Season Ticket Sales Pass 5,000!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MAD_MAGPIE

Is a really good achievement to have broken 5,000 season ticket sales. Going down to the National League has enabled the club to reset and the Reedz brothers build it from the bottom upwards. The club is going in the right direction and it’s a big thumbs up to the owners that they are doing something right.

I’ve said it many times on here over the years that with our ground we have the infrastructure in place for us to climb the leagues if we do well. The owners do not have to do too much in terms of the ground to take Notts to a higher level. This has always been a good selling point and a legacy from the Derek Pavis era. Meadow Lane would hold its own in the championship. It might need a bit of tidying up now and again but when you think in recent years the conference and banqueting facilities and changing rooms were renovated by Hardy. Then the MLSB by Trew. The pitch, scoreboard and now PA system and Padel Centre have been upgraded by our current owners. So infrastructure wise the club is in a good place.

The culture of football is changing as well in the U.K. Especially since the likes of Pep and Klopp joined the premier league brining their different styles but ones which other clubs want to emulate. Of course winning is the aim, but it’s also becoming more about a teams technical style and stats. Fans now want to see good football and some will call for managers to leave or be sacked if they play a turgid brand that might even get results. What is this good football? It’s creating chances (expected goals), scoring goals, but also has other aspects such as dominating possession, having a high pass completion ratio, and many other things that fans who are armchair enthusiasts of stats will use to measure their teams performance. We had the perfect blend last season. Look at how complimentary other teams managers were last season of the way we played even though we beat them.

It’s the same with players. If a manager or coach is able to improve their stats they may choose to go to that club over another. They all become methods of comparing performance between other kinds of players. Our owners with Football Radar have brought stats to a tier five and now EFL club as an extra string to the clubs bow.

That’s why I don’t think or can’t see us changing our style as we progress under the current owners. What we will need to be is better at it at league two level and to do that you either improve what you’ve got or bring in better players than those that have left to execute it. It may take one season or four seasons but like they said in commentary against Boreham Wood we won’t change the way we play.

Football is changing and thankfully we are on the right side of the curve.

---

Very good post ... imagine if they ban heading we will be very far round the curve

What a fantastic and insightful post by MAD MAGPIE. There is a lot in there that I instantly agree with and hope as many on here as possible read it.

I never thought getting relegated to the dreaded non league football but now we are out after a few memorable and overall enjoyable seasons it did indeed allow a reset of the club.

Could this reset of happened in L2 , yes possibly. Is the reset easier when you are winning more in a less competitive league , I'd say yes most definitely.

If Notts had finished above Macclesfield that season would Hardy have sold to the Bros? Obviously we will never know, and frankly after one of the most enjoyable entertaining seasons ever I don't care.

I know that this probably won't go down too well but:
From a purely business perspective, do you think that the club should consider increasing the price of tickets. I believe there was no increase this year.
The club does, like all businesses, live in a very inflationary environment and at some point they will surely have to make an unpopular decision.
Does anyone know if the price of hospitality has gone up this year?

It's a good point 1955. They could have taken the decision to wait to see whether we were promoted via the playoffs or not before announcing prices. With promotion they would have been justified increasing them IMO. However, these owners are different gravy and announced a freeze when promotion was clearly a distinct possibility.

I think they have chosen the correct option to seek to increase revenues from increased attendance rather than increased ST and match day prices. This option is clearly facilitated by the size of the stadium and no doubt they wanted to keep the tsunami of positivity they have helped create going.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MAD_MAGPIE

Football is changing and thankfully we are on the right side of the curve.

---

Good post. Another way in which football is changing (and County are on the right side of the curve) is the make-up/demographics of the crowd. When I first moved to Nottingham and went to the occasional game, it felt like an older fanbase to me - sometimes I'd feel like the youngest person around me by a generation or so. Now... many more younger people, a lot more children, and a lot more women and girls. It's still probably a 'whiter' crowd than the catchment area, but I'm sure that's true for most teams.

