Ideas to raise our home gate.

[Eastside Urchin]

you will never take swearing out of football,it is too passionate a game.

we obviously don't have ends behind the goal but we have a terrace where anything goes and then we have two seating areas,the riverside which is popular for kids and families and the seating area further down from the eastside which is mainly people who like to seat and don't like noise,as long as you set certain areas then there sholdn't be a problem.

At hornchurch,if you don't like swearing don't come on the eastside

[Eastside Urchin]

P.S,the eastside is the most notorious terrace in non league football

[GazzaBTFC]

For whom? Last time we were there, it was half empty.

[Eastside Urchin]

you are such a negative person gaz,it was half full

[brucie]

regarding the 'Blues Cafe' very out dated and imo poorly run, shuts after half time and at

[Ricydickie]

I have to admit I think the food is overpriced and not good quality. I am amazed he gets away with that dirty old table aor the sugar and sauces. I wont buy from there its not the nicest one in our division.

 

Last year he put prices up when we entered a recession and made the chip portions smaller. often run out of chips and bacon etc. I am sure that his contribution to the club by way of rent is a good source of income but it does not give a good impression to those on thier first visit. ( a please, thank you and a smile might help too)

 

Apart from that I think there are some good ideas in this thread and a healthy debate (more than can be said for the burgers)

 

 

[Rick the Dick]

Here's some important Market Reaearch I've just carried out:-

 

RTD: "What do I need to do to get you to come to 'ricay with me next season?"

Significant Other; "Nothing. I won't."

RTD: "Why not?"

Sig. Oth.: "Can't stand all that swearing"

RTD: "They're talking of banning swearing. Would you come then?"

Sig. Oth.: "No."

RTD: "Why?"

Sig. Oth.: "Coffee's overpriced crap and you can't get anything remotely healthy to eat."

RTD: "Is there anything about it you do like?"

Sig. Oth.: "Nice Club House. Shame they don't serve food & hot drinks".

 

Now, I know she's not a typical "old skool" footy fan, and there's probably a few thinking she'd be better off staying away than have to re-shape the match-day experiance to attract her and others like her. But it seems the traditional punter 'aint enough, so maybe the time's come to appease those looking for more than a "meat" pie & Bovril.

 

Not sure how to tackle the swearing issue. I understand jl's point about behind the goal, but if they decide to sing a couple of choruses of "Who the effin 'ell are you" it's heard all around the ground.

[delboy]

Burger bar subject seems quite emotive. Food seems to get a good write up but drinks poor. The reason it was franchise was that nobody from the club would do the job anymore. I think the last person was Rod Moore's wife and to be fair the income was quite poor. At least this way we have coverage whenever we are playing with no cost to the club if a small crowd. As one who eats at most away grounds I think steve does a good job compared to similar establishments elsewhere.

 

A certain defender seemed to gain weight eating there regularly last season.

 

Some good ideas coming from a varied source of supporters regarding the way to increase attendances. Perhaps we can arrange a brainstorming night one Thursday in the near future. A point to think about is that there are 2 different situations. saturdays where the family attendance could help and tuesdays where the youngsters do not usually attend so we nee different solutions to raise gates at both day and evening games.

[Adam.S]

I havn't got a problem with the food if I am honest, I think it is quite nice, especially the bacon and cheese burger, but I think they need to limit the amount of times that they run out of bacon, it seems to be a favourite and it then takes quite a while to get some more. But I do think that it is over-priced compared to some prices that I have seen.

 

Regarding the swearing, you are always going to get swearing at a football club, weather it be the blues or Clacton FC, it will still be there so that can't really be helped, it's natural in the football industry I suppose, but as JL said, there is over banter behind the goal that cannot be heard from the side seating so that could be a good family area if you wanted to get away from the swearing.

[southwestred]

Originally Posted By: jl

My own view is that whatever you get if you stand behind the goal "goes with territory" and if you really don't like it there is always somewhere else to stand/sit.

Absolutely 100% spot on. It dont mater what game or what level, swearing just seems to go with the game.Its a real raw passion following football. Its what sets us apart from the egg chasing fans. It only sounds worse at our level because its not lost in the crowd like the premiershi t. If we think about it none of us think its "Nice" or "Good" to hear, but hey ho! Its football innit!

[emmiehl]

I think we would be completely wasting time and resources trying to ban swearing. However, something shouted are just abuse - which sometimes is was beyond reasonably put down to 'passion'. Also, don't forget we're not only talking about our own fans, we'd have to police away fans too. I must say I have also seen heard a number of kids swearing at players - will we throw them out too?

 

The tea bar has reached a point where I am considering bringing my own flask, both due to quality and price. It also looks like an absolute dive where manners are long forgotten.

 

As for bringing in new fans, yes a winning team helps but only if people know we exist in the first place. Gazza has mentioned that we have ideas in the pipeline that we are trying to implement but they do require helpers and we are still a bit short in support for promo events.

 

Football is an emotive sport, for better or worse, but that's what draws a lot of people in. IMO what we need to focus on is fan retention. There's lots of talk of promos for new fans, but what about those of us that turn up and pay every week?