Ideas To Increase Revenue

If Don and Patrick read this board maybe they could give some thought to the ideas that we come up with from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Here are a few ideas off the top of my head

1. Sort the f-ing contracts out.
2. Alcohol in the Ponty End
3. A proper supporter's bar - not Preedy's which is like a glorified low grade sports hall.
4. The 80s retro shirt must have been a great seller - why have they not expanded on this?
5. Tidy up the councourses and get the Sky sorted out - maybe people will spend a little bit more money there.
6. Re-think our approaches to sponsorship - we should have a couple of the stands sponsored and all the players home and away kits.

I'm sure there are reasons why none of this can be done.

 

Point 1. In bold. Underlined. Italicised

The rest wouldn't matter.

 

Win games - Sorted.

 

This is the thing though... how do you know that these ideas would generate more revenue? And if they don't, they could saddle the club with more costs which means they have to either increase prices, cut back on other things, most likely to be players or the academy set up, or sell more players.

1. Would increasing contracts be such an adverse risk that it counterbalances the benefits? Mike Sheron was on a long term contract and that murdered us. Yes there are positives, but there are also negatives. I'd love the kids especially to be on longer deals but theres been many a good un that never broke through even though they looked a star in the youth side or reserves. Karl Rose springs to mind who made Jordan Rhodes look a slouch in front of goal.
2. Ponty beer is a common comment, I thought there was a reason why there isnt alcohol in there .... was it something to do with concourse width? In which case, the club can't do anything other than knock the stand down and rebuild it. Very costly and isn't going to happen
3. Would people definitely go in there rather than the mount or wherever? And to build or refit you're talking substantial sums. That's going to take a lot of pints to claw back the capital investment being used just 20-25 times a year for an hour or so either side of kick off
4. Was it a great seller? What margin was there on the item compared the cost of promotion? If it was worth it, I'm sure the club could have their arm twisted to look at it
5. Are tidy concourses really going to generate sizeable revenue growth?
6. Where are the stand sponsors going to come from? Yes, commercial revenues would be hugely appreciated but it really isnlt easy when you have the density of clubs in our catchment all fighting for whatever revenue they can get.

Mandaric butchered the marketing and commercial set up at SWFC when he took over and they've massively focussed on player spend, not back office spend.

I'm not picking holes, I'm just saying it's not as easy as coming up with an "idea" and the club suddenly having an extra £500k to play with.

We've such a small back office set up that its hard to have the resource to channel into any idea. And I think thats the real issue. Lack of resource and the perception of too much risk for not enough guaranteed reward.

 

lets do nowt then and see where that gets us.

ffs.... if we do nowt eventually we will go under.

hth

 

None of us here have the full detail of the budgets available, the breakdown of the revenue or where profit is mainly generated from.

The main way of generating more in the current climate is for the team to do as well as it can. That makes it more attractive to sponsors, local and national, it can generate more TV revenue from appearances rather than the contractual minimum and it gets more bums on seats.

Let's see what Hill manages in the rest of the transfer window and what sort of side gets pulled together come beginning of September.

 

That goes back to the mentality and the risk appetite of the organisation. Understandably that is very low....

 

Cracking post.

 

1. Give the long term contracts to the right players and have a bit of faith in your own judgement. I can't imagine the young lads are much more than a few hundred quid so it is really a gamble putting them on four year contracts if it means the difference between £1m and £3m in transfer fees.

2. I've been on concourses smaller than my landing and they've had beer so I don't what the sticking point is.

3. Why would they not go? Sky sports, decent ale, bit of snap, if it was done well you'd get a decent turn out. Other clubs do it so why can't we?

4. Cannot possibly answer that. I did see a lot of people wearing them but if the margins are so small the club wouldn't bother with any merchandise.

5. I'm straight through the turnstiles and into my seat. I don't spend any time on the concourse hence I don't spend any money in the ground. If it was a bit more pleasant I might watch the end of the football and buy a drink as I'm in there twenty minutes before KO.

6. Seems to be plenty of sponsorship at the NY Stadium.

With your mentality we'd still be living in bloody caves.

 

It's not a mentality, it's business. They're the questions you ask day in, day out in a change/customer experience world. Risk/reward. Effort/benefit.

He's right - is a tidy concourse going to make much of a difference and get people to part with their cash? Same with social club. I'm sure it's been looked at and costed. If not, it's mental.

The key thing is on the pitch - seems like everything else (rightly or wrongly) has been scaled back as much as possible off the pitch to try and give Keith as much as is possible. Whether it's gone too far is another matter but it's an understandable policy. If we start winning and doing ok, we'll be fine.

 

alcohol in the ponty end comes up a lot but is it feasible ? is there a seperate area in the ponty end to build a bar because am not sure just adding a couple of pumps to the pie stand is workable

 

It's nothing to do with mentality.

If it's a good idea, and it generates revenue at a good return and doesn't tie up resource from doing other things then do it. If it doesn't stack up and isn't viable, then it goes in the bin.

 

The biggest problem at oakwell is the small club mind set they have, along with the stay away "fans", who in there right mind is going to invest in this club when the people of Barnsley wont even do it ?

