How do we get people to games?

Hey team,

The Nix are looking into ways to pull in the punters this season (and beyond) and are keen on some ideas.

They're looking at things like game day experiences, marketing, promotions, brand, technology, player, community engagement, and PR opportunities.

We wanna hear your ideas so that we can pass them on. We need to put some guidelines around it for collation purposes, so...

Post single ideas per post.
'This' the ideas you like the best.
Max of two posts per person (so just your best ideas please.)

A few boundaries -
-Price point/food/drink will not be considered in isolation
-Assume Welly based
-No stadium redesign/roof suggestions
-Pretend team performance isn't a factor

This thread will be monitored and all off-topic posts will be hidden.

Remember: play the ball, not the man. If you have any questions about a specific idea then by all means ask, just keep it legit.

We need to feed back at the end of the week so Friday 7pm is the cut off.

One free Nix soccer ball to each primary school that brings 10 kids to a game

Are we to assume that match kick off times are not up for discussion as well?

How?

We can pass that idea on but probs not up for discussion as the Nix have little to no control over it

This may sound counter intuitive but I think that more Away fans at matches would enhance the matchday experience, so working closely with the other clubs to attract more travelling fans may have a positive effect to home fan numbers. 

More noise in the stadium = better atmosphere = more fun for all

Ches. 2pm Saturday kicks offs please ?

This is a very interesting idea. Could perhaps focus on certain clubs to enhance the "derby" game effect that Fox and friends think is so important. (Mind you, they're dicks.)

This would require targeted marketing and negotiated deals with travel wholesalers perhaps. Do we have those resources?

So taking C-Diddy's idea back a notch, since Tracy said these ideas should be Welly-based, negotiated accommodation and dining packages to encourage out-of-town NZ visitors to come to local games. Perhaps could be worked in with other wellington events weekends. 

What events might have synergies with football and football fans? 

We usually have home games around the same time as WOW (I know this as I have tried to get cheap accomms at it is fecking hard to find!) so kaybe discounted tickets for people going to WOW (or their significant others who arent going but find themselves in Wellington)

Street parades featuring yellow fever

In the hey day of the knights when crowds were disgusting, a new marketing company came on board and in their first week the curtain raiser was China verses Korea (NZ of course). Think that pulled a good few more in that day

Massive promotion for 1st game of the season. Take $1tix to see the nix - take a loss for the first game of the season, with the assumption a big crowd 30k+ would come --> leading in to further crowds 

I am a huge fan of bring 2 school age kids for free with a paying adult. Build fan loyalty with the young that translates into future sales/paying fans, encourage what would be an inexpensive day out and limit to 2 means people arent treating it as baby sitting service with the kids running amok and not watching.

I think they need to change the mood around the club, so focus on positive stories, push young kiwis who have a connection to the city and the club, talk to the media, get some positive media going so the average person picking up the dim post each day feels like they are buying into something that is going somewhere and not something that is in crisis.

Agree target kids. The Phoenix is the kids' team. All their lives the Phoenix have been there playing. They dont know any different. I see kids all round the North Island wearing Nix shirts. Some lure to get the kids in might be good. Not sure what sorry

They should have records on 11 seasons of memberships.Target those people who no longer renew membership,they were interested once maybe the could be encouraged to rejoin. Use the players to make the phone calls recruit Ifill and Siggy and Greenacre to take part as well.

While its fine to put an emphasis on social media despite what some people claim there are a lot of people out there  who dont use it and you will miss those people if you only target that area.

Back to thread on getting visitors into the city - I’ll always come to Wellington to catch a game - but it’s not me you need to convince - it’s my other half. Events she would be interested in are displays at Te Papa, the Cider Festival in Nelson in November, retail therapy, and some great restaurants, perhaps also something in the Wairarapa. Then these need to be put cleverly into a weekend type package, coinciding with our home games - that can’t be either Friday night or Sunday night for out of towners.

Marketing. Target football clubs, businesses, schools, etc for discounted/free tickets.

Then combining it with incentives for those coming from out of Wellington - as above, travel packages. Things like weekend tours in Wellington: See the Weta Workshop, Zelandia, Te Papa etc and experience the atmosphere at a Wellington Phoenix home game. Make it a 'must do' experience in Wellington.  

Maybe even discounted flights/transport/accommodation with a match day ticket. 

I know that's several ideas - but consider them all marketing focused ;) 

As Mii's mentioned above, it needs to be marketed as New Zealands football team - not just Wellington's. No-one at my work watches the Phoenix, no-one in my football team. 

I think there should be a focus on how important the Phoenix are to NZ football as a whole.

