What can the Club do to permanently increase attendance levels?

I have moved this to a separate thread from one about Yeovil and their success this season. It was too negative there and my aim this summer is to be as positive as I can about City and our future.

Yes I agree with you Massive. BUT they have an average attendance this season of a touch under 4,000.
That represents 10% of the town's population.

City have had 13,430 which is about 3.2% of Bristol's 420,000 population (within the city boundary)
This is one of the poorest "percentage of population" almost anywhere in the country. Here are some others.
Southampton 237,000 / 30,000 / 12.6%
Sunderland 284,000 / 40,400 / 14.2%
Norwich 132,000 / 26,660 / 20%
Ipswich 133,000 / 17,500 / 13%
Burnley 85,000 / 12,900 / 15%
Portsmouth 207,000 / 12,200 / 5.9%
Bournemouth 185,000 / 6,850 / 3.7%
Preston 132,000 / 9,260 / 7%

If we had consistent success over the years we might get 5% of population which is 21,000. But will we ever match some of those above.
And before anyone comes back and says "But Norwich are in the Premier", this years average is not much higher than 24,670 in League One season 2009/10.

However ther is one glimmer of hope for our beloved Bristol City.
Three seasons 2010/11 ago Brighton in League One had an average of 7,352 while winning promotion using Withdean Stadium.

In the new stadium in the following season 2011/12 they had 20,029 and this season just finished 26,236.

So it can be done!
Will Bristol City follow suit when Ashton Vale or rebuilt Ashton Gate arrive?

The continuing cycle at Bristol City of "one season success and 9 seasons failure" is our biggest problem. So what can the Club and supporters do that will bring a positive and long lasting upturn in attendances?

Let's brainstorm for marketing ideas. Only positives; No negative or sarcastic asides please.

Here are a few to start with

1. Free entry for all children up to the age of 12 years.

2. £1 entry for all schoolchildren 12 and over.

3a. Free entry for everyone to Under 21 games at Ashton Gate.
3b. Club to distribute tickets for Under 21's to schools, with the aim to get a minimum of 2,000 attendance at each game.

Other areas that others can comment on; Advertising around Bristol and surrounding towns / Merchandising /

 

Wizered, don't give them an opportunity to hi-jack. We might actually get some good ideas from our fans if they all give it some real thought.

Collectively it shows how poorly supported and poorly thought of is professional sport in Bristol.
Gloucestershire CC probably have fewer members than any other county and the rugby club has suffered from poor management over the last twenty years since rugby union went professional.

 

3.2% that's terrible!

The only thing I can think of is getting in the young ones. I don't mean kids. I mean students, People at university. Make separate prices and make them cheap. The club should form a partnership with City of Bristol college. Get some people from within the club out in college giving away free tickets and doing competitions. Really try to get them at the gate. Promote the season ticket more as a monthly payment. say £10 a month of students. They would pay this. I know the club is a business but word would travel round at colleges "what you up to this weekend" "watching city fancy coming" Yeah ok" Word would spread and if the team performs well they will get more bums on seats. Dropping the price will only bring so many in. Winning games will get them all in!

 

Firstly Bristol has 3 major sporting teams - City, Rovers and Bristol Rugby. The other clubs listed are very much "the only game in town" (though i do acknowledge that Burnley are not far from PL teams)

Secondly - sucess will bring people to games.

Thirdly - agree with cheap admission for children - these people are our future

 

Yeovil have had up near 20%. I think the club have to decide what the club is. The c as others point out can mean community. Chelsea win, arsenal win but what does that mean if you can't afford to get in. Is that a club? Best supported league's in the world in Germany do not all win but they have a clearer idea of what clubs really are. City need to proactive, get about and sell the club. Bristol showed the other day in its politics that it ticks differently maybe there the club need to think differently more creative, more European/German ideas and hopefully improvement on the pitch. Wider spread of prices,more fan and community interaction. Club = community that type of sketch.

