Brainstorming Session (Ideas)

[Bill Kent]

Thanks for that Cameraman. Very informative. Are they advertised in the Kent Messenger (Our media partner)

[The Cameraman]

Quote:

Bill Kent said:
Thanks for that Cameraman. Very informative. Are they advertised in the Kent Messenger (Our media partner)

They are not advertised anywhere at the moment...except for on my website.

I'd rather have club shops order bulk copies than me sending out individual DVD's to supporters via mail order though.
The clubs can then make a decent profit on any copies sold and it should be in the clubs' interest to maximise their sales/profit by advertising in the appropriate places themselves that are local to their area.

I have a similar situation at Grays Athletic (who I also film Home matches for) where supporters occasionally ask the same questions regarding the availability of match DVD's, but nothing has come of it as yet.

Quite a few Conference clubs sell DVD's of their matches and those clubs whose marketing departments are on the ball will benefit if potential supporters have more of a chance to view the DVD's and start attending matches as a result.

[Gally221263]

The poster included in the 'poster' subject is absolutely fantastic, very professional……the way forward…...

 

I realise I have gone over to the dark side but after yesterdays F.A cup draw I visited the Chelmsford city web site for a look around and directions to their ground before travelling down for the game on the 28th, I digress, they have an option where supporters can down-load and then print a poster advertising upcoming home games to pin up at work and in the pub. I know this has been discussed before, but wouldn't it be a great idea for the club to do this from the official web site so we can do the same. If the poster was just used as an advertising tool and even if it wasn't as professional as the one on this stream it would get the message across, wouldn't it?

 

Marketing, surely, is seeing a good idea and moulding it so it work for yourself, in this case, the Mighty Fleet. Everyone who can do, should for the sake of our club. Sometimes you, the Fleet, whoever, have to speculate to accumulate….

[1 F in Fleet]

If I were looking to invest , I think I'd want to get in a shout when we agree our new stadium . You'd want it to have a club shop that could be open all week , preferably with street frontage , and manned all week .. combine it with the day to day offices upstairs or backroom , et voila ... then you have more commercial openings , like a gym/fitness centre ... available to club staff and players obviously , and paying visitors during the week at all hours ... maybe a "nice" eaterie for those burger and chip haters - good on a corporate level on matchdays , but again open all week - like Rushden . And inside the ground , how about a running track ? More for our training , more for local athletics and schools . Don't think I'd want it to go to the dogs , though , like S*ittingbourne . Then you've got the forthcoming rail links , and of course Bluewater . Do you think the area can sustain a better type of local hotel ? San Stonebridge , a la Stamford Bridge ? We could book in away teams and their fans who could make time for a stop in this area , using bluewater and the rail link AND the footy to make it work , by advertising in the NLP and these clubs own matchday programmes - yet another way of raising our profile . We've talked at length on this forum about our proposed new ground , but it represents the best way forward in terms of investing in the club and the opportunity to get it right at the planning stage . Perhaps these are grand ideas , but couldn't it light up both our club and our current drab little corner of North Kent ?

[Hempstead Gaz]

So many sound ideas, Kevin, although I'm not sure about the running track, but sadly a lot of it will never come to fruition without a long term "BIG VISION" from the Fleet.

Realistically, a new stadium with a gym/fitness centre/pool/bar/cafe is the most we can hope for, and I'm sure is as much as the club would want to commit to.

Having said that, the additional things that provide the outside income stream can and would be only beneficial if the ground is easily accesable to the general public, who could "pop" in for an hour or so.

Sighting in away from major public thoroughfares or away from easy road/rail/bus routes would naturally reduce it's popularity.

The extra add ons can come when we have paid off the new ground, are punching our weight in Championship 1 or 2 and have crowds similar to those of Gillingham, ie 6000.

 

What it boils down to is not so much as the style and capacity of the new build, nor its capabality to support add on facilties such as hotels, training pitches, squash courts - even a cinema, but it's location.

Get the location of the ground right in the first place, and given time everything else will fall into place, given the impact the Thames Gateway redevelopment is likely to have.

[Bill Kent]

Once again very informative on your part Cameraman, things I never knew about, as are all the sensible ideas put forward by the posters on this thread. I'm sure some board members read this forum, and they may take some of the input and ultilise your ideas and use them for the benefit of the club.

 

As I said before, nothing is trivial when putting forward a money making idea.

[Slartibartfast]

I have to say that I don't like grounds with running tracks as it distances you from the action, however my son trains four days a week at the Darford Harriers track and the place is always ramped. People come from as far as Tunbridge Wells to train there and there is clearly a need for more floodlit atheletics facilities in Kent.