There are many football players and fans in Wellington who are interested in the sport but are apathetic to the Phoenix, the most common reason being the quality of the product. However, all of them want to see football to succeed in NZ. There's a cognitive dissonance between those 2 ideas given how important that Nix are to football in New Zealand, so if attention can be drawn to that and highlighted I think it could go some way to turning public opinion in the Nix's favour.

I think cheap junior tickets to every registered kid playing football is essential. Encourage whole team to join and watch the game as part of their football education, get some further education about training, food and tactics. Maybe injured, non playing players great and meet the teams before and after the game to give them and inside about tactics.

Let's promote the first Sydney FC/Nix game at the ROF as a Trans Tasman derby with an edge. Kiwi underdogs, now coached by former Sydney FC star and golden boy, take on Australia's glamour club. Get local schools to design a suitable trophy and each class that enters gets a handful of free tickets. Rudan helps judge the winner, and the lucky class/school gets to then build their trophy - kids and parents helping make it - which gets presented after the game. (Maybe the trophy is a fun cake which both teams get to share with some of the winning kids/fans after the match.) 

Throughout the season, small groups of players, with at least one recognizable player in each group,  go out to local schools on selected afternoons for a fun, five a side kick about with groups of kids. Show the flag, coach a little bit, get kids excited about football, sign autographs, do selfies, and personally hand out free tickets to the next home game. 

Promote heavily on the website and FB page. 

Offer some of the local journos/broadcasters the change to 'train like a pro'. (Martin Devlin is an example of a football tragic who'd probably jump at the chance.) They get a named jersey and become Nix squaddies for a day. Get put through some fitness testing, are coached a bit to show what they can do, and maybe get a chance to join in a practise game. A taste of how hard it is to play football at this level.

In return they write/produce stories for their media outlets which also involves them getting access to Rudan and players. Needn't be disruptive, especially if it happens pre season, a great way to break down some of the possible barriers with local media, and for the club to make a few friends. 

The club (Ian & Richard) and met with some of the EPL club supporters groups but despite some positive initial engagement and ideas it wasn't followed through/up (well, barely).

I believe it's certainly something worth pursuing. Both via the established supporter groups, and the less so/not at all. We are what we are.

Now there's some women involved something might happen? 

Another thought for me is getting together with Sky and Westpac to see how the game coverage can be better packaged and presented. If the Sky coverage can reflect the "fun" of the event more effectively, as well as the football/personality side - it can only encourage people to go. Can also share the shark out of stuff on SM.

Similar to the Warriors where they have the pitch side panel after their home games (but better of course). Get some Nix personalities involved in the coverage; maybe some dirty dirties, etc... and give Sky (and heaven forbid, Fox) viewers more of an insight into the club and the people behind it. Even some of the fans (some of the fans).

People need more of an opportunity to connect with the club. And the reality is that your average Wellington sports/event goer won't connect with the football, but they will connect with the people. We've seen it happen before - and there's no reason why it can't happen again.

I wonder if the club has ever seriously considered an open public tryout, a footballing version of what really happened in the US a few years back, and was dramatised in the movie, 'Invincible'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invincible_(2006_fil...

Doesn't have to be a circus, and if well organised, could get us a lot of good publicity. And might tie in with my earlier idea of offering local journalists a chance to train like a pro. In this case, they'd be invited to turn up and try out for the team. 

Make a new app some sort of scoring based system kinda like fantasy football but just for the nix at home games . But to play you must be at the game winner gets a cash prize or a prize of some sort . promote the hell out of it people will always want money that's for sure .  

 Get involved in the phoenix snapchat !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! , i dont think i've seen one snap ( even on game days ) from the phoenix's snapchat .If you going to have social media then use it . get a fan to do the snapchat at each game ( could be a prize ) . and every now and again get a player to do it for a bit of fun get the fans seeing what happens behind the scenes make us interested !!!!!

Are there event rooms at the stadium? Could offer clubs the chance to hold EOS prizegivings on game days.

or XMAS parties in Dec.

At current support levels this shouldn't provide any security issues.

I’ve mentioned previously to try tap into local backpacker/tourist market, even if just leaving cheap ticket flyers in all the backpackers. I’ve been to 3 local club games in South America, and 2 were organised by the backpackers was staying in. Sure futbol is more a cultural thing here, but backpackers are looking for a cheap fun time wherever they are. Give them a drum and put them in with the yellow fever.

On a similar tone, what about overseas students at Vic. I mostly live Brisbane, have some adult student mates at QLD University from Latin America and know on a weekend they love to cluster together for a BBQ, football kick around etc. I presume Vic Uni is more Asian students, who as a stereotype are maybe more study conscious. Anyway in those countries football is usually the number one sport, so could be a way to tap into that market. More so if Nix signed a player from Asia!!

Maybe the foreign students could get $5 tickets to sit in the away section, and become the ‘away’ fans to create some atmosphere. Give them a drum, crowds always sound more fun with drums.

