Re: A Quick Hello : Wed May 08, 2013 6:59 pm  

Personally, I think it's disrespectful to speak about new coaches whilst Marchy is still in post. I also think that whilst I have respect for Peter and the good work he's done is his time in charge of the club, I think the club needs to look forward, not back.

Re: A Quick Hello : Wed May 08, 2013 7:05 pm  

IMO Peter is a valued part of our past, not our future.

Re: A Quick Hello : Thu May 09, 2013 12:41 pm  

Dominance wrote: What have the club done to entice my mate to come down? Have they offered any incentive to entice a new supporter. You've offered 20K of free season tickets, great idea in principle but it hasn't worked. Maybe entice Mum or Dad to come down and child will follow? New fans will not turn up on mass without marketing. Yes, we as fans can play our part, but what has the club done? You give me x amount of discounted tickets and I will happily distribute at work. I'm sure others would too. Look at Swinton as a casing point. They were averaging around 500 in the first few games. They got over 1,172 against Leigh which probably was due to the travelling support. They have a £5 entry and get 1411 of a televised game, on a Thursday night against Haven. I accept they may not have hit the forecasted turnover through the gate that day (not far off though), but what about bar takings, food etc. They also posted a win so how many of those will convert to the next home game. Point is, they tried something and it got people down. Any discounted ticket strategy has to be done with care. Bradford Bulls went down this path and the outcome was administration for the club. The 20,000 junior season tickets were distributed for the first time last Winter and we will ramp to 40,000 next year and for at least the 4 years subsequent to that. Further, we will extend our work into the schools to promote the club and what Cougars can do for them. This had somewhat lapsed over the previous 4 years. The junior season ticket offer of free to every league match is a strategy targeted at persuading young people to come to the game and will slowly build as the years progress. It isn't a tactical solution so it's impact will take a long time to take effect. We will do target individual companies for discounted tickets. For example, we are discounting any Airedale hospital staff member by 20%. However, of the 3,500 employees at Airedale hospital only 4 per match have turned up so far! If you can provide details of your company will we provide you with discounted tickets for distribution there but we are reluctant to do a wholesale discount to all fans. If you will liaise with info@keighleycougars.com and we'll sort out a deal specifically for your company. The problem with a wholesale discount is that you cannot guarantee that the spectator who entered at £5 will return at the higher price of £15, i.e. they have only gone to the ground because the price is cheap and would not have paid the higher price to watch the Cougars. Further, has the potential to have a deletorous effect on revenue. With the example of Swinton there were other factors affecting that particular gate, e.g. Lee Briers getting some game time, so it is unlikely that without Lee playing the gate would have been so high. £5 to see Lee Briers is certainly something! In terms of marketing the club does an incredible amount as follows: - distribution of the junior season tickets - work in the schools on a weekly basis - daily Twitter and Facebook updates - mass email promoting various aspects on a fortnightly basis (for all the fans we have emails for) - mass text to all the fans we have mobiles for - weekly features in the KN and T&A - distribution of the fixture lists in the KN - sporadic adverts in the KN, Love Keighley, T&A, - announcements at the game - website (although granted this has lapsed due to the new website development) - letters to local organisations, such as the armed services, whereby we are promoting our annual armed services day which is free entry for current and ex-armed forces personnel if they wear their uniform - we will be doing a Ladies Day in early July as normal - there are clip frames and flyers around the ground on a match day We do a lot at the moment and we will do a lot more. Any help from volunteers would be great though to push through things more rapidly and more effectively. Dominance wrote: I hear the team now travel to away games in the minibus, or in their own cars. Is this true and if so what is the justification for this? Surely professional players deserve to be given the use of a coach? Coaches cost a lot of money and, given that most of the team live nearer Dewsbury, Batley and Hunslet than they do Cougar Park, it would be financially inappropriate to fund a coach to carry most of the team a couple of miles only. For these matches only we utilise the minibus and players cars. For matches further away or where the players can travel to Cougar Park and then get on the coach, e.g. Halifax, we fund a coach. I don't see why this is unprofessional because for home matches all of our players turn up in their own cars so they are, by extension, more used to travelling to most games in their own cars. It seems silly to waste the club's money on a short hop up the road when the players are comfortable with this anyway. geoffbaxter wrote: On another thread we were promised a new web page for last week. Yet another failed promise. The new club website was set to launch last week. Unfortunately, the hosting of the website is taking time and we are still waiting on this situation to be resolved. It is not a failed promise if the situation isn't in our hands. Dominance wrote: As for available players, from what I hear Cosgrove wanted to stay, but his loan deal came to an end. I think he did more than enough to warrant a contract. Was it a case of we couldn't get him permanently or didn't try? We signed Elliott on a 4 week loan deal from Dewsbury. We were impressed by him and asked Dewsbury if we could either sign him on another loan deal or sign him permanently as he wasn't getting game time with Dewsbury. Dewsbury haven't agreed as yet to either although we have pushed hard and believe that Elliott wants to come and play for the Cougars. The club always tries to get the best team within the available budget and Elliott was a target signing after we had seen his quality but,unfortunately, we can't get Dewsbury to agree it as yet.

