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Post by os on Feb 21, 2013 18:26:57 GMT
There has been lots of talk on here about supporting your club, how to bring extra fans in and how to raise awareness of the club through the local community etc. There are a number of people on this forum who do a heck of a lot to drive that forward, and keep motivated because they believe in their club. So what chance do we have of bringing people to our club if our own loyal supporters shun it? Last Saturday the club held a Valentines Disco, where were all the Sutton fans  The event was to help raise funds for MENCAP, SUFCtv (so you get better match footage) and not only that but your club has a good night's takings behind the bar, not to mention a good evening chucked for the punters as well. In my book an absolute no brainier when it comes to a choice of where to go on another routine Saturday. Especially when your club has just suffered a big loss of revenue due to postponed matches leaving its takings in shreds? The Disco doors open and in walk 50 - 60 Sutton MENCAP supporters, parents carers etc, and just 2 Sutton fans, that is 2! Apparently the allure of establishments in local high St and giving over readies's to faceless Brewery operatives is far more of a attractive proposition? What needs to be different so you pile in the club on a Sat night like we all used to do? I just don't get it? The effort put in for the disco was imense, it did make a profit and raise funds for the clubs charity of the season 'Sutton MENCAP' but its a shame its full potential wasn't realised? |
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Post by Nick the Greek/The Speshul One on Feb 21, 2013 18:53:24 GMT
Sorry OS, but did you really think a Valentines Disco is something a lot of the fans would have wanted?
It is about knowing your audience and in my opinion was a poor choice if you expected a lot of fans to turn up.
How about a beer and cider festival? Just as a suggestion that might be more alluring to people who turn up watch football each week and spend more than enough over the bar between 1pm and 7pm most Saturday home games.
However well done on the on making a profit and and raising founds for the clubs charity of the season.
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Post by os on Feb 21, 2013 19:09:15 GMT
It is about knowing your audience and in my opinion was a poor choice if you expected a lot of fans to turn up. Yes Agreed, don't people today dance? I mean the music can change to Garage or House will the fans come then? How do blokes meet girls nowadays, can't see cider festivals being big for that? I am concerned a valentines event is seen to be wrong at Valentines? |
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Post by Nick the Greek/The Speshul One on Feb 21, 2013 19:31:25 GMT
It is about knowing your audience and in my opinion was a poor choice if you expected a lot of fans to turn up. Yes Agreed, don't people today dance? I mean the music can change to Garage or House will the fans come then? How do blokes meet girls nowadays, can't see cider festivals being big for that? I am concerned a valentines event is seen to be wrong at Valentines? I think you are proving my point of not knowing your audience. No people don't dance these days, they go to the pub until closing and maybe stagger to somewhere with music if it is open later. I would say it wasn't a problem with being a Valentines event more that it was a disco. |
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Post by markn on Feb 21, 2013 20:35:50 GMT
Personally, I do think the valentines thing was an issue. It meant couples to me.
My Missus is not a sutton fan and not a big disco fan either so I was not going to rock up on my own and I would have been killed as it was the first non-work night after valentines so we had a nice dinner.r
I have massive respect for Sutton Mencap (I know personally about how great their work is) but I agree with Greek that maybe the valentines thing wasn't the best way to entice regular Sutton fans through the door.
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Post by Amber Aleman on Feb 21, 2013 21:00:37 GMT
I went to the disco (though not sure if I was one of the 'Sutton Two'), but will confess to adjourning next door to the players' bar as there were people I knew in there!
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Post by Juan on Feb 21, 2013 21:10:25 GMT
How about a beer and cider festival? Just as a suggestion that might be more alluring to people who turn up watch football each week and spend more than enough over the bar between 1pm and 7pm most Saturday home games. I'll drink to that! |
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Post by os on Feb 21, 2013 21:35:13 GMT
I accept that I maybe a little off the pace in what brings the punters in, I am glad that you are answering honestly as its the only way we can do something about it.
I would like to put 200 in the TSL on a regular basis with your help, can it be done? Can I genuinely get you to say I would rather be at a club do/event then frequenting some other establishment? You tell me what you want and help me make it happen.
