Angst please.

I want them to stop banging on about the 10k thing. Getting people to support their business model ain't exactly the way to build passionate supporters

So why can't Fred write that article instead of the same old same old about taking games on the road?  It's poor but it worries me because it's the same message coming out of the club as well and I don't understand whether they are trying to figure it out either.

Paulm that's a good point about the economic situation in Wgtn and you're right, not something I'm aware of.  I would have thought that the much cheaper ticket prices this year should have helped though

Exactly, taking games on the road is no magic bullet clearly and if they think it is they're clutching at straws.  It's lazy thinking. Find out why wellingtonians aren't turning up and address the situation

Interested in other views people have on the crowds

Gate prices are up this season, crowd sizes are down!

We only have about 3-4K season tickets holders, so most of the crowd are expected to be casual or walk up purchasers. 

The summer six is a bit restrictive due to xmas holidays etc. And the Flexi Six (or whatever it was called) was a huge turn off for people as they had to nominate which games they were going to go to.

Season tickets are still available - AT THE FULL PRICE !!!! Why not reduce the price of the season tickets on a pro-rata basis, surely this will make it a bit more attractive. If it was well advertised that you could get a season ticket for the rest of the season for $135 for the FZ I am sure there would be some takers. I am pretty sure no-one will be buying season tickets at full price with 8 games left!

4.30/5.00 Sunday afternoons are shite for family friendly viewing.

Carry on!

the marketing has been absolutely crap as well. I only know when the next game is by looking at my season pass or on a thread title.

The bustop signage doesnt exactly promote the game or make people want to come to the games.

Agree advertising has been terrible. Major problem is NZ's attitude, allthough weather certainly ahsnt helped.

Taking games on the road is a terrible idea (more than 1 or 2 anyway). If the phoenix only played 8 home games as suggested, passionate fans will become a lot less passionate. Turning it into a business will ruin the "soul" of the club.

It has probably been brought up before but should there not be more emphasis put on selling tickets rather than getting 10,000 through the gate? The latter is obviously ideal but if people want to spend their hard earned money then waste it because its a bit cloudy then that is up to them.

Personally I'd like to see advertising telling/incentivising people to buy tickets BEFORE gameday. My guess is that people are more likely to harden up about the weather if they have already spent the cash/got the kids excited about the game etc etc.

no advertising at all in the smaller towns and cities within a couple of hours of wellington, people here (wanganui) are always asking me if there is a game this weekend. i am happy to travel to watch home games in wellington and i am sure there are many more that would if they new about them. i am not talking about spending shit loads of cash, just an advert in the paper or on the radio in the week leading up to home games, i would be happy to go round putting posters in shop windows in wanganui leading up to home games if someone was to supply them and send them to me.

another thing to do to attract more out of wellington supporters is for the club to do coaching clinics in the pre season in other towns or cities close to wellington, this would at least help connect kids to the team who would then influence their parents into some trips to watch the phoenix.

Isn't that kind of what this was meant to be?...

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix/news-display/Phoenix%20Introduces%20Its%20International%20Supporters%20Club/48325

Is anybody actually involved in one of these?

oops, stupid double post

I read that article in the DP but it's not on the Stuff website.

BTW who is this Greene chap speaking on behalf of the Fever.  Surely it would be better coming from News or Smiffy? After all they started it all.  

Times are tough so people wont go as often as they might like..and 4 out of 5 games at home in the Xmas period is hard to pay for so I expect some selectivity there.

Easier to maybe pay for 1 game each fortnight.

Middlesbrough halved its ticket prices for a recent game and jumped 10000 spectators.

I bought a season ticket this year..havent previously but was price driven as it was a good deal..I will however miss two home games.  Taking games away might mean I would revert to selecting games instead..so in doing that they need to cover off some losses at home home versus profit at away home.

Here's my two cents:

- we've basically had the same core team for 3 seasons plus this one and everyone has gone a bit stale on this team.  Same opposition, same coach, same players as 4 years ago.  We're still having the same debates about whether Lochhead is good enough, or whether Vinnie Lia can play in a 2 man midfield.  We're still looking at Ifill to be our star.  Signing new players can be one of the most effective marketing tools you have as it gets people enthused about the season.  Even Brockie and Totori were very much known quantities and you'd hardly buy a season ticket based on their signing up if you were a more casual fan

- this will be controversial, but when was the last really exciting game at the stadium?  One where you would have come away saying that was a great game, I'll come back next week.  

We're a very dour team and while we're a good chance to win at home more often than not, the entertainment factor is often lacking.  The opposition's struggles across the Tasman play a part, but I think the on field product lacks entertainment value.  