Football now feels like a lot more of an accessible, welcoming and safe environment than it used to, and that's probably true for most teams.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1955pie

I know that this probably won't go down too well but:
From a purely business perspective, do you think that the club should consider increasing the price of tickets. I believe there was no increase this year.
The club does, like all businesses, live in a very inflationary environment and at some point they will surely have to make an unpopular decision.
Does anyone know if the price of hospitality has gone up this year?

---

Hospitality up about 10%, which is reasonable given energy/food costs

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1955pie

I know that this probably won't go down too well but:
From a purely business perspective, do you think that the club should consider increasing the price of tickets. I believe there was no increase this year.
The club does, like all businesses, live in a very inflationary environment and at some point they will surely have to make an unpopular decision.
Does anyone know if the price of hospitality has gone up this year?

---

It might become a possibility at some point and it’s hard not to think that it won’t happen. However I think it’s been a good way to approach it this year by freezing ticket prices because it’s encouraging more people on board and supporting the club. Also it’s a bit of a thank you to all those fans who have stuck through the club for the four years it was in the National League

Who remembers the famous 8 through the gate scheme where Scardino tried to promote higher attendances and I may or may not be correct to think that was a marker to break even at what was League One level.

Many previous chairman going back decades have bemoaned about attendances. I think the Reedz brothers are different and see a picture whereby we had or have an ageing fan base and needed to change the clubs image. Therefore it’s important that we get the next generation in and into the habit first and foremost. The only way of doing this is by making the football appealing to younger generations, but also the entire matchday product. Not forgetting to social media aspects. We have a generation of those under 25 who have grown up with devices and phones. As others have said it’s the content that the club puts out that becomes part of its identity as well. We also become part of the story as fans because we are in these videos and clips whether it be during the good times or bad. We might not have our own documentary on Netflix but the material is out there to see what it’s like being a part of this club. Even in the changing rooms after the Wembley final and all that insight. It’s all about connecting with and engaging with the supporters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Proactive not Reactive

Very good post ... imagine if they ban heading we will be very far round the curve

---

haha! true dat

Agree, insightful post

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MAD_MAGPIE

It might become a possibility at some point and it’s hard not to think that it won’t happen. However I think it’s been a good way to approach it this year by freezing ticket prices because it’s encouraging more people on board and supporting the club. Also it’s a bit of a thank you to all those fans who have stuck through the club for the four years it was in the National League

Who remembers the famous 8 through the gate scheme where Scardino tried to promote higher attendances and I may or may not be correct to think that was a marker to break even at what was League One level.

Many previous chairman going back decades have bemoaned about attendances. I think the Reedz brothers are different and see a picture whereby we had or have an ageing fan base and needed to change the clubs image. Therefore it’s important that we get the next generation in and into the habit first and foremost. The only way of doing this is by making the football appealing to younger generations, but also the entire matchday product. Not forgetting to social media aspects. We have a generation of those under 25 who have grown up with devices and phones. As others have said it’s the content that the club puts out that becomes part of its identity as well. We also become part of the story as fans because we are in these videos and clips whether it be during the good times or bad. We might not have our own documentary on Netflix but the material is out there to see what it’s like being a part of this club. Even in the changing rooms after the Wembley final and all that insight. It’s all about connecting with and engaging with the supporters.

---

I recall 8 through the gate, but marketing was totally different then, as you say.

A major part of getting supporters in and keeping them (and selling season tickets, damn, we're doing well!) is creating consistent levels of entertainment on the pitch (and to a lesser extent, a club vibe that's enjoyable).

We're all competing for market share, and I'm very happy that Notts have next gen skills these days, but it's even harder, imo, to get, and keep getting, the product right.

Naturally leaving the (home) game happy and with 3 points far more often than not plays a huge role in increasing and maintaining the healthy attendances we've all been witnessing.

I suspect playing attractive attacking tippy tappy possession based football on the deck pleases the majority of the supporters. It's what they want to see and I strongly suspect it's what the younger element of the fanbase want to watch (Gracias Pep, Dánka Jürgen). This has to have a positive impact also on attendances.

I also believe, and it was touched on earlier re media team, club engagement and interaction with fans is key and the club has made huge leaps in that regard.