Fans action group (to improve attendances)

[Tim G]

I for one will offer help distribute leaflets.  Hopefully it will be easy to track down a club employee before tomorrow's game kicks off so that I can put them in my car. Then from Monday onwards,  hit the streets and local businesses. I can cover large areas of Shaw, so if anyone else is up for helping covering other areas, the more the better.  

[jroyales]

For what is arguably the biggest game for many awhile, I haven't seen any advertising around the town pushing the game. Sadly, it's evident that it's only word of mouth that will increase the gate.

[yedforevvver81]

J Rosales there has been quite a lot , if you give your name in at the fans bar today there looking for people to distribute leaflets? 

[Tim G]

36 minutes ago, yedforevvver81 said:

J Rosales there has been quite a lot , if you give your name in at the fans bar today there looking for people to distribute leaflets? 

Fantastic, thanks for that.  

[Tim G]

On 05/04/2025 at 08:37, Tim G said:

I for one will offer help distribute leaflets.  Hopefully it will be easy to track down a club employee before tomorrow's game kicks off so that I can put them in my car. Then from Monday onwards,  hit the streets and local businesses. I can cover large areas of Shaw, so if anyone else is up for helping covering other areas, the more the better.  

Update - I offered to volunteer to distribute leaflets for the club yesterday at Bar 1895.  Unfortunately even though the leaflets have arrived at the club, there was none available to be distributed out.  Seems a lot of confusion ATM and I have been directed back to emailing the club to find out what the plan is.

Did anyone else find the same problem?

[Enk27]

On 03/04/2025 at 09:11, Enk27 said:

Appreciate that its a cup game but I think having the "on the day" price for this weekend to be a good move.

Would it work if rolled out for other games? For example, online price is £18 and on the door £20?

Quoting myself but based on latest post, looks like the club is kind of doing this. Online tickets £20 and on the door £24.

It's a choice I guess.

[Roughyed Rats]

12 minutes ago, Enk27 said:

Quoting myself but based on latest post, looks like the club is kind of doing this. Online tickets £20 and on the door £24.

It's a choice I guess.

£24 for a walk-up is the highest fee in the league and higher than some clubs in Super League. Castleford is £20 & £22 walk-up. I've no issue in there being a difference but personally I think that could put off 'passing trade'. 

Edited April 7 by Roughyed Rats

[Tim G]

6 minutes ago, Roughyed Rats said:

£24 for a walk-up is the highest fee in the league and higher than some clubs in Super League. Castleford is £20 & £22 walk-up. I've no issue in there being a difference but personally I think that could put off 'passing trade'. 

Concerned that anyone who is not modern day media minded, will have a shock if they turn up on Sunday.

[Godzilla]

1 minute ago, Tim G said:

Concerned that anyone who is not modern day media minded, will have a shock if they turn up on Sunday.

Especially as the Admission price page of the club website hasn't (yet) been updated. (& that page also says the next game is the Bradford game)

[Oldham Valderama]

Am i missing something here? I'm a season ticket holder so makes no odds to me but are we saying its now moving forward (for a league game) £20 online or £24 pay on the day at the turnstile? Has it not been all season up to now been £20 online and on the day also? 

Edited April 7 by Oldham Valderama

[Roughyed Rats]

50 minutes ago, Oldham Valderama said:

Am i missing something here? I'm a season ticket holder so makes no odds to me but are we saying its now moving forward (for a league game) £20 online or £24 pay on the day at the turnstile? Has it not been all season up to now been £20 online and on the day also? 

Confirmed by George Riley on Facebook. Big mistake in my opinion.

[Oldham Valderama]

2 minutes ago, Roughyed Rats said:

Confirmed by George Riley on Facebook. Big mistake in my opinion.

Mmmm not sure about this one??? I've been fully supportive of about 95% of what the owners have done since the take over but this one seems a bit of an own goal. I get the logic of encouraging purchasing your ticket for £20 prior to the game, makes logistics like opening stands, stewarding etc easier to sort but you will still always get floating fans paying on the day and a £4 hike implemented once the season is already up and running seems a bit unfair. Maybe if this was decided and implemented prior to the first game of the season then fair enough but mid season does not sit well with me I'm afraid.

I would have thought a significant number of Oldham fans for obvious reasons  are still of the opinion "cash is king" and would prefer to avoid the t'internet and were happy to pay their £20 on the day. I maybe wrong and the data available to the club suggests that the vast majority of tickets are purchased online in advance so the impact this price increase would have is negligible? I hope this is the case and the number of fans affected by this change is minimal.

I think I'm now down to about 90% supportive of the current regime  but still happy they are in charge of our great club even though I may not fully agree with every decision made!

COME ON OLDHAM!!!!!!

