Queens Trust

[Spikefaethesouth]

Frances the matter of attracting supporters is an extremely complex issue and is not as simple as throwing money at the problem.

It is akin to the High Street if you like, - which has been sadly deserted across the UK in favour of on-line options and live football is a sport in decline due to a plethora of reasons which I'm sure you are aware of.

Queen of the South has lost an awful lot of its core support through old age and for a variety of reasons there are few youngsters with the same passion for the game that many of us on this board have.

Granted, - Mr. Hewitson may not have won a popularity competition, and he'd be the first to accept that statement, - but even with the ever popular Davie Rae at the helm, the numbers of supporters would have continued to decline, - and like the High Street, - and by that I am speaking generically(not just Dumfries High Street), - a skip load of money could be thrown at the problem and the core support base would still decline.

You and others need to avoid the finger pointing (because that's the easy bit - "a big boy did and ran away" ) and instead work on scenarios that actually might help increase the fan base, - that's the really difficult bit.

However, as we are all in a pandemic and cannot attend football matches (unless your surname happens to rhyme with a Virginia Woolf novel "Mrs. Dalloway" ) then we have the time to think through rational strategies that 'might' help the club.

This is not something that can be done overnight, - or even by this time next year, - but if each of us came up with 10 possible ways to increase the fan base over the next 3 to 6 months, - then there might be half a dozen workable solutions that could be brought into play pretty quickly.

Football had changed out of all recognition prior to the pandemic and since March it has evolved beyond the imagination of many of us. Unfortunately, - we don't have the luxury of hundreds of thousands of people within our region, - but we could adopt the Ross County model as one option, together with guessing the potential way that the world might be by the start of next season.

This all sounds like hypothetical ****, - and maybe it is, - but we cannot simply say that Billy Hewitson is to blame and therefore we must get rid of him, - its almost like burning witches in the middle ages - because we're scared or because we think they've done something wrong.

Undoubtedly certain things could have been done better, - but that's easy with the benefit of hindsight, - I would courteously request that we all get our thinking caps on and start seriously thinking how can we grow the club and how can we bring people back to Plamerston - once of course the restrictions have been lifted.

The age old question and very much a generational issue with no obvious easy solution. Far too many distractions for the youth and supporting teams like Queens can be seen as being uncool which we ourselves have probably been through to an extent but this changes with maturity when we become able to think for ourselves. Very much the image that the town suffers from as well currently so how do we change the clubs image to attract the younger generation?
Catch their attention through better PR and use of social media so that they are more attractive perhaps by the use of media consultants but whatever is the best way to go it will cost money as well as being subject to ridicule /abuse by the usual suspects who need to be marginalised which is difficult on sites such as this without proper admin.
No oven ready solutions but the club needs to start to at least try to become more attractive to the youths of today who will become the foggy's we currently are.

[Ftivano1]

Not 100 per cent sure but I think a few seasons ago Big JT went around the local schools giving them free tickets and even that wasn't taken up very well. We have never had a decent average attendance since 1963 - 64 (over 4,000) and to be perfectly honest those days are sadly gone for ever.

[Francis_begbie_HFC]

Not 100 per cent sure but I think a few seasons ago Big JT went around the local schools giving them free tickets and even that wasn't taken up very well. We have never had a decent average attendance since 1963 - 64 (over 4,000) and to be perfectly honest those days are sadly gone for ever.

what we need is more local talent coming through that in its self can add local fans to the gate ,what i would like to see happen is this ,queens ,annan ,stranrear ,need to have a meeting and all the heads of all the d and g schools at the meeting primery schools and secondary ,scools dont have leagues anymore especially the primary scools ,this is a huge prob this problem persits because the teachers from the schools wont take the football teams on out of work time so that means no school football leagues and that back in the day was the biggest recruitment area for local big teams i suggest the big thtree teams in the area offer to send coaches ie the reserve players to run these school teams all over the region and kickstart our biggest area of local recruitment back up .

[CptQueens]

what we need is more local talent coming through that in its self can add local fans to the gate ,what i would like to see happen is this ,queens ,annan ,stranrear ,need to have a meeting and all the heads of all the d and g schools at the meeting primery schools and secondary ,scools dont have leagues anymore especially the primary scools ,this is a huge prob this problem persits because the teachers from the schools wont take the football teams on out of work time so that means no school football leagues and that back in the day was the biggest recruitment area for local big teams i suggest the big thtree teams in the area offer to send coaches ie the reserve players to run these school teams all over the region and kickstart our biggest area of local recruitment back up .