Dominance wrote: What have the club done to entice my mate to come down? Have they offered any incentive to entice a new supporter. You've offered 20K of free season tickets, great idea in principle but it hasn't worked. Maybe entice Mum or Dad to come down and child will follow? New fans will not turn up on mass without marketing. Yes, we as fans can play our part, but what has the club done? You give me x amount of discounted tickets and I will happily distribute at work. I'm sure others would too. Look at Swinton as a casing point. They were averaging around 500 in the first few games. They got over 1,172 against Leigh which probably was due to the travelling support. They have a £5 entry and get 1411 of a televised game, on a Thursday night against Haven. I accept they may not have hit the forecasted turnover through the gate that day (not far off though), but what about bar takings, food etc. They also posted a win so how many of those will convert to the next home game. Point is, they tried something and it got people down. Any discounted ticket strategy has to be done with care. Bradford Bulls went down this path and the outcome was administration for the club. The 20,000 junior season tickets were distributed for the first time last Winter and we will ramp to 40,000 next year and for at least the 4 years subsequent to that. Further, we will extend our work into the schools to promote the club and what Cougars can do for them. This had somewhat lapsed over the previous 4 years. The junior season ticket offer of free to every league match is a strategy targeted at persuading young people to come to the game and will slowly build as the years progress. It isn't a tactical solution so it's impact will take a long time to take effect. We will do target individual companies for discounted tickets. For example, we are discounting any Airedale hospital staff member by 20%. However, of the 3,500 employees at Airedale hospital only 4 per match have turned up so far! If you can provide details of your company will we provide you with discounted tickets for distribution there but we are reluctant to do a wholesale discount to all fans. If you will liaise with info@keighleycougars.com and we'll sort out a deal specifically for your company. The problem with a wholesale discount is that you cannot guarantee that the spectator who entered at £5 will return at the higher price of £15, i.e. they have only gone to the ground because the price is cheap and would not have paid the higher price to watch the Cougars. Further, has the potential to have a deletorous effect on revenue. With the example of Swinton there were other factors affecting that particular gate, e.g. Lee Briers getting some game time, so it is unlikely that without Lee playing the gate would have been so high. £5 to see Lee Briers is certainly something! In terms of marketing the club does an incredible amount as follows: - distribution of the junior season tickets - work in the schools on a weekly basis - daily Twitter and Facebook updates - mass email promoting various aspects on a fortnightly basis (for all the fans we have emails for) - mass text to all the fans we have mobiles for - weekly features in the KN and T&A - distribution of the fixture lists in the KN - sporadic adverts in the KN, Love Keighley, T&A, - announcements at the game - website (although granted this has lapsed due to the new website development) - letters to local organisations, such as the armed services, whereby we are promoting our annual armed services day which is free entry for current and ex-armed forces personnel if they wear their uniform - we will be doing a Ladies Day in early July as normal - there are clip frames and flyers around the ground on a match day We do a lot at the moment and we will do a lot more. Any help from volunteers would be great though to push through things more rapidly and more effectively. Dominance wrote: I hear the team now travel to away games in the minibus, or in their own cars. Is this true and if so what is the justification for this? Surely professional players deserve to be given the use of a coach? Coaches cost a lot of money and, given that most of the team live nearer Dewsbury, Batley and Hunslet than they do Cougar Park, it would be financially inappropriate to fund a coach to carry most of the team a couple of miles only. For these matches only we utilise the minibus and players cars. For matches further away or where the players can travel to Cougar Park and then get on the coach, e.g. Halifax, we fund a coach. I don't see why this is unprofessional because for home matches all of our players turn up in their own cars so they are, by extension, more used to travelling to most games in their own cars. It seems silly to waste the club's money on a short hop up the road when the players are comfortable with this anyway. geoffbaxter wrote: On another thread we were promised a new web page for last week. Yet another failed promise. The new club website was set to launch last week. Unfortunately, the hosting of the website is taking time and we are still waiting on this situation to be resolved. It is not a failed promise if the situation isn't in our hands. Dominance wrote: As for available players, from what I hear Cosgrove wanted to stay, but his loan deal came to an end. I think he did more than enough to warrant a contract. Was it a case of we couldn't get him permanently or didn't try? We signed Elliott on a 4 week loan deal from Dewsbury. We were impressed by him and asked Dewsbury if we could either sign him on another loan deal or sign him permanently as he wasn't getting game time with Dewsbury. Dewsbury haven't agreed as yet to either although we have pushed hard and believe that Elliott wants to come and play for the Cougars. The club always tries to get the best team within the available budget and Elliott was a target signing after we had seen his quality but,unfortunately, we can't get Dewsbury to agree it as yet.

