How to ensure Falmer gets filled

[Tooting Gull]

These are the facts. For years supporting Brighton has not been the easiest thing to do in a wide range of choices with what to do with your leisure time, which is why everyone who has can be very proud of themselves. Gillingham, then shit ground with small capacity and high prices, we all know it.

But being positive about it, how does the club make absolutely certain that they win back into the fold all those people 'who can't get in' that we always talk about and that they a) are actually there, and b) start coming.

It's always concerned me that there is an element of complacency people will flood back. Some will, but many are going to need a serious campaign by the club to get them back in the habit, and catch a whole lost range of kids. Let's face it, on the stats compared to last time we were doing OK around 6,000 people have found something else to do.

Maybe there are plans afoot - insider knowledge welcome - but I think there needs to be a massive campaign in schools, local media, the county at large telling the wider public (not just us who know and go anyway) that they are lucky to have Falmer and to turn up and discover/rediscover the joys of supporting the Albion.

Any ideas? Let's send them all to the club the moment it gets approved, it's positive suggestions only.

 

[fatboy]

Match tickets for a fiver (Notts Forest, Stoke)

Sending schoolkids in for free to fill up the crowd. (If one kid then starts going it is worth it)

Somehow appeal to all those people that used to go and now don't. Maybe some sort of family deal for people that don't go now because of their families.

 

[Marc]

I think its already started with merchandise available in towns outside Brighton and the recent addition of tickets sales outside Brighton aswell.
It'll be a media frenzy day around the first match (*IF* we get there) so that should get some poeple thinking, obviously the division we are in will also have some effect on the masses.

It depends on alot of things but the latter up there will be the defining thing for me.

 

[bhafc4eva]

Reasonable ticket prices and pay on the gate wouldn't go a miss.

 

[Superphil]

Marketing.

Ads on buses, on billboards etc. I'm sure years ago I remember buses driving around with "Next hame game at the Albion v *****" on the sides, certainly ads in the press. on billboards, It all adds up.

Plus get on the telly & Radio, South today, Southern FM, SCR etc. week in, week out. Nick Nurse of the Brighton Bears is on the radio stations, in the Arsegas at every oppertunity, and mens netball has never been so popular in Sussex..

Either way, so long as there are pay on the day tickets, concessions for kids, unreserved seating behind one of the goals, I believe that the crowds will be there.

 

[Superseagull]

Got to agree that pay on the gate will be the biggest factor. Loads of people used to make a decision to go to a match only a couple of days or even hours before a Goldstone match. Now at Withdean if you don't book weeks in advance you have got no chance of getting anymore than 3 or 4 seats in a block.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think the club should try and cut the season ticket price to try and bump up the numbers. Some sort of gesture for the 8-9 years or shit we've gone through would be good.

£300-£350 is very different to £500 plus, especially if you take kids along as well, and I think the Albion should aim to make it financially viable for dad and son to go together for no more than £500.

 

[Raphael Meade]

as fatboy says and also someone on harty's show on satdi, why not most of the remaining tickets on a friday round the local schools for free (obv keep some back for people wanting to go but leaving it late) and get the kids hooked so they pester their parents to take them next time.

obviously it'll be different at falmer with being able to pay on the door, but going by average attendences, the club will know, for example, they've got 6000 tickets they can give to schools the week before then why not to do it.

we can 'reclaim' a whole generation (and many more to come) back from the likes og manure and ARSEnal...

 

[The Wookiee]

Play well that would be a start!!!!!!!!!

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

obviously it'll be different at falmer with being able to pay on the door

Lord B. posted recently to say that this will not be case, but that tickets are planned to be available on the day at railway stations and other outlets.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Lord B. posted recently to say that this will not be case, but that tickets are planned to be available on the day at railway stations and other outlets.

what are the reasons for not pay on the day?

 

[desprateseagull]

cheap seats, good food, nakedwomen?

works for me!

maybe also online book, pay and print- save the club extra work, admin costs, postal delays etc, and fans get tix there and then. could do this on a secure site, or via shop terminals around the town...?

there's enough techno talent in the area, to make it happen...

 

[Yorkie]

As soon as Falmer is open, don't you think there will be some curiosity value?

Keeping them will be the key.

 

[Tooting Gull]

The only possible reason I can think of not to have pay on the gate is as some sop to the NIMBYS about matchday activity. But that is going too far, it's a basic commercial and fan need to pay on the gate.

How many other things have we had to agree to in the plan that are not in the best interests of the fans?

Ahem. Sorry. Positive.

 

[Superphil]

Pay at the Station, Pay at the gate, what f***ing difference does it make, it's still pay on the day

 

[Tooting Gull]

The (obvious) difference is you might not be going to the station. The whole point is making it easier, not harder.

 

[Northstander]

Leeds actually offered local businesses cheaper tickets for it's staff on the midweek games or less important matches to the family stand. this is a good idea to get people going to matches.

Then again...they about to go into administration....ignore this post!!!

 

[poke]

when brighton started playing withdean they had this roadshow down the marina. Thats what got me interested in the Albion.

 

[Yorkie]

Leeds actually offered local businesses cheaper tickets for it's staff on the midweek games or less important matches to the family stand. this is a good idea to get people going to matches.

Then again...they about to go into administration....ignore this post!!!

I remember. We got them at Yorkshire Electricity. I got two once and passed them onto a Leeds fan I knew for him and his son.

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

Lord B (pasted from a previous post):

"The information that was given at the Public Inquiry was that tickets would NOT be on sale at the ground on the day.

However ... tickets would be sold on the day at railway stations (thanks to a deal between the Club and South Central). The price would include rail travel (or bus travel, or park and ride) - just as it does at the moment.

It's called a sustainable travel plan - aimed at encouraging people to use public transport to get to and from Falmer.

If people insist on driving, they will have to buy tickets in advance, pay a surcharge and arrive at Sussex University with a car that's full of ticket holders. And (unlike Withdean) there will be no legal on-street parking within walking distance of the ground."