| Attendance aspirations for 2024 20:24 - Dec 29 with 5213 views | RAFCBLUE |
I saw Rochdale Hornets publish their attendance aspirations for 2024. If you haven’t seen that it is here:
https://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php?/topic/387305-rochdale-hornets-attendan
They’re looking at getting an average home attendance to 1,000 in 2024 and 1,500 for 2025, from a current average of 612. The link has the data for the last 13 seasons.
Aiming for a 63% increase in 2024 from 2023 is a lofty ambition, but citing a catchment area of 230,000 makes that wholly achievable.
In the same spirit, what should our target be? If we assumed a current home average of 2,500 a similar target would be over 4,000 and transformational for finances at this level.
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 20:31 - Dec 29 with 5186 views | 442Dale |
It would need a visible, strategic approach that involves supporters every step of the way. We’ve wasted so much time not acting upon the ideas and support available over the last two and a half years.
For example, we have had a game where it was £1 to get in and yet we are all still unsure what happens next. If the club/someone does know, why doesn’t everyone? | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 20:46 - Dec 29 with 5112 views | scooby |
We have a leader that doesn’t seem to take ownership for anything or admit he is wrong (did he apologise for the statement about “online speculation” making it hard?), he’s running the club to bone (I saw that Matt has left the club today, so what commercial dept do we actually have?), and we all know he won’t communicate and there are mumbles of “his way or the highway”. The club is stagnant at best, going backwards is probably reality.
What are Simon’s plans for the club? To add as little of his own money as possible, and get it sold ASAP? What is the strategic roadmap for the club?
He’s being shown up by the rugby club who are putting it out there. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 20:56 - Dec 29 with 5073 views | EllDale |
I think that there are a couple of points that spring to mind immediately.
One is that Hornets keep talking about a catchment population of 230k people.
This is the population of the local authority which includes of course both Heywood and Middleton.
Neither area has any interest in rugby league, indeed if Mr Mazey gets regular attendees from the likes of Langley and Darn Hill then he’s a good ‘un.
The catchment area from which he’s trying to attract 1000 people per game is probably near 100000 from the town of Rochdale itself.
The other is that he’s been given a head start for reaching that average gate by the draw for the 1895 Cup which has given Hornets home group matches against Oldham and Halifax. Both of those will bring a fair away following, indeed the former might bring 1000 on their own given the resurgence of interest in them in BIFFOland. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 22:42 - Dec 29 with 4947 views | pioneer |
The Oldham 1895 cup game is away. They play oldham at home in the Law Cup pre season game.
I agree they are fantasizing regarding the catchment population. What exactly are they doing to generate support from the non traditional areas you mention…nothing? Last season they abolished concession prices for seniors…smart move eh? Now they are back but how many seniors fans did they lose?
They got 12 points from 18 games last season (including 2 points for the game London forfeited).
Four of those points were from games v London…no longer in the league. For the first time in 152 years they didnt beat a team from the traditional areas of RL…there points came from wins against Midlands, Cornwall and north wales in addition to the london games.
They can talk up the club as much as they want but they are currently at an all time low …under fan ownership they got promotion after an unforgettable win in France…and stayed up for two seasons. Words are cheap so lets hope they can back them up with performances…that will help increase attendances. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 23:43 - Dec 29 with 4858 views | Dalenet |
Back to the OP. I think 4,000 should be our goal over the next 3 years and somebody should be targeted to get there. Playing attractive football will help - but there is much more to it than that. Boxing Day was a start - but as others have said, it will be investment wasted unless we have a detailed marketing programme to bring some of the first timers back in. 4,000 home fans would be enough to bring financial break even to the club.
As for Hornets, love him or hate him, Mazey has a plan. He needs bums on seats to get the points needed under the new RFL system. He has his work cut out, but you can't criticise him for trying and showing some ambition. We need to do the same pdq. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 12:41 - Dec 31 with 4285 views | RAFCBLUE |
I think 4,000 is more than possible Dalenet.
