Mr.Blue Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Despite being top of the league and having one of the best ton teams in a long time attendances continue to be poor. There are a number of possible reasons which have been discussed before but I'd like to see the club being more pro active in trying to get more people though the turnstiles. Letting under 16s in for free, free tickets to schools, pay in for a fiver day etc have all been discussed on here, twitter, FB etc. the club may think they will lose money but surely more people in the ground means more money will be spent on pies, sweets, programmes etc. has any fan or someone from the trust made any suggestions to the club about doing this? A busy, noisy cappielow could go a long way in helping us win the league. Sorry if I've missed this elsewhere. There's a storm on the horizon And for that I can't see the sun For I'll keep a waiting on the pavement For the ice cream van to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 There was a Football League report last week on Walsall were they apparently charge U-16s 46 quid (2 per home game) but pay them back that amount for every game they attend. That's better than most. At the same time, there's only so much you can do to convince a community that a team based around glorious failure for 25 years will change their ways. It really takes league win out of the ordinary for Morton. The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before.. So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampage Nu Sport Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Perhaps we could offer grammar lessons regarding the correct use of the apostrophe at half time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonosaurus Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 There will be ideas, but given that we are top of the league and the cheapest club already in the division, I think it is some of the sometimes-supporters in the area who need to do their bit. The players are certainly the best we have had in about 20 years. BBC report into the Price of Football � The Fire Breathing Morton Guy - I'm not Pat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoonTon Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 If you're going to offer cut price attendance for a home match at some point in the season I think it would be best to have the entire league involved. The combined publicity for some sort of discount day would probably generate far more interest. You'd obviously need to do it twice a season. I think an increased presence in the community helps. The club needs to be visible as much as they can be. But the club needs more money to do this effectively. A big problem has been the lack of interest generated by the division that we're in. It chips away at the core support when you know that there's no much to play for if the first placed team pulls away. It's been difficult for the club to then pull the fans back in when it has got exciting; most are just out of the habit. So I think league reconstruction is very important, even if the initial stage is just adding a play-off place to the SPL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etta crouTON Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Perhaps we could offer grammar lessons regarding the correct use of the apostrophe at half time? I'd prefer to see it used correctly all of the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonosaurus Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I think league reconstruction is very important, even if the initial stage is just adding a play-off place to the SPL. I fully agree. � The Fire Breathing Morton Guy - I'm not Pat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampage Nu Sport Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I'd prefer to see it used correctly all of the time! Touché Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etta crouTON Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Touché Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_mceleny Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I've suggested some simple ideas that I believe would see increased gates: For starters the half time dancers neither entertain the crowd or help draw revenue. If there were 4 under 10 age group 7 aside games going on (that's 56 kids) then I'm sure nearly everyone of these kids would have a granda, a dad, an aunt etc who would want to watch this. The kids get in free so it builds for the future and also they want to come back in future weeks to watch their pals. Money wise the family who have came to watch are probably going to put the gate up at least £500 with a simple scheme. The economy is not helping. It seems also the carte blance approach of free kids doesn't work either. Therefore I'd make season tickets more family friendly. Such as one kid free with your book, a family book that gets kids in reduced and the old favourite kids under 12 free at the gate but only with an adult. Morton community should branch out, boys club players get in free, beavers, cups, brownies etc in free with a ratio of adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmdc Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Despite being top of the league and having one of the best ton teams in a long time attendances continue to be poor. There are a number of possible reasons which have been discussed before but I'd like to see the club being more pro active in trying to get more people though the turnstiles. Letting under 16s in for free, free tickets to schools, pay in for a fiver day etc have all been discussed on here, twitter, FB etc. the club may think they will lose money but surely more people in the ground means more money will be spent on pies, sweets, programmes etc. has any fan or someone from the trust made any suggestions to the club about doing this? A busy, noisy cappielow could go a long way in helping us win the league. Sorry if I've missed this elsewhere. The club have addressed this before. Gillian told an AGM that where clubs have experimented with reduced or free admission they rarely show any significant increase, and so the extra pie/programme money doesn't materialise. As far as Morton goes, the fixed costs of playing at Cappielow are huge, and we tend to have amongst the lowest admission charges in the league. Given all that I don't think lower prices is the way to go, unless it's part of a wider agreement to reduce prices across the board. I think the club needs to play the long game on this one - the increased youth academy and the Morton community initiative are good starts, but it will be a while before any benefit (if there is a benefit) through the gates becomes known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capitanus Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Heres a novel idea which would show DDFR in a great light if he were to do it, however I could imagine there would be an angry element amongst the quasi-Daily Mail readers out there. Kids for a quid. Free entry for weans. Free entry for weans with paying adults. Bring a friend. Tell a friend to bring their weans. Bring a friends weans whilst they go to the Oak Mall. Give free tickets to BB troupes and cheerleaders mammies. However, heres one: FREE ADMISSION FOR LOCAL UNEMPLOYED Local Millionaire Businessman and Proud Owner of Morton FC does his bit to show solidarity to those out-of-work folks of Inverclyde by treating them to an afternoon of watching fitba' for free, giving them an opportunity to smile for a while at a time when things are pretty grim for them. There are a lot of decent folk on the dole, not everyone is a scrounger or layabout, and there are many out there who are full of snide remarks about unemployment whenever it often happens through no fault of the person. It would be a good gesture for a local captain of industry to make a gesture towards some folk who have become lapsed supporters through no fault of their own but due to economic circumstances not of their making. It would be guaranteed headlines throughout the UK if that were to happen. *insert signature here* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles_Joe Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Dougie sells sweets. What do sweets cause? Tooth decay. Charge people by the tooth. 