Where Have All Our Fans Gone.......


Jimmy Wallace
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There's 101 things I believe the club could do to

A) keep the fans we have and encourage more revenue from them.

B) Attract new fans

C) Open up links with fans no longer going

D) Influence more local businesses to attend occasional hospitality.

E) Attract more away fans to attend games at McDiarmid Park.

F) Make the matchday more of an experience.

G) Increase revenue from those that live abroad/ can't attend regular games.

It would take time, it would take a bit of initial investment and the club would need to be a bit more creative, but we could buck the trend!

Just look at Brighton and the success they are having through thinking a little outside the box!

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Thats an interesting one. Kevin thanked the Aberdeen fans for coming on Wednesday and I flippantly said "what about us?" Now I dont really bother that much but I am sure some people might like to think that the club has given them a thought. Its minor but sometimes the little things count.

Have to admit this has crossed my mind too. After the New Year game against Dundee I heard the Dundee fans specifically being thanked for coming, and wondered why the club wasn't making a point of thanking the home fans too.

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There's 101 things I believe the club could do to

A) keep the fans we have and encourage more revenue from them.

B) Attract new fans

C) Open up links with fans no longer going

D) Influence more local businesses to attend occasional hospitality.

E) Attract more away fans to attend games at McDiarmid Park.

F) Make the matchday more of an experience.

G) Increase revenue from those that live abroad/ can't attend regular games.

It would take time, it would take a bit of initial investment and the club would need to be a bit more creative, but we could buck the trend!

Just look at Brighton and the success they are having through thinking a little outside the box!

Re: G)

I can no longer get to as many matches as I would like however, I would be willing to donate a nominal sum each year but... before I did, I would want to see more pro-active responses from the board to ongoing situations. What we get just now are - interminable silences, a lack of comment, a seeming unwillingness to keep the fans informed of what the club's position is on this that and the next thing. The fact that our board are very reluctant to keep fans in the loop doesn't exactly engender any feeling of involvement - it also gives (me) the impression that things are going on that the board know our supporters wouldn't be happy with.

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Indicator thats exactly the things the club could work on. A membership including a monthly newsletter e-mail, a top, discount card for online sales and priority (behind season ticket holders) and a tour of the stadium once a year, birthday card, etc, etc would get £100 out of the pockets of alot of people that can't make regular games and increase connevtion between fans and club and inturn increase likelyhood of future spending.

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Indicator thats exactly the things the club could work on. A membership including a monthly newsletter e-mail, a top, discount card for online sales and priority (behind season ticket holders) and a tour of the stadium once a year, birthday card, etc, etc would get £100 out of the pockets of alot of people that can't make regular games and increase connevtion between fans and club and inturn increase likelyhood of future spending.

Totally agree, but will never happen as that is not the way saints roll.

Instead of wasting thousands on washed up injured players, spend £20k on a marketing graduate and tell them to go out and spread the word and come up with ideas.

Doesn't matter much what folk say on her though, club lacks direction. Fans can see that, they are not stupid.

Edited by TheYellowBox
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I'm not so sure John. Sounds good in theory, but then folk wouldn't buy season tickets because they'd miss too many games because of summer holidays etc.

its not the 1960's, how many people only go on holiday for 2 weeks in the summer.

I work in the winter sports industry and 2 million British people go on ski holidays every year, your not saying that ski enthusiasts don't buy season tickets.

No matter when they play the games people will miss some, but it would be far more attractive to go to a mid week game in June, July or August then last Wednesday night.

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Most folk with school age kids will go in the school holidays. I agree though, many of those people are going to miss midweek games in winter. Pleasant temperatures, long nights and better pitches are all plus points to summer football. I honestly can't think of any positives for winter football. You lose a lot of people at this time of year for various reasons. Weather, lack of funds around Xmas etc.

I genuinely think that the people that maybe attend 5 - 10 home games a season would be more inclined to attend in summer. It's a far more enjoyable spectacle. Everything looks better when the pitch is bathed in sunshine...

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Add in the fact that youngsters nowadays pretty much require instant gratification to maintain their interest in something - the Sky TV and Playstation generation.

Gets right on my wick when the last era of Saints fans most of whom are now parents or grandparents of young potential saint's fans blame everything but themselves. Nevermind PlayStations, sky tv, Celtic, Sevco, la liga, poor product.

Parents these days would prefer to let their kids sit and watch tv rather than get their ass into gear, get on a bus and head to McDiarmid.

Transport is more accessible than ever, football stadiums are more family friendly than ever and Saints are offering a better "FATHER AND SON" deal than ever.

I think the current crop of Saints mums, dads, grandads grandmothers, aunties and uncles need to take a look at themselves rather than blaming the kids, the football club, the media, sky tv.

Get on the bus, appeal on here for a lift share, take advantage of the brilliant Ormond Stand deal!

