Fans action group (to improve attendances)

[Tim G]

Bill, Mike and others have spent enormous amounts of money and time building up Oldham RLFC after many years of utter dereliction.  The club has been on a life support machine for a quarter of a century and suddenly within 2 years we play at a lovely ground,  have a wonderful new training base and have a fantastic group of players that are bringing pride back to the town.  The media outlets are top notch ie Roughyeds TV is second to none and communications via X, Facebook and others is gaining momentum.  

Bill and Mike however can only do so much and clearly the one negative this season has been the attendance figures.  Now I think it's our turn as fans to do something about this.  I note many comments about better weather, end of the football season etc seeing an increase in crowds. Yes I agree with this, but other sports don't rely on hoping it's not raining or that United are not  at home.  We simply have to make this a viable project for every game.   I have therefore jotted down below a few ideas of how to increase bums on seats.

1.  Create a fans group designed for meeting possibly once a month to discuss ways of increasing crowds

2. Have direct communication with the club as to their approach re marketing ie who is going to the schools and colleges and what are they saying. 

3. Bring a friend scheme.   Say £10 entrance for a friend of a season ticket holder.  

4. Leaflet distribution with a £5 off voucher and free cup of coffee

5. Offer Latics fans a discount.

I really look forward to see people's ideas as this is a golden opportunity for our club to be great again. 

[PaulB1984]

Being realistic I feel the way the competitions are setup will play a part for the forseeable future, the Challenge Cup unfortunately is a waste of time, 1895 cup not really grabbing the attention. So much like restaurants in January/Feb what can the club do to get bums on seats. 

An obvious one for me would be pairing matches or creating group tickets. Buy a ticket for a home league game (easier sell) and get a cup game ticket for £5. If people have committed to a ticket less chance they are put off by bad weather etc.

Another idea would be scaling discounts depending on the amount purchased. Single ticket for £20, Two tickets for £37.50, 4 for £65 etc. Again it gets that commitment of buying the ticket early and removes the preference to make your mind up on the day.

Last suggestion is a tricky one but could an area within the family stand or bar 1895 be setup with kids activities during matches. Crafts, tackling bags on some mats, easier said than done I know but creating that festival atmosphere inside the ground. The kids will want to watch the rugby a bit but they get bored easily. Even music choice will help as I feel its still a bit old school. Look at Hull KR for example. 

[clifford]

It's a difficult one, the team is procuding the goods on the pitch which is a massive positive.

From my experience the crowds in the sheddings days were between 3500 to over 5000 depending on the opposition.

I personally don't think discounting tickets is a way forward. As I think that people will say it's quite reasonable price now it must be bad if they have to discount the price.

 

[Stevos Barber]

Just to bring a little balance I checked AI for figures for last seasons Championship, the level below Northampton,  Leicester,  Saracens,  Bath etc. In the 23-24 season the average crowd across the season was 1594 with a highest of 5047 (Coventry vs Nottingham 26/12/23) . So it's not that bleak. 

Price wise I checked Bedford Blues prices; Adult ground entry £20 and Stands £24.

So it's pretty much apples for apples. 

However Oldham has a huge part in the history,  and, hopefully, future of RL and the club must be at a loss each week and the fear is that the board lose heart. All the ideas so far have merit, lots of it. Tim will you volunteer to collate the ideas and take them to Bill and Mike at the London match?

One last thing , and I know I've said this before,  when I go to watch Northampton RU I see people taking selfies all the time. Now I'll hazard a guess that these are off on social media to friends not at the game. We can all create a bit of FOMO in friends and family, leading up to the game with social media posts; Monday "great game yesterday I'm hoarse from cheering the boys on" , Tuesday " watched the Yeds highlights on Roughyeds TV you tube channel. Jumah is awesome" Wednesday "only four more sleeps before the game.....you get the idea. Game day selfies of 1895 bar etc etc. 

Create FOMO!

. 

 

[Tim G]

13 minutes ago, Stevos Barber said:

Just to bring a little balance I checked AI for figures for last seasons Championship, the level below Northampton,  Leicester,  Saracens,  Bath etc. In the 23-24 season the average crowd across the season was 1594 with a highest of 5047 (Coventry vs Nottingham 26/12/23) . So it's not that bleak. 