I would be interested to see where the likes of Gibson and Carmichael's Academy falls in amongst this. Seems to be a move away from school football to these independent business ventures are being set up throughout the country generally.

[jardi]

Frances, you make an excellent point, - or several within the one statement.

Rather than QOS or any team trying to survive in isolation, it would make complete sense to get round the table and see if some sort of system could be sorted out with the senior teams in the region supporting the schools and the southern Scotland sides etc.

We have witnessed the ever decreasing circles of recent years and if we are not careful we will be left with just a dot, - effectively a five a side team with no one to play!

Frances has suggested the most sensible thing on this board for some time, utilising the senior clubs as vehicles for supporting the teachers of all our local schools, - while simultaneously acting as talent spotters. The club will argue that they do or have done prior to the pandemic, - but there is a desperate need for all our senior clubs to come together and work towards the one goal. Stranraer and Annan have a core support of 300, - while Queen of the South has a little over 1000, and those crowds mean that the clubs are unsustainable in their current form, - so something has to give.

Football is sadly dying out, - the older supporters have gone and the kids are not replacing them like they used to do, - because they simply have no interest in the game.

Its a vicious circle which is having a detrimental effect on our senior teams and Dumfries and Galloway is suffering a greater impact than the central belt due to its demographics.

If we club together to support each other and the wider community, - without stepping on each others toes through an agreed protocol, - then we could just achieve a Ross County type situation, - where large numbers of people support a team from across the region.

We need a complete rethink of how we keep football going and how we support our local teams. We may be a Queens fan, - but that should not stop us going to watch Annan for example.

The alternative is the extreme example of the five a side with no one left to play.

[Francis_begbie_HFC]

Frances, you make an excellent point, - or several within the one statement.

Rather than QOS or any team trying to survive in isolation, it would make complete sense to get round the table and see if some sort of system could be sorted out with the senior teams in the region supporting the schools and the southern Scotland sides etc.

We have witnessed the ever decreasing circles of recent years and if we are not careful we will be left with just a dot, - effectively a five a side team with no one to play!

Frances has suggested the most sensible thing on this board for some time, utilising the senior clubs as vehicles for supporting the teachers of all our local schools, - while simultaneously acting as talent spotters. The club will argue that they do or have done prior to the pandemic, - but there is a desperate need for all our senior clubs to come together and work towards the one goal. Stranraer and Annan have a core support of 300, - while Queen of the South has a little over 1000, and those crowds mean that the clubs are unsustainable in their current form, - so something has to give.

Football is sadly dying out, - the older supporters have gone and the kids are not replacing them like they used to do, - because they simply have no interest in the game.

Its a vicious circle which is having a detrimental effect on our senior teams and Dumfries and Galloway is suffering a greater impact than the central belt due to its demographics.

If we club together to support each other and the wider community, - without stepping on each others toes through an agreed protocol, - then we could just achieve a Ross County type situation, - where large numbers of people support a team from across the region.

We need a complete rethink of how we keep football going and how we support our local teams. We may be a Queens fan, - but that should not stop us going to watch Annan for example.

The alternative is the extreme example of the five a side with no one left to play.

yes jardi this realy needs to happen years ago when i was a kid every primery school and secondary had teams in the school leagues ,nowadays there is no leagues for the schools as the teachers wont take the football teams on there spare time these days this is where all the regions senior teams could come into play to adress this by sending our younger players to manage each school team which in the long run would pump new life into the number of football players coming through in our region ,years ago the school leagues were massive recruitment areas for senoir clubs ,lets somehow get this massive recruitment area back .this could easily be achieved for our younger players as thay would have this as part of there development plan and it would only take a few ours each week taking training and the matches for each school team .

[jardi]

Francis, - its not a simple exercise as there are many hoops to jump through these days, - but it is possible and we should actively encourage our senior teams to take part. Indeed governments should provide financial assistance to clubs for this very purpose, - as exercise is widely known to ward off obesity, diabetes, depression and many other conditions.

[JTulip]

Great support for our Queens Trust fundraiser to help us reach our target of 1000 shares or more in @OfficialQosFC. Thank you to all who have already donated. We are currently at £755 and our target is £1140.

If you are able to donate anything at all it would be very much appreciated. Full details in link:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfund...term=GyGyad3YP

[johnny_dumfries]

Big Kevin has donated 40 shares to your target so its already reached. Not sure you should still be asking.

This is rather misleading.

[JTulip]

I disagree. We have a target figure which we intend to offer the club and as sum stated that we are looking to raise to get us to 1000 or more shares.