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Jag
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I got a call today from Michael at the club. I haven't renewed and can't due to a change in personal circumstances but will still be looking to get to games next season through other means - he indicated game packages will be available shortly too - that kind of thing will work for me alongside pay at the gate for next yr.

 

I asked him how many season ticket holders we had so far this season and he said to be fair he couldn't tell me which is fine but suspect it is as stated above, under 1500. He also stated that the people who hadn't renewed who he had spoken to were down to personal situations rather than not wanting to watch the club next season which I suppose is something - if I look at my own situation, I will be taking a break from a season ticket this season but will still get to most games - appreciate its not cash up front for the club but they haven't "lost" me as a fan week in week out, I am sure there may be many others in the same boat as myself...

 

I think it is great that the club is trying as many ways as possible to get people excited and involved in the club right now from season tickets, to kit launches, to mascots, to paying to be a player, weir academy etc etc....so many good things which far outweigh the negatives at PTFC right now and in recent yrs.

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Tickets onsale now. Including the launch of a new fan card, which is essentially a Pay at the gate season ticket. Saving £2 on every game added to it.

 

Decent idea for those adamant that they're not going to buy a season ticket.

Just flicked onto the site - this looks like a good idea...would be good to see it publicised beyond this forum and our official site in some way too

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I just renewed there. I was dithering because I hardly made a game at the tail end of the season and might only make half or so of the home games this year (not going to the Celtic game for starters), but its clear the manager and club need all the backing they can get. You might have swayed me a wee bit tbh, Yoda....

 

Well done, I think all that can, need to get behind Archie and the team vocally and financially. If you can afford one get one.

For me it's a backing for Archie even though I may only use it 3 or 4 times, but everyone's personnel circumstances are different.

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I think football fans are to eager to blame a clubs board. I think our board to a good job. They have brought in a comms expert to improve that side. Too often people are quick to take offence e.g. in terms of moving fans for Celtic game and paying £25 for a designated U16 season ticket. The reasoning given by the club was enough for me.

 

Thistle have always been a small club under pressure from the 2 ugly sisters. Now we are under pressure from televised football including England and Spain, other sports like Glasgow rugby and other leisure activities. These are the areas hurting the club not decisions by the board.

 

Fans need to be attracted to football. They expect "events". Look at the ticket sales for commonwealth games and how expensive tickets ate for shows at the hydro. People are attracted to this "I was there" and the difference. That's very challenging. It's a move away from the "pie and bovril" fan to cater for several different groups all with different demands looking for comfort and choice.

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It is being publicised on social media.

 

I too think some have an unrealistic expectation of the club. Personally i think a decent job is being done with not a lot to work with.

 

What more can the club do on Comms? Email, text, social media and website are all being used well. Content is pretty good too. Well written/produced.

 

So what comms are lacking? Who are we talking about in terms of calibre of people? And are where does the money come from? The playing budget?

 

It's down to the fans to step up. I suspect the club are bending over backwards for a small % of fans, which in turn has a knock on effect on everyone else.

Edited by La Scimmia Rossa
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It is being publicised on social media.

 

I too think some have an unrealistic expectation of the club. Personally i think a decent job is being done with not a lot to work with.

 

What more can the club do on Comms? Email, text, social media and website are all being used well. Content is pretty good too. Well written/produced.

 

So what comms are lacking? Who are we talking about in terms of calibre of people? And are where does the money come from? The playing budget?

 

It's down to the fans to step up. I suspect the club are bending over backwards for a small % of fans, which in turn has a knock on effect on everyone else.

 

Unless I missed it, who's suggested the club need to do more on communications?

 

Unless you refer to Ian's post, if so I'd suggest he means 2 way interaction as opposed to one way outbound traffic. Which as you say, the club do well.

 

Who do you think the club are bending over backwards for? I think they do their best to treat all fans equally. They might not treat all fans brilliantly. But they do their best.

 

I think they could do a lot of things better, however.

 

It's worth remembering the fans continually step up, since save the jags and on a regular basis, be it financially or voluntarily.

Edited by potty trained
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I'd like to see the club have separate season tickets for the JH and the NS. The NS can still be free seating.

 

That way, they'll understand where their main income is coming from.

 

The next stage would be to scan season tickets every time a purchase is made. From a programme, to a pie, to a replica kit. That way the club knows where the money is going. I appreciate this is a way off.

 

Decisions should be made on a commercial basis. Not on the basis of some shouting louder than others.

"The fans" aren't a homogenous group when it comes to committing money. Or their time.

