Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 7:56 am  

So it looks like PL will be our stadium for next year. Right now however it looks like owing to the reduced gates and cost we really are not making the most use of the stadium, the two times I have been their (Dewsbury and Batley), just one stand open, limited food, and no fan engagement at all. Yes its a nicer stadium but for what we use of it, it really is not that much different to Ealing apart from Shiny seats, thats it.

The dons have the Fan Zone, Street Food, its a far better experience on match day for Wimbledon than for London (off the pitch I mean), so considering we are planning to stay there, how could we improve the match day experience to attract new fans, as just relying on the on-pitch performance is not going to bring them back in droves. Could we negotiate some deal with the Dons / local vendors to have the fan zone open even if the south stand is not being used?

Right now for what we are using at PL, the deal seems really bad. (No blame attached to Dons here). Why move to a fancy stadium, then not use any of the facilities on offer, just makes no sense at all. Not to mention being kicked out from June to August as well, which breaks any kind of momentium we might gain from the early season. When we played at Brentford, the gap was about 4 weeks, not the 8 we had this year

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:00 am  

Just to add, we wont be in SL for several years (unless they adopt franchising and we get a spot),so we can forget about SL rugby at time soon, so how to optimise PL considering we will mid table championship for the next several years

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:18 am  

Some of the costs at PL must be much more too. At least a dozen security I reckon.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 9:38 am  

I think the fan zone could be used if the Broncos wanted, it's probably more about the vendors seeing it financially viable. For the Joshua fight last week (shown in the Pub) one of the Vendors was at the stadium, although I suspect they didn't do great business.

How many people know the Pub/Fan Zone is there though. Regulars yes. One off visitors I doubt it. Even if you spotted the door to the stairs your more likely to assume it's hospitality/private ! The pub is doing good business on a Broncos match day, but could get more down there. A simple huge sign saying get downstairs for more fun would make a difference. I was appalled at the lack of info on the presence of MyPie early season. I knew they were there from the football the day before. But to find them you have to go down those stairs, through the pub, outside and past a gate. They unsurprisingly got little business. Had they been parked on the main concourse in the stand (no vehicles can go there by the way) they'd have done a roaring trade. The fault wasn't the location per se, it was the inability of the club to "join it up". But I'm not surprised by what I've witnessed at the Broncos matches this year.

AFC Wimbledon are giving away tickets for free tomorrow for the Barrow match. A good strategy. The Away (North) Stand holds 1400 but Barrow will only bring 2 or 3 hundred. So local residents will be given access to one side of the stand. The Home Section sales are good with mainly returns (Season Ticket and Debenture holders who can't attend) available so makes sense. Anybody turning up on the day can buy tickets for that section also. Even a small number of paying returnees will be good business.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:44 am  

Smithers99 wrote:

I think the fan zone could be used if the Broncos wanted, it's probably more about the vendors seeing it financially viable. For the Joshua fight last week (shown in the Pub) one of the Vendors was at the stadium, although I suspect they didn't do great business.

How many people know the Pub/Fan Zone is there though. Regulars yes. One off visitors I doubt it. Even if you spotted the door to the stairs your more likely to assume it's hospitality/private ! The pub is doing good business on a Broncos match day, but could get more down there. A simple huge sign saying get downstairs for more fun would make a difference. I was appalled at the lack of info on the presence of MyPie early season. I knew they were there from the football the day before. But to find them you have to go down those stairs, through the pub, outside and past a gate. They unsurprisingly got little business. Had they been parked on the main concourse in the stand (no vehicles can go there by the way) they'd have done a roaring trade. The fault wasn't the location per se, it was the inability of the club to "join it up". But I'm not surprised by what I've witnessed at the Broncos matches this year.

AFC Wimbledon are giving away tickets for free tomorrow for the Barrow match. A good strategy. The Away (North) Stand holds 1400 but Barrow will only bring 2 or 3 hundred. So local residents will be given access to one side of the stand. The Home Section sales are good with mainly returns (Season Ticket and Debenture holders who can't attend) available so makes sense. Anybody turning up on the day can buy tickets for that section also. Even a small number of paying returnees will be good business.

This is the sort of thing the Broncos should be doing, but never will. For me its a shame when I was finally able to get my Dad to PL for the Dewsbury game, I'd talked it up saying it was nice to be back in a stadium like the stoop with proper facilites, to only find when we got there apart from one refreshment stall and the pub, nothing else was being used, and he was like why did they move when 90% of the stadium is empty, they have no food for veggee apart from a pie (no chips, no veggie burger, pretty much nothing), and nothing happening at all.

He did not come on Sunday, did not feel the effort of getting there was worth the hassle based on what he had seen at Dewsbury (considering we can't take our own food in, and they have no veggie options), which I though was a huge shame. London really need to improve the off field experience next year.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 3:29 pm  

I see from the newsletter the club are holding a 'One Club Social' with players, backroom staff and management after the Barrow game but seems they will be charging an entry fee. It will include a Q&A. Maybe worth paying to ask what the love they are doing.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 4:06 pm  

Can't even get that right, the body of the text says tickets on sale now but bottom of the message says on sale from 30th. And of course they fail to say how much they are. Bizarre.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 5:02 pm  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

Can't even get that right, the body of the text says tickets on sale now but bottom of the message says on sale from 30th. And of course they fail to say how much they are. Bizarre.

Seems daft to charge for such an event. Ditch the buffet and make it free to all. It's not like they will be overwhelmed with numbers.

Re: Plough Lane : Fri Aug 26, 2022 5:57 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

Some of the costs at PL must be much more too. At least a dozen security I reckon.

At the start of the season the security almost matched the supporters one for one so they have clearly worked out that was a monstrous waste of money.....so that’s a plus.

Re: Plough Lane : Sun Sep 04, 2022 9:34 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

Seems daft to charge for such an event. Ditch the buffet and make it free to all. It's not like they will be overwhelmed with numbers.

£20 will keep us "dozen internet whingers" away ....I recall the last home game of the season gatherings at Griffin Park and The Stoop where access to the players wasn't through a "ticketed event".....Rusty would have had to buy his own beers in Stripes I remember Jamie Lyon buying a round in the Kings bar after a WCC warm up game....that was a decade or so ago.......Hughes should hang his head in shame at what he has done to the club......