You only have to look the proportion of attendance to town population in other North West towns to see that Rochdale as a town lags behind.
As the letter to shareholders today says, one of the ways we can all help is to "convert some of the returning supporters and first-time visitors that attended the Boxing Day fixture in to more regular fans. Increased attendance plays a massive part in driving club revenue."
Returning to the EFL will be correlated with getting attendances up IMO as that is what is going to have to finance the club. | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 13:01 - Dec 31 with 4232 views | 442Dale |
We have all been prepared to help.
What has been the plan since the summer of 2021 to achieve this?
What efforts have been made to capitalise on the multitude of ideas from the Trust’s supporters meetings eight months ago?
What exactly is the current plan? And is it visible to supporters?
If it took an AGM to lead to this communication, whilst welcome now, what were the mistakes made previously that have now been recognised to develop a consistent communications strategy?
Answers to all those matter if there is a commitment to positive change. | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 13:14 - Dec 31 with 4214 views | D_Alien |
Surely there must be some mistake?
"The Board were pleased to hear some of the creative and constructive ideas from shareholders, with a sense that the general mood in the room was to help the club through this challenging period." [From the AGM update]
This must surely be an entirely new phenomenon (my word 'du jour') and worth remarking on in the update. | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 13:45 - Dec 31 with 4175 views | 442Dale |
More wasted time, creative and constructive ideas have been forward for months. Years. It’s no new phenomenon. Although we can only influence the future now, I suppose.
On that front, it was good to hear from the Trust in their newsletter sent out today about their focus on following up on the Fylde game:
<<“ Boxing Day saw a commendable initiative from the club with £1 match tickets. It is a pity that not all tickets sold were used on the day, but as part of the ticket purchase process, the club collected contact email addresses, and the Trust will be happy to report on what the club has learned from
this experience, what it plans to do next, and how the contact details obtained will be used to market upcoming games and offers.”>> | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 14:46 - Dec 31 with 4089 views | Rodingdale |
The idea was good. The implementation was less good.
A perspective from someone with a sales and marketing background.
Event Promotion - Given take up of tickets was strong, this seems to have gone well, although how much of that take up was down to the club and what was down to the great work of a prominent poster on this messageboard, is debatable. The analysis of the ‘where did you hear of this offer’ data will be useful to enable still better targeting for future offers. I assume the club asked the question?
Event build up. Aka keeping them on the hook. The £1 ticket price is in itself insufficient to keep hold of customers, people will and clearly did walk away from such a small sum - so further event build up and excitement needs to be built with purchasers, prior to the event. For example, early bird - meal deal / 50p off a pie and hot drink for those in the ground before 2:00. The longer customers are in the ground the more they will spend. Merchandise vouchers provided to use before or on the day. Also a good opportunity to remind customers of practicalities, parking, which turnstile to use, what to expect inside the ground. It does require proper stocking and outlets though.
On the day itself - Aka last minute reminder and nudge enticement. Bogof scarf offer (a scarf with Rochdale in it not a ‘retro’ generic blue and white scarf. Are you ready for the event and Half season ticket offer by email - build time pressure into this - offer closes midnight. Enable Apple Pay etc as means of purchase. As an aside, the club / trust should make it an objective for every household in the borough to have at least one Dale scarf - brand reinforcement / association.
Make it easy for customers to buy add ones, merchandise, food and drink. Pop up kiosks. Make it a welcoming atmosphere - employ say Trust members to run help points and be on hand at turnstiles. All things akin to any sales launch. I understand from other posters that the food offer was poor in the Ratcliffe and stocks ran out of food with long queues and consequently cash left the ground win the pockets of customers instead of being left in the ground. Reports about the stewarding are so depressing, and feeds directly into negative customer experience. Needs addressing properly, but sub contractors will never provide the bespoke service required.
