Had a long conversation with Rob Sproston last night and I think it’s important to note that he has paid £200.00 out himself to cover the cancellation costs of the Sportsmans Dinner.
It doesn’t necessarily require a full time commercial manager to make these events work. However, it does require people to put a lot of time and effort into publicising them and promoting them. In another thread somebody referred to the website I set up (www.ideas4alty.com) and this is a useful way of creating awareness and advertising things. However, in reality this reaches a very small amount of people and you need to be as diverse as possible in the media used to advertise things. Be bold and approach local radio stations, the contact details for which can easily be found online. Don’t just assume things will appear in your local press - contact them yourself with every bit of info about your club and any events associated with the club. One thing I’ve learnt in recent years is that you shouldn’t just assume other people will do things. I am in regular contact with a member of the Alty board and I liaise with him on a number of club-related issues. Our recent initiative to admit season ticket holders of other clubs for a fiver came out of an idea I sent to him by email one morning. Admittedly, I put a lot of my own time into promoting the idea, but it was hugely gratifying to see it come to fruition. If you’re proactive rather than waiting for other people to do things it’s amazing how much progress you can make.
Hope this helps in some way. It can be done and the way things are going at your green and white neighbours at the moment it may be a good time to steal a march on them and promote yourselves better in the local community. A lot of the future lies in your own hands.
The idea of offering reduced admission for season tickets holders from other clubs is a good one. I went to watch Wigan away at Bradford in the Rugby League playoffs last Friday, and Bradford offered a discount to WIgan season ticket holders. If this could be done across the board in our league then it would be a good way to reward current ticket holders, and is also a selling point for people looking to buy season tickets next season.
Ours didn’t quite work like that. For one game only (against Oxford) season ticket holders from all football league clubs were allowed to bring their season ticket along and get in for a fiver. This offer didn’t extend to away fans. As far as we know at least 30 people took up the offer so it was a reasonable success.
Thanks Alty for your post.
I think that Alty have set a good example of increasing the fan base and raising additional funds. The club has turned losses into profit and at the same time climbed the football pyramid - all of this in the shadows of Manchester’s premier league clubs. Whenever I have been to the ground before the official and fans have been a credit to the set-up. The chairman is a very decent bloke who has put a lot of personal effort in.
Make sure you win the CSC now so we can justify our early exit!!! Good luck.
It should not be Rob who is out of pocket personally for this!!!