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Is there anything you’d like to see done to improve attending VP or to enhance our reputation


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6 hours ago, robf said:

Sorry to keep banging on the same point but if it's down to the club spending money then finishing the LS concourse has to be the logical thing to do because the concourse work is/will be funded by fans so it's not another expense for the club. If we could somehow as a fans collective come up with a raft of ideas to get that money then it solves all the problems. If anyone has any ideas for OVF to try and raise a bit do let me know. 

I personally don't think the LS proximity to the away end is too much of an issue. The unfilled in corner and creche already put some distance between the stands and if it's really an issue then the club could simply not use the third block of seating nearest the away end (see below). Even with that being empty you'd probably have a family stand area for about 1,500 people I would reckon. 

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I wouldn't go for the old family stand as I would imagine the view there is poor and again it would look like an after-thought. I'd imagine that in the future that Railway/Bycars corner could be earmarked for a new scoreboard rather than being used to seat supporters. 

 

 

Take it from me the view from the old Family Stand is excellent, from the seated area at least, probably one of the best anywhere around VP.

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I wonder about the food and drink, and how much more money would be made if quality or choice was improved. I might be unusual but I don't really buy food at any grounds as I have my lunch/ tea before heading to the match. This is me just guessing here but isn't the majority of food bought by people needing to soak up the ale or that have been in the pub for a while before the match? If so, would 'nicer' food actually do any better? If I've ever bought food at a ground, I've expected bland stodge and whilst seasoned wedges or homemade soup might sound nicer, I'm not so sure that it would be what people actually eat.
Remember when Smurthwaite wanted to sell deli-boxes with goats cheese and sun dried tomato ciabatta or whatever? 

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Supermarket frozen chicken tenders - 50p
Barbecue sauce, chives, sesame seeds, Nandos perinaise, packaging, utility overheads - <50p

Profit per unit - several hundred percent 

 

 

That twitter account would be worth a quick scroll through by someone in commercial at Vale. The quality of stuff you can get at amateur part time non league clubs puts our overpriced reheated stodge crap to shame really. 

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25 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

I wonder about the food and drink, and how much more money would be made if quality or choice was improved. I might be unusual but I don't really buy food at any grounds as I have my lunch/ tea before heading to the match. This is me just guessing here but isn't the majority of food bought by people needing to soak up the ale or that have been in the pub for a while before the match? If so, would 'nicer' food actually do any better? If I've ever bought food at a ground, I've expected bland stodge and whilst seasoned wedges or homemade soup might sound nicer, I'm not so sure that it would be what people actually eat.
Remember when Smurthwaite wanted to sell deli-boxes with goats cheese and sun dried tomato ciabatta or whatever? 

I think you strike on an important point. To the 'die-hards', the matchday food isn't important; as you say, they either eat before/will get a pie and a beer. They're probably not fussed.

A theme in this thread, and in my view the most pressing challenge for the club, is attracting people who don't usually go to Port Vale. I've worked in schools and seen the number of kids who don't have a local team, and only know football via YouTube and Fifa. Their parents haven't taken them before. This is the market to tap in to.

Obviously you need to have a good team first, but this isn't enough. You have to a) incentivise them to come in the first place, and b) make it pleasant enough for the parent that when Little Timmy wants to go again as the Tricky Whites won 8-0, they're happy to do so.

Task A isn't too difficult as you just go into schools with Lucas and Conlon, chuck tickets out, send a welcome pack before the game, get them in a purpose-built fanzone, and allow them to bring a parent for free. Sound.

Task B is a bigger challenge - imagine not being a Vale fan but turning up on a Saturday. The toilets would put you off, you'd have to queue for 20 minutes to get a cold pie and then the club still operates in a 1990s cash-only world. Little Timmy won't be going back there - not worth the hassle.

Now, picture nice facilities, easy parking, nice bit of lunch, 8-0 rampant win for the Tricky Whites; suddenly, Little Timmy wants a replica top and you find yourself quite happy to go again. This might only happen to 10 of 1000 tickets you've handed out, but that's 10 families buying STs, 10 families buying tops, 10 families bringing mates, 10 families who are coming to Burslem every fortnight, 10 families spending in the ground. Virtuous cycle commences. Attendances start to rise. Revenue and budget grows. Better atmosphere. More people become keen. Task A is easier. 

I agree entirely that I'm not too fussed what they're serving, and I'm turning up anyways, but we've got to attract and retain a new generation. The current set-up won't do that. It's non-league in parts of the ground. That's the fault of the last two sets of negligent owners, but the challenge remains. Match-day experience for the average punter is a serious area for improvement if we want to attract and retain new fans. It has improved a bit, and I know there are more pressing stuff to invest in (The Matrix), but we need to press on whilst we're winning games.

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I think one of the things that could be implemented quite quickly is proper customer research and questionnaires.

In recent posts there's been quite a few "not too sure" and "I wonder" and "I guess" and that's fair enough because we don't know. 

Aside from the ideas posted on here which I think are really valuable for the club, I think one thing the club could really benefit from is getting regular, up-to-date feedback from the fanbase.

The club has a large database of fans contact details so it would make a lot of sense to email them occasionally with "quick" five minute surveys.

You can use them to find out all sorts of things - what would encourage them to buy from the refreshment kiosks more, what would improve the matchday experience, views on parking, views on ticketing and so on...

 

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27 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

I wonder about the food and drink, and how much more money would be made if quality or choice was improved. I might be unusual but I don't really buy food at any grounds as I have my lunch/ tea before heading to the match. This is me just guessing here but isn't the majority of food bought by people needing to soak up the ale or that have been in the pub for a while before the match? If so, would 'nicer' food actually do any better? If I've ever bought food at a ground, I've expected bland stodge and whilst seasoned wedges or homemade soup might sound nicer, I'm not so sure that it would be what people actually eat.
Remember when Smurthwaite wanted to sell deli-boxes with goats cheese and sun dried tomato ciabatta or whatever? 

I would have almost certainly agreed with you if I did not pay the occasional visit to Morecambe FC. They actually make their own pies which are extremely good and having one is part of the matchday experience. It was estimated when they were in League 2 over half the crowd had a pie. There are lots of kiosks to buy them at and peas and gravy are provided free of charge at separate serving stations to speed things up. You can comfortably get in the queue and have your pie well before the second half starts.

I never eat at Vale but I do at Morecambe. A quality product, readily available and as a result very popular.

 

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Probably a lot of good ideas stated here, I d be surprised if the current owners weren't aware of some of them and may have even costed some of them.

A simple one we could fix for no cost  which would be more beneficial to the club and the team  is to create a better atmosphere in the ground more in keeping with a club near the top of the league. I thought it was a bit too quiet against Bradford.

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19 hours ago, jjvale_03 said:

This sounds weird.

Why hasn't someone lamped them?

Good question. I suspect that they don't have a right to rope off the road ... but I'm no legal expert here! I'd also suspect that the people who do park there don't want a confrontation. The guys are always there in 2-3's  "on patrol" quite clearly waiting for someone to try to move the bin so that they can kick off. I'd imagine that 9/10 of the time, just finding somewhere else to park is the path of least resistance!

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