The First Signs.... : Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:05 pm  

....of discomfort at the low gates have appeared on the official website at the foot of the match report from Friday.

You have to accept there are issues here:

1) Blackpool Panthers don't currently play in Blackpool

2) (South) Fylde folk aren't and never will be RL people...their sporting interests are mainly Yoonion, Golf, Bowls and all things Equestrian.

3) Whether we all like it or not a lot of the footfall at Panthers comes from RL fans who live close by but follow the Panthers as their second club. So hence when we clash with Wigan, Saints etc the crowd will be lower. That being the case, don't clash with them if at al possible (I know this was unavoidable this week).

4) the goal was always to get out of the graveyard that is Championship 1 and make the Championship, perhaps the board are now beginning to realise there is little appeitite for thsi level of RL, no matter how well we play.

5) this season was never going to be cost effective and whilst it would be nice to see more through the gates, whilst at Fylde it is most unlikely to happen. The club needs to accept this and work towards returning to Blackpool at the earliest opportunity.

Before anyone accuses me of any negativity I'm not, but I am being realistic. 35 years of mainly crap RL with the occasional false dawn has taught me to be cautious

Re: The First Signs.... : Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:10 pm  

Looks like the gate quoted in League Express was home fans only and excluded the 52 travelling Donny fans. (253 in LE, 305 on club website!!)

Mr Hope has been quoted before as saying his 2 aims for the season are promotion and a return of the team to Blackpool. I seem to remember him saying he had 3 sites in mind which I would guess are Bloomfield Road (no ta), the arena thing on Stanley Park and another.

Re: The First Signs.... : Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:55 pm  

Low crowds in my opinion are still low as the board has never implemented many of the core ideas put to them 2 years ago, the media is the be all and end all,if the media back you, then the people will follow. Its brilliant that we have a winning team, but a waste of money if we arent banging the drum in the media enough.
The new board seems to be pushing far more than the last regime, and nick settle is doing some sterling work in my opinion, but its simply not enough. This is a problem in the whole of rugby league i know, but we will never increase attendances,sponsorship and general awareness of what the panthers are about if we continue to push ourselves randomly and without a clear marketing and public relations strategy.
Saying that, im sure we will get some half decent publicity in League express and league weekly when we beat Leeds, maybe even a picture from the game

Re: The First Signs.... : Sat May 08, 2010 9:24 am  

when the new chairman took over there were muted hopes for the opportunity to build a new small stadium in the town - about 4,000 capacity with i guess potential to increase. there are also a couple of venues in south blackpool that have amatuer footy played there. with a bit of a touch up they could be possible venues, near to the scorpions field

but yeah the club could do way more to promote. i've said this many times, suggested ideas, offered to help in the past but nothing ever came of it. good press in the build up to the leeds game, but that needs to be maximised locally off the back of it. maybe its for the supporters to try and do more to force the issue. i try and get a new person down to the games at woodlands whenever possible but i know that isn't enough (not every one in lytham puts the union and golf above league!). i've been on a number of wigan forums trying to encourage a few people to use the £5 offer through the summer, and i know a few people were down fo the haven game on that basis too.