Re: A Quick Hello : Thu May 09, 2013 4:20 pm  

geoffbaxter wrote:

On another thread we were promised a new web page for last week. Yet another failed promise.

The hosting situation is currently being resolved and the website (hopefully) will be live either at the end of this week or the start of next.

Re: A Quick Hello : Thu May 09, 2013 4:36 pm  

TheClubsVoice wrote: Any discounted ticket strategy has to be done with care. Bradford Bulls went down this path and the outcome was administration for the club. The 20,000 junior season tickets were distributed for the first time last Winter and we will ramp to 40,000 next year and for at least the 4 years subsequent to that. Further, we will extend our work into the schools to promote the club and what Cougars can do for them. This had somewhat lapsed over the previous 4 years. The junior season ticket offer of free to every league match is a strategy targeted at persuading young people to come to the game and will slowly build as the years progress. It isn't a tactical solution so it's impact will take a long time to take effect. We will do target individual companies for discounted tickets. For example, we are discounting any Airedale hospital staff member by 20%. However, of the 3,500 employees at Airedale hospital only 4 per match have turned up so far! If you can provide details of your company will we provide you with discounted tickets for distribution there but we are reluctant to do a wholesale discount to all fans. If you will liaise with info@keighleycougars.com and we'll sort out a deal specifically for your company. The problem with a wholesale discount is that you cannot guarantee that the spectator who entered at £5 will return at the higher price of £15, i.e. they have only gone to the ground because the price is cheap and would not have paid the higher price to watch the Cougars. Further, has the potential to have a deletorous effect on revenue. With the example of Swinton there were other factors affecting that particular gate, e.g. Lee Briers getting some game time, so it is unlikely that without Lee playing the gate would have been so high. £5 to see Lee Briers is certainly something! In terms of marketing the club does an incredible amount as follows: - distribution of the junior season tickets - work in the schools on a weekly basis - daily Twitter and Facebook updates - mass email promoting various aspects on a fortnightly basis (for all the fans we have emails for) - mass text to all the fans we have mobiles for - weekly features in the KN and T&A - distribution of the fixture lists in the KN - sporadic adverts in the KN, Love Keighley, T&A, - announcements at the game - website (although granted this has lapsed due to the new website development) - letters to local organisations, such as the armed services, whereby we are promoting our annual armed services day which is free entry for current and ex-armed forces personnel if they wear their uniform - we will be doing a Ladies Day in early July as normal - there are clip frames and flyers around the ground on a match day We do a lot at the moment and we will do a lot more. Any help from volunteers would be great though to push through things more rapidly and more effectively. Coaches cost a lot of money and, given that most of the team live nearer Dewsbury, Batley and Hunslet than they do Cougar Park, it would be financially inappropriate to fund a coach to carry most of the team a couple of miles only. For these matches only we utilise the minibus and players cars. For matches further away or where the players can travel to Cougar Park and then get on the coach, e.g. Halifax, we fund a coach. I don't see why this is unprofessional because for home matches all of our players turn up in their own cars so they are, by extension, more used to travelling to most games in their own cars. It seems silly to waste the club's money on a short hop up the road when the players are comfortable with this anyway. The new club website was set to launch last week. Unfortunately, the hosting of the website is taking time and we are still waiting on this situation to be resolved. It is not a failed promise if the situation isn't in our hands. We signed Elliott on a 4 week loan deal from Dewsbury. We were impressed by him and asked Dewsbury if we could either sign him on another loan deal or sign him permanently as he wasn't getting game time with Dewsbury. Dewsbury haven't agreed as yet to either although we have pushed hard and believe that Elliott wants to come and play for the Cougars. The club always tries to get the best team within the available budget and Elliott was a target signing after we had seen his quality but,unfortunately, we can't get Dewsbury to agree it as yet. Thanks for the comprehensive reply. You mentioned the club does so much already in terms of marketing but in the main this is all aimed at the converted, i.e. in game announcements, twitter feeds, mail shots. All these will be to the people on the Cougar radar. What are you doing to expand this. You need to attract those who are not already fans and supporters. If you feel this is effective, why then have we seen a reduction in the attendances this season? As for the coach business, dress this up however you like but I don't like it. Professional sports players should be afforded the luxury of travelling to games as a team. It's about having that relax before games in whatever way works for that player, be it music, reading etc. To make a player travel at his own expense, no doubt affecting his personal game preparations is not good. I understand under JD the team, after a game, did some team building stuff but stopping off at places after a game and again this restricts that. What message does it send out to the players? It's like a Sunday league football team using car sharing etc. If the club cannot work a budget for a coach to away games then something is being cut far too much. Have you ever considered that you may need to speculate to accumulate. Maybe at times to get to that next level you may have to push the boundaries and move away slightly from the strict model you operate.