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Gets right on my wick when the last era of Saints fans most of whom are now parents or grandparents of young potential saint's fans blame everything but themselves. Nevermind PlayStations, sky tv, Celtic, Sevco, la liga, poor product.

Parents these days would prefer to let their kids sit and watch tv rather than get their ass into gear, get on a bus and head to McDiarmid.

Transport is more accessible than ever, football stadiums are more family friendly than ever and Saints are offering a better "FATHER AND SON" deal than ever.

I think the current crop of Saints mums, dads, grandads grandmothers, aunties and uncles need to take a look at themselves rather than blaming the kids, the football club, the media, sky tv.

Get on the bus, appeal on here for a lift share, take advantage of the brilliant Ormond Stand deal!

Would be interesting to know what age you are and if you have any kids.

I'm not disagreeing with your philosophy, but the folk who talk a good parental game are those folk who don't actually have kids yet

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Gets right on my wick when the last era of Saints fans most of whom are now parents or grandparents of young potential saint's fans blame everything but themselves. Nevermind PlayStations, sky tv, Celtic, Sevco, la liga, poor product.

Parents these days would prefer to let their kids sit and watch tv rather than get their ass into gear, get on a bus and head to McDiarmid.

Transport is more accessible than ever, football stadiums are more family friendly than ever and Saints are offering a better "FATHER AND SON" deal than ever.

I think the current crop of Saints mums, dads, grandads grandmothers, aunties and uncles need to take a look at themselves rather than blaming the kids, the football club, the media, sky tv.

Get on the bus, appeal on here for a lift share, take advantage of the brilliant Ormond Stand deal!

Wait til you've got a kid sitting next to you moaning about being cold/bored/hungry. First half is usually ok but if I take my daughter i'd be as well leaving at half time I see so little of the 2nd half. The child has to want to go or you're wasting your time

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Gets right on my wick when the last era of Saints fans most of whom are now parents or grandparents of young potential saint's fans blame everything but themselves. Nevermind PlayStations, sky tv, Celtic, Sevco, la liga, poor product.

Parents these days would prefer to let their kids sit and watch tv rather than get their ass into gear, get on a bus and head to McDiarmid.

Transport is more accessible than ever, football stadiums are more family friendly than ever and Saints are offering a better "FATHER AND SON" deal than ever.

I think the current crop of Saints mums, dads, grandads grandmothers, aunties and uncles need to take a look at themselves rather than blaming the kids, the football club, the media, sky tv.

Get on the bus, appeal on here for a lift share, take advantage of the brilliant Ormond Stand deal!

Unfortunately, RBB is making perfect sense.
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I think summer football would go a long way to improving crowds.

As entertained as I was by RBB's comments, as a father of 2 boys aged 5 and 3, I somewhat disagree. I bring them to most home games, however, in deepest January with a wind chill of -5 I am somewhat reluctant to wrap them up in eskimo gear just to make them sit for 2 hours in the name of 'entertainment'

They both have season tickets and enjoy coming to the games, but their welfare is paramount. No-one wants their kids to be ill.

As for midweek games, they are in bed before the game kicks off. Simple as that.

The generation above my kids (well teenagers) are lost if they aren't coming to Saints games by now unfortunately. Kids need to be in the habit early, once it becomes something you do, come Saturday, you just do it.

If one Saturday a father says to his son, right lets go to the Saints game - if the game isn't spectacular - come next Saturday, son says 'I'm no goin, it's crap' There is no answer to this, it's human nature

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Have to admit this has crossed my mind too. After the New Year game against Dundee I heard the Dundee fans specifically being thanked for coming, and wondered why the club wasn't making a point of thanking the home fans too.

But I do thank everyone for coming but (and I think it is an SPL initiative) we have to thank the visiting fans for making the journey. It is usually along the lines of "Today's atendance is 10,650 and St Johnstone FC would like to thank you all for coming along, and to the 4,000 fans from Spurs who made the long journey to be here"

I do not see what is wrong with that, I have always thanked the fans for being there, can yuo imagine how it would have sounded at the Aberdeen game... "On behalf of St Johnstone FC I would like to thank the 499 Aberdeen fans who made the journey to Perth and the 768 home fans for being here as well"

If you can come up with a better way of doing it then please let the club know and I thank you all, in advance, for your contributions and suggestions you will send in.

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But I do thank everyone for coming but (and I think it is an SPL initiative) we have to thank the visiting fans for making the journey. It is usually along the lines of "Today's atendance is 10,650 and St Johnstone FC would like to thank you all for coming along, and to the 4,000 fans from Spurs who made the long journey to be here"

I do not see what is wrong with that, I have always thanked the fans for being there, can yuo imagine how it would have sounded at the Aberdeen game... "On behalf of St Johnstone FC I would like to thank the 499 Aberdeen fans who made the journey to Perth and the 768 home fans for being here as well"

If you can come up with a better way of doing it then please let the club know and I thank you all, in advance, for your contributions and suggestions you will send in.

Might be an idea to read out ALL the names of the crowd in attendance......Shouldnt take too long !!!!

