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Post by mooresy25 on Jan 22, 2013 14:21:26 GMT
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Post by oranjeboom on Jan 22, 2013 22:48:05 GMT
Look Gateshead at 41, a whacking great place like that, no other clubs around bar Newcastle. Interesting stats.
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Post by Res Match Day Sec on Jan 25, 2013 18:01:33 GMT
Nice to see Saffron Walden made the cut out of 250 they came in at 202.
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Post by coludave on Jan 26, 2013 18:28:16 GMT
oranjeboom are you kidding? within half an hour of their ground are newcastle sunderland and middlesbrough. all pretty big clubs and with big fan bases.
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Post by rustynail on Jan 27, 2013 8:39:13 GMT
It seems to me the club has to address the issue of getting more people into the ground with a defined strategy.
The facilities are very poor and there needs to be a bit of a better welcome.
I find that the entrance at the clubhouse end is a bit cluttered with stewards? standing around and the programme sellers lounging about showing not much interest in selling programmes.
An aim of the club must be to get the people of Braintree to realise there is great potential to getting their town on the map through the football team.
After people come into the ground once they must wish to return again.
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Post by braintreeo on Jan 27, 2013 9:26:26 GMT
It seems to me the club has to address the issue of getting more people into the ground with a defined strategy. The facilities are very poor and there needs to be a bit of a better welcome. I find that the entrance at the clubhouse end is a bit cluttered with stewards? standing around and the programme sellers lounging about showing not much interest in selling programmes. An aim of the club must be to get the people of Braintree to realise there is great potential to getting their town on the map through the football team. After people come into the ground once they must wish to return again. Spot on Rusty, the afternoon out has to be an experience for the whole family. Of all the grounds I visit during a season it is noticable that the demographic at Braintree is heavily stacked in favour of shall we say the "older" supporter. I think more has to be done to encourage people to come in. Some are basic things like a junior Irons club, a team mascot, kids for a quid or adults for a pound when accompanied by an an under 10. Simply have to try these things to get kids in and keep them hooked because they will be the future. I would also go for reduced admittance on productuion of a league clubs season ticket or a family entrance fee for a family of four to try and catch floating supporters and families, there is a lot that could be done. Free ticket distribution to local schools and perhaps a taster ticket of say three matches for £30 lots of things that could be tried. I know Braintree have a very small dedicated staff who give their time for the club but with respect perhaps a full time commercial manager would be an investment worth making. |
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Post by Iron Webbo on Jan 27, 2013 10:48:54 GMT
A couple of constructive comments and I thank you for them.
I'm the first to accept that our facilities are not on a par with some clubs in this league, but we do need to think about the progress we have made over the past ten years. In 2003/4 - we finished one off of the bottom of the Ryman League in front of crowds of 150 or so - since then we have made progress. Our ground is very expensive to maintain and develop and that (together with the car parking and access) is one of the main reasons behind our desire for relocation. When you go to places like Cambridge, Kidderminster, etc., you have to remember that they have been able to tap into the millions of pounds in grant aid given to Football League clubs - grant aid that we have not had access to. Despite that, we've still spent £900,000 on the stadium in the past seven years, but I sometimes wonder if it's been enough!
Last season's attendances were encouraging, but a poor start to the season together with the continuing difficult economic situation have made it expensive for folk to watch football and it seems that crowds are down at most clubs. I think the gate for the game against Tranmere shows that the town know we're here, we just need to keep making progress on the pitch and with the facilities to entice them back.
But we have to be careful of not spending money we do not have - there are many things we would love to invest in, but we also have to fund the team and pay our way at the same time. There are so many example of clubs chasing the dream, but not being sensible with day to day economic reality. I still have fond memories of Darlington's escalators, but they're not in use now and their team were relegated four levels last summer!
So, yes, we have our strengths and our weaknesses, but in ten years we have come from playing Redbridge and Maldon to playing (and beating) the likes of Luton.
We are currently developing our links with our affiliated Youth club to get more youngsters into playing the game and watching our Club. We do already offer a Kid for a Quid season ticket for the under 11s and for just £2 for the under 16s. Even on a match day basis, youngsters pay just £3 entry, while the under 16s are a fiver. Discounting admission is always seen as the easy way to try to attract more spectators, but we have had limited success with it. We tried it against Forest Green Rovers before Christmas and had our lowest crowd of the season. We will be trying it again against Southport on February 16th, but I'm not sure it's a cure all.
Les Cleer is currently working hard extending our range of sites for fixture posters, but these things take time to produce an uplift in recognition. As ever, we are open to any other suggestions you might have.