TheClubsVoice wrote: Any discounted ticket strategy has to be done with care. Bradford Bulls went down this path and the outcome was administration for the club. The 20,000 junior season tickets were distributed for the first time last Winter and we will ramp to 40,000 next year and for at least the 4 years subsequent to that. Further, we will extend our work into the schools to promote the club and what Cougars can do for them. This had somewhat lapsed over the previous 4 years. The junior season ticket offer of free to every league match is a strategy targeted at persuading young people to come to the game and will slowly build as the years progress. It isn't a tactical solution so it's impact will take a long time to take effect. We will do target individual companies for discounted tickets. For example, we are discounting any Airedale hospital staff member by 20%. However, of the 3,500 employees at Airedale hospital only 4 per match have turned up so far! If you can provide details of your company will we provide you with discounted tickets for distribution there but we are reluctant to do a wholesale discount to all fans. If you will liaise with info@keighleycougars.com and we'll sort out a deal specifically for your company. The problem with a wholesale discount is that you cannot guarantee that the spectator who entered at £5 will return at the higher price of £15, i.e. they have only gone to the ground because the price is cheap and would not have paid the higher price to watch the Cougars. Further, has the potential to have a deletorous effect on revenue. With the example of Swinton there were other factors affecting that particular gate, e.g. Lee Briers getting some game time, so it is unlikely that without Lee playing the gate would have been so high. £5 to see Lee Briers is certainly something! In terms of marketing the club does an incredible amount as follows: - distribution of the junior season tickets - work in the schools on a weekly basis - daily Twitter and Facebook updates - mass email promoting various aspects on a fortnightly basis (for all the fans we have emails for) - mass text to all the fans we have mobiles for - weekly features in the KN and T&A - distribution of the fixture lists in the KN - sporadic adverts in the KN, Love Keighley, T&A, - announcements at the game - website (although granted this has lapsed due to the new website development) - letters to local organisations, such as the armed services, whereby we are promoting our annual armed services day which is free entry for current and ex-armed forces personnel if they wear their uniform - we will be doing a Ladies Day in early July as normal - there are clip frames and flyers around the ground on a match day We do a lot at the moment and we will do a lot more. Any help from volunteers would be great though to push through things more rapidly and more effectively. Coaches cost a lot of money and, given that most of the team live nearer Dewsbury, Batley and Hunslet than they do Cougar Park, it would be financially inappropriate to fund a coach to carry most of the team a couple of miles only. For these matches only we utilise the minibus and players cars. For matches further away or where the players can travel to Cougar Park and then get on the coach, e.g. Halifax, we fund a coach. I don't see why this is unprofessional because for home matches all of our players turn up in their own cars so they are, by extension, more used to travelling to most games in their own cars. It seems silly to waste the club's money