There certainly does appear to be a wind of change blowing through Stockport County these days. Gone are Sale Sharks and on the way out are the last vestiges of Rugbyisation (it is a real word – I checked with the Twickenham English Dictionary).[
I believe too that Sale Sharks Champions Two Thousand and whenever it was sign, which was visible from the railway has been junked and gone are the discarded Pimms bottles and bits of broken picnic hampers (I made this up but you get the gist).
Almost as good as having Edgeley Park back as a football ground is the attitude of some of the board members within the club.
(Just in case you have no idea of who the board members are they are listed here)
The club is making efforts to engage with the fanbase and a good example comes from the official site where Vice-Chairman Spencer Fearn has asked for further suggestions from fans following on from a recent Q & A session (I missed that .. must have been abroad or summat).
Mr Fearn stated “It is key that we consult as many fans as possible to get their thoughts on how we can improve what we do at County. It was a process that I followed during my time in Scotland [with East Stirlingshire] and we had some really positive results.”
The club is looking for suggestions relating to initiatives, improving the match day experience, how to generate additional revenue etc and there is a form that can be downloaded, filled out and mailed to phil.brennan@stockportcounty.com (by 10th October please).
The ideas will be discussed at a subsequent board meeting and furthermore, the fan who comes up with the best idea will receive a table for ten at County’s hospitality suite at a game of their choice plus coverage in a future match day programme.
A very nice gesture and how refreshing it is to see the club engaging with the fans at board level.
For what it’s worth, this middle-aged man would like to see good honest real ale available and some decent food on offer. That would increase the number of folk getting to the ground earlier I believe and cut down on the five to three chaos on Hardcastle Road. (The Rugby fraternity used to enjoy a large beer tent at the back of the Cheadle End so I understand but I believe the law is such that this is not allowed at football? )
How about a reduced admission game every now and then? What’s that… Ebbsfleet game. Fiver for adults and £1 for accompanied kids.
More details to come.
Until then, Come on the County Boys!
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Gonna play a bit of underhand skullduggery here, after listening to SF on his Q/A forums it seems that folk north of the border (fans) do take their commitment far more seriously than some of my English counterparts, (no disrespect to our own dedicated fan base). So I’m thinking I’ll muscle in on the Ross County & Inverness Caley Thistle fan bases and see what ideas they’ve used in the past because not so long ago they were both playing in the Highland leagues, both are now Premier League clubs and as far as I’m aware are both reasonably financially sound. There is massive fan input at both these clubs. Might take me a while but hopefully watch this space.
The only way our club will grow is by getting back into Stockport folks’ minds, by getting under the skin of the borough and by being visible. Kids in for free for some games has to be the future. Also somehow interacting with local communities. Not sure how, just a gut feel but it will be the fans who would do the lions share. So Vicman, go deep undercover and snaffle Ross and Caley’s secrets!
I’m all in favour of community projects and special deals for kids, our future fan base. However it counts for little gateswise unless we win the majority of our home games
Update on my above statement regarding the success of the two local clubs. It would appear after looking into the Ross County website that Caley Thistle are not as sound as I was led to believe. Apparently next home game against Aberdeen corporate hospitality has been cancelled as only one table has been taken. There is rumour of admin being discussed don’t know how true that is or whether it’s just scaremongering amongst the RC faithful. Be a shame if they did go under (learning from our own experiences) don’t want to see any club go down the plughole.
Just as an afterthought when I was down for the Tamworth game last season it never occurred to me to look but do we own our own car park and if so how big? the reason I ask is that Caley Thistle run a boot sale on theirs (which I have attended on many occasions) with at least 70 plus stands every Sunday during the Summer/Autumn months and weather prevailing a lot more. I would think quite a lot of the charges for stands, £8 per car and £12 per van would go to their coffers as it is their land and they have no outlay as it is policed by volunteers who organise the sale. I appreciate Stockport would be different but food for thought?. Revenue from the sale plus maybe catching people who love “Booties” but may be open to conversion to County football. Any thoughts?.
Vicman – Help the Hatters do a car boot (and I am full of praise for HTH) but I am not sure how well they are patronised and how often they occur? It would be great if the County car-boot became THE car-boot sale in Stockport. I dunno…. first Sunday of the month… a quid for a pitch, big County helper attendance, club shop open. Raise a few bob but also get non-County fans in the Cheadle End Car park. I wonder how many residents of Stockport have never even been alongside EP let alone in the ground? Visiblity across the borough. City and United fans welcome (no colours please!). Did I just type that….?
Bit more info from North of the border, clubs up here take great efforts to bond with the kids. Attending prize giving days at local primary schools, being there on sports days, attending local hospitals to visit sick kiddies and going to Christmas panto’s and parties etc. This really raises the profile of the clubs not only with the kids but also their parents and this isn’t a when it suits the club it’s done as a matter of course. More food for thought, won’t raise income directly but massively raises the profile of the football club and long term could realise financial gain.
THAT is what County should be doing on a regular basis. I know players appear from time to time doing something like this. Almost need a condition of contract needs to be inserted relating to community work and ‘selling’ the club! Just one hour long event a week from a player would go a long, long way in promoting the club. Oh, and doing a little bit of good in the community.