How can we get the Wembley daytrippers into the Hall ?

[Up the Shrimpers]

All of the plus things already mentioned will help, winning, pricing etc. I also think that Bradford's model of #onefournine is a model worth examining by the Blues management next season.

For those that don't know what I'm on about, this is an extract from one of their web pages.:

'Earlier in the summer, Bradford City reaffirmed their commitment to fight against rising tickets for their fans by confirming their impressively low season ticket prices for the upcoming season. In their bid to bring the most value to their fans, the Bantams confirmed that supporters over the age of 16 will pay only £149 for a season ticket. It’s an incredibly brave and admirable initiative from the League One side, whose preference to fill the stadium instead of their own pockets shows that there are still clubs trying to run the club in the right way.'

City clocked up 18,000 ST sales before the scheme closed.

This has been discussed on here before and I think the club have even looked at similar schemes. But we really only have room for 7,500 season ticket holders (you have to leave some seats free for individual matches and we would not sell Season tickets in any of the North Bank, North West Corner or X Block). So this sort of scheme will never happen at Roots Hall.

Another thing to note about the Bradford City special offer is that Under 16 season tickets were £99. Southend's under 16 season tickets were £75 !!!!

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

What I have noticed so far this season is how empty the Family sections have been. Maybe that will pick up a bit now the school holidays are over.

Also not as many away fans as some people expected. If you look at our next 8 home games we will be lucky to see more than 450 away fans from each club.

 

[drummers grandad]

Get an Olympic Stadium,make the tax payers pay for it then offer cheap tickets :winking:

 

[RHB]

Get an Olympic Stadium,make the tax payers pay for it then offer cheap tickets :winking:

Yeah, that would do it!

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

This has been discussed on here before and I think the club have even looked at similar schemes. But we really only have room for 7,500 season ticket holders (you have to leave some seats free for individual matches and we would not sell Season tickets in any of the North Bank, North West Corner or X Block). So this sort of scheme will never happen at Roots Hall.

Another thing to note about the Bradford City special offer is that Under 16 season tickets were £99. Southend's under 16 season tickets were £75 !!!!

I agree. I think we'd need a new, bigger stadium (:blush:) to be able to throw out deals like that.

 

[buffalowolf]

win another two promotions and they will come back.

 

[RHB]

I agree. I think we'd need a new, bigger stadium (:blush:) to be able to throw out deals like that.

The deal doesn't have to be identical, but surely if we sold 7/8k STs it would be an improvement on now.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

Reduce ticket prices!! EASY

For some, maybe. Some are saying they just want to see us winning. I think SUFC are many supporters 2nd team (a lot support W.Ham, Arsenal, Spurs etc each week) and we will only ever get them to visit us for the big games. I appreciate their support, but whatever we try i'm not sure we'll get them into Roots Hall on a regular basis.

 

[ry88]

I have numerous friends that have attended play off matches or finals and the lot of them combined have only been to a handful of league matches. I manage more home games and I'm 270 miles away!

I guess it's just the buzz of the big games that draws the part time fans in :thumbdown:

 

[MK Shrimper]

Ritual sacrifices of a virgin at half time.

 

[Steven Dalley]

For me this issue is cost. I would go and see the team regularly irrespective of whether we were winning or losing IF/as long as it was affordable. If an adult ticket was £10, I would be there every time (when possible). I think tickets are much too expensive and because of this, I seldom attend matches. If/when tickets are (occasionally) reduced (eg, cup matches) I usually attend. I could possibly stretch to £15, but I still think that is expensive. Many people are living on tight budgets and are probably put-off by our price levels. I would probably purchase a season ticket is it was in the region of £200. I've never purchased one before, due to the cost. I would imagine many other "stay-away fans" feel the same as me, but I could be wrong?!

 

[Joolz]

I don't think we are any different to any other team in this respect, even the likes of Man U must have 10 times the demand for Wembley tickets than they do for an 'average' league fixture.

For me personally, a new stadium with a decent view will make a difference. Having been to quite a few of the newer grounds you really start to notice how bad it is at Roots Hall.

 

[RobM]

Roots Hall is like your favourite jeans - ripped knees, holes in the pockets...but somehow you just can't bin them!

Anyway...

Cost is a factor of course, but if every match was as good as the Peterborough one...which, of course, is not guaranteed, would that be a draw?