Personally dont give a monkeys nuts IF you say thanks for attending -I go anyway and I am sure the fact that the Players who take the time to applaud the fans at the end of a game is good enough for me.

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Gets right on my wick when the last era of Saints fans most of whom are now parents or grandparents of young potential saint's fans blame everything but themselves. Nevermind PlayStations, sky tv, Celtic, Sevco, la liga, poor product.

Parents these days would prefer to let their kids sit and watch tv rather than get their ass into gear, get on a bus and head to McDiarmid.

Transport is more accessible than ever, football stadiums are more family friendly than ever and Saints are offering a better "FATHER AND SON" deal than ever.

I think the current crop of Saints mums, dads, grandads grandmothers, aunties and uncles need to take a look at themselves rather than blaming the kids, the football club, the media, sky tv.

Get on the bus, appeal on here for a lift share, take advantage of the brilliant Ormond Stand deal!

OUCH seemingly I am now a bad parent -maybe I should have risked the wrath of the NSPCC and dragged my little feckers to a ground that they had no interest in being at but preferred to do things other than Football...Christ I must hand myself in to the authorities.

Now they are scattered around the globe Holding down jobs to earn a living and put a crust on their own childrens plates and pay for the Hobbies THEY choose to do rather than go to Football ( Oh yeah some of them actually play football on a Saturday- They better stop that now -bad little feckers )

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But I do thank everyone for coming but (and I think it is an SPL initiative) we have to thank the visiting fans for making the journey. It is usually along the lines of "Today's atendance is 10,650 and St Johnstone FC would like to thank you all for coming along, and to the 4,000 fans from Spurs who made the long journey to be here"

I do not see what is wrong with that, I have always thanked the fans for being there, can yuo imagine how it would have sounded at the Aberdeen game... "On behalf of St Johnstone FC I would like to thank the 499 Aberdeen fans who made the journey to Perth and the 768 home fans for being here as well"

If you can come up with a better way of doing it then please let the club know and I thank you all, in advance, for your contributions and suggestions you will send in.

Personally I'd prefer just a blanket "thanks to everyone for coming along", but I didn't realise the SPL insisted on having the club thank the visiting fans specifically. And it's not a dig at you or what you're saying - just something I'd heard a couple of people pick up on at a few recent matches. Personally I think it's a bit of an outdated notion to suggest that all the 'away' fans have travelled from afar and all the 'home' fans live locally. At any given football match you'll probably find people supporting either team who will have travelled from all over the place. There are probably loads of Saints fans who have to travel further to get to McDiarmid than they do to get to certain away games.

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I travelled from Geneva on Wednesday afternoon and no one thanked me :roll:

I did wonder why the away supports were thanked and just assumed from the away games that it was the home club having a dig at the size of our support.

The club also normally thank those who attend via the facebook game event page (sometimes they forget :oops: )

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I think summer football would go a long way to improving crowds.

As entertained as I was by RBB's comments, as a father of 2 boys aged 5 and 3, I somewhat disagree. I bring them to most home games, however, in deepest January with a wind chill of -5 I am somewhat reluctant to wrap them up in eskimo gear just to make them sit for 2 hours in the name of 'entertainment'

They both have season tickets and enjoy coming to the games, but their welfare is paramount. No-one wants their kids to be ill.

As for midweek games, they are in bed before the game kicks off. Simple as that.

I've always found going to the games much more of a chore during the colder winter months. I remember the hibs home game at the end of november and spent most of the game struggling to keep warm despite being wrapped up as if going on a major arctic expedition.

Families will be much more inclined to bring their kids along during the summer months. People talk about folk being away during the school holidays, but its not as if everyone goes away at the same time, and parents are always looking for stuff for kids to do during the holidays.

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But I do thank everyone for coming but (and I think it is an SPL initiative) we have to thank the visiting fans for making the journey. It is usually along the lines of "Today's atendance is 10,650 and St Johnstone FC would like to thank you all for coming along, and to the 4,000 fans from Spurs who made the long journey to be here"

I do not see what is wrong with that, I have always thanked the fans for being there, can yuo imagine how it would have sounded at the Aberdeen game... "On behalf of St Johnstone FC I would like to thank the 499 Aberdeen fans who made the journey to Perth and the 768 home fans for being here as well"

If you can come up with a better way of doing it then please let the club know and I thank you all, in advance, for your contributions and suggestions you will send in.

"I would like to thank both sets of fans in attendance today for their their continued support."

Edited by ryangordon86
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I travelled from Geneva on Wednesday afternoon and no one thanked me :roll:

I did wonder why the away supports were thanked and just assumed from the away games that it was the home club having a dig at the size of our support.

The club also normally thank those who attend via the facebook game event page (sometimes they forget :oops: )

Maybe they thanked you on their facebook page, did you check?

Probably not, like a reasonable size of our support. I follow the club but on ever read the things that come up on my feed.

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