 

The gas will take full advantage of the students when we move into our new stadium, think I read somewhere student on campus will get much cheaper tickets.

But like ROD Said success will bring the fans back, I know we both have poor attendances for the size of our city and surrounding areas but when we do have occasional success we always sell out and both took an easy 40k plus to play off finals.

I don't think there is much wrong with the ticket offers we do have tbh the evil post give cheap tickets deals out, I remember rovers and city coming into my school giving away tickets years ago, both have student discounts, quid for a kid I see all the time.

 

there is 2 universities in Bristol plus think how many colleges there are here. The only way to get more fans really is the younger generation. Most old people are already following either team. if we were both in the prem and had 40k stadiums I can gaurentee we would sell out every game. That's how to solve it. Get promoted to the prem. You'll get full gates then.

 

Those who have mentioned youngsters and students are on the right track,
other than, of course, success on the field.
That's why the work of the respective Community Departments is so important.
When my son was at Manchester University they used to get tickets for
Manchester City....and he went. Now that's still a club he follows from afar
.....besides Rovers!

 

exactly. Its not just people from Bristol, They come from all over. Would be even better if you could pinch local sides fans like Yeovil, Swindon, Exeter and bath. Wont be able to get Bristol rovers fans (and who would want them ) but the smaller teams might want to watch a better side. Its down to us to make sure we are better. First stop promotion back to the championship. That would probably get 15k back down there regularly.

 

Targetting students is a good idea and as it comes from both red and blue camps, then it would be worth pursuing.

However the adult university students, aged 18 and over, coming here from other towns and cities, will already have their affinity to another club or sport.

It's the local youngsters from the age of five, from within a reasonable radius, a radius that does not infringe on places like Swindon, Yeovil or Cheltenham, but those from where it is a bus or short train ride away from Ashton Gate.

Bringing them in is the easy part. Just flood schools with loads of tickets. Hire coaches to bring them.

It's how to change the mindset of Bristolians young and adult, to get away from the constant sarcastic remark if one says "I'm a City/Rovers fan" only to be met with the remark "**** teams, **** grounds, I support Man U/Chelsea/Arsenal/Man C etc; waste of time going there!."

Yes success would bring them for a while, just out of curiosity. Just imagine City/Rovers get promotion to the Prem and everyone wants to go initially. Then like 95% of promoted teams we're bottom by end of October. The floating fans disappear "**** team, etc". But that does not need to happen.

Come on lads we've got some very good posters on here. Think laterally, think outside the box. PR from the club needs to be a constant, almost in yer face, but keeping the name of City/Rovers in front of everyone in our great City and it's near neighbours.

Shiny says above " if we were both in the prem and had 40k stadiums I can gaurentee we would sell out every game. That's how to solve it. Get promoted to the prem. You'll get full gates then."

Agreed but unless we start pulling a minimum of 25,000 a match, we'll NEVER get there. How do we get the big fat chicken? By keeping the eggs warm! In our case, the eggs definitely come before the chicken.

 

The youth just aren't that interested in football, at least not in the same way as the generation before. It's still a religion up north, but the south is sorely lacking.

That being said, as I've said before, if we don't get Ashton Vale then we won't get attendance figures up. Ashton Gate is too out of date for anyone to get excited about, and Bristol City absolutely need a new stadium and new facilities. Watching the BBC report from Ashton Gate in their "commentary tent" was embarrassing.

Appearances are everything in football, and we absolutely need to give the view that we are a big club in a big city. If we can't get Ashton Vale I would move the stadium elsewhere in Bristol, and talk to the council about a 30,000 seater stadium/arena on the outskirts.

 

Standing!! although not in the clubs hands. The other problem I have as a season ticket holder is that should I want to avail myself
of the free ticket option once a season, who do I give it to as whoever it is, is unlikely to be able to sit near me. Perhaps a part of
the ground that is not allocated tickets so pay on the day etc. where people can buy and stay together.
But as already stated, be successful on the pitch and play entertaining football.

