A view from afar...

[Guest]

Firstly, I would like to thank the Slough Town website and this forum for keeping me up to date on matters regarding the club. Great job!

 

Anyway, I've been following the debate about the future of the club and here are just some points which I have been thinking about recently. I apologise if some of this is goes over old ground.

 

1) Slough has a population of roughly 105,000 but yet gets a crowd of roughly 400-500 at home games, that’s 0.38% of the population. I realise that the team are playing non-league where crowds are never great but the football club are only as good as its fans. More needs to be done to attract fans to watch the team. How about starting the fans off young by targeting primary and secondary schools in the area? Get representatives from the club (i.e. management, coaches, players to visit the schools to hold training sessions, summer coaching, attend award giving ceremonies and sports days as well as holding competitions to win prizes such as the chance to attend matches, meet players and be mascots at “home” games. All this could raise the profile of the club amongst the school kids, and get them hooked into the club at a young age, this in turn my encourage them to come along and watch the games as they get older. Also, more needs to be done to target the Asian population in Slough. I know that a couple of seasons ago West Brom played a friendly game against the India national team or one of their domestic clubs and got a huge turnout with whole, some of whom had never been to watch a game of football before. If this idea was copied by the club, I am sure that there would be huge interest not only by ordinary people but the press and TV.

 

2) Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t Slough meant to have the largest Trading Estate in Europe? Aren’t companies like o2, Masterfoods (Mars), Reckitt Benckiser, Telewest, Sara Lee, Unisys, Bridgestone, Honda, Computer Associates, Electronic Arts, Activision and some of the Asian owned businesses who are based in Slough interested in getting involved in the club through sponsorship or in other ways or is it the case that they haven’t been targeted? As I am sure you are aware, sponsorship doesn’t have to be limited to shirts, how about sponsoring individual players, helping pay for training equipment, sponsoring training kit, advertising in match day programmes, man of the match trophies/prize, even sponsoring the matches themselves. These companies could also provide valuable help and advice to the club in the future, especially when the club start going for the new stadium.

 

3) I been away from Slough off and on for the past three years. When I passed the Montem Sports Centre over Easter while I was visiting family, the whole Centre looked extremely dated. I don’t know what it is like inside, as I have never been in there but surely the town deserves a top class, brand new leisure facility combined with a stadium which all sports in the town could use? I don’t know where the Rugby, Hockey and other teams in the area train and play but surely they could these facilities as well. This venue could also include shops and hotels and could hold exhibitions, conferences, and even concerts. I don’t know if this would be possible to get parts of this included in the “Heart of Slough” project that this ongoing? I live in Northampton and the Sixfields stadium where the football club is based is absolutely fantastic (pity the football team isn’t!). The new owners of the club are looking to turn the development into a seven day venue so that revenue can be gained every day of the week. I believe that this sort of development is what Slough should be aiming at.

 

4) I realise that there is a reluctance from the local press and radio to get involved in the club. Why is this? Surely they could help in raising the PR of the club and letting people in Slough know about the current situation and things they could do to support the club. Does the club currently have someone looking after the Marketing or PR? I imagine that the papers get delivered to the vast majority of households in Slough and that Star FM and BBC Radio Berkshire have a wide audience so there is no doubt they have the power to do this. Simple things like flyers in shop windows or even posters on billboards could help promote the club!

 

Like I said, these are just a few points that I have been thinking about recently and I would like to hear what others think about them. I know that the situation with the club hasn't been good for a long while but lets hope that the new season brings about a fresh start. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

 

- kingcal

[GarySTFC]

Quote:

2) Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t Slough meant to have the largest Trading Estate in Europe? Aren’t companies like o2, Masterfoods (Mars), Reckitt Benckiser, Telewest, Sara Lee, Unisys, Bridgestone, Honda, Computer Associates, Electronic Arts, Activision and some of the Asian owned businesses who are based in Slough interested in getting involved in the club through sponsorship or in other ways or is it the case that they haven’t been targeted?

Companies of this size are not usually interested in the 'small fry' and only want the national exposure a club like say Reading could give with all the national television and press coverage. All the above companies have been approached, and for the large part have refused to give the club any money. Slough Estates (one of the most profitable companies in Europe) could only find £250 to give to us and we had to struggle to get that!

Quote:

I imagine that the papers get delivered to the vast majority of households in Slough and that Star FM and BBC Radio Berkshire have a wide audience so there is no doubt they have the power to do this.

The amount of times I've sent stuff through to STAR FM and they continually ignore it. BBC Berkshire have been very good in giving us airtime and also they had a section on their website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire) for Slough, which will hopefully be re-instated at the start of next season. The Slough Express also seem very helpful, but the Observer seem more concerned about digging up the dirt and giving us as much bad press as possible.

But some very good points raised in there....

[BFR]

We used to have great links with schools in the area.... in fact if memory serves me correctly a certain mr Brian McDermott used to visit the primary schools and give tickets to the kids for home games before he was given the managerial reins. The problem now is the fact that we've dropped a couple of divisions below the conference, have had financial problems and as such periphery staff have become a thing of the past. Under the Deaner regime there has not been the funds nor the willing to involve the local schools. CJ could have been used in an ambassadorial role during his injury, as he went to Holy Family and St Josephs within the area. That said our attendances are much higher than the average for our league status, Roy produced some impressive figures in comparison to the rest of the non-league. I think he told us we were the 23rd best supported team outside of the conference, which bearing in mind there are about 70 teams in the three Premier divisions below the conference is not bad going. Although I'd love to see bigger crowds back at Slough, its not going to happen whilst we're in a dog and duck division. Our average attendance for this seasonw as better than most in the Ryman Premier, so I don't think the attendance issue is of great concern.

 

The idea of a big corporation sponsoring Slough has its problems as well. No company with any decent business sense is going to give an open chequebook to a club with Deaner in charge. His financial dealings are not healthy and certainly with no ground to call home, and a council who are steadfast in opposing a new ground its not exactly prime location. Rushden and Diamonds have proven to be a success because of the money of Dr Marten's and the fact that they are in a good catchment area for pulling in crowds. Slough are just down the road from London and has Chelsea and Arsenal fans by the thousand (and of course Man U gloryhunters) whilst Reading are not far away and doing very well for themselves.

 

Agreed, the sports facilities of Slough are not ideal and getting improvement is a long and tiresome process. The Slough Hockey team has only just got itself a new ground after something like 15 years without. Land is in short supply. When my parents moved into Langley in 1970 they were being promised a Leisure Centre. It finally arrived in 1997, a few months after moving elsewhere. Sport is not the top of priority in this town, and it is unlikely it ever will be.

 

I do my best not to be a doom and gloom merchant but the future isn't exactly rosy. If a Supporters Trust is the way forward then we'll need a lot of luck and much of the support from the local community that you seem to be asking for. However, Enfield Town seem to be a side who have achieved a lot in their short space of time since breaking away from Enfield, perhaps it will be possible for the Rebels to follow suit.