Price wise I checked Bedford Blues prices; Adult ground entry £20 and Stands £24.

So it's pretty much apples for apples. 

However Oldham has a huge part in the history,  and, hopefully, future of RL and the club must be at a loss each week and the fear is that the board lose heart. All the ideas so far have merit, lots of it. Tim will you volunteer to collate the ideas and take them to Bill and Mike at the London match?

One last thing , and I know I've said this before,  when I go to watch Northampton RU I see people taking selfies all the time. Now I'll hazard a guess that these are off on social media to friends not at the game. We can all create a bit of FOMO in friends and family, leading up to the game with social media posts; Monday "great game yesterday I'm hoarse from cheering the boys on" , Tuesday " watched the Yeds highlights on Roughyeds TV you tube channel. Jumah is awesome" Wednesday "only four more sleeps before the game.....you get the idea. Game day selfies of 1895 bar etc etc. 

Create FOMO!

. 

 

Great comments Stevo,

Unfortunately I am out of the country for the London match, but I would have no qualms in meeting anyone on the management team in the future. 

We are all in this together and I feel great things are around the corner. 

[Springhead Yed]

I think the crowd thing is pretty simple maths. Say 30 years ago when it was Sheddings, there was an average between 3500-5000. There was probably about 8000 fans in the town who would consider going to a game. 

 

Over the past 30 years, or up until the new ownership came in, we can presume the amount of new supporters brought in is negligible.

So of those 8000 or so people, some will have lost interest, some will have moved away, some will have died, some may be too old to make games.

30 years is a long time. The only group you are getting back there are those who lost interest. 

The majority of people are barely aware super league exists, let alone the championship. So attracting new supporters is going to be difficult. As a recent convert to the sport, I've experienced this. Going from knowing nothing about league, to watching the odd super league game, to going to my first yeds game. The game is great but you've got to hook people in. You're competing with every other entertainment industry for people's attention and the hardest thing is getting that initial engagement. I think what the club is doing on match days is great and the product on the pitch is great but we have to get people through the door so they can experience it. I think bring a friend days could be good for this. Handing out tickets in school that get 2 kids and an adult in, with an itinerary for what's on on match day printed on it. I'm not a marketer or anything but to me, this is what the club needs to be looking at. 

I'd also be pushing the clubs history and role in rugby league. Give people a reason to be proud of a town that can be a pretty miserable place to live sometimes. 

[Bedford Roughyed]

22 hours ago, Stevos Barber said:

Price wise I checked Bedford Blues prices; Adult ground entry £20 and Stands £24.

And 3 sides of the ground are open with just a couple of steps of terrace (think Whitebank).  

[Jimmy DoNut]

Having had the privilege to attend the extravaganza that was Vegas last week, I would like the Yeds to follow the example of the New Zealand Warriors by utilising the 'Up the Yeds' slogan at every opportunity. 

'Up the Wahs' has become a Warriors battle cry in recent times & has been marketed forcefully by the club and their fans have embraced it & shout 'Up the Wahs' whenever they bump into fellow supporters.

Could 'Up the Yeds' take off in a similar way? Something light-hearted & simple like this can only help to generate interest in the club.

 

Edited March 7 by Jimmy DoNut

[Tim G]

Does anyone have the email details of the marketing/ sales team for the club.  I would like to create a joint venture between club and fans to generate ideas to increase our fan base.  Is anyone else up for this?

[clifford]

Ring the club they'll tell you where to send the proposal 

[Tim G]

15 minutes ago, clifford said:

Ring the club they'll tell you where to send the proposal 

Thanks. I have just sent them an email under enquiries on the clubs website 

[clifford]

It may have come across as flippant which wasn't my intention. It's easy to ignore an email but not a person speaking to them.

I emailed the club last year and I am still waiting for a response 

[Tim G]

2 minutes ago, clifford said:

It may have come across as flippant which wasn't my intention. It's easy to ignore an email but not a person speaking to them.

I emailed the club last year and I am still waiting for a response 

I appreciate your help Clifford. I have heard a few people attempted to contact Kian, however I believe he has now left. Always a concern for any organisation when someone fails to reply to an email. 

