I am sure there are plenty of people at Witton who are already thinking of the best ways to capitalise on our promotion but here are some of my thoughts. It seems to me that our success and the ‘demise’ of our rivals have created a pretty unique opportunity for Witton and we should do everything possible to take advantage of the situation, in the short, medium and long terms. It is feasible that Witton may be the ‘top’ team in the town for the next ten years and whilst I am not suggesting that any of our actions should be determined by events elsewhere, we should not be blind to them either. I was struck by the amount of support that went to Curzon and it served as a timely reminder that there are a lot of people in Northwich who broadly support Witton but don’t necessarily go to watch very often. Nothing brings those people out like success so let’s make sure we let everyone know that we have been successful.
Item 1. Change our name to ‘Witton Albion of Northwich’. This is controversial of course for two main reasons. First, many Witton fans may hate the idea of having the word ‘Northwich’ anywhere near us and secondly, the timing may make us look rather cynical. On the first point I would say ‘get over it’. We should be making commercial decisions based on the next twenty years, not the next one or two and changing the name will raise our profile in the town. There are plenty of Northwich based companies who might see more profit in linking themselves to a club with the name of the town attached. No-one has challenged those V*** fans who have argued in the media that ‘the town needs a football club….’ – it would have been easier to do so if we had had the name of the town in our name this season. On the second point, who cares if it looks cynical? If we are criticised for it in the local press then we should remember that there is no such thing as bad publicity. We need local people to know we exist. Northwich has changed a great deal in recent years, the old simple ‘red or green’ divisions no longer exist in the same way as they did in the past. We need to entice those people who have moved into the new estates around Northwich to Witton Albion – reminding them that the club is a Northwich club will help that.
Item 2. Just before the start of the season we should rent the biggest, most prominent billboard in the town and plaster a poster of the team picking up the trophy at Curzon with the tag line ‘Witton Albion – Northwich’s Premier Non-League Football Club’. We should keep it up there for as long as we can afford.
Item 3. We should arrange to take the trophy, and any others we have lying around into every local Primary School that will have us. One or two of the players or staff could go in, talk with the children, let them hold the cup, dishing out free children’s tickets and maybe even do a coaching session. I appreciate of course that our players are not professional and would probably have to do this out of the goodness of their hearts but this is an opportunity for Witton and we should reach out to the children of the town so that they become Witton fans. This should be repeated as often as possible.
Item 4. In the morning of the first Saturday of the season we should have the team suited and booted strolling through the town centre handing out freebies, free child tickets for that afternoon’s match and showing off the trophy we won at Curzon.
Item 5. The club shop must start selling green and white pots. Judging by the song being sang by the faithful at Curzon, it would quickly become a best seller……
I live a long way away these days and I know that there are good people at the club who have been doing these kind of things – just reading the forum of the V*** trust website confirms that even they are impressed by the people in charge at Witton so I apologise if it seems I am suggesting things that are already happening or being planned. Carry on the good work!
[quote=“Chris Lowe” post=43513]
Item 3. We should arrange to take the trophy, and any others we have lying around into every local Primary School that will have us. One or two of the players or staff could go in, talk with the children, let them hold the cup, dishing out free children’s tickets and maybe even do a coaching session. I appreciate of course that our players are not professional and would probably have to do this out of the goodness of their hearts but this is an opportunity for Witton and we should reach out to the children of the town so that they become Witton fans. This should be repeated as often as possible.[/quote]
Has to be one of the shortest enjoy the moments ever with postings like What we should do next!!!
Item 1- Bluntly No. In a bizarre twist why not petition the council to actually make Witton the towns name. There are enoough references within the town to justify this, none more so than the name of the high street! I think the club has done well to maintain a dignified silence throughout the recent months debacle from the nomads and has not been drawn into any mud slinging match with them despite the comments from some.
Item 2- Completely agree, you would be surprised at how cheap some of these boards are and there are plenty of prominent places in the town
Item 3- Again this is a good idea but it would be better to get the lads into the schools now before the summer break, with the trophy etc and advertising the pre season games (man utd etc). But the lads do have full time jobs so this may be difficult to accomodate
The club does not have to sell itself. If they do go bump and reform its only going to be a matter of time before they market themselves as the PEOPLES CLUB which is surely what we have been really for years. Being above them is acrucial time in both clubs history and teh towns history so it is vital we get it right off the pitch.
I will remind people it greats having the ideas and tapping away on a keyboard but this club is not full time, we have no full time member of staff, just numerous volunteers just giving up their time. What would make a nice change would be to see some more volunteers down the ground tuesday and thursday mornings (always plenty to do) or taking an idea you have and running with it, otherwise this mid cheshire might not be ours for long
I agree. If they do reform as a fan run club, they’ll get a lot of publicity and good will, when in reality, we’ve been run by volunteers for years!
Im not sure how the shares work but there was a bit about our American friend’s background online over the weekend which mentioned he bought some shares in the club. Is it possible to roll that out generally and capaitalise on the euphoria? I know i’d be happy to buy a few and im sure others would take the opportunity to own a stake in the club, if it’s possible. Perhaps we could get a little press coverage on it to reinforce the fact that there is a club in town that people can be proud of.
