: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:32 am  

hey Lister - what are your thoughts on the above post by HKB?

: Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:28 am  

PS: There's loads of research showing that, assuming marketing & promotion volumes are equal, the two primary factors behind sports attendance growth are:
1. The closeness of the result (excitement = retention)
2. The timing of the event (ability to convert buyer interest to action)

In the longer term, price becomes a much weaker factor.

Interestingly, and I dont know if this is correct, you have missed out success. The more successful sports clubs tend to have the better support numbers. Would this not be a factor.

I suspect if Newcastle Utd get relegated they will not be the 5th biggest supported club regardless of closeness of the results. Ala Leeds Utd

: Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:11 pm  

wire-quin wrote:

Interestingly, and I dont know if this is correct, you have missed out success. The more successful sports clubs tend to have the better support numbers. Would this not be a factor.

I suspect if Newcastle Utd get relegated they will not be the 5th biggest supported club regardless of closeness of the results. Ala Leeds Utd

Success is a factor, a win is generally better than a loss, but closeness of the outcome outweighed it in the correlations I'm pretty sure. It's been a few years, but simplifying I think I the order of most positive impact was:

1. Close win
2. Close defeat
3. Large win
4. Large defeat

The real killer metric was the variance between winners and losers score - the smaller the variance, the better the retention & audience growth. It is the uncertainty that creates excitement etc

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:24 am  

Another week, another seating debacle.

Walk up Quins fan gets seat in the middle of Hull fans.

No wonder mates of ST holders don't want to come back.

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:48 am  

It was ridiculous last night as, with no end stands open, there was the sight of groups of people who had obviously purchased tickets on the day were walking around the Etihad Stand trying to find two seats which were together as they could only find single seats free. Coupled with some Hull supporters placed near to the half way line. It's just absurd and completely avoidable - open one of the end bloody stands.

I don't for one minute expect anything to change though.

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:34 pm  

North stand for the away fans. Simple really. Live games will always be against one of the bigger away following teams so cannot see what the problem is

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:37 pm  

2 lost supporters yesterday because of this who didn't come when informed of the ticketing arrangements.

Utterly disgraceful that a walkup supporter 15 minutes before kick off can only get a ticket in the middle of the Hull fans (AC).

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:40 pm  

The club really has to deal with this urgently. How hard is this to solve FFS.

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:59 pm  

The away fans always went in one end at Brentford. They want to sit together the home fans want to sit together. makes for a better atmosphere. Are the club just reluctant or is it the cost of stewards? If we had 10,000 fans it wouldn't be an issue.
it is a shame as in all aspects of the game were are highly competitive, it's just getting the numbers in.

: Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:29 pm  

Dave Lister wrote:

2 lost supporters yesterday because of this who didn't come when informed of the ticketing arrangements.

Utterly disgraceful that a walkup supporter 15 minutes before kick off can only get a ticket in the middle of the Hull fans (AC).

Ended up dragging 3 friends with me yesterday, I am sure that only 1 might return. The fact that the seats were once again low (pre purchased friday) and this time in the rain.

Thats a total of 9 different friends who I probably will convert 2 of them to return in the future.

Seriously considering not returning myself at the moment.

I also suspect that we wont crack crowds above 3500 most of the season with these seating restrictions in place, all to save a few £'s.

Open the North!