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Post by Andy K on Feb 21, 2013 23:52:09 GMT
There has been lots of talk on here about supporting your club, how to bring extra fans in and how to raise awareness of the club through the local community etc. There are a number of people on this forum who do a heck of a lot to drive that forward, and keep motivated because they believe in their club. So what chance do we have of bringing people to our club if our own loyal supporters shun it? Last Saturday the club held a Valentines Disco, where were all the Sutton fans The event was to help raise funds for MENCAP, SUFCtv (so you get better match footage) and not only that but your club has a good night's takings behind the bar, not to mention a good evening chucked for the punters as well. In my book an absolute no brainier when it comes to a choice of where to go on another routine Saturday. Especially when your club has just suffered a big loss of revenue due to postponed matches leaving its takings in shreds? The Disco doors open and in walk 50 - 60 Sutton MENCAP supporters, parents carers etc, and just 2 Sutton fans, that is 2! Apparently the allure of establishments in local high St and giving over readies's to faceless Brewery operatives is far more of a attractive proposition? What needs to be different so you pile in the club on a Sat night like we all used to do? I just don't get it? The effort put in for the disco was imense, it did make a profit and raise funds for the clubs charity of the season 'Sutton MENCAP' but its a shame its full potential wasn't realised? Oh OS! Whilst I can understand your frustration I can't help but think you've done us "loyal supporters" a disservice. I don't think anyone would argue that the effort put in was good and didn't go appreciated. But NTG is bang right about knowing the audience. At what point was this loyal support asked if they WANTED a Valentines disco? By implication as well you are kind of expecting all loyal supporters to go to absolutely everything the club runs. If so, I'm sorry mate, but you are living in a dream world. Many of us, including you and I, have lives that don't revolve totally around the football club. This includes off the field things that the club runs. Do you expect every loyal supporter to come to every quiz night? Every gentlemans' evening? Every event at the Boom Boom? To drink at the club every night? If you class one of the aforementioned supporters, they spend around £170 a year on a season ticket, probably spend about a quid a game on a Golden goal, buy a programme, have a pint and maybe get some food. If they just come for the football you are probably looking at about £350 a season before anything else comes in. Then there are Boost the budget and other initiatives going. And then the odd occasion where there's an evening thing they go to, you are looking at £500+ spent which the club gets something from. If you think that it's a no brainer where to go on a routine Saturday night for us, then that shows really how little you know of your audience. You can't assume that it was a "routine Saturday night" for everyone else. Sorry if I come across a bit harsh, it's not mean to be nasty, and like I said to start with, no one can fault the effort. But it is true that you can't please all the people all the time, and the only thing that has the best chance of getting most loyal supporters in one place at the same time is the one thing that binds us all. The football. I'll have a think about other theme night that could bring in some people and if i have any brainwaves, I'll pass them on. The beer festival is certainly a good one, because a lot of the loyal supporters do drink beer. I've not asked them, but if you see them at the bar before and after games enough, it's not hard to see  |
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tonyd
1st team Player
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Post by tonyd on Feb 22, 2013 0:46:03 GMT
I think it's great that people put in the effort to organise events to raise money for the club or for charities.
But it's also ridiculous to expect supporters to turn up to a disco just because we support a football team.
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Post by Andy K on Feb 22, 2013 13:06:29 GMT
Last Saturday the club held a Valentines Disco, where were all the Sutton fans The event was to help raise funds for MENCAP, SUFCtv (so you get better match footage) and not only that but your club has a good night's takings behind the bar, not to mention a good evening chucked for the punters as well. Hang on? Was the event on to raise funds for the club? Or for SUFCtv? I can see nowhere in the publicity that the funds are going at all to SUFCtv? Apart from the bar takings, did any money go to the club? I think you need to clarify this. |
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Post by fluffy rascal on Feb 22, 2013 14:52:40 GMT
As people know I'm into my Bus Die-cast Sutton Models. So I'd definitely be up for a BDSM night.
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Post by os on Feb 22, 2013 15:18:23 GMT
Last Saturday the club held a Valentines Disco, where were all the Sutton fans The event was to help raise funds for MENCAP, SUFCtv (so you get better match footage) and not only that but your club has a good night's takings behind the bar, not to mention a good evening chucked for the punters as well. Hang on? Was the event on to raise funds for the club? Or for SUFCtv? I can see nowhere in the publicity that the funds are going at all to SUFCtv? Well I can assure you that I would never do anything underhanded so if you want me to expain I will. SUFCtv borrowed money earlier in the season to allow it to get the camera it needed because the fans had not purchased enough DVDs and we were @£900 short some of which we put in and about half the club put in. The disco ticket funds were split 50/50 between Sutton Mencap and club in loo of debts owed to it by SUFCtv. All bar takings went to the club. I did try and write all this down at the very start but it got very messy and in essence all money raised was split between mencap and club. Had we had made £2000 then it is possible SUFCtv could have made some money but we were nowhere that and your free video match service remains in debt to the club. I hope that clarifies it  Apart from the bar takings, did any money go to the club? I think you need to clarify this. |
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DaveF
1st team Player
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Post by DaveF on Feb 22, 2013 15:20:50 GMT
Andy, sufctv is effectively a cost-centre within sufc. No conflicts of interest.
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Post by Andy K on Feb 22, 2013 16:16:17 GMT
Thank you for the clarification os and Dave. My klaxon came on when it was stated on here (and therefore viewable to anyone) that the funds were for MENCAP and SUTVfc without clarification. Even with SUFCtv being effectively a cost-centre for the club, if I was an auditor, I'd be very uncomfortable with that financial arrangement, but luckily i'm not OS, you do need to think a bit before writing sometimes! |
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The event was to help raise funds for MENCAP, SUFCtv (so you get better match footage) and not only that but your club has a good night's takings behind the bar, not to mention a good evening chucked for the punters as well. In my book an absolute no brainier when it comes to a choice of where to go on another routine Saturday. Especially when your club has just suffered a big loss of revenue due to postponed matches leaving its takings in shreds?