- I'm all for a team based around kiwi players but I think you will always need additional foreign players who can come in and add some quality and excitement to that core kiwi group.  Again, foreign players can be a really effective marketing tool - look at the Brazilians in season 1?  I think our foreigners, Ifill apart lack star power.  Again, would you go out of your way to watch totori when you've seen him run around in the NZFC, or Alex Smith? Steyn is a decent player but we're not promoting the side based around him. Compare those guys to Ifill in 2008, worth the price of admission alone and a genuine cross-code star. 

Alex Smith is a much better footballer than people give him credit for!

 ...and no one watched Totori run around in the ASB Premiership.

I agree with some of what you say JD but essentially if you are arguing for putting together an entertaining team at the expense of results then that's not going to work. The Brazilians in season 1 were good entertainment but they didn't win very much. You also failed to mention Serepisos. That guy was great, a lot more fun than this dour bunch of accountants we now have running things. The only use Terry had for a business plan was to snort a line off*. But just the like the Brazilians in season 1 it wasn't a sustainable (yawn) approach.

I think the best marketing tool ever would be to win the league. That may seem obvious and winning the league would clearly create a lot of excitement and interest in and of itself. But my point is I think a lot of people simply need to believe it can be done, and if we win it once it would set up better crowds for years afterwards.

Can the current team do it? I think they are still a definite chance but they do need to go on a run soon and really gel as a team. That will gradually lift the crowds and if we can get deep into the play-offs nobody will even care about a few poor crowds in December.

*Please understand that this is a joke playing on the idea that Terry is/was some kind of millionaire playboy.

Great post. We've been here from the start and just talking about the same thing. This is a really good solid side for a real star to walk into. (creative midfielder) Unfortunately at the moment, Ifill isn't at his best, and that's what's missing. Still a chance some-one else could standup and spark it up. Brockie's showing signs, but has to start taking the easy chances as well. Maybe Sanchez. Won't criticise them for being dour away from home. Most sides are, and our away strategy has to be based on a water-tight defensive unit that fraustrates and is difficult to breakdown. We were also waiting all off season for the big new overseas signing - yes, a standard marketing tool in football, but it never happened. Steyn has been close to our best player, but had no instant X factor. Every chance he'll start doing some damage.

Too early to get a fix on what this lineup could become. Improved away, but the gale last sunday ruined seeing what we can do at home. They need to belt some-one, and hopefully that will happen soon. Still scratching my head on why we handed the ball and the winning of the game back to Brisbane Roar after 25 mins on Oct 21. If we're that cautious at home in the run ahead, then we really will have crowd problems. 

Just looking at attendance figures from last season, and they were nothing to write home about. In the regular season, we cracked over 10,000 in Wellington only twice, and it took until 29 January against Melbourne Heart to get there (13,601 best home crowd for the season followed by the 13,009 against Brisbane a few weeks later).

Other than that, on our opening game of the season against Newcastle we had 7,643, three games of just over six thousand, and two games with lower attendance than the game on Sunday. That was the third home game of the season against CCM (5090 crowd on a Friday night, I can't remember the weather conditions from this game?) and the worst game of professional football I'd ever paid to see against Perth on a Sunday afternoon in January (3898 crowd).

So maybe the panicky "OMG this has never happened before" cries are somewhat premature.

this

Here are a number of other things I would do:

- get Yellow Fever to sell season tickets in the fever zone (i reckon you'd get a whole lot more sold that way if you left the guys to pump the tickets).  I'd also as the club pay for more flags and banners to improve the look of the zone

- figure out whether members are actual club members, or just season ticket holders, and treat them accordingly.  If they are members then involve people in the club above and beyond things like a special area on the website and a fridge magnet.  

- work out what the Facebook and Twitter advertising actually is supposed to do.  Currently it seems to be aimed at 12 year olds

- ditch gimmicky marketing like ladies day  and focus on promoting the football.  That goes along with improving the team which personally I believe has gone stale as outlined above.  Make our foreign players our stars and remind people that they can get along and watch these guys - go back t basics and remind people why they pay their money

Which season did we first run the "print out the match posters and stick them up at your workplace or on your neighbours car/dog"?

Was that successful?

Playoff against Sydney. Before that was the 5-2 against Newcastle.

This. 

+1.

What he said.

did you not hear what happened when Greenie collected the Life Flight money?  If he is put in charge of the money from ticket sales, sales of KFC and Double Brown in Tawa will go through the roof.

Ok so what this seems to come back to is how do you improve the overall experience so that people feel like they are getting value for their entertainment dollar?

You can make the fatalistic argument that crowds go up, crowds go down and there's not much you can do about that but if that's the case why bother employing a marketing department?

It's pretty hard to consistently manufacture exciting games. I think we just need to burn some effigies

25 new posts averaging 1000 words each...summary?