Charter for Canvey?

[Yellow Bungle]

A number of people have mentioned on this forum, in a positive non-critical way, things which they feel could be better approached by the club. How about we open the floor to suggestions and present them to the club in a coordinated and cooperative manner with the view to creating a club-fan partnership for the future to benefit the team and the community?

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the concept or ideas on what we could do to help the club? We can only offer our service...

[Guest]

I think its an excellent idea, it would need to be taken forward by the supports club, I feel that should be the agreed and acceptable fans voice.

 

Its also good having ideas, sometimes we need someone to put their hand up and volunteer. with a voice comes responsibilty.

(its alright saying we should take posters into town, someone needs to get out and do it).

 

I do not know if he gets paid, but if he does not Gulliver is the perfect example of standing up and being counted.

[Ribbit]

Does anyone get paid? Before posters can be posted and flyers... flown, someone needs to design and produce them.

 

I'll tell you what would be a good start though - actually making use of the Canvey website. As it is, it looks like something Tilbury would be proud of. We need better match reports (by far), a possible chat room and a definate message board on there. It was only by a fluke that I found this site and there are bound to be others who are looking for somewhere to air their views.

The question has to be asked, where better than the official site?

[Yellow Bungle]

Agreed we need volunteers, but the club must ask for them and have a plan of how to use them. Amongst our supporters we must have a big pool of untapped talent willing to chip in.

 

The point about the website is a good one. Perhaps the club can let bygones be bygone and return it to the boys?

[Ribbit]

Why was the unofficial site stopped anyway? I'm not too fussed if that's re-opened or not, but we should be involved in whatever exists to make it a professional site.

[Matt H]

If the website was returned to us, unfortunately you wouldn't really be getting any better in terms of match reports than we already do on the official site.

 

We did it as fans, for fans and as a hobby not a business. Now we're in the Conference the travelling distances are greater for away games meaning it would be a lot harder for any of us to take the time out of Uni/Work to get to the games. We discussed these issues as Webmasters before our ban was even enforced, and came to the conclusion that we'd retire the website on a high rather than let it slack with little information and poor reporting.

 

Plus Ian is now Match-Day Secretary at Hornchurch, which albiet some pages are a season out of date have a good website http://www.afchornchurch.com/ which he's doing off his own back. The season we were banned we would've had to have competed second best for news with the official site anyway.

 

Another note, there is a link on the Hornchurch site where their fans can download and print of a PDF poster of their next up-coming fixture to put about their workplaces and schools etc. I remember doing something similar for our FA Trophy Semi-Final against Chester when I was at school, so don't see why others back home can't do it too.

[Ribbit]

I didn't think it was really feasible to have two opposing sties at such a small club anyway. Manchester United I can understand, but Canvey Island? We can't even get 1k in for a home game with Accy Stanley so I don't think we've got the fanbase to support two sites.

[Matt H]

Many Clubs at our level have an Official site and a Fans Site, there was no reason for us to be any different.

[Ribbit]

True. I think I worded that wrongly. I just don't think it'd be benofficial (sp?) for our image as a club with close club/fans links. Or maybe I'm just talking rubbish.

[Matt H]

No, I can see where you're coming from. It's just in rare cases does the Fans Site out do the Official Site. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

As for our 'image' of close Club/Fans links, once again I think the same could be said for most teams at our level. In fact I feel the link gets stronger the further down the Pyramid you go. Hornchurch is a good example again.

[Ribbit]

Yeah, of course it does. Obviously, the fewer fans you've got, the more chance there is that the manager, the players and any backroom staff are going to know them on a first name basis. If you asked a Man Utd player the names of their top ten home & away fans they couldn't give you one.

[The Great Eckscape]

Sounds like some good ideas. Knowing the people who run the supporters club and the members, I'm sure that volunteers wouldn't be hard to find.

[Ribbit]

Slash ticket prices.

 

£10 Adult.

£7.50 for Adult plus £1 per Child.

[Matt H]

What are the Reserve Match prices nowadays?

 

I would've thought for those that can't go away to First XI games a Reserve fixture would be their weekly football fix - Unbeaten in the League and occasionally First XI faces etc. and they always sound entertaining.

 

A fiver for Dad & a Lad/Lass doesn't seem unreasonable particularly if they're then going to spend more money on a pint and a burger plus maybe a coke and some chips for the kid.

 

Also, how much were childrens' season tickets this year? 75 for the terrace wasn't it? Bearing in mind a child at our Club is classed as U16, then I would consider reducing this.

 

Was is Southend who priced their childrens season ticket so it worked out at a quid a game? A suggestion would be to attract the 12/13/14/15 year olds who don't go around smashing the island up by introducing a 46 pound season ticket - That's two pounds for every home League fixture, (24 teams next season) plus they get Minor Cups and Reserve games free! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

For non-season ticket holders, particularly children, I would drop the 50p so it's just a fiver for them. Reduce Students/Seniors to 7.00 <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> and Adults to a tenner. Little package deals could be brought in for this too. A kid for a quid voucher should be made available in the programmes entitling the Dad & Lad/Lass to return to the following fixture for only 11 pounds. Then potentially they'll buy another programme, more drink and more food. These kid for a quid vouchers should be made available to all Primary and Seconday schools on the island (say 200 across the whole island) and the schools can do as they see fit a way of distributing these vouchers - Then all the winners have to do is pursuade an adult to the game with them, (another scheme could possibly be included within the voucher for an adult, say a pound off so it only adds up to a tenner for the two).

 

I'm sure this kind of strategy would work in the long term, while we maintain our Conference status.

[blooming barmy bongo]

and also season ticket holders should get a discount for fa cup and trophy matches. We need more marketing to attract more fans. Maybe have a football coaching week in the school holidays with some of the key players, to help build fans and to also look for kids that excel to be put on a proper training programme,which will when old enought be able to play for reserver team and then one day who knows first team.

[Yellow Bungle]

All good suggestions, but not sure that prices are elastic to the extent that just cutting them would result in increased revenue from increased crowd. And revenue is important with the Conference playing budget cap.

 

That's why I suggested discounts for kids who come with season ticket holders and the mini-season ticket, as they make the marginal cost of taking kids less for the parents, provide the potential for future regular fans and encourgaes people to commit to the club and buy saeson tickets.

[ken]

actualy sort out the licence so away fans can spend money in the away bar rather than go to local pubs

[Matt H]

Ok, perhaps the entry prices can't be reduced too much, but I would definately at least slash the 50p, particularly for the children.

 

If our entry prices are increased again at the end of this season, I expect our average attendance to fall by about 100, which is a total no, no and a complete step backwards for the Club.

[Ribbit]

We should do that voucher idea every week, but I think that even then full adult price needs to be less than a tenner.

[Yellow Bungle]

Possibly, but do you think that the 50p would make a difference? A fiver is still a fiver, and if you've got a couple of kids the difference between £10 and £11 is not going to be the decisive factor.

 

Does anyone from the club read this forum? (I bet they do even if they don't admit it) And if so, what do they think?

 

On the subject of bars & licenses etc, what exactly are the Conference rules that force the bar to shut before the game and at half-time?