Make the tickets a lot cheaper for walk up to the gate fans. $32 is a rort.

$10 Car Parking under the stadium. $30 is another rort.

Ballane is right, get onto ex ST holders as to why they didn't renew.....other than crap results. 

Better 3pm kick off times would help but Fox sould block that. 

I wonder if the club could find a way to promote the Yellow Fever more! ( I wish I could come up with a more specific idea.) 

From personal experience I've always enjoyed a couple of beers and a singsong despite the results. My favourite thing is witnessing people enjoy the Fever experience for the first time! The YF can show the fairweather fans you can still have plenty of fun even when results aren't great, and the YF can show the Eurosnobs we've got the closest atmosphere to European Football they're going to get in a while (+ the quality of football isn't bad especialy when you're well lubricated!) 

Yes, the Nix are a family-friendly club and that's great, but we know there's plenty of people in Wellington who turn up when there's a good party and a couple of drinks involved (Sevens back in the day). 

I know these ideas have been well-discussed before. 

Also, Maybe we could start/revive another thread about what WE as the Yellow Fever can do to do our part, (for those who can't make the Hui!)  our club isn't saved yet. March to games with the flags out, Fever Fridays, heck even a vlog promoting 'the Fever experience.'

EDIT: Just to expand on my point a little, I understand the Phoenix can't do much about kick off times. But if we continue getting Saturday night home games, we know that's much tougher to market to families than the 3pm kick offs were. We've got to be flexible with marketing when we keep that in mind. Could it work to push a more YF vibe for Saturday Night games and family vibe for Sunday afternoon games or would that be too bipolar?  

May already exist, but group deals for junior/senior teams. Encourage kids teams to keep getting together in the off-season if their team, coaches, parents can all get in together for far less. Encourage senior teams to make it a social thing during summer, a cheap & fun lads/lasses trip for senior sides from Manawatu, HB, Wairarapa etc. 

i know this is not local to wellington but i have tried for years to get the phoenix to come to wanganui for a pre season training camp, stay for the weekend and have a couple of  training sessions open to the public, sign some stuff for the kids and talk with the people and get them interested. already  a decent amount of people are willing to travel to wellington to watch the phoenix more so when they were winning more home games. lots of kids and teenagers here wear phoenix tops to football and you hear them talking about the team before and sometimes during their games.

also what about discounted tickets for people willing to travel from further away than wellington say over 2 hours or more away so instead of paying $32.00 per ticket make it somewhere between $25.00 - $28.00, cheaper would be better but i realise they are there to try to make money.

Kids under 8 - Free? 

I liked how the club last season had a few air castles from time to time. Worth keeping it going. Kids get bored and would rather have a safe bit of fun for them than wandering too far away.

Selling the product better within Wellington too. Not much publicity for a couple of years hasn't helped. I saw one major sign last season in Lower Hutt. Nothing in Upper Hutt. Although to be fair, they do advertise in local papers such as the "Leader" and credit for that.

Where do the players train these days? Let or encourage fans to come along and watch a training session. I used to go along to Newtown Park and once the training started you left them to it but after training had finished, most of the players were quite happy to chat and sign stuff.

These ideas may have already been covered.

1. Identify key markets and specifically target them through marketing and direct contact to organising bodies where they exist encouraging membership or game day attendance. Examples: University students, immigrant populations where there might be greater interest in football. 

2. Do a deal with Central Football to obtain an email database of football players in the Wellington region to promote fixtures through eDMs

3. Work in more closely with the Yellow Fever to expand their membership and work out ways to develop game day atmosphere. The Yellow Fever are a key point of difference in comparison to other sporting events

4. Use short video clips in digital marketing to promote the excitement of game day. People love seeing great goals and as per above the Yellow Fever add a lot to the atmosphere that can be captured nicely in video

5. Football appeals to families - continue to work on Family membership and game day pricing packages

6. Promote the Phoenix in the regions - Hutt Valley, Porirua, Kapiti, Wairarapa, even the Manawatu where I'm from. Work with regional football to make it easy to get people to games - maybe have a regional theme every now and again where transport for regional people is organised to make it easy for them to get there. Make sure we look after them when they arrive so they want to come back again

7. Promote the young successful Kiwis in the team that hopefully people will identify with

8. Have a go again at promoting the ambition of getting 10,000 people to the game, leveraging key sponsor support. Maybe home game 1 of the new season? Get us off to a flying start.

Block off one half of the ROF and compact the crowd to create a better backdrop of fans. A few thousands scattered around that big barn looks terrible. Optics count,

Examine swapping a compacted crowd to the other side of the field and do the same with the cameras. 

Get YF into the main body of the crowd.