Pilgrims' Patter
The Forum => The B-Ark => Topic started by: Shauneyg on August 31, 2013, 08:53:40 PM
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I read with great interest the article in today's programme by cookie, we as fans really need to step up to the plate and support the club especially newton in his efforts to make us a sustainable business and secure our long term future at a level of football we all think the club deserves to be at, I believe newton and co have the new stadium plans in hand and that will be a massive plus but what can we as fans do to help?? Help improve the budget and other income streams?? We can not take newton for granted and we must all work together for a bright future for our beloved club.
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Agreed, the biggest thing we can do as fans is turn up and pay our money through the turnstiles. Below 1000 gate today is simply not good enough from the people of Boston. Before the Telford game I suggested that we should all "bring a friend" personally I convinced four work colleges to go and gave a lift to a fellow regular whom otherwise would have been otherwise unable to attend.
In my opinion the club themselves have done a lot of good work in trying to get numbers through the gate by offering free tickets to schools and making child prices a reasonable price. I guess at the end of the day people will only turn up if the team are towards the top of the league...
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Agreed however for the club to be able to compete at the top of league and pushing for a return to the non league elite we need fans to fundraise and also attend matches to help boost the budget etc. come on pilgrims fans lets have your views??
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Some good points made. One thing i always have going round my head is this question. " How many in the town centre actually know there is a game going on on that given day" ? I ask this as i have while waiting for a bus home had people asking things like " oh, was Boston at home today" etc, etc. So my thought is, why not on matchdays have half a dozen people or more handing out flyers in the town centre around lunchtime. Trial it for a few weeks and see if it makes any difference.
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Some good points made. One thing i always have going round my head is this question. " How many in the town centre actually know there is a game going on on that given day" ? I ask this as i have while waiting for a bus home had people asking things like " oh, was Boston at home today" etc, etc. So my thought is, why not on matchdays have half a dozen people or more handing out flyers in the town centre around lunchtime. Trial it for a few weeks and see if it makes any difference.
I have thought the exact same thing
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What happened to the fixture posters that used to be around town,in the pubs and chippies?? They used to have about 4 upcoming fixtures on them,think at one time there were cards that fitted into your pocket with all the seasons games on.... We need to find a print shop ;)
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Hopefully Mr Chris Cook print is reading this! Also this season no one is selling 50/50 tickets near the townend entrance this season. First couple of home game I haven't had the time before kick off to walk down to spayne lane to pick some up but did today. No idea what the profit margin on a pint of beer is but maybe a discount coupon off a pint could be handed out on the turnstiles in order to gain extra revenue?
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I remember big amber and black posters even at Sluice Bridge when I revisited Boston in the late 60 's..
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Wonderful how everyone comes up with ideas for increasing the income but nobody is willing to get involved. That is not to criticise the few that every game do their very best.
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The world is full of people who tell us what we should do,but only a few who actually do anything about it.
After two years of dire football unless we provide a quality product on the field those floating fans will not return, hoofing the ball to three of the smallest forwards in the league and the quality shown on Saturday and against Ferriby & Gainsborough will not get people back through the door.
In my local we use to have 6 of us go on a regular basis to matches up until 18 months ago, now one of us is a season ticket holder out of 4 and only one of us attends on a casual basis, so that is four people who i ask are you going to the match this week and the reply is always the same we are away,or i dont have time or some other excuse yet prior to this they would always attend, so until we deliver on the pitch with attractive wining football, forget about an increase in numbers.
The fact is we got three points on Saturday and that is all the statistics will show, but Mr Greene should see what the rest of can see that we must play football on the deck and not in the air.
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It's okay us all wanting to see this fast flowing football but we don't live in the perfect world and we are at skrill north level and teams will come to York street to frustrate us and stop us playing football. We all need to support the club no matter what and work hard together along with the directors to make our long term future sustainable. We need to stop the talking and arrange meetings with cookie etc to see what we can do to help whether it be volunteering or fundraising. Come on pilgrims fans lets see actions.
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People have long memories and the tales of people being messed about by previous regimes (not just the last grubby mob) linger long in the memory. Fact is there's a cosy clique down there and its been there for as long as I know..........if your face fits, your in, if not......... ask some long service fans about United 2000 and see what I mean..........
But good luck trying to help, maybe things have changed.
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Wonderful how everyone comes up with ideas for increasing the income but nobody is willing to get involved. That is not to criticise the few that every game do their very best.
That is some judgement of people that in all honesty , you don't know !! I would happily hand out flyers on a Saturday Morning in the town centre , and i know others would too. Would you ?
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Shaughnyg
I am sure Chris will be only to willing to meet with you and others who want to help raise funds for the club and I would certainly attend however, attempting to raise funds for the club is not for the faint hearted, those with a nervous disposition or those who are easily offended as there will be times when your motives are questioned, your ideas ridiculed and indeed your good efforts thwarted by those who N40 refers to in his post on this subject. Of course you will be dealing with a completely different regime at the very top and I have no doubt those on the board will welcome your ideas and involvement in any kind of additional fundraising that does not impinge on the clubs commercial activities.