2 quid a moler, and all the other teeth a pound.* *edit to add, per tooth. It's not a charity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThornTON Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Perhaps we could offer grammar lessons regarding the correct use of the apostrophe at half time? Better than crap music and the May Hughes pom-pom wavers. Good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluebirdTon Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 U16's and illegal immigrants go free, place would be bouncing every week. The Ton Survived & Your Pipe Dream Died 18th September 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BishyTON Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Some ideas:- 1. If you are going to do free entry for children then it is a must to actually go to the schools and give out tickets. Children are far more likely to badger their parents to go if they have actually been given a physical ticket. This leads to at least one paying adult per child that attends on average and also helps to develop future fans. 2. Cheaper prices. I don't care if we are the cheapest in the league, as we are not competing with other clubs for business but rather other activities such as the cinema, ten pin bowling and having a bevy in the pub. Ten pin bowling works out at about £10 or so for a couple of hours of entertainment, as does the cinema. The £15 we currently charge could buy you at least five pints (except in Merchant City/West End). The above also have a much better chance of being enjoyable to the average punter. If we want to compete for additional customers in the current market then we need to offer better value for money - £10 entry for all adults, £5 for concessions and free for kids. 3. Sustained success - This is the hardest one to achieve of course, but it is the only thing that is going to bring back a large amount of our former support. They have been driven away by year-upon-year of failure. A couple of years as good as this one should result in several hundred fans being added to the average gate. BUT the main problem is that people just don't have the money in the current environment to go to football. There is nothing the club can really do about this and we just need to accept that attendances are not going to match those we even had in the second division any time soon. Mon the Ton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmdc Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Some ideas:- 1. If you are going to do free entry for children then it is a must to actually go to the schools and give out tickets. Children are far more likely to badger their parents to go if they have actually been given a physical ticket. This leads to at least one paying adult per child that attends on average and also helps to develop future fans. 2. Cheaper prices. I don't care if we are the cheapest in the league, as we are not competing with other clubs for business but rather other activities such as the cinema, ten pin bowling and having a bevy in the pub. Ten pin bowling works out at about £10 or so for a couple of hours of entertainment, as does the cinema. The £15 we currently charge could buy you at least five pints (except in Merchant City/West End). The above also have a much better chance of being enjoyable to the average punter. If we want to compete for additional customers in the current market then we need to offer better value for money - £10 entry for all adults, £5 for concessions and free for kids. 3. Sustained success - This is the hardest one to achieve of course, but it is the only thing that is going to bring back a large amount of our former support. They have been driven away by year-upon-year of failure. A couple of years as good as this one should result in several hundred fans being added to the average gate. BUT the main problem is that people just don't have the money in the current environment to go to football. There is nothing the club can really do about this and we just need to accept that attendances are not going to match those we even had in the second division any time soon. Agree re: 1 and 3, but two problems with 2: - I don't think that can happen unilaterally. I think the min and max prices are set by the league as a whole, and we tend to keep our tickets at the bottom end if that scale; - If this doesn't lead to a fairly significant increase in fans then, given the fixed costs of playing at Cappielow, the losses that we already operate at will only deepen. I don't think there is a short term fix to increased attendances, particularly when set against those fixed costs. It needs to be a long term strategy, based around things like the Youth Academy and Morton Community (which includes a voucher scheme like that you suggest in your first point). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargsTON Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 U16's and illegal immigrants go free, place would be bouncing every week. "CORNBEEF IS A BELLEND" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Blue Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Perhaps we could offer grammar lessons regarding the correct use of the apostrophe at half time? Lol that was a belter. Thanks for the valuable input There's a storm on the horizon And for that I can't see the sun For I'll keep a waiting on the pavement For the ice cream van to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e_f Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Rather than come up with ideas we think may attract people maybe we should first find out why they don't turn up. There must be many reasons that we can’t get enough support through the gates each week. One of the things that must be a factor is the amount of folk who used to come to Cappielow regularly but have since stopped. The majority of punters don’t bother with this forum so it’s a possibility that the cross-section of opinion on here isn’t representative everyone with an allegiance to Morton. It could be the case that some people aren’t turning up as there may not be the same confidence in the town as there is among the core fan base. They maybe some who don’t look through rose-tinted glasses and see what some on here get slated for; the deficiencies in the team; it’s probably akin to glory-hunting. I’m certainly not saying that is the case though, it’s just a guess. What seems to be the case, though, is that most folk aren’t as daft as us who follow the team through thick and thin. So, by the nature of it, I don’t know if it is something that we can solve on here. What we need to find out then is why they don’t go as often and what exactly are they are looking for on a match day. As it seems to be the consensus that there are plenty of lapsed supporters out there then the big question is, although the team are playing better than they have in years, what’s keeping them away? If they’ve come to games in the past then they must know that we’re never going to be world-beaters but there is an attraction that made them go in the first place. So, what’s changed? Then, there is also the difficult job of attracting new fans. I don’t believe the myth that some OF fans like to revel in is that nobody is interested in football anymore. TV audiences for the big games and the amount of people who play locally show this. So if they like football why are these folk not getting off their Lazyboys and going to games? We all attend for our own reasons so it’s not us that anyone should be asking. I think that it may well be worthwhile carrying out some sort of market research to find out what would attract these people into Cappielow. It might be a good idea to make an investment in this rather than us die-hards trying to read the minds of people who think differently from us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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