Re: how do you manage it? : Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:43 pm  

Saints weren't awarded an A license because of their stadia. They are effectively homeless at the minute amd the marks are based on current faciliites, not facilities that they might have next year.

Re: how do you manage it? : Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:05 pm  

Legless wrote:

Saints weren't awarded an A license because of their stadia. They are effectively homeless at the minute amd the marks are based on current faciliites, not facilities that they might have next year.

Incorrect, the stadia part of the licence concerns the facilities for the period of the forthcoming licence period hence we have that covered, our achieving a B will largely be due to the drop in attendance figures this year, which (trolling aside) is down simple due to the 'Widnes effect', our inability to sell out the two main derby games is also a result of this. Its all very well saying we have 'stay away' fans due to people simply not 'wanting' to travel to Widnes but that's rather short sighted. For example this season we're missing out on large numbers of traditional 'walk-ups' and of course lots of parents won't be happy with letting their kids travel to widnes whereas they may have been ok with them travelling to KR. I believe a large part of wanting the new gaff so close to the town centre was because when surveyed alot of people said they found it difficult, or simple to much fuss to catch several buses or trains just to get to KR whereas the new place will be within minutes of the central bus and train stations.

As for an absence of Marketing on Saints behalf, if you haven't seen any you clearly haven't been paying attention. The fact that half the team are plastered all over the buses that run every few minutes around the town are one example. That Wigan are able to put up a few big banners here and there etc may be down to the fact that they have a larger budget for such things what with not having to channel funds into building their own shiny new Rugby League stadium.

Re: how do you manage it? : Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:55 am  

Well said mate

Re: how do you manage it? : Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:24 am  

I think the Saints marketing is pretty good. You see the player splastered all over the buses running to and from St Helens, even the ones running through places like Wigan & Leigh. LIke a previous poster said, they may not have as much income to throw at the marketing side of things like for instance Wigan [No cost of building new stadia] or Wire [Sugar Daddy] I'd agree that Saints application was stronger than Widnes'

Re: how do you manage it? : Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:27 am  

Tony Stark wrote:

As for an absence of Marketing on Saints behalf, if you haven't seen any you clearly haven't been paying attention.

But surely marketing is far more than somply buying an advert on the side of a bus? The best marketing efforts were from the Bulls at the start of their good spell, when Bullmania dragged in a huge increase in crowds, plus the model that I belive they follwoed, in Keighley Cougars. Whether these are sustanablwe models to follow has still to be proven, but they were fantastic marketing efforts. I don't think you can say that Saints are well marketed, when we continually have disappointing crowds, despite having the best and most successful team in Super League, and probably in Saints long history. The measure of marketing success should be bums on seats, or merchandise sales, and in both of these cases, you would have to say Saints are failing.

Re: how do you manage it? : Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:40 am  

Saints could get better crowds if supporters only had to pay what Wigan supporters pay for their season tickets, or like Huddersfield who at one stage got 2 for the price of 11, or indeed Wire who get away transport payed for.

Re: how do you manage it? : Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:15 am  

2 for the price of 11 doesn't sound a great deal. Sounds like Hudds do well to get any season tickets sales!!