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The Southend United Program debate.

What is your choice on matchday programme provision?


  • Total voters
    170
  • Poll closed .
Who writes the programme, and how many people have accounted for their time in their calculations of how much it costs to produce?

I know someone who used to in theory edit the programme at a football league club, and realistically he wrote every piece in it. He spent so much of his time chasing up people for their contributions, or in most cases writing their contributions that other parts of his role (the more lucrative parts) suffered.

programmes used to be relevant, but since the internet, what is there that could possibly be written in a programme that hasn't already been announced and done to death on twitter and on here? People used to keep up with club news in the programme, but that's not the case now.

They can be a nice memento, but dont really serve much of a purpose now.
Yep, a sad day when Matt Hudson left Colchester United.
 
I was also thinking about the sponsors and companies who pay good money to have there product advertised on a match day programme.
Do sponsors care that much about the programme? I'd have thought the other forms of advertising (advertising boards etc.) would be far more valuable to a company because it reaches all the fans instead of just a fraction of them (plus it's something fans will see for 90 minutes instead of them just flicking past the ad without reading it, if you asked 500 programme readers what was being advertised on Saturday I'd be amazed if even 20 of them would know).

According to our website it's £2,595 to advertise for a full season in our programme, which is £112.82 or you can advertise for a single match at £225. That's not a particularly big amount of money considering it's a grand to advertise on the boards not seen on TV for a single match and £2,785 to advertise on the ones that are. (I'm not convinced the prices are current though considering it mentions one of the benefits of the TV board advertising being that you'll be on Channel 5's highlights show but it gives you an idea.)

 
Can anybody remember the players' names from the pre-match announcements without referring to a programme, I can't remember them after five minutes.
 
That is your opinion but do you actually know that's the case? It seems to me that we have had several new sponsors, including Solopress that are a main club sponsor for the North Stand and are the Club's official print partner.
Also he's probably going to have to spend the first year of his tenure fixing the neglect of the last two or three years.

There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes and anyone who thinks we will immediately transition from an utter car crash to a club that is well-run overnight is touchingly naive.
 
I'm not a program buyer unless it's the big cup games that I'll buy one and put it away for keeps sake.

It just shows how out of touch this new CEO is with the fans. The whole match day experience for so many people (and has been for the last 100 years), to buy a program, sit down and read it before the game. He does realise not everyone is 30-40 years old and reads there phone all the time right?

If this is his way forward, he can do one, he'll be taking away the fun for our older fans.
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are the one that is out of touch?

If 5,500 people attend a match and 300* buy a programme, perhaps it isn't the CEO after all.

*I don't know the figure, but guessing it is low enough to make cost-cutting worthwhile.
 
I've added a new item to the poll.

Terrific.

That will utterly distort a poll for which that option was not originally open to the first 148 voters.

Putin would be proud of you………and no doubt Tom will send you a free digital copy.

For the record, when you changed it 59% wanted hard copy, 2% didn’t mind and 4% wanted digital. 35% didn’t buy.

Looks pretty overwhelming to me so no wonder you changed it.
 
Last edited:
Terrific.

That will utterly distort a poll for which that option was not originally open to the first 148 voters.

Putin would be proud of you………and no doubt Tom will send you a free digital copy.

For the record, when you changed it 59% wanted hard copy, 2% didn’t mind and 4% wanted digital. 35% didn’t buy.

Looks pretty overwhelming to me so no wonder you changed it.
Haha

TBH hadenoughblues voted for a hard copy but admitted he doesn't buy one - I wouldn't worry too much about the validity of a poll on SZ:Smile:

It'll be a numbers games - I guess the club want to phase them out to save cash - and maybe that is right

It's a little like the north bank - we want it back but no one want to sit there!
 
I agree.

I was also thinking about the sponsors and companies who pay good money to have there product advertised on a match day programme.

If I was one of the above, I wouldn't be happy at all with the limitation to my potential customer..... This CEO is doing a great job of pushing away businesses from investing in advertisment. He sounds like a right clown to me.

He won't be here long that's for sure.
Any reason for this other than programmes (of which I imagine interest in dwindles year on year) being a bit harder to buy?
 
Terrific.

That will utterly distort a poll for which that option was not originally open to the first 148 voters.

Putin would be proud of you………and no doubt Tom will send you a free digital copy.

For the record, when you changed it 59% wanted hard copy, 2% didn’t mind and 4% wanted digital. 35% didn’t buy.

Looks pretty overwhelming to me so no wonder you changed it.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure why you needed (i) to get irate, or (ii) to get personal, but if it works for you I suppose. For what it's worth I also allowed those that had already voted to have additional choices.
 
The recently added last option is a trifle disengenuous. If it's hard to find a sales point (which is clearly the aim) then obviously the numbers in that option will fall. If programmes are now being phased out under the pretext of going green then they will be hard to find and will ensure a self-fulfilling prophey that the future is digital. Some honesty and transparency from the CEO is needed, not standard management speak, but having got away with it at the Zoom meeting, he'll no doubt feel confident that he won't be held to account.. The relevant questions that should have been asked are what is the print run, how many were sold and how many left over and is it profitable or not?
 