[Hempstead Gaz]

Of course, the ideal scenario would be to have a training pitch and running track attached to the complex. It might in the long term mean giving up the Fleet Leisure, but how convenient would it be to have the club offices, shop, training ground, restaurant/cafe, gym all at one site.

There would be a lot of daily activity,with potential income coming in from all angles.

[DA11]

The Scenario:

 

Its my 39th birthday last week. The good lady wife asks what I would like. A new Fleet shirt. After the initial "where do I get one of them from" questions she pops to A-Z in Perry Street to be told they have given up on getting them. I tell her of the shop inside the ground. As I am away oop norf for the week, bless her heart, she takes a trip down to Stonebridge Road with Kids I must add. Goes into ground and dispointedly finds the shop shut ( I would of told her that had she asked). She thought the shop was going to look like something out of Bluewater and mentioned something about tumble weed. I got the money instead that will be spent on Saturday. My point is that this could have lost the club money by not having a place to buy a shirt. Luckily I'm old enough and ugly enough to put the money aside and wait for the next home game. Some kids or grown ups don't want to wait so would have bought the Chelsea or Liverpool or god forbid that Gillingham shirt instead. Up the Fleet!!

[Harry J Allstars]

No running track around the pitch please, god think of Hornchurch.

[Ian_D]

We can all experience it (again for some), when we play Chelmsford, too.

[StuThompson]

Hopefully the temporary terracing will be set up behind the goals.

[Jessica]

Just a few of points to put right a couple of things on this thread. The shop is run for the club by volunteers. They do what they do for the love of the club. A and Z have never contacted us this year about holding stocks of our shirts even though one of our members has made regular contact with them. The shop in open every match day and at the Charlton Reserve games I doubt many Conference clubs can sustain having a shop open every day. We are going live on the web-site very shortly and people will be able to pay with a card, so we will in fact be 24 hours.

 

As for the video's, we had in fact gained permission from the Conference a couple of seasons ago to have edited highlights of a few games and had spoken to Chas re getting some kind of commentary, unfortunately someone at the Club, who I must add no longer works there, told the cameraman to deal directly with the club and that was the last the Trust heard of it. It had nothing to do, with cost or marketing as we frankly never got that far.

 

But as with all things it is no good one or two people saying they will buy a video or anything else for that matter, being a small club in the merchandise business we cannot order in the hundreds of thousand of items as the Charlton's of this world can, we have to deal in 50 and sometime less numbers, this obviously affects the cost. We buy in what we can be sure of selling, after all we are in the business of making money which we pass on in the way of donations to the club. We are happy to order individual items from the Jako catalogue and they usually take about 2 weeks to be supplied, we will also order in individual fleeces, sweatshirts embroidered with the club badge if you so wish. Just ask it may suprise you how many contacts we have.

 

We are waiting for a new design for a club scarf, new car sticker, new mug and a new wollen hat, so we are trying to ring the changes.

 

We have also ordered some of the light rain-jackets exactly like the players wear.

 

So pop in the shop we are always pleased to see anyone wanting to spend money.

[The Cameraman]

Quote:

Jessica said:
As for the video's, we had in fact gained permission from the Conference a couple of seasons ago to have edited highlights of a few games and had spoken to Chas re getting some kind of commentary, unfortunately someone at the Club, who I must add no longer works there, told the cameraman to deal directly with the club and that was the last the Trust heard of it. It had nothing to do, with cost or marketing as we frankly never got that far.

But as with all things it is no good one or two people saying they will buy a video or anything else for that matter, being a small club in the merchandise business we cannot order in the hundreds of thousand of items as the Charlton's of this world can, we have to deal in 50 and sometime less numbers, this obviously affects the cost. We buy in what we can be sure of selling, after all we are in the business of making money which we pass on in the way of donations to the club.

Yes, you are exactly right there, Jessica.

However, when I filmed on a regular basis for clubs such as Enfield and Aldershot Town in the 90's, I used to bring copies of matches (fully edited & produced) along with me to the following Home game, leave them in the shop an hour before kick-off to sell during the match, get paid my percentage after the match for any that had been sold, then take any unsold copies back home with me and tape over them.
That was because they were all on video in those days though !
Now it is more or less 99% DVD's that people want...and once they are recorded on, they can't be re-used, so I would then be left with a lot of 'dead stock' if (for example) this Saturday I brought 20 copies of the Home match against Grays with me and the shop only managed to sell a couple of them.

I'm sure a lot of supporters must watch the highlights on Conference TV, even though you have to pay for that privilege nowadays, so it's difficult to guage just how many would want to actually buy DVD's !?

As the price of blank discs are so cheap now though, I don't mind wasting a few for an initial experiment with a match DVD or maybe some sort of DVD compilation in early December of the games so far.

Unlike other merchandise which has to be paid for to suppliers in advance, mine would be paid for only when sold.