 

Lose the mindset that BCFC is a brand and business, it isn't, it is a community based club. In a community each fan is of value and should not be viewed as a consumer. Offer a wider spread of prices to reflect this community ethos I.e under tens, under sixteen, students, blocks of five, half season ... Utilise the skills of fans to publicize BCFC via networking. Attempts to contact the wider community should be relentless. Stop blaming lack of success and the EPL/FFP for BCFC being anonymous in its own backyard, the fault there is those on the board and those employed by BCFC.

 

Thanks for shifting my original thread in to a more cohesive blog on what City need to do to achieve success cidered.

Firstly there needs to be more revenue to produce a team that will bring more backsides to the seats and these two points are inextricably linked. A team will generally perform better in front of a full house and the crowd will respond more to a well playing squad and again the two points are linked. Marketing the team and the game to new untapped markets is a very good idea but university students usually already have their favourite flavour and will move on in a few years. Local schools are the best source of new supporters and they will be the future of the club so a family oriented club will attract more people on match days. I remember the days when I would go to City with one of two uncles and the experience made me a lifetime City supporter.

Whether we like it or not the game has changed for the worse when really all we go to see are mercenaries just interested in their greedy selves rather that the paying customers. Local lads playing for City will also add a few more customers and bring their immediate friends and family to the ground. Do we have a kiddies section at Ashton Gate where the players can go just prior to the kick-off to meet the young ones and interact with them, unlike a player that I witnessed at the back of the Atyeo Stand telling a kid to p*** off. What a role model he was and thankfully he only hung around with us long enough to pick up his wages and his new Bentley.

Whatever marketing plan we have had in the past has not worked and has only upset the fans with it's obvious lack of forethought and is in some way responsible for where we are now. Get it together board because you need the support and ideas from the right people and that is us- the supporters!

 

I would like to see the club improve its marketing significantly. You see more advertising for the lady boys of Bangkok, or a a fun fair than you will for the biggest bi weekly event in Bristol. City appear to have spent more on Nicky Hunt for a few months salary than they have on various means of advertising the fact there is a football club here over years.

 

Kids are interested in football. Some prices my son's subs for playing £2.50, weekly coaching course four quid,, cubs three quid, kick boxing four quid. All I describe as value. Now City? My son loves the Eastend but won't consider the other stands, but the prices I consider to be expensive anyway, and this is for a kid who likes football and supporting parents.

 

It's not just about lowering ticket prices for kids, families, the unemployed or whatever though.

Historically, up to a few short decades ago, football was still very much a working mans game and out of the factories, mills, docks, and shipyards up and down the country grew generations of hard core support for the likes of Man U, Sunderland, Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool and co that hasn't really changed much since football began.

Bristol isn't really a football town now and it never has been (and might never be), and aside from the Tobacco industry, the bus/coach builders and some light indutry/engineering works we've never had the sort of deprevation or lack of anything else much to do on a Saturday afternoon here when the Missus went shopping. Plus there is the rugby team and apparently another football club too ?

With the wall to wall worldwide exposure of the English Premiership, getting even local kids to watch 3rd division football is a thankless and difficult task, and would be even if admittance was totally free.

It's not all about the lack of anything else to do on a Saturday afternoon of course, and the likes of Chelsea haven't had the working mens background as much compared to some clubs, but they were already a big and well known club before the Russian moved in with his billions, hence the birth of the Prawn Sandwich Brigade and corporate hospitality which is another thing completely.

 

All the reason to start working harder. I disagree it's a thankless task getting kids down to the ground. Plenty of kids at the open day. Plenty of kids will go once. There is the start. Getting people there once. Things are related to price and city have to be very competitive. What about the clubs advertising? Parts of the south of the city are a football town and here the club could go into partnership with local businesses to market the club. If fans can drop a banner off the tobacco factory paint cafes and pubs what is preventing city getting posters and anything else they can think into local businesses as well? For a fraction of the money squandered on a month wage for a hunt Morris Stewart city could do something city wide and further.