New owner confirmed…

If the Allams go completely, I will happily return to attending games.

 

Some will come back, but it'll take a bit of time and energy from the club to win back all those who've left. It's many thousands.

People did say at the time when the owners were putting so much effort into alienating fans, that it would be much harder to get them all back. They did an awful amount of damage to the club with all that crap a few years ago and we're still paying for it now. And for that reason it will wind people up that you're now painting them once again as unfairly criticised victims.

 

Some will come straight back, to make a point of nothing else.

Some may do, but will need to be attracted by whatever mechanism works.

As others have said it's easy to lose 'customers' but much more difficult to win them back so that needs great marketing (in its widest sense)

While most of us on here are passionate fans, not all the people who stopped coming will have been, they might simply have grown up going with mates and liked the habit. That habit has been broken now so it will take effort to get them addicted again.

 

I'm not painting them anything. The club is up for sale, new owners are at the door, they need convincing that we are a club worth taking a gamble on, not one were the fans hold a grudge for life.
What's gone on in the past should be left there otherwise we will be fighting the past battles of every previous owner and manager that we have ever had until we all draw our dying breaths.

 

I think some have had their love jaded by the almost incessant attempts by some fans to drag the politics of the boardroom, or at least their version of it, into what should simply be a good day out. They are going to be quite hard to get back in the ground, especially as many have found other ways of spending their time.

I know some very long term, regular attendees, that still go to games and have passes, but don't need much persuading to do other things on a matchday.

 

The club has been for sale for years, even with the questionable / debatable value the Allams have put on it. Anything can be sold if the seller is willing and agrees a value with the buyer, even a pile of dog ****.

Loads of clubs big and small have been traded in the time we have been for sale. We haven't been sold so it's the fans fault.

Edit, any buyer with a bit of business sense can see that customers unhappy with the present owners offers an easy chance of making improvements and gaining more customers

 

Nothing to do with the current incumbents reluctance to sell the family cash cow?

 

There’ll be a mix of reasons
Falling out in love with football in general, often due to the big money aspect, is another.
Whatever the reason lost fans are hard to win back, and there needs to be attempts to do that as well as attempts to get new fans in

 

I'm willing to sell some. How much? Pick up only.

 

I agree the big money aspect will have driven people away from football in general.The tightening of household budgets due to the current economy would be another significant reason?

By and large and specific to this forum would be the Allams presence and their departure should see an uplift in crowds/memberships? Winning them back shouldn't be too difficult if this forum is anything to go by? The membership package for all ages is reasonable so new owners and a reasonable P.R campaign should be enough to get the place buzzing again?

 

Like you i'm a seller not a buyer. As it is an unwanted commodity I actually have to pay to have it taken away, not sure of it's actual value as it's sold in a job lot of other work like filling and emptying the dish washer, tidying bedrooms and been on call to go to the corner shop as and when required.

It only pocket money though.

 

Damn. I thought I'd stumbled across a new income stream. Oh well. Let us know if you do find any interested buyers. Ta

 

I'm very happy to leave the Allams in the past, and I'm sure most who were angry at them will be too.

But as others have said, it's not just us, it's the more casual fans who stopped coming when it all got so hostile, or when their kids passes became full price. It will take effort to win those back, or others in their place.

 

There's always a link on google.

There are people making millions from your pet’s poo.

Founded in 2001 covering northern New Jersey, When Doody Calls (which reported revenue of $4.5m in 2011) now has 450 clients, said owner, Mary Ellen Levy. It’s part of a growing industry. Nobody tracks just how much the industry is worth globally, but Levy serves on the board of the Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists, which now has 90 member companies picking up pet waste across North America.

EDIT: It's being trialed in the UK...in...genuinely...Barking.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160622-there-are-people-making-millions-from-your-pets-poo

 

Take with a pinch of salt as always...

I have heard from what appears to be a good source that the club has reached a state financially where imminent investment is required with the Allam's refusing to put their hands into their pockets (no surprises there). This explains the haste in dealing with Acun despite years of pondering, I was also told end of Sept - Mid Oct the takeover is expected to be completed. Sounded too good to be true but the person I spoke with is trustworthy and cited to me the name of who he spoke with and his role with the Allams.

Fingers Crossed.

 

This forum isn't anything to go by...it's a very niche group.

'Reasonable' prices" and a 'reasonable PR campaign' won't be enough IMHO. It's bigger than that. I'm no expert about what exactly though

A few uninformed ideas are;
Free tickets for kids,
better bar service,
better food etc (by the way Grimsby seem to doing good stuff, the food looks superb and is getting loads of positive media as is their general fan engagement)
areas the club proactively encourage standing and singing at,
a commitment to push for safe standing ASAP,
opening areas of the ground for ad hoc seat purchases so if you have a loads of mates who fancy a one off visit, whereas now you would struggle to get enough seats together in an area you might want to be in where you can stand and sing (West Stand Upper towards N Stand ideally to create another 'noisy' NE corner but for people who don't want passes),
allowing cash payments on the day in some areas, or even all areas if you walked in and bought a specific seat,
allow season tickets to be bought upfront in cash as well as by direct debit,
offer season ticket reductions if you buy multiple ones together to encourage existing fans to bring their mates along,
a commitment to stop ****ing moving people around the stadium to change away areas until safe standing is put in
...and free beer obviously

Interestingly, and I hadn't considered it until now, it could be that some of the things that the club have done recently, such as changing the website name , aren't actually helpful to new owners as that would have been a nice easy win, but the current owners might want to do that so new owners can't claim the moral high ground by appearing to slag the current owners off with easy wins?

 

Calm down, Weinstein.

 

Agree with this. Particular focus needs to be on attracting kids and families, to start repairing the damage caused by withdrawing concessions. If not I fear that could take generations to get somewhere near to where we were.

 

He wishes! More….