Edited by La Scimmia Rossa
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I'd like to see the club have separate season tickets for the JH and the NS. The NS can still be free seating.

 

That way, they'll understand where their main income is coming from.

 

The next stage would be to scan season tickets every time a purchase is made. From a programme, to a pie, to a replica kit. That way the club knows where the money is going. I appreciate this is a way off.

 

Decisions should be made on a commercial basis. Not on the basis of some shouting louder than others.

"The fans" aren't a homogenous group when it comes to committing money. Or their time.

 

What would they do with that knowledge?

 

They did a pretty massive market research questionnaire, it asked for info on such things as you suggest. I don't know how they used that information.

 

So I take it you are suggesting the club bend over backwards for fans who shout the loudest?

 

I'd imagine the 25 quid for a child seat has an element of commercial reasoning to it. But very few shouted very loud about that.

 

You're right, about the homogenous group, this forum is full of folk with ideas, but they want others to put the wheels in motion.

 

 

Edited by potty trained
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The knowledge would inform the decision making by ranking groups of fans in order of spend. So for instance, if money or time needs to be spent, it's spent where it has the biggest effect/impact

 

Also Im suggesting that to move the bulk of the fans-who pay the bulk of the money-to accomodate a smaller group, is economic suicide. The decision to move the bulk of the fans is as a direct result of the intransigience of the fans in the North Stand.

 

Part of the JH stand should be for Thistle fans, the rest we should sell to Celtic. To house Thistle fans who have paid 308 quid in the main stand is a scandal.

 

Until decisions are taken for the benefit of the majority, we'll have more cack handed decision making.

 

The 25 quid thing is neither here or there in the grand scheme of things. I certainly wouldn't threaten a boycott over the head of it...

 

As for fans having ideas and wanting others to implement them. That's life. Incidentally, I wasn't referring to the forum( it's a dwindling resource/influence), i was referring to the support in general.

Edited by La Scimmia Rossa
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Well i know it would make a difference to some. If you are selling a season ticket, you want a good story. Moving fans en masse isn't one.

 

 

That's not really the point. The point is the more difficult you make it for , low maintenance fans, the higher the risk they'll start to feel taken for granted and vote with their feet.

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The knowledge would inform the decision making by ranking groups of fans in order of spend. So for instance, if money or time needs to be spent, it's spent where it has the biggest effect/impact

 

Also Im suggesting that to move the bulk of the fans-who pay the bulk of the money-to accomodate a smaller group, is economic suicide. The decision to move the bulk of the fans is as a direct result of the intransigience of the fans in the North Stand.

 

Part of the JH stand should be for Thistle fans, the rest we should sell to Celtic. To house Thistle fans who have paid 308 quid in the main stand is a scandal.

 

Until decisions are taken for the benefit of the majority, we'll have more cack handed decision making.

 

The 25 quid thing is neither here or there in the grand scheme of things. I certainly wouldn't threaten a boycott over the head of it...

 

As for fans having ideas and wanting others to implement them. That's life. Incidentally, I wasn't referring to the forum( it's a dwindling resource/influence), i was referring to the support in general.

 

You were referring to the support, in general... Who you suggested aren't a homogenous group? Ok

 

I like this ranking system idea you have. A sort of I'm a better fan than you type thing?

 

Or I spend more money than you, so my money shouts louder than yours?

 

Basically what you're saying is the people who can afford to support the club financial, better than the poorer, get a louder voice and the club should take more notice of richer folk.

 

 

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The point is the more difficult you make it for , low maintenance fans, the higher the risk they'll start to feel taken for granted and vote with their feet.

 

It's a good point. I'd suggest the JHS stand fans have been taken for granted for far too long. Disgusting toilet facilities, poor quality seating, poor leg room.

 

But as you say, they are low maintenance, I don't hear complaints, they just accept it. The club's poor, they can't improve the facilities for fans. So they get taken for granted.

 

I'm sure the club had this idea, it was for different fans groups to come together with the club, meet regularly. As someone said earlier, improve interaction... The federation, that's was it.

 

Wonder what happened to that. The last meeting was right before they announced moving everyone out the JHS for Celtic games... Yet it never was brought up, before hand.

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. Sadly cash is becoming more important . It's even more important the higher up the leagues you go. That's a fact, not an opinion.

 

I know it's hard to take, some GROUPS of fans are more valuable to the club than others in economic terms.

 

Season ticket holder for example. Especially those who renew every year regardless of where we are playing. Young fans for example, who, are the lifeblood. Older fans, often but not always, are people with disposable income, but as a group I'd reward older fans more.

