I never remember it being particularly busy but it was a good presence for the club in the town centre, would imagine those Alhambra shop units aren't cheap
I always thought it would have been a good idea if it sold tickets to games. Save folk going down to the ground. But it didn't.
I totally agree jay, I could never understand why they didn't make tickets available to buy through the club shop in town
this day and age we should all have a swipe card that can be topped up, with your bank card on the phone, on line, or in the box office, like most clubs once again where years behind
Well, I would assume because it was opened for the premier league season and there were very few home tickets actually for sale. And could you imagine the chaos the cues for Man U cup tickets would have caused that season in the Alhambra centre? It was a bad move business wise, how BFC didn't see it coming I don't know. Limited market, biggest selling product would be replica shirts, meaning no repeat custom until the following season. It's not a business, I'm out!!
Said it before, offer every conceivable way of buying tickets possible, a swipe card wouldn't even require a physical ticket. Might cost 100 grand to implement but I'm sure they'd make it back in no time. I can understand Cryne/Rowing being short sighted because as far as they were concerned the club would be sold and such a system wouldn't add any real value to the sale, it would only cost Cryne money, but surely now it's got to be done.
Can't remember last time I went in Alambra. Think it was when Woolworth's was there and the cafe at bottom of escalator was full of smokers. If folk are too lazy to walk down to the Oakwell shop, they're the type that can't be bothered to go to Oakwell on match days.
Well it's out of the clubs hands since someone had the bright idea to outsource it to JustSport so they can't do that now even if they wanted. With so many empty shops in town, a pop up club shop could have been a viable proposition with a bit of imagination with product lines as well as to promote the club witin the town and to sell season/match tickets. Have to say I expected something better from the club shop when we were told "Nike" were taking over. How long is left on the deal? 1 Year? Lets hope it's brought back in house.
Well we've just had a 125 Year Anniversary season and the club have had no where to sell associated merchandise for starts. Justsport themselves havnt really come up with much in that respect. I don't think the deal has worked commercially either from what Ive heard and lets face it why would it? The same people are running the shop but now another party is taking a cut.
Ok Gally. Maybe you could set up a discussion thread on ways to improve the shop and give the best idea's to Mark or whoever deals with it in the club. I'm not what the deal is but they should at least be able to sell things in the club shop.
Hemsy the club don't have owt to do with the running of the shop and they won't sell anything for the club unless they are making a whacking big margin on it themselves.
Okay. From what you said before the club had a problem with selling things before especially rep shirts. If the club could improve that or think of ways to do it then they could terminate the contract when it runs out.
Did I? When? If you mean in this thread then the point I was making is the club missed an opportunity to raise additional funds in the 125 year season because it was not in control of its own retail outlet. Here's a radical idea, what about if they ran the club shop themselves they could sell these items in there?
I suspect the shop was contracted out due to lack of resources at the club to manage it efficiently. Hopefully this is one of the more basic tasks that the new management will be able to get to grips with. I think a club shop in town, selling a wide range of sports equipment as well as BFC related products, might be a viable proposition and generate a new revenue stream for the club. We have to study the whole economic and retail viability of the town centre, it seems to me it is dying a slow death generally. Mainly due to local people's fixation with Meadowhall and reluctance to spend locally and keep their town centre vibrant and people in employment.