I want to be.....

[Rich.m]

............Billericay Town FC!!!!

 

After to going to Dulwich yesterday and reading Steve's comments them in his blog. I for one and I doubt many at the club would want the fan base they have.

 

Yes the numbers are great and with a good run of form and a team that is winning games, scoring goals and playing attractive football then numbers will increase (Champions Season - albeit not attractive at times) But...

 

If you made your way round to the 2nd half end of the pitch you would of seen the amount of empty cans left by their own supporters.........That's right over a 1000 in attendance but I would say probably over half wont even go in their club house! Instead they have gone into Sainsbury's picked up crate of beer for £10 and then buggered off at the end, so not evening spending an extra penny at their own club. A comment from one of their supporters was that he wouldn't get served in time in the bar so its easier....10 of them doing the same is £100 as easy as that which has gone into sainsburys rather than the club.

 

I want our supporters/fans going into our clubhouse spending money helping towards making our club self sufficient, we do have a clubhouse that would be able to accommodate more than they can. We need to make the most of this. Adding BT Sport is a start, thumbs up for that.

 

We don't have a huge fan base, but the fans we do have are passionate for our club. Yes I would love to see us playing in front of more support every week and I'm sure the players would too, but that doesn't change over night. You need processes in place to make people in our town and the surrounding towns know that we have a football club. When I was younger there always a poster in what was summerfields car park at queens park, I was always seeing what games were next when I went round to the shops. Social media has become a huge part advertising but we need to still be advertising where possible in and around the high street. Billericay is a busy place.

 

Its a CLUB effort that is needed and everyone pulling in the same direction. It has to start somewhere lets make it start from tomorrow night.

 

I don't want to be like anyone else I want to be BILLERICAY TOWN FC

 

[Eastside Urchin]

Dulwichs fan base is fake,it's akin to out when we had the money,our natural fan base is that around what it is now ,2-300 at a stretch 400 on a good season.

Billericays is slightly higher but you've won more over history.

Dulwichs will tail off slightly once their current surge up the league stops,the majority probably don't know much about non league,don't know that fans usually tidy up,real fans spend money in the club bar etc etc,they have if anything imported fans and probably 5-10 out of every 100 fans they get at the moment,are probably tuned in to what non league is all about

[GazzaBTFC]

Richard... Thank you for that post

[Billericay Town Unofficial]

Apart from a bulk order of scarves and paying to get in that is where most Dulwich fans financial support ends. 

The large number of middle class, work-shy, students that were there had spent money in Sainsbury's to buy booze which they took in to the ground and left lying empty behind the goal.  If there was a plug behind the goal where they could boil a kettle they'd all eat super noodles at half time.  There was a metal bucket left behind the goal, we assume it had been full of ice to keep the champagne cool.

 

I was there when the DHFC fan spoke to Rich about not going in the bar.

 

There was a small group standing behind that goal when we got round there.  They were eating shop bought sandwiches and drinking their sparkling mineral water whilst sporting a DHFC scarf each who were amazed that they had to spend the second half behind the other goal, though it was 'super, yah!'

 

Didn't they leave a mess behind the goal at New Lodge earlier this season?

[GazzaBTFC]

Perhaps we want a "super yah" supporter not a "riiiiiicccccaaaaayyyyy" supporter

(Apologies... The Essex brogue doesn't translate as well typed)

 

[GazzaBTFC]

Actually I was disgusted with the amount of crap that was left behind the goal and the lack of bins there were...

 

But I was impressed with the level of support they had for Sainsbury's... I believe the comparison for us would be Waitrose... See ya all there next Saturday morning... Early doors people

[Billericay Town Unofficial]

I'll see about setting up a car wash right outside the gate...

[GazzaBTFC]

Nah set it up in the bottom car park... Take up some room that could be used for supporters

[Dulwich]

Good luck to Billericay FC with increasing their attendance Rich.m, we wish you all the best with your efforts.

 

As for Billericay Town Unofficial, not sure how "most" Dulwich supporters financial support can end with entrance money when the bar is full to capacity and £9170 was donated towards the playing budget out of the pockets of the fans.

 

I am sure you might be able to increase the attendance at Billericay but you certainly won't be able to expand it. Especially as you are so against the presence of middle class, work-shy, students.  Everyone in Billericay must be so hard working and not at all small time drug dealers that live with their mums in a Council flat in Wickford.

[Eastside Urchin]

Basildon actually

[Dulwich]

Gotta love Basvegas.

[GazzaBTFC]

Well... Pitsea lol

Tbh no slight was and is intended towards Dulwich and their supporters... I thought that they had a table at our quiz night the evening was great and showed the true spirit of Non League football xxx

[Dulwich]

And your fans were impressively loud... PS please can we have our horse back?

 

He has a name that befits a penniless posh student Harry.... have you seen him?

 

They were the old school fans that supported the club around 200 years between them    perhaps a ryman league quiz night could be held at what Turvey deems to be a neutral venue, i.e. Imber Court!!!

Edited January 11, 2015 by Dulwich

[Eastside Urchin]

We will win if we can find enough participants such is our drop in crowds of late

[blue pilgrim]

There is no room for discrimination in "The Football Family" and personally I couldn't care less who comes through the turnstiles, providing they behave themselves. ( and don't drop litter lol)

 

Students generally are short of money and will always look for the cheapest option when buying alcohol. Hopefully one day, when they have paid off their loans, they might patronise the Dulwich Clubhouse. However they have done it, Dulwich deserve our congratulations for achieving such good gates.