 

Could be worse.... Doyle could still be in charge!

 

a big emphasis has got to be on families, catch the next generation, not just the diehards now but others.
don't know what but its got to be family friendly with good pre and h/t entertainment as they do in ice hockey.
its just dead at oakwell pre match etc.

 

So why do other clubs bother with these kinds of things?

 

I want the club to generate as much revenue and get as many fans in and do as well as it possibly can. I don't want it taking risks on things that are going to make negligible difference or be counter productive. If Hill can get the team to do well this season, that raises the bar.

And let's be honest. If the club spend £100k+ on ground improvements/ initiatives or schemes that don't work out... many will criticise the club for not channelling that into players and wages.

It's far from perfect, it can be very frustrating at times, but the nutshell is.... we're most likely stuck with how things are and we'll have to be patient.

 

I don't remember doyle trying to build on the carpark.

 

1. Sort the f-ing contracts out.
Agreed. We aren't talking about putting everyone on a 4 year deal but promising youngsters who people are raving about shouldn't be getting into the last year of their contract. They won't be on much money so should be having extensions offered early on. Low risk.
People like Steele, howard and co should also be seen as assets and should be given extensions early on so they don't get into the last year and walk for next to nothing if not nothing. They have already proved themselves.

2. Alcohol in the Ponty End
Agreed. We once had the excuse that you could see the pitch from the concourse. You can at huddersfield. I've also heard that the stand area is too small. Is it smaller than the east stand upper tier? Or smaller than rotherhams new ground?

3. A proper supporter's bar - not Preedy's which is like a glorified low grade sports hall.
Agreed. A bar that you have to pay to go in and drink out of cans is not a proper supporters bar. Donny used to have a portacabin and it worked.

4. The 80s retro shirt must have been a great seller - why have they not expanded on this?
Agreed again. If it's popular and sells then it should be continued. Even if the club only make 50p per shirt. If they sell 500 thats £250. Not a lot but i'll take £250 over nothing any day of the week.

5. Tidy up the councourses and get the Sky sorted out - maybe people will spend a little bit more money there.
Agreed. concourses offering regular sky sports with a proper bar and a clean tidy environment is bound to get more people in than a 28inch CRT TV showing an empty pitch whilst you're leant against breeze block walls drinking from a can. I'm no expert but common sense says thats the case.

6. Re-think our approaches to sponsorship - we should have a couple of the stands sponsored and all the players home and away kits.
yet again I agree. Donny, rotherham and sheff united all read out the sponsor of every player before the game when they read the teams out. We don't bother and our players are unsponsored. Perhaps its because people feel they get nothing for their money. I don't know who sponsors luke steele. Not a fecking clue. Why don't I? Because unless I actively go and seek that information I am not told. That's not how sponsorship works. Sponsorship is advertising and the club should be giving the sponsors the advertising or they wont use it. Would I pay to advertise my company if the advertising media was hidden? Not a chance. Would I pay if it was on the clubs website, in the programme, read out on Barnsley player and on the tannoy before every game? You bet your life I would.
Why do we have three stands named after points on a compass? Because we couldnt find sponsors? Perhaps we were charging too much. Drop the price and get a sponsor in. If we have to half the price then surely half is better than nothing.
Why did we disband the family stand because we couldnt find a sponsor? Surely ANYTHING is better than nothing.

 

What folk seem to be missing

Is that PR/Marketing have to be a long term process allied to a long term plan to generate interest amongst new supporters - schools, the burgeoning student poulation in Barnsley, the outlying districts etc.

We quite simply cannot afford to be blown by the wind every season reacting with short termism and so much focus on this year's P&L account.

Re: stand sponsorship - every business in the world fights for a share of its market and in a recession that market shrinks - you either get out there and take charge of the situation or you retreat into your shell and let others dictate events.

Contracts - the prime example is currently Luke Steele - he's established, he's one of the best keepers at this level and Premier League clubs HAVe been watching him - what do we do ? Apparently let the situation rule us and let his value dwindle - he will leave for next to nothing of his true value if we carry on with our stubborn, insular attitude to contracts. We will not be mortgaging the future of the club by tying him to a new contract AND adding a year to the Academy lads contracts.

It is NOT being anti BFC, anti-Cryne to be bewildered at how small time and backwards our mentality is to commercial activities - "oh we can't do anything we're only Barnsley, bigger clubs get all the sponsors" - well turn the ******* lights off then and let's all find something else to do. Keith Hill, like him or not is generating income through dealings in the transfer market - when he gets fed up of pssing in the wind then what ? How will taylor and Rowing persuade other managers that they'll get the fruits of their endeavour returned to them to BUILD and DEVELOP the squad - not just tread water because transfer revenue is propping up the self satisfied nothing that comes from our commercial activities.

We either change our attitude or go backwards. Whilst ever we take the attitude that what's happening currently is the best we can do then get prepared for seasons like we have endured since coming back to this level. Because what happens on the pitch is only part of the process - without a LONG TERM plan which builds off field income and engages with the fan base current and lapsed then we can only go so far. Either the decision makers at Oakwell are happy with that or do not have it within them to improve matters.