 

I'm suggesting that where decisions are taken, they are taken on the basis that they improve things for the majority of the support.

 

That's not the case currently. The majority of fans are being inconvenienced to pander to the wants of a smaller group.

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. Sadly cash is becoming more important . It's even more important the higher up the leagues you go. That's a fact, not an opinion.

 

I know it's hard to take, some GROUPS of fans are more valuable to the club than others in economic terms.

 

Season ticket holder for example. Especially those who renew every year regardless of where we are playing. Young fans for example, who, are the lifeblood. Older fans, often but not always, are people with disposable income, but as a group I'd reward older fans more.

 

I'm suggesting that where decisions are taken, they are taken on the basis that they improve things for the majority of the support.

 

That's not the case currently. The majority of fans are being inconvenienced to pander to the wants of a smaller group.

 

OK, so not only do you want the people who contribute more to the club to be prioritized over the poor, but you want to prioritize fans based on what stand they use?

 

How do the poor people who use the JHS compare to wealthy contributors who use the NS, it your sliding scale of importance?

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Colin - you are talking nonsense about the JH move. The club clearly stated it was a logistical and financially motivated decision. It cuts down on segregation costs and means we can sell more tickets to celtic fans, meaning less chance of them popping up in amongst home fans.

 

To suggest that it's a result of NS supporters shouting the loudest is nonsense. The NS had been given to the celtic fans for the past 2 seasons and by and large it was now accepted that this would be the case from now on.

 

This seems to be a case of you yet again trying to stir up divisions within the support that simply are not there.

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There's two things here:

 

First, I don't think the club ask for fan feedback with enough regularity - there should be frequent engagement activities and regular proactive surveys (for a start, how about a short survey emailed to a sample of fans when the club knows they have used their ST / fan card to attend a game?)

 

Second, there have been a lack of actions following the club asking for such information in the past. Either they lack the resource to analysis it and create an action plan or they didn't have an end in mind when they requested the information. Either way it lacks consistency.

 

Look at Morton - they managed to engage a bunch of fans to paint their stadium this summer. If a few common issues came out of this survey / focus groups then I'm sure the club could get some volunteers to help fix the issue. But until they ask fans / customers it's all guesswork and lacks the emotional buy-in (the "this is based on my feedback") to nudge people towards greater engagement.

 

It's not actually complex - however it involves a bit of effort on a consistent basis. Fundamentally a slight shift in the clubs operating model.

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Colin - you are talking nonsense about the JH move. The club clearly stated it was a logistical and financially motivated decision. It cuts down on segregation costs and means we can sell more tickets to celtic fans, meaning less chance of them popping up in amongst home fans.

 

To suggest that it's a result of NS supporters shouting the loudest is nonsense. The NS had been given to the celtic fans for the past 2 seasons and by and large it was now accepted that this would be the case from now on.

 

This seems to be a case of you yet again trying to stir up divisions within the support that simply are not there.

 

Agree with this. I and many other JH supporters wanted the NS to stay red and yellow. Not for the benefit of NS supporters but for the vocal support that the NS brings to the atmosphere at games.

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The knowledge would inform the decision making by ranking groups of fans in order of spend. So for instance, if money or time needs to be spent, it's spent where it has the biggest effect/impact

 

Also Im suggesting that to move the bulk of the fans-who pay the bulk of the money-to accomodate a smaller group, is economic suicide. The decision to move the bulk of the fans is as a direct result of the intransigience of the fans in the North Stand.

 

Part of the JH stand should be for Thistle fans, the rest we should sell to Celtic. To house Thistle fans who have paid 308 quid in the main stand is a scandal.

 

Until decisions are taken for the benefit of the majority, we'll have more cack handed decision making.

 

The 25 quid thing is neither here or there in the grand scheme of things. I certainly wouldn't threaten a boycott over the head of it...

 

As for fans having ideas and wanting others to implement them. That's life. Incidentally, I wasn't referring to the forum( it's a dwindling resource/influence), i was referring to the support in general.

If the data was used to "rank groups" then it would fail, the data should be used to target all groups to tailor what is wanted (and would hopefully be bought) by a specific demographic, that's how we maintain our current fan base and grow on that, ranking a specific group ignores the other groups and could lead to a drop in them, look for commonality across groups on needs and wants and act on that (80/20 rule etc)

 

Data shouldn't just come from who spends what, it should look at time of arrival, distance travelled, age, family status etc etc, then the match day experience can be set to encourage more to come more regularly and to spend longer at the clubs facilities, also looking to use match day questionnaires and MFA's to get feedback as to what works and what doesn't

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