Edited January 11, 2015 by blue pilgrim

[Eastside Urchin]

Students can be a pain In the arse,the best ones are ones that turn to prostitution or stripping to get theirselves through uni.They tend to have more money and pay for things

[Dulwich]

These ones are unacceptable.  Don't offer them free tickets!

 

Edited January 11, 2015 by Dulwich

[Rich.m]

Good luck to Billericay FC with increasing their attendance Rich.m, we wish you all the best with your efforts.

Thanks dulwich, i am by no means having a pop at your club, the money raised is great and helping towards your on field success at present....will it last when not so happy times come around, we shall wait see.

 

My point being i would like that extra money being kept within the club.

 

Then Seeing improvements from the money being put into the club, would definately help, we have had a lot of fundrasing efforts over the last few seasona like pitch up for the pitch, quid for a win, birthday parties, mascots which all generate money towards the club. Alot of that money would go towards paying the daily running of the club i presume, but it would be nice to see that money making improvements around the ground.

 

First and foremost we need to get together and encourage people to come and watch us, spend time in the clubhouse, take part in BTSA events and most of all want to keep coming back and being apart of Billericay Town Fc

Edited January 12, 2015 by Rich.m

[Dulwich]

Hi Rich.m

 

I read the blog that you referred to from your Chairman.  All the things he had pursued since taken over seemed very right headed.

 

There are hundreds of local Essex boys and girls that presumably would be interested in a local football club, so I wish you all the best

[Rich.m]

We shall see.....maybe you could lend a hand as your clubs ways is the way. We can just put our name to it so i keep to my original post of being Billericay Town FC and not are you dulwich in disguise fc

[GazzaBTFC]

The problem with any arguement or discussion is that there are many facets that make up the whole...

 

... You comment on one and you leave the door open for another as important part of the subject either untouched or not mentioned... And possibly as important.

 

I think we should leave this where it is. There are some supporters who do feel very strongly about the clubs identity and some of those do or have worked for the benefit of the club and its identity as well.

 

Any club evolves, depending on where it is in its cycle... And the identity of any club isn't down to one man. It's down to the supporters who pitch up and pitch in. So let's get people together and re establish what we think is Billericay Town FC

[Blue Hammers]

This is interesting;

 

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/dulwich-hamlet-non-league-football-109?utm_source=vicetwitteruk

[blue pilgrim]

This is interesting;

 

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/dulwich-hamlet-non-league-football-109?utm_source=vicetwitteruk

 

Good post/article - answers some of the earlier discussion - Thanks

[billericayboy28]

I think there are a few reasons why our attendance isn't as high as it could possibly be. Firstly, the only advertisement of our home games is through social networking, and to see them, you'd have to follow one of the Billericay twitter accounts. To get newer fans there needs to be more advertising elsewhere, just something simple like a few posters around Billericay, just to let people know we're then and when.

Secondly, the ticket pricing, i believe ours is £10 on the door, I know most clubs are the same, and the cost at all levels have increased, but some people simply won't be willing to pay 10 quid to watch division 7 football. We're not the only club who have suffered with this. I'm not saying our ticket price is a joke, but it does put people off at the end of the day.

There's a 'pay what you want' method that some Non League clubs have started to do and a Scottish Premier League club did it very recently, and it does definitely boost attendances at any level http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/mansfield_town/8502204.stm - here's an example, if it was done for 1 or 2 games in the season, the atmosphere would be good and i'm sure a lot of them would come again. Some clubs set a minimum of £1 on a 'pay what you want' deal. 

 

It's not a guarantee it'll be successful, but i believe it'd be worth a try

[Eastside Urchin]

It's a lovely article and full of passion but factually its a load of bollocks.

It quotes cost of a non league game and then compares against Arsenal at £97 per game,complete load of Bollox.

 

Arsenal played Stoke sunday,while tickets are available in advance and some no doubt £97 in club level or other parts of the ground,football fans are a resourceful bunch,nowadays you don't contact or buy fromtje club,or at least many Dont unless they are buying a season ticket but you go on facebook/Twitter etc etc and state what you want,your tweet gets retweeted and you end up with a ticket for Arsenal v Stoke for £25-30 and Theres thousands knocking about.....

Fa cup semi final last season,I just went up to wembley for a beer,30 minutes before kick off I started tweeting and after a few messages I got a ticket 8 rows from the front on the half way line for £40

Yes these are not always the best examples as the top matches do demand a higher fee but in the past 12 months I have paid £45 for AFC v Utd, £65 afc v sperz £70 afc v munich £50 AFC v chelski £40 AFC v city so not always silly money,yes over the odds but readily available if you know where to look and footy fans are usually very resourceful and these prices are not one off,there's lots on the day.yea not ideal but your dealing with a club that has one of the highest demands for tickets in Europe.

Don't get me wrong,I am not defending ok prices but the fact that tickets are available is why clubs like ours are struggling,it's simply not as expensive to watch PL as some make you believe,especially if you pick and choose your games.

However the clubs have season ticket holders by the balls,I grew up a ST holder at arsenal from 4 years old when my uncle died and it's gone up for about £50 a season in the early 80s for ME to £1600,i stopped going around 2005 as it hit a grand and I don't want to line the pockets of the fat cats but I am lucky.I always supported hornchurch and grew up watching v the urchins from the age of 4 and the truth is it was arou d 95-96 I started falling out of love with PL but I simply went from watching both sides around 25 times a season to watching hornchurch every game,but look at the prices.Tonight one of the best fa cup ties ive seen for years cost £20 adults and £10 kids....A Ryman prem game costs £10-12....you do the maths.....