After the day - Follow up email - highlights. Fixtures - discount vouchers for January. Sell sell sell in December, especially after a win. January is a long cold and brassic month and I fear that as with a lot of things, the club has just been too ponderous, by the time they’ve done the post mortem the opportunity will be a distant memory. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 22:05 - Dec 31 with 3832 views | 49thseason |
Good post,
Yesterday is gone, the inquest is valuable but tomorrow is the prize.
There have been some interesting comments from new visitors that need to be taken on board, but the value is in what happens next.
We have 10 more home games.
The average ticket price has historically been about £13.00 ( based on gate takings in the last set of accounts / total attendance) but its a big jump from £1 too £13 and we need to test the elasticity of the attendance vs the price we charge. We know the number who actually turned up vs the number of £1 tickets sold , so we also know that at £1 some people didn't value their ticket enough to bother turning up ( I know some lads in my local bought tickets but saw it as a donation rather than a chance to watch the game}. So where is the price point that people regard as good value rather than something to not bother about? I would suggest £5 per game for the first 5 of the next 10 games and then try £7 or £8 for the 5 remaining games (games 6 to 10) to see what the effect is. Or perhaps a Parent and child (under 11) ticket for £8.00 or thereabouts
Can we find 1000 more new takers for £1 tickets or £2 tickets for 10 more games?
10 games should be enough to create habit which then takes us to next season....
There must be more schools, Cubs and Brownies, sports clubs etc. that we can make the offer to? It would be great if every kid in town at some point got a chance to go to a game for £5 with a first time parent on a combined ticket, or as part of a small group.
We are told they have the email addys so let the marketing begin....
Equally we need a different campaign for those who didn't come to the game to see if there is any response, maybe by giving the another game to use their tickets? perhaps a game when we are expecting a very low opposition supporters turn out?
If I half-season tickets are a runner it would be the perfect time to test the theory but I suspect the newcomers probably are not ready for that ..yet...although at say £80 or £90 or thereabouts for a Parent and Child , who knows? Testing the proposition is the only sensible option.
We have to now re-engage with those newcomers who attended, often this will involve a series of Emails, :
1. Thankyou for coming with a brief questionnaire to them checking their experience vs their expectations...
2. Get to know us a bit better...eg. did you know we can host Children's Birthday Parties etc..
3. Would you like tickets for the next home game at £5 each or £8 for a parent and child, £10 for a parent and 2 children done via a discount voucher perhaps?
The actions from these are fairly obvious
So now we have a slightly different marketing scenario, we have
1. people who paid a pound and came ( see above}
2. People who paid a pound but didn't turn up
3. People yet to try a game for £1.
For people who didn't turn up
1. Make the offer again (assume there was a good reason) " sorry you couldn't join us"
2. Send a slightly different questionnaire
3. Send an option to stay in touch or be removed from email list. Don't worry about those who ask to be removed
Create a new list of people who respond to another £1 offer
Marketing is about moving people up the loyalty ladder:
1. People who have taken up the trial need persuading to turn up more often
2. People who turn up fairly regularly might be open to buying Season Tickets or some sort of "regulars discount"
3. Season Ticket holders who only come to games might buy other "stuff" too.
4. Season ticket holders who take up other offers (Food, Hospitality etc.)
5. Evangelists... regular attenders with STs (people who evangelise all thing Dale to their friends and workmates to get them on the ladder) these people can open doors that are otherwise closed...
6. Partners - People who perhaps buy several STs for use by their business or have been ST holders for say 5 consecutive years
7. Executive Partners, Companies who buy Season Tickets and tack out sponsorship packages , Hospitality , room hire etc.
Several of these above categories are "clubable" and many will respond positively to being recognised with a special badge or hat etc.
On a slightly different note...
My sense is that season ticket prices will have to rise across the board, logically as much as 30% but that is probably difficult in the current economic situation in a generally poor town. Just a £1 a game increase on 23 games would raise £40-50k on 2000 or so ST holders.