[clifford]

That's very true, normally if that happens you have a forwarding email address 

[Tim G]

6 minutes ago, clifford said:

That's very true, normally if that happens you have a forwarding email address 

I will let you know when they get back to me as I have even offered to volunteer for the club as I genuinely believe Bill and Mike may need some assistance even if it's moral support. We can't afford to lose these guys. 

[clifford]

I know, I attempted to engage with the previous regime 10 years ago. Nothing came of it. 

Wish you the best

[jroyales]

Improving attendances won't be a quick fix - it will take time to arouse the interest in the club. Look at Barrow they really don't have any competition from other clubs, have been an established premiership side for may years and could only manage just over 2K with probably over 200 from Oldham.

However, I feel, the town needs to be flooded with advertising coming games, because lots of people haven't a clue when we are playing at home next, that's even Oldham supporters!

[saints10coach]

The social media presence of the club is excellent, however this only reaches the people who use social media. Therefore we have to find ways of engaging the rest of the populous. Maybe back to the old days of posters advertising up coming home games on lamp posts around the borough.

[wozzeryedhead]

13 minutes ago, saints10coach said:

The social media presence of the club is excellent, however this only reaches the people who use social media. Therefore we have to find ways of engaging the rest of the populous. Maybe back to the old days of posters advertising up coming home games on lamp posts around the borough.

Radio coverage would be a good one  

[Oldham Valderama]

Appreciate this is not the cheapest idea in the world but if i remember correctly (think it was Bradford), on the major ring road on the outskirts of town their used to be a big bill board that advertised the upcoming games for both Bradford City Football and also the Bradford Bulls. You couldn't miss it as it was staring you in the face as you came up to the roundabout. Just thinking a similar thing on the edge of Clayton Playing Fields close to the roundabout at the top of Broadway / Elk Mill Retail Park would be a good advertising opportunity for both the football and rugby clubs?

 

Edited March 12 by Oldham Valderama

[OL14.yeds]

There’s a new digital advertisement board on Park Road near Matalan (similar to the one on Shaw Road), which amongst other things advertises local takeaways. If pizza shops can get on a giant bill board, surely the rugby club can do the same.

[Tim G]

Have seen some great ideas this morning, thanks for your input. I have emailed the club with some preliminary suggestions and have received a reply that my email will be sent to the relevant people at the club. 

I await their response in anticipation. 

[Oldham Valderama]

Just had another idea although not sure how feasible this is from a club ticketing standpoint?

My adult season ticket has cost me £200 for 12 games working out at £16.67 per game (a 13% discount per game on the standard adult admission cost of £20 per game)

To attract new fans why not offer "monthly" tickets based on the number of home games roughly at the same discount?

April / May / August : 2 home games each month - cost of ticket £34 instead of £40

July : 3 home games - cost of ticket £52 instead of £60

** no home games in June I assume so the pitch can be maintained

For each month you would have to buy the multiple game tickets then in effect they are just the same as a full season ticket but pro rata, doing it just for individual games defeats the object as your just getting a cheaper ticket. If it makes someone come to at least two games that month it may then give them the bug to attend more.

Just a thought?

** Just re-read this thread and noticed PaulB1984 with a similar suggestion 

Edited March 12 by Oldham Valderama

[wroteforluck87]

On the same theme as advertising..

Around town centre at the minute there's plenty of building work going on all of which is surrounded by wooden boards.. could we not advertise a 2 months worth of fixtures on them?

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

It's generally accepted that there needs to be 3-5 types of coordinated promotional activity all giving the same message and each with a call to action.

I'm sure the club knows this and doing their best. They are , after all, very successful in business.

So, 1) word of mouth, no doubt the best and most effective.  Call to action, promotional code of some sort given out to friends and family. 2) Social media , giving out info, dates, prices etc. This one we are doing well at the moment. I think the call to action could be better though. 3) Local ads, bill boards etc. Reinforces, in the mind,  other activity. 4) leaflets. The most hit and miss of all activity. How many leaflets do you put in the bin. However, they could contain a redeemable coupon.  5) broadcast media. Not just games covered on TV and Radio, which, given our lowly position, we seem to be doing well at,  but also ads. Expensive!

Overall we need a winning team and a message that resonates with the target market.  I notice that there is a push on the clubs history. That's a very good message, but it needs to tug at the heartstrings. The home of Rugby League. Down and out, resurrected and on the up!

Edited March 12 by The Art of Hand and Foot