Your suggestions appear to be based upon raising funds to enable the manager to strengthen the squad which is admirable, the last time this was tried was as Andy says during the days of the Malkinsons when a group of us got together to form united 200 with the specific aim of raising funds for the then manager ( Mel Sterland )to get in a couple of players that could make the difference and get us promoted. We set up a stall and sold memorabilia we sourced ourselves ( there was no club shop or club memorabilia in those days if you wanted a club scarf you told Maurine and a lady would knit one for you) The chairman and vice chairman of the day would not allow us to sell in the ground and generally put every obstacle in our way in everything we attempted to do.
I only mention these things not in any way to put you off and as I say I will give you my full backing but so you realise not everyone around Boston United have the enthusiasm and good will towards the club that you and the present owners at the very top have. Give it a go and as Andy says it may now work.
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Wonderful how everyone comes up with ideas for increasing the income but nobody is willing to get involved. That is not to criticise the few that every game do their very best.
That is some judgement of people that in all honesty , you don't know !! I would happily hand out flyers on a Saturday Morning in the town centre , and i know others would too. Would you ?
I am sorry if I offended you that was not my intention, the point I was trying to get over was that nobody attempts to get together with the club to organise a group of volunteers, perhaps Shaunyg will now be the person to do that and I along with the likes of yourself will join and back him.
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No offence taken oxo. The point I'm trying to make is that I firmly believe with the new stadium plans in progress and the hard work newton and co are putting in that this club can have a sustainable future at the top of the non league game but they can not do it alone and us supporters have a massive part to play fundraising and volunteering for our club. Together we can achieve so much more and make a bright future for bufc.
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I'd back you all the way shauney. I'd be more than happy to hand out leaflets or whatever was necessary to boost the club
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I think we all need to do our bit to help and if cookie could let us know anyway we can help out that would help.
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Just a small point though.
The club has full time staff all over the place, why can't they take the initiative and get off their backsides and do this?
What about the youth teams getting out and about on Saturday mornings?
Why should the fans carry the burden? We already pay top whack admission prices!
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Steady on N40 youve been on good boys list so far this season ;)Watch out for MLF return!!!
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Been taking notice and thank you to all for suggestions. Hope to announce a fund raising meeting in the next few days for those who may be interested ...in the meantime new fluorescent matchday posters are now available for the upcoming games.
If anyone can put one or two up somewhere visible it would be appreciated. Call at Chris Cook Print in Main Ridge East to collect yours today!
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Yes great idea with fundraising meeting and hope we can help do our bit for the club. Hopefully plenty of people will take up the posters and get the word around about home games.
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Cookie,any chance of sending some with Craig for him to drop off at mine please... Living in Sleaford so only get across on matchday afternoons when you are closed,can think of a few places in town where I can display them :)
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A rallying call from Chris Cook is all well and good. Fans who read his thoughts are the ones forking out for the club e.g. programme and match ticket. It can be a fine line between a rallying call and having a go at the ones who already financially support the club.
Posters have been mentioned for years, so good to see the club finally getting around to getting them printed and now there is the job of getting them out there.
I believe the club sponsors do some promotion work with BUFC, perhaps this could be extended.
Do the club have a schools programme? Has the club looked at the often mentioned immigrant population as a new source of support?
The club does have full time staff - unlike many clubs at this level - to implement some of these ideas. Some of whom are busy than others........
These staff can be supplemented with volunteers for sure - but specifics need to be in place. Not just 'come and help the club'.
Hopefully a fund raising committee may do just that.
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I'm sure it has already been thought of but for a new ground one of the usual fundraising schemes is to buy a brick as below:
http://www.engravebricks.co.uk/index.htm
I'm not sure how many people would buy one but it could make some extra funds.
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Do the club have a schools programme? Has the club looked at the often mentioned immigrant population as a new source of support?
Do the club have a schools programme?
probably one of the best from League two down
http://www.bostonunited.co.uk/a/united-in-the-community-28948.html
They will be in Central Park this SUNDAY
Has the club looked at the often mentioned immigrant population as a new source of support?
Our Polish cousins are not too fussed by football. Their favourite sports are Volley ball and Speedway (apart from carp fishing of course :) )
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Do the club have a schools programme? Has the club looked at the often mentioned immigrant population as a new source of support?
Do the club have a schools programme?
probably one of the best from League two down
http://www.bostonunited.co.uk/a/united-in-the-community-28948.html
They will be in Central Park this SUNDAY
Has the club looked at the often mentioned immigrant population as a new source of support?
Our Polish cousins are not too fussed by football. Their favourite sports are Volley ball and Speedway (apart from carp fishing of course :) )
Am aware of the club's community programme but have never seen a group of children from a local school at a match for example .... catch 'em young etc.
