: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:25 am  

League as a sport needs to get a boost before we see 10k crowds down here with any sort of regularity.
Union had it with its world cup win and players becoming household names, to go with the work the clubs had been doing. Cricket had its (temp) boost with the advent of that nonsense 20/20.


New peeps to sport tend to go about once or maybe twice in their first year.
A couple more after that, and then they start thinking about attending more regularly.

For years the team has moved location and seen wholesale changes to the squad. meaning that its effectively the first time going each year.

I know people keep saying "give it time" but really thats what we need, together with the community work etc.

10k crowds in ten years a bit of a stretch, although if we can build each year and start challenging for honours, who knows.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:51 am  

Although I support the slow build strategy, part of me thinks that you can't jump a canyon in small steps. At some stage there will need to be a surge, maybe on the back of a trophy or someone coming in and employing Gutterfax........

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:58 am  

poplar panther wrote:

Although I support the slow build strategy, part of me thinks that you can't jump a canyon in small steps. At some stage there will need to be a surge, maybe on the back of a trophy or someone coming in and employing Gutterfax........

towards the exit

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:14 am  

Darthchris wrote:

towards the exit

How's the gardening leave going?

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:21 am  

Darthchris wrote:

League as a sport needs to get a boost before we see 10k crowds down here with any sort of regularity.
Union had it with its world cup win and players becoming household names, to go with the work the clubs had been doing. Cricket had its (temp) boost with the advent of that nonsense 20/20.


New peeps to sport tend to go about once or maybe twice in their first year.
A couple more after that, and then they start thinking about attending more regularly.

For years the team has moved location and seen wholesale changes to the squad. meaning that its effectively the first time going each year.

I know people keep saying "give it time" but really thats what we need, together with the community work etc.

10k crowds in ten years a bit of a stretch, although if we can build each year and start challenging for honours, who knows.

Could well be the first post of yours I have really agreed with. Any growth has zip to do with marketing in the first instance, it has to do with evolving a desire to want to watch that sport live as part of the natural psyche of the viewer, and that as a generalism, is not prevelant in the South of England.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:23 am  

Homer wrote:

:CLAP: Could well be the first post of yours I have really agreed with. Any growth has zip to do with marketing in the first instance, it has to do with evolving a desire to want to watch that sport live as part of the natural psyche of the viewer, and that as a generalism, is not prevelant in the South of England.

Marketing is all about creating the desire for a particular product, making the recipient want it...

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:04 am  

Dave Lister wrote:

Marketing is all about creating the desire for a particular product, making the recipient want it...

To run a marketing campaign, the first thing you need is a target. Then, you need to calculate the Budget available (including contingency) and the measurement peramiters.
In the case of QRL....If the target is 5,000 average gates and the budget is £300,000k, then the measurement needs to be spot on.
Then, you try different routes to market and gauge response, sticking with (and ramping up) the successful ones and binning the failures. After 6 months, you will have a recipie for long term sustainable marketing, but you must continue to try new avenues as well.

As an example, you place a £2,500 1/4 page ad in Metro and Lite.....offering free beer/food (get Greene King to sponsor it) and a £5 ticket on production of a completed form.
After the game, data entry the forms, contact the respondants, ask what they though and offer them a £10 ticket to the next game. The resultant £10 tickets sold is the "return on investment". Yes, you may get 1,000 turn up to the original £5 game with free beer, but they aren't any good to you unless they come back! Proctor & Gamble, the world largest advertiser ($1,000,000,000 per year) say that a consumer only becomes a customer when they buy your product for the 7th time.
Is you get 100 of the 1,000 to come back...it works and should be repeated but if it doesn't, dont stop all forms of marketing.......try something new.
This trial and error method is the only way to figure out what is best for you. The alternative is to employ a marketing agency....and they don't come cheap.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:03 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

Mmmmm.....nice if it happens, but I reckon it won't happen in my lifetime.

Below are the average gates for Londons' SL team from 2000 to 2009.......as you can see we have a 3,600 odd average over that period so to increase this by 30% is going to nigh on impossible without some serious outlay on Marketing.
I have always said, 5,000 should be the first target and then...thereafter, the crowds will grow "organically", but 10,000 is just pie in the sky....
3430
3232
3803
3545
3460
3918
4238
3428
3630
3368 (to date)

Of the teams now in SL, below is the average gate for each team over the years (since 2001) when they visit the Stoop. (Still to play this year)
Celtic C's 2245
Salford 2670
Hudds* 2800
Wakefield 2896
Catalans 2971
Warrington 3413
Castleford 3567
Hull FC 3708
Hull KR 3776
Bradford 4016
Leeds 4596
Wigan 4762
Saints 4764

* 12,000 double header adjusted to 2,800

If we are to try to get an average of 5,000 by the next round of franchise/licence applications, then we need to add nearly 19,000 to the gates per season, over the next 2 seasons (1,500 a game). Given that away fan numbers are well down this year (not saying we should rely on them) due to Crusaders, France & Scotland being added to the "big trips", I would love to know how the RFL and The Quins team think they will find these people. An increase of 30% in gates is not impossible, but if each customer is worth £9.50 (IL's figures, not mine), then basic economics state that it will cost nearly £20 to get them in for the first time and you start making money the third time they visit. By my calculations, this points to a spend of £380,000 to get these people to TW2.......what are the odds of DH sanctioning that kind of marketing spend?
£760,000 over 26 games to achieve the 5k average that gets a 40% capacity point........ Is 1 point worth that much money?

I think you've missed a nought off. Quins need a 300% increase to get to 10k.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:36 pm  

londoner wrote:

I think you've missed a nought off. Quins need a 300% increase to get to 10k.

I said I was using IL's calculator
300%.........happy now?

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:03 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

I said I was using IL's calculator
300%.........happy now?

did he borrow that calculator off Justin Morgan ?