If you pay £24 to see a band, you know you'll get value for money. But football isn't like that. You can watch an under 11's match for free and think "Crumbs, that was great!". Equally you could watch a top match - say Arsenal - and think "That was so dull!"

Now - if the cost of a ticket was £10 - would we sell out every match?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

It might help if the ticket office got their finger out and actually put some more matches on the online ticketing system rather than just the next game this Saturday home to Shrewsbury.

Just a thought.:angry:

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

Like me, a large number of supporters that attended the Play-off Final travelled a considerable distance to attend that match. For me, to get to a match at Roots Hall would involve either a round-trip car journey of over 320 miles or a complicated train journey costing about £65, even with my Senior Citizen Railcard discount. Just to put that into more context, there were at least 50 of our supporters on the same East Coast mainline trains as me in each direction travelling from and to stations from Grantham northwards on Play-off Final day. I estimate that that could well have been the case with virtually every train arriving from different parts of the country at the various London mainline stations in time to get over to Wembley for the start of the match. Okay, that doesn't account for a huge proportion of the shortfall between the Wembley attendees and the number of Roots Hall regulars.

In addition, we have always had a large number of 'big club' supporters living in or near Southend who will turn up to watch Southend on big occasions only.

I agree that a winning team and reasonable ticket prices are the best solutions to bringing in the local support. Back when I first started supporting Southend in the late 1960s, there was a conspiracy theory when we failed to win promotion after being near the top of the division for most of the season that the club would earn more money by attracting more supporters to watch us win in Division 4 than to watch us lose in Division 3, so we blew the last games of the season to make sure we stayed down!

 

[Ex-Member1]

I say this again. The term 'Day tripper' I find offensive. We get to games as often as we can, some of us have forgotten more about our beloved team than some nowadays know about supporting our boys. Some of us have supported our team all over the country through thick and thin, some of us have been in a crowd of barely 1000 to watch our team. It is all about winning games. If we win a couple on the bounce now, watch the crowds swell. It really isn't rocket science. It is nothing to do with the ground, facilities, meat pies, onions or whatever, it is solely about a winning team. End of rant. COYBB.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I say this again. The term 'Day tripper' I find offensive. We get to games as often as we can, some of us have forgotten more about our beloved team than some nowadays know about supporting our boys. Some of us have supported our team all over the country through thick and thin, some of us have been in a crowd of barely 1000 to watch our team. It is all about winning games. If we win a couple on the bounce now, watch the crowds swell. It really isn't rocket science. It is nothing to do with the ground, facilities, meat pies, onions or whatever, it is solely about a winning team. End of rant. COYBB.

In fairness, I don't think 'daytripper' was meant in a pejorative sense by the OP. Just a catch-all term to refer to those who very rarely go to Roots Hall, even if they have the ability to. Certainly, I don't think there is any suggestion of knocking folks for not going week-in week-out (at least I hope not, as I'm one of them!)

Clearly Southend United means something to a lot of people, and it is about tapping in to that wider potential.

 

[Ex-Member1]

Sorry but that term is not pleasant, it smacks of the prawn sandwich supporter which I feel is unfair to those who do their share of supporting. Meant or not by the OP, he should rephrase IMHO.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Sorry but that term is not pleasant, it smacks of the prawn sandwich supporter which I feel is unfair to those who do their share of supporting. Meant or not by the OP, he should rephrase IMHO.

Wembley One-Offs? At least it is (sort of) alliterative.

Or we could take a lead from Ghana...

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/news...e-matches-to-boost-dwindling-attendances.html

 

[Jai]

Difference between us and Bradford is they are rattling around in a 25,000 capacity stadium and have nothing to lose by selling those swathes of seats that would otherwise be empty on the cheap. A few good wins and we could feasibly be hitting 8,000 home fans, which with 2,000 available for away supporters, doesn't really mean much room left.

I do think there should be something done about the pricing in the South Lower though. The view means it should be at least a fiver cheaper than the rest of the ground.

As for "daytrippers", at £24 a ticket on the day, a lot of people will pick and choose a few games to go to a season because that kind of money is simply beyond a lot of people in the area. I know a good few people who can't afford to go very much any more but are just as passionate about the club as anyone else and have served their time on Tuesday nights away to Hartlepool and have done about 50 league grounds in their time. But football is expensive now, even at our level.