Maybe the gap between age bands should be reduced so pensioners and under 21s pay more increase than current full price ticket holders. and kids prices should probably not change. | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 08:41 - Jan 1 with 3694 views | TalkingSutty |
All of that makes perfect sense but who is going to implement those plans? In the weeks leading up to Xmas you couldn't even buy a football scarf in the Club shop, no calenders for sale neither. The very basics that you would expect to be able to buy from a club that is desperate for money. What effort did the Club put into welcoming new fans to the Boxing Day fixtures, a large number couldn't even buy food in the ground or spend their money even if they wanted to do. The food offering in the Ratcliffe prior to the game was a bloody insult and it was commented on at the time by many in the bar...a cheap small dry bread roll with a solitary piece of dry turkey plonked on it, no butter or stuffing or gravy. The cost was £4 and no thought or care had gone into the presentation whatsoever. Fans treated as cash cows.
It's great that the lines of communication have suddenly opened up this week but let's have it right, it's all in relation to extracting money from the supporters rather than a genuine realisation that inclusivity is what's been missing from the club for a long time. The sole focus from those in the boardroom is on selling the club and finding investors, there's no long term planning involved when it comes to improving every aspect of the club, i think we all know that. The hope I have is that when new investors do come in they will do the opposite of what we have seen over the last couple of years and fully engage with the fan base and involve us all in their plans to improve every aspect of the club. Everybody working together as one with a Chairman who shows leadership, drive and passion to make the club better every day of the week and has the skill set to engage and unite everybody connected with the club and the Town itself. Its very difficult to generate any sort of enthusiasm when the future of the club is so uncertain, even buying a brick on the stadium wall has you second guessing the longevity of it. How many fans have spare cash at this time of year to fork out a minimum of £235 for shares? How many fans have spare money at all at this time of year? Not many i would suggest. [Post edited 1 Jan 9:48]
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 12:39 - Jan 1 with 3424 views | Dalenet |
On your last point, I think there will always be those who have, and those that don't. Around 1,000 tickets have been sold for the away end at Fylde today. That is some support for a team of our size at this time of year.
Rochdale may be seen as a poor town. But we are no poorer than our neighbours and they manage to attract 7,000+ in the National League. Yes they have history at the top of the game, but not now. And their demographic isn't dissimilar to Rochdale either. All we need is another 1,000 through the door, or a way to get the silent majoity to support us remotely (like Goldbond did). There are enough people in the town that have the cash to be able to get to Spotland, or to help with a fundraising appeal, or could buy shares. We just have to find a way to pull on the heartstrings. They'd be there if we told them it was our last ever game wouldn't they? | | | |
| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 13:05 - Jan 1 with 3391 views | 100notout |
Also re your last point and to reiterate Dalenet's point, I think you underestimate the cash available to a lot of fans.
I agree a lot may be unable to fork out £235 to buy the minimum number of shares however I reckon there are probably a lot that are able to make a donation to the Trust for them to buy some of the 50000 shares available. Collectively that could work.
I've said it before, but imho the Trust are missing a massive opportunity by not launching a share purchase fundraising campaign. They would be pushing at an open door, a common goal, a united effort and a program of events to achieve a clear and realistic target. Start off with an appeal for immediate donations - £10, £20, £50, whatever fans can not just afford but are willing to commit to the cause. Its this willingness which is crucial - have a clear vision, communicate it, sell it. | |
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| Attendance aspirations for 2024 on 15:52 - Jan 1 with 3208 views | Dalenet |
I may be misinterpreting the situation here, but I get the feeling that the Trust has been involved in the decision to release more shares for sale as it was only a few weeks ago the Chairman wanted to hold them back. The club needs cash now and I suspect that the Trust are happy for fans to buy shares to bring that cash in. In turn, they want to see a strengthened team and have decided to put their weight behind creating funds for that. Probably too much to both in such a short time.
Maybe one for the meeting on Saturday | | | |
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