The vast majority of folk involved in the Club are, of course, volunteers - giving of their time freely, while some actually pay for the privilege! We did look at bringing someone in, in a full-time role to 'sell the Club', but their salary would have dictated a pro-rata cut in the playing budget and, when you're bottom of the league (as we were before Christmas) you just have to prioritise.
But I think we are sometimes a little harsh on ourselves. Between us all we have made so much progress, and I think we all have a collective responsibility to take our club forward - rather than saying the Club should be doing this or that. I'm the first to accept that it's far from perfect at the Amlin Stadium - we all know that - but the fact that (with average gates of 600) we can take on, match and beat clubs with gates averaging 6,000 says so much about our collective desire and spirit.
For me it's always been: survive, consolidate, grow, compete and challenge in this division and we're only in our second season. When the new stadium comes, I believe the better facilities will see a further uplift in support and it will also provide so many additional income-generating facilities - that's when this Club can start to think about competing at the top end of the table, while sticking to our primary principle of 'playing our football at the highest sustainable level'.
As I'm sure I've said before, sometimes the tortoise does win the race ...
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Post by ozbrit on Jan 27, 2013 21:11:02 GMT
My experience of Braintree people and I love 'em really, is they tend to be on the bashful side and like a grumble. As for the newer arrivals from the south of the county and London, I guess their football priorities are mostly with other higher league clubs and Cressing road football doesn't feature on their radar.
I agree with Lee's post and feel that a move to a modern facility on the right financial basis is our way forward. I can't help but feel that comfort at a game and aesthetics pulls in the uncommitted. In my opinion Rushden & Diamonds can teach us the best and the worst ways of doing things. The Rushden/Irthlingborough area is no more populous than the Braintree district. I recall seeing Rushden's gates when they were Southern Lge Midland div being not much more than a hundred. But when the bills were being found by Dr Martens and a fantastic slightly over the top Nene Park stadium opened, 2000 crowds in this league became the norm for them. But the club's finances were reliant on the Dr Martens sponsorship and when that went, the empire crumbled.
I reckon we all have to keep the faith, spread the gospel and help the club in anyway we can. With experienced operators like Lee at the helm, we can all have confidence in the Clubs future.
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Post by oranjeboom on Jan 27, 2013 21:35:40 GMT
oranjeboom are you kidding? within half an hour of their ground are newcastle sunderland and middlesbrough. all pretty big clubs and with big fan bases. Not kidding anyone, the wifes family are Geordies so I know Tyneside well, Gateshead is a town in it's own right bigger than Colchester, there is also the biggest shopping mall in the country. Middlesborough is no where near and has no pull with Geordies. It's a magpies area through and through and most Gateshead fans are Newcastle fans, the clubs are not in competition It's like most of our fans also supportting other bigger clubs. |
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Post by ironhorse on Jan 28, 2013 10:24:30 GMT
Whilst I was looking after the Supporters Club we tried lots of schemes along side the Board to encourage fans particulary on the junior front and a modicome of success was acheived but as Lee said in his post it comes down to volunteers prepared to do the hard yards, great if people come forward and put themselves up for the various jobs. These various duties are normally covered by the same few most of the time and for the love of the club. I often sought people to take on the roles of Mascot and to find responsible adults to run things like a Junior Club.
As usual plenty of people will suggest an idea and thank you for the contribution in that instance but better that those with the ideas try to put it into action, the rewards I can assure you are worthwhile. I know that the current Chairman of the Supporters Club is trying to get more people into it and I always felt when I was in the role that it was more about solidarity and a core base of fans who were willing to back the Club, not always financially, that was a misconception by many, but with physical attributes like being the mascot or selling programmes ect. If as some have said that they think improvements can be made why not for one home game give it a try by actually volunteering their services for the job that they feel needs improving on, you never know you might even enjoy it. I pay for a season ticket every season and continue to help out even if I could be entitled to free entry, its a way of contribution finacially, even so, it costs nothing to volunteer and pitch in, think not what the club can do for you rather what you can do for your club. Turning up just to watch a game is very good but if you are going to complain about facilities ect act to help put it right. We can all moan and berate the situation at the Amlin and yes there are a lot of clubs at this level that have better infrastruture and facilitities, more money and more fans, but I'd rather see a club that is self sufficient and solvent than one that is run into ground for the sake of glory. Our time will come and we have only taken 10 years to get to where we are and of that we should all be proud and if we are proud of our achievements then we should all be prepared to go that each foot or two and let the miles take care of themselves.
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Post by chelmerboy on Feb 6, 2013 23:31:14 GMT
Does Leon not manage the commercial side anymore? I was the Commercial Manager for a couple of years in the late 90's and he took over when my business commitments meant I couldn't give it the time it deserved any more. A club of Braintrees size certainly doesn't need a full time Commercial manager.
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