Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Wed May 11, 2022 11:42 pm
2 days out and the club are persisting with trying to fleece the fans they already have by offering gold lounge access for 35 quid rather than doing anything to attract NEW FANS or even Lapsed ones. A glance at the ticketing scenario shows not much improvement from the weekend when we were looking at sub 500....Hughes has to act NOW.
We have 7 more home matches after this.....he has to task his Management Team to come up with a structured plan on how to at least try to get over 1,500 to all of them. If it were me, I'd offer existing ST holders an upgrade to gold for £50 and then general admission at £5 a game. People are currently tightening their belts so it's vital we get the pricing right now and for next year (if there is a next year).
It's all well and good Hughes cutting his cloth, but the reality is what he's done is cut our throat and is watching us bleed out slowly....London Broncos can't be done on the cheap, so he's either in or out. Halfway is just a slow death.
Appointment #1 must be a sports administrator. Freelance admins cost about 50k a year pro rata and I'd guess that 3 days a week would cover the club
Appointment #2 should be a General Manager. Loubser has shown he's out of his depth and when he goes (he'll be looking already) he needs to be replaced by someone prepared to roll up their sleeves
Appointment #3. A qualified marketing person. The last one we had Gus sacked and she ended up at the Quins Union before going to the RFU.....we haven't had a marketing manager since then (2011?).......that is a shocking state of affairs and Hughes is 100% behind that and it is deliberate.
These 3 need TARGETS with REWARDS or CONSEQUENCES in place......a budget needs to be approved and a campaign built to attract NEW fans to the game. I'd go so far as to allocate 1 day a week for all 3 of these people to focus solely on re-engaging lapsed fans.....
...as for this Friday.
I see a loss and a poor crowd, but then I see Hughes getting his chequebook out but it'll be purely to keep us up, so once again, his heart and not his head making decisions