't do anything till next season why ??? we close to April we have got 4 months to change the prices and try and get the fans back into vale park the price has been the same now for to long the club need to try something massively different.