[yedforevvver81]

The club reduced yesterday’s game down to £12and it didn’t get them any where, I’m happy to pay now and I would say only a small amount pay on the day but that is a personal choice, not a club pushing up prices, we can’t have it every which way, we have to stand up and support the club or the current owners have every right as we do to make there choices to stop all the hardwork and money there putting in.

[Bert Street]

The club is very disappointed by attendances and is probably losing significant amounts of money.

We have four home games against teams who will bring significant numbers ie Featherstone, Widnes, Bradford and Halifax. There is then the home game against Toulouse and, fingers crossed, a home semi final and possibly a play off game or two.

They really have to do anything on their power to get the money in off those games as we know Barrow , Hunslet and probably Sheffield will not bring many.

People won't dig into their own pockets forever to cover loss and if we don't get the money in,we can't expect the quality of squad we are enjoying watching currently to be our new norm.

We tried offering it cheap and it hasn't worked.

Edited April 7 by Bert Street
Errors

[Oldham Valderama]

Bert Street / yedforevvver81, both of you make valid points which i agree with. I think from my perspective I'm looking at this more from a PR point of view, the idea is to try and attract as many new fans as possible but the perception some existing fans may feel penalised that ticket prices are going to be £4 more from now on if you prefer paying on the day. I get why its being done (opening stands, stewarding etc) and can see the logic behind it but i feel it would have been better received if it had been announced before the first game of the season at BP had been played and everyone knew where they stood right from the start.

This is my only gripe regarding this, it just seems to me to be a knee jerk reaction and fans can be a fickle bunch and some will feel hard done by which is their right. They thought they would be paying one price, now that has suddenly changed mid season. It may only be £4 and yes you can continue to pay £20 online but I feel consistency for the season would have been a better option.

Regarding the £12 discounted ticket for yesterday not having as much an impact as hoped for, I don't think the ticket price reduction would have had much bearing on the crowd (although I still thought there were more than 1,440 there yesterday???). Pretty certain at least 90% of those who attended yesterday would have still paid the usual £20, I know I would but at the same time I am grateful to BQ for the discount. The issue i feel with attendances is the need to re-educate the people of Oldham as to what Oldham Rugby is all about as the "wilderness years" has effectively decimated the clubs local fan base. Since the takeover the new regime have increased attendance by 100% from the Whitebank days and brought a lot of the old regulars who were lost under the old regime back into the fold. To get more bums on seats will take time and I think the more success on the pitch will provide more spotlight within Oldham itself, more people will take notice of what is happening and hopefully result in bigger attendances. As has been stated when they big away followings come to town this generates interest so i expect the Fev / Widnes / Halifax games to be around 2,500 and Bradford possibly pushing 3000.

I am a massive supporter of the new regime and cannot thank them enough for giving back to me the club I have loved and followed since my days as a kid at Watersheddings. The product on the pitch is fantastic, the standard of the squad and coaching staff are first class and we as fans feel we have our club back and are going places (hopefully Wembley ). So thank you BQ/ MF and all others, I appreciate this all comes at a cost and it works both ways and us as fans have to pay our fair share. This I have no issue with, my only issue is the consistency of the message coming out of the club and feel a mid season change in ticketing pricing policy is not the best message to be giving out. 

Anyway enough negativity, I've had my little rant and look forward to the Featherstone game. Now we are playing against other teams that actually have travelling fans like Oldham have (I travel to away games when I can) then hopefully we will see BP properly rocking with an atmosphere!!!!

COME ON OLDHAM!!!!!!!!

[RoytonRoughyed83]

Think people need to stop stressing about every decision they make and try and enjoy the club doing well. You can't do anything about decisions, you can't control anyone else's attendances but your own. I agree with Valderama about need to reintroduce ORLFC to the town and that will take time. Hopefully Bill Quinn and Mike Ford realise that and will give it time, if not there's nothing we can do about that either. 

So let's enjoying going into a game against Featherstone with a chance that we might win because that hasn't happened for a while. Let's enjoy this ride for as long as it last, be it 5 more months or 5 more years  

[thecrab]

I dont live in Oldham but if you go round the towns in SL there's club marketing on lampposts, roundabouts, signs entering the town, its everywhere, I've not seen that.

We're not talking a few boards on traffic lights, its well designed, well positioned large clear signs.  The vertical signs off lampposts look great and catch the eye.

If you see those signs in prominent places every day and see the club is investing the way it is they do work, they're a constant reminder.

[Tim G]

4 hours ago, thecrab said:

I dont live in Oldham but if you go round the towns in SL there's club marketing on lampposts, roundabouts, signs entering the town, its everywhere, I've not seen that.

We're not talking a few boards on traffic lights, its well designed, well positioned large clear signs.  The vertical signs off lampposts look great and catch the eye.

If you see those signs in prominent places every day and see the club is investing the way it is they do work, they're a constant reminder.