Terrific.

That will utterly distort a poll for which that option was not originally open to the first 148 voters.

Putin would be proud of you………and no doubt Tom will send you a free digital copy.

For the record, when you changed it 59% wanted hard copy, 2% didn’t mind and 4% wanted digital. 35% didn’t buy.

Looks pretty overwhelming to me so no wonder you changed it.
59% of 148 people ‘prefer’ a hard copy version. Doesn’t mean they actually buy one so it’s not that overwhelming. It’s not like 59% of our 5000-6000 crowds buy programmes. It’s probably less than 20%.
 
Apologies if this has been mentioned in this thread somewhere already but one of the things i was disappointed in was the lack of an announcement/news article on this prior to the first game. i walked in the west to where i always buy a programme, this time no seller, asked a steward who said they are being sold behind the bar but are sold out. Several people had the same experience. if i'd known prior to entering the ground there would no sellers i would have popped in the shop before hand or headed straight to the bar. There was no prior update that the programme situation at the club had changed.
 
I think that someone just needs to announce what the arrangements are for the next match. Can you buy a programme, if so where. If you can't and it's digital only, announce that and be done with it. As I said earlier I buy but very rarely read the programmes and my son keeps them just as a memento from the games he's been to. If they disappear, I won't be too bothered nor will he I don't suppose.
 
Of all the games that I have been to over the years the only one I have not got is the Tottenham v Arsenal May 71 when Arsenal won the league title at White Hart Lane .
 
Year on year advertising spend on printed media has been falling for 5 years.


This is probably the root cause of the program being discontinued.

The simple truth (inconvenient to us fans) is that we simply did not buy it in the quantities needed to make it viable.

To sell the program at cost would probably make us all swear and rant at the price of it.

Cannot win!!

I feel so passionate about this because I remember going to games on a Friday night (East Paddock) with my dad, brother and my grandad, he'd always buy a program, get his little blue bookies pen out and write things down on the program......... I remember that so well.

What right does this CEO come in and change it all without a thought.. If he wants to change things thats fine, but don't change history and memories from the fans who've been supporting the club through generations. We have a older
Haha

TBH hadenoughblues voted for a hard copy but admitted he doesn't buy one - I wouldn't worry too much about the validity of a poll on SZ:Smile:

It'll be a numbers games - I guess the club want to phase them out to save cash - and maybe that is right

It's a little like the north bank - we want it back but no one want to sit there!

The poll asked what do you prefer, hence my vote.
 
Who would have thought that Vinyl records would outsell CDs last year?

It’s all well and good trying to “progress“ but this is the wrong way. If printed copies are lost now people will come to regret it in years to come.

Streamed music, digital photos, you still can’t beat the hard copy.

I have a digital copy of the Stockport game for which I use my IPad. Comes up the wrong size in the App - have to shrink the page. The double spread pages with the fixtures and appearances of course come up on page at a time which is useless. I don’t think I will be searching it out in years to come whereas my 71/72 season programmes are sat next to my lap top informing my Memory Lane posts

The worst thing about this whole fiasco is the appalling lack of communication by the club. But it is what one comes to expect over the years.

Fleetwood Town do a match day programme for just £1.
What do they do that we can’t? Probably nothing if the will is there.
 
I feel so passionate about this because I remember going to games on a Friday night (East Paddock) with my dad, brother and my grandad, he'd always buy a program, get his little blue bookies pen out and write things down on the program......... I remember that so well.

What right does this CEO come in and change it all without a thought.. If he wants to change things thats fine, but don't change history and memories from the fans who've been supporting the club through generations. We have a older


The poll asked what do you prefer, hence my vote.
The last option for me,sadly.
After season 2015/16, I halted my 60 year collection of every single first team match at Roots Hall for one reason alone : we don’t live in a mansion,so they (along with nearly every away programme) had become far too bulky to be stored.
Therefore my suggestion is for the club , late in the day, to produce an extensive “team-sheet”.Provided it showed the ACTUAL line-ups,including subs, with their correct numbers ,then maybe a list of players missing out through injury or suspension,and an up-to-date league table and fixture list. I think this would sell really well for 50p or £1.
E.G.If folk really want to read what Brown has been spouting,there are plenty of other ways to do so.
 
The last option for me,sadly.
After season 2015/16, I halted my 60 year collection of every single first team match at Roots Hall for one reason alone : we don’t live in a mansion,so they (along with nearly every away programme) had become far too bulky to be stored.
Therefore my suggestion is for the club , late in the day, to produce an extensive “team-sheet”.Provided it showed the ACTUAL line-ups,including subs, with their correct numbers ,then maybe a list of players missing out through injury or suspension,and an up-to-date league table and fixture list. I think this would sell really well for 50p or £1.
E.G.If folk really want to read what Brown has been spouting,there are plenty of other ways to do so.
Correction: I no longer buy the programme..
 
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