on a short hop up the road when the players are comfortable with this anyway. The new club website was set to launch last week. Unfortunately, the hosting of the website is taking time and we are still waiting on this situation to be resolved. It is not a failed promise if the situation isn't in our hands. We signed Elliott on a 4 week loan deal from Dewsbury. We were impressed by him and asked Dewsbury if we could either sign him on another loan deal or sign him permanently as he wasn't getting game time with Dewsbury. Dewsbury haven't agreed as yet to either although we have pushed hard and believe that Elliott wants to come and play for the Cougars. The club always tries to get the best team within the available budget and Elliott was a target signing after we had seen his quality but,unfortunately, we can't get Dewsbury to agree it as yet. Thanks for the comprehensive reply. You mentioned the club does so much already in terms of marketing but in the main this is all aimed at the converted, i.e. in game announcements, twitter feeds, mail shots. All these will be to the people on the Cougar radar. What are you doing to expand this. You need to attract those who are not already fans and supporters. If you feel this is effective, why then have we seen a reduction in the attendances this season? As for the coach business, dress this up however you like but I don't like it. Professional sports players should be afforded the luxury of travelling to games as a team. It's about having that relax before games in whatever way works for that player, be it music, reading etc. To make a player travel at his own expense, no doubt affecting his personal game preparations is not good. I understand under JD the team, after a game, did some team building stuff but stopping off at places after a game and again this restricts that. What message does it send out to the players? It's like a Sunday league football team using car sharing etc. If the club cannot work a budget for a coach to away games then something is being cut far too much. Have you ever considered that you may need to speculate to accumulate. Maybe at times to get to that next level you may have to push the boundaries and move away slightly from the strict model you operate.

Re: A Quick Hello : Fri May 10, 2013 9:19 am  

letters to local organisations, such as the armed services, whereby we are promoting our annual armed services day which is free entry for current and ex-armed forces personnel if they wear their uniform

Which match is the armed forces day going to be. I know a couple of lads who have never been down that I might be able to convince to come down.

Re: A Quick Hello : Fri May 10, 2013 10:45 am  

Panth wrote:

Which match is the armed forces day going to be. I know a couple of lads who have never been down that I might be able to convince to come down.

I'm not sure but I can find out for you.

Re: A Quick Hello : Fri May 10, 2013 12:54 pm  

Thanks

Re: A Quick Hello : Wed May 15, 2013 8:36 am  

Panth wrote:

Which match is the armed forces day going to be. I know a couple of lads who have never been down that I might be able to convince to come down.

The 23rd June home match against Doncaster has been designated Armed Forces day and letters have been posted out to all armed forces offices in the area telling them of this.

Re: A Quick Hello : Sun May 26, 2013 9:13 pm  

Are we the only Championship team with a part-time coach and if so do you think this decision by the board is having a negative effect on team performance?