Maybe it isnt possible, but if it is it’s a good way to keep the positive news flowing over the summer.
I will remind people it greats having the ideas and tapping away on a keyboard but this club is not full time, we have no full time member of staff, just numerous volunteers just giving up their time. What would make a nice change would be to see some more volunteers down the ground tuesday and thursday mornings (always plenty to do) or taking an idea you have and running with it, otherwise this mid cheshire might not be ours for long.
What we need now is to raise as much money as possible for the club to give us a good foundation for next season. Anybody who has time and would like to help in getting the club sponsorship please let me know.
Witton Albion of Northwich - your havin a laugh - just imagine what that would be abbreviated to on Sky Sports News next season - fixtures and league tables freely publicised every hour of the day but not for the homeless team anymore though !
Club Shop - the high street is the High Street and then becomes Witton Street - are you suggesting it all becomes Witton Street ?
Theres publicity then there is selling your sole for half an ounce of old holborn, change this great teams name to Witton Albion of Northwich, just LAUGHABLE!
Although the involving local schools is not a bad idea to be fair but don’t the Witton players have day jobs? they can’t just turn up at schools in the day can they?, the rest no thanks.
for gods sake we have always been witton albion, and should never be anything different. it is our heritage, so don’t even propose taking it away. this subject should never come uo again, so let’s bury it now and get on with supporting WITTON ALBION. enough said.
We should never change our club name in my opinion. It’s who we are and it’s who we have always been. I do understand where you are coming from Chris and it probably does make sense, but when did football supporters ever think sensibly?
I would hope that through increased coverage in the Northwich Guardian (seeing as we are the premier team in the town) there would be increased interest in us anyway.
Like I’ve said in the past, in this town the people will support whoever is winning, we have seen it in the past. There’s a lot of ‘floating fans’ in Northwich that probably watch both clubs but I doubt they’ll be travelling to Stafford/Skem/Macclesfield/Bulgaria to watch the slime. It’s those people that we need to target and turn them into Wittoners!
Manchester United are named after a city which they are not situated in, don’t think changing their name to Manchester United of Salford would have stopped them from being the most successful football team in England :evil:
johnnyamery, comparing our club with the present Manchester United is downright silly; and let us get one thing straight, United were formed under a different name, they changed it for publicity reasons, the club is actually in the old Salford, not Manchester. Sale Rugby Club asked Manchester Rugby Club if they could have their name, why? Because it would raise their profile. We moved from the old Central Ground for good financial reasons, I see nothing wrong with tagging on "Northwich to our name for the same reason. A certain gentleman of VERY high standing in the club originally suggested this idea, he ain’t daft and neither is my son Chris who has been a Wittoner all his life and even bought school kids from the Midlands to watch his beloved club. Ideas are there to be discussed, insulting people who are simply trying to raise the profile of our club is bang out of order, disagree by all means but keep it within bounds.
WHSU
Okay jonnyamery: this discussion has been brought up before and it seems that some favour it, some don’t. However I will just say there are numerous examples of expediency overruling tradition. “Stadium of Light”, “Etihad Stadium” “Emirates” even “Bargain Booze” have been used as names of stadium rather than their original names. Even “Old Trafford” is called “The Theatre of Dreams” by some. As for names, “Wasps” are now called “London Wasps”, “Warrington” are now “Warrington Wolves” and the list goes on. “Wimbledon” even became “MK Dons”. I understand our past is very important, but our future is FAR more important. Adding “Northwich” to our name will not change us from “Witton Albion”, we will still be the “Albs” or “Witton” to all us old supporters but if using “Northwich” in our name makes it easier for us to raise money via sponsorship I think it should be given due consideration, maybe even put to the vote at an AGM.
WHS.
[quote=“WHS” post=44092]Okay jonnyamery: this discussion has been brought up before and it seems that some favour it, some don’t. However I will just say there are numerous examples of expediency overruling tradition. “Stadium of Light”, “Etihad Stadium” “Emirates” even “Bargain Booze” have been used as names of stadium rather than their original names. Even “Old Trafford” is called “The Theatre of Dreams” by some. As for names, “Wasps” are now called “London Wasps”, “Warrington” are now “Warrington Wolves” and the list goes on. “Wimbledon” even became “MK Dons”. I understand our past is very important, but our future is FAR more important. Adding “Northwich” to our name will not change us from “Witton Albion”, we will still be the “Albs” or “Witton” to all us old supporters but if using “Northwich” in our name makes it easier for us to raise money via sponsorship I think it should be given due consideration, maybe even put to the vote at an AGM.
WHS.[/quote]
Everton of Liverpool?
Cheslsea of London?
Aston Villa of Birmingham?
Juventus of Turin?
Espanyol of Barcelona?
Hibernian of Edinborough?
What a thoroughly stupid debate.
As the poster says : Witton Albion representing the parish of Witton and the surrounding area.