I think as a collective,  many of our fans have got some damn good ideas about getting bums on seats. Me like most of you has a dream (sound like Martin Luther King lol) that Oldham RLFC will become a powerhouse in the game again. Due to the financial problems encountered by most clubs, I actually think that this will come true earlier than we think. 

Now Bill and Mike have set the foundations and set the locomotive on track, my only concern is who is actually responsible for selling this great product.   I am still waiting for the relevant person to get back to me to discuss leaflet distribution.  Unfortunately this is not a good state of affairs.  Other people's great ideas should have been enacted upon months ago by a top notch sales team, but who is our sales manager?  We have a massive untaped population to interact with.

If anyone knows who is in charge of sales please let me know as I am sure there are many people who will crawl over broken glass to offer help.  

 

 

[Roughyed Rats]

55 minutes ago, Tim G said:

I think as a collective,  many of our fans have got some damn good ideas about getting bums on seats. Me like most of you has a dream (sound like Martin Luther King lol) that Oldham RLFC will become a powerhouse in the game again. Due to the financial problems encountered by most clubs, I actually think that this will come true earlier than we think. 

Now Bill and Mike have set the foundations and set the locomotive on track, my only concern is who is actually responsible for selling this great product.   I am still waiting for the relevant person to get back to me to discuss leaflet distribution.  Unfortunately this is not a good state of affairs.  Other people's great ideas should have been enacted upon months ago by a top notch sales team, but who is our sales manager?  We have a massive untaped population to interact with.

If anyone knows who is in charge of sales please let me know as I am sure there are many people who will crawl over broken glass to offer help.  

 

 

David Bottomley is the head of operations and commercial. Presume sales fall under his remit.

[yedforevvver81]

David is the man, tim G I spoke to a couple of people on Sunday and they have had only three people volunteer, also they have acted on several ideas that have come from fans, I think they have been without someone in that role for a while as Kieran I’m told just wasn’t performing that’s why he was let go, I know there planning on going into schools but that has to be planned and agreed, there’s to much to do and not enough time or people to do it, your suggestion of a sales team just won’t work or would cost the club too much, what I was told was there very disappointed in response to lots they do, in broadway suite there has been a suggestion box, John Chadwick told me they had responses like program, brown sauce for pie and peas, drop the price of games, lots more unhelpful stuff, it must be so disappointing, everyone saying what they should do, on a match day they asked for help, they got one response, they went to yeds group and was told everyone wants to enjoy the game so no one came forward, the lady on reception told me that, I have offered to help and was told people will be contacted this week.

[Tim G]

18 minutes ago, yedforevvver81 said:

David is the man, tim G I spoke to a couple of people on Sunday and they have had only three people volunteer, also they have acted on several ideas that have come from fans, I think they have been without someone in that role for a while as Kieran I’m told just wasn’t performing that’s why he was let go, I know there planning on going into schools but that has to be planned and agreed, there’s to much to do and not enough time or people to do it, your suggestion of a sales team just won’t work or would cost the club too much, what I was told was there very disappointed in response to lots they do, in broadway suite there has been a suggestion box, John Chadwick told me they had responses like program, brown sauce for pie and peas, drop the price of games, lots more unhelpful stuff, it must be so disappointing, everyone saying what they should do, on a match day they asked for help, they got one response, they went to yeds group and was told everyone wants to enjoy the game so no one came forward, the lady on reception told me that, I have offered to help and was told people will be contacted this week.

Thanks for that. 

[Stevos Barber]

Just doing a little research. 

A5 leaflets

 https://www.instantprint.co.uk/flyers-leaflets/a5?paper-size=a5&paper-type=150gsm-silk&print-type=single-sided&lamination=no-lamination&spotuv=none&quantity=50

 So about £30 per 1000

Are they effective? Posing the question on AI gives an anticipated response of between 0.5 and 1% 

 Lamp post signs

https://www.discountdisplays.co.uk/html/lamp-post-signs.html

How many would be needed? Also difficult to quantify the return from these

However to paraphrase John F Kennedy "ask not what your club can do for you, ask what you can do for your club" . If a group of fans are prepared to crowdfund leaflets and distribute them count me in for a contribution. Obviously can't help distribute them.

Over to you

[thecrab]

Meant these type of banners on the major roads in town

https://lamppostbanners.com/major-events-advertising/

I've seen these in Warrington and Leigh 

[Stevos Barber]

Probably have to get permission from the Council or even Highways for those. Technically probably would for the small ones too. 

The reason for the crowd funding suggestion is cost to the club. As Bert Street says above, with the acquisitions and wages we must be losing money and the leaflet idea, as I put above, may only generate 1% extra. If fans think it might work then eight of us coughing up £10 each gives 2000 flyers. I'm game if anyone else is

[Stevos Barber]

Car stickers 

 

https://www.stickermule.com/uk/cart