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Stealth Comic wrote:
The German Football business model is actually a very sound one. 51% of shares must be owned by fans. They invest very heavily in coaching and youth development which is starting to produce a huge amount of talented young players that can be sold for big money like Mario Götze, Mezut Ozil, Sammi Khedira and Manuel Neuer. They have safe standing areas in grounds that can be converted to seating go European games which improves atmospheres and lowers ticket prices. Clubs and fans generally have a tremendous sense of loyalty towards each other not the one way loyalty we have in British Sport where fans are just considered a cash cow to be exploited. Corporate Revenues are used to keep ticket prices low for regular fans. There are even grounds where you can get food and drink brought to you so don't miss any action. Average attendances across the Bundesliga was 45,179 compared to 35,816 in the Premier League this season.
Agree 100%
If you were a director of Keighley Cougars wanting to bring success by daring to be different (as Cougarmania 1), what might be things you could learn from this?....
51% of shares must be owned by fans.Mr Fawcett owns all the shares (all £10 worth of them). Why not offer issue shares to supporters in £10 (max) blocks so the club would be run on a one member, one vote basis? Then more people would be likely to volunteer their services as they would feel it would be serving
their club?
Clubs and fans generally have a tremendous sense of loyalty towards each other Keighley Cougars needs the whole of Keighley to be proud of it and to feel a part of it.
Unfortunately, for most people in Keighley, the Cougars now would seem to be a closed shop for a minority clique.
There needs to be a mass leaflet drop making Cougars seem much more welcoming to Everybody and explaining when matches are on and how to get tickets etc.
In many holiday places in Europe you see several generations of German families gathered in big numbers on beaches under flags of
their football clubs. Everything Cougars does needs to generate that sort of feeling of belonging in a wide supporter base.
Corporate Revenues are used to keep ticket prices low for regular fans. I know there were supposed to be 20,000 free season tickets issued to under 16's - but this obviously hasn't worked as attendances at matches have fallen well below 1,000.
Can the directors be brave and forget season tickets for next season (apart from those who want them for the stand) and charge just say a fiver on the gate for everybody and see what happens?