How about hosting them for the afternoon?
Poland as a country is football mad ..... qualifying for most major tournaments (though rarely doing very well) and many of the German team are ethic Poles!
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They did mention having local primary school football teams play during the half time break,not sure if they got enough feedback on the idea though....
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open another foreign supermarket in the car park and offer 25% discount on match day tickets, there is a big car park for them to stagger out of their cars and will not cause chaos on the other streets that have loads of these supermarkets.
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They did mention having local primary school football teams play during the half time break,not sure if they got enough feedback on the idea though....
penalty shoot out would be better!
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There should be an initiative to get the migrant population of the town involved with the Club. When you consider the number of Foreign Nationals in the town and then look how many come through the gates at York Street its almost nil. This needs exploring and there are ways to do this it just needs the right people to sit down and work out how. I meet many Foreign Nationals every day and many are football mad. It seems difficult to believe we could not get at least some of these people through the gates.
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They did mention having local primary school football teams play during the half time break,not sure if they got enough feedback on the idea though....
Middlesbrough use to do that at Ayresome Park (so that gives you an idea of how long ago it was). My team reached the finals twice (and lost twice).
Great for the kids, families often came along to watch as well. Lots of abuse from the crowd (25,000+) if you were from a posh school, thankfully I didn't
teach at a posh school.
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There should be an initiative to get the migrant population of the town involved with the Club. When you consider the number of Foreign Nationals in the town and then look how many come through the gates at York Street its almost nil. This needs exploring and there are ways to do this it just needs the right people to sit down and work out how. I meet many Foreign Nationals every day and many are football mad. It seems difficult to believe we could not get at least some of these people through the gates.
Maybe print the posters that are being handed out in several languages? They may also understand English but would also show that they are welcome?
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If the posters were printed in Latvian/Lithuanian/Russian/Estonian and given to the establishments where they eat/drink/shop etc that might have slightly more impact.
I still think you being optimistic though, its not like the club is tucked away, everyone knows where it is, its no secret......I get the feeling if they were that bothered they'd have made the effort by now.
Mind you, there were a few migrants kids taking part on the BUFC stand at the Community event in the park today.........the assistant manager looked like he'd a tough job on with some of the mums!!!!!
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I think we should be using Stefan Galinski on the poster for eastern europeans as he played for poland under 21 team have them done in polish i bet that would get get some through the gates. I bet not many of them know he playing here. :dan
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There should be an initiative to get the migrant population of the town involved with the Club. When you consider the number of Foreign Nationals in the town and then look how many come through the gates at York Street its almost nil. This needs exploring and there are ways to do this it just needs the right people to sit down and work out how. I meet many Foreign Nationals every day and many are football mad. It seems difficult to believe we could not get at least some of these people through the gates.
Maybe print the posters that are being handed out in several languages? They may also understand English but would also show that they are welcome?
This looks like a good idea. The ones I've met love their football, Premiership mainly, but you never know they might get interested in their local club 8)
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One of the main problems is that home games seem to get "bunched" together, and supporters then have to pick and choose which ones they can afford to attend. The league themselves could do more to help clubs in this respect, but the clubs perhaps need to get the point across via the annual general meetings. Take for example late September into early October. Our fixture list shows:
Tuesday September 24th - BRADFORD PARK AVENUE (HOME)
Saturday September 28th - FA CUP
Saturday October 5th - BARROW (HOME)
Saturday October 12th - Gainsborough Trinity (Away), (or FA CUP)
Saturday October 19th - HARROGATE TOWN (HOME)
Saturday October 26th - ALTRINCHAM (HOME), (or FA CUP)
Depending on the FA Cup, it is entirely feasible that we could have six home games in a row. If that happened, could everyone afford to go to them all? This is bad planning by the fixture authorities, who ought to alternate home-away-home-away in the weeks around Cup and Trophy commitments.
Maybe in the circumstances there needs to be an incentive to attend all of the games (collect coupons from the turnstyles to get the last one at a reduced rate, or something along those lines). But that would again hit club revenue and might get the backs up of some season ticket holders who have paid in advance.
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There should be more flexibility in the planning. When runs like the one shown above come up the clubs need to have the means to move them more easily.
Thing is you need to get both, well all three including the league, to agree so makes it a tough job. Plus then if you start moving things with less notice what about those who have booked time off or advanced travel (players and fans) - every year fixtures are a mess.
I still find it laughable that a few years back we had to start later than everyone else because we could not switch a fixture and play three in a row at home as that was an 'unfair advantage'!
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I think we should be using Stefan Galinski on the poster for eastern europeans as he played for poland under 21 team have them done in polish i bet that would get get some through the gates. I bet not many of them know he playing here. :dan
IS that him in the reserves tonight,, if he gets on for any lenth of time it will be an improvement of late.