I started thinking a couple of days ago, with the club doing so well at the moment and the buzz around Halifax at the moment. Does anybody know if the club are doing any extra marketing in schools around the area?

I appreciate it all takes time, money and effort but I just thought (for example) the schools between Halifax and Bradford may be worth visiting. With Bradford not doing so well at the moment and kids enjoying watching a winning team now might be a good opportunity to get out to the schools in the Bradford area and do some extra marketing. I know Bradford are a Super league team but does that really matter to young kids in particular, who like watching a team doing well? Just a thought anyway.

I also thought it might be a good idea to do a special gate price for anyone coming with a season ticket from another club. A lot of super league games are played on a Friday, saturday night and it might attract a few local fans to come down if we get some good publicity from it. I know it may not make a huge difference but it all helps....my sales brain is ticking again!

What does everyone think?

I think charging season ticket holders at other clubs a fiver to get in would be a good idea, it's not like we'd get thousands coming down so extra stewarding is unlikely to be required and every little helps.

How would you promote this though? Other clubs are unlikely to let their fans know they can come and watch us for a small fee as they will be scared of losing some fans to ourselves.

That would save me a lot of money

True other clubs probably wouldn't I suppose the first place would be the courier (ok mainly read by people in Halifax, but bare in mind there are probably quite a few Bradford fans that live in Halifax for a start).

This message board could also be used, publicity in schools and then you always have word of mouth which is a heap method of advertising! I'm sure a lot of Halifax fans know Bradford, Leeds and giants fans and although word of mouth can't be relied on it certainly helps a message get around the game.

Theres obviously more expensive options like advertising it the league express etc but I would probably stay away from options like that to start with!

I think you should splash out on better pre match entertainment, which is what makes bradford a bigger club:

-men on stilts
-men on unicycles
-clowns
-a variety of mascots inc bulls, radar man, dennis tennis etc
-trampoleeners
-pop band
-fireworks
-paper thing thr players run through
-smoke machines
-music for each player name read out
-100 cheerleaders
-mascot races
-boy in dragster car

etc etc
......all make it a better spectacle

Well we tick a few of those boxes for pre match entertainment,

we seem to be having singers at the moment, but we have a mascot and also had fire breathers etc. But you should come and try it out..do yuo think you would be more tempted (along with other Bradford fans) if you could get in cheaper by bringing your Bradford season ticket along?

Yes as I'm sick of paying £14



But in saying that the action and Rugby League product out on the field get 10/10.

definately, i think it would be beneficial for both parties

I have been thinking of this for some time as I have noticed that there does seem a decline in the support of the away crowd of late.It just isn`t at our ground either,several message boards of other teams are complaining about the away following going down.Todays game for instance looking around the ground there seemed very few Donny supporters I`m sure it`s because people just simply cannot afford it.It must be quite hard for a lot of people to follow their team home and away what with family members losing jobs and money geting tighter.So I wondered if there would be any mileage in say trying it as a one off where season ticket holders of the opposing team are let in slightly cheaper.
I wouldn`t think you could afford to do it regular as it could lose our club money.But the club must have figures of away fans so when there is a match coming up that historicly does not fetch many maybe you could offer a pound or two off.Even stretch it to other season ticket holders too from Super League if they think it would work.The only answer is to increase our home support so the away fans are not missed as much but it`s a long haul I`m afraid.

yes and follow the bulls in having no money left to pay decent players



hmm let me think what i would prefer

If iwanted to watch that i would go to a circus. What happens on the pitch is what it is about

Christ so thats why we didn't get into SL, we don't have a sheet of paper for the players to run through - gutting

This has to be a wind up I think it`s a long time since you saw all of these at Bradford on the pitch, well that`s with the exception of the third one down of course.Yes there were clowns in abbundance the other night from what I could see on telly.Oh and yes your right they were a spectacle all right

There were a number of Clowns plying their trade at Odsal on Friday night!!!

I hadn't even really thought about donig it for away supporters in our league but you could certainly extend it to them. I can't see us losing out on too much csh from doing so as hopefully more people would be willing to travel.

I was thinking of it more as an offer for Super league clubs supporters. We have already had 2 Bradford fans saying they would go for it and I think you would find others that would too.

Does anyone know if the players are go into local schools on a regular basis? Now is the point we need to start increasing attendancies for this season. 2000 today was poor really with how we have been playing

Agreed, and it's could well be less than that next week as I can't see Gateshead bringing as many as Donny.

A lot is made of the players having to play too many games over Easter but the spectators have to fork out for 3 games aswell and maybe some decided to give today a miss to save some cash. Some people will get paid next week (i know i do.....thank god!) and will hopefully have a bit more disposable income and come down to watch next weekend.

think it was more the sun that kept a few away from the game today.
a day out to seaside etc with family.

I wasn't there today I must confess

I thought people were suppose to come when its nice weather....fair weather fans and all!

Anyway I might e-mail the club to see if they think its a good idea.

weather can be too good, then they come under pressure to do other things with the family.

We need to look at history a bit too.

On 13/4/08 (our only league home game that month) we had 2,024 for a game v Featherstone (with a solid away support)

on 9/4/07 we played Dewsbury and got 1,889.

Doncaster at home in league in 2007, towards the end of the campaign, produced a crowd of 1,905.

The reality is that despite all the success on the field - we have not added a SIGNIFICANT increase in supporters who are paying and thus securing the future of the club. I suspect that as kids were "in for a quid" we probably took less money than in 2007 against higher costs (inflation). As Gateshead will bring few fans the club needs 500 new FULL PAYING fans each game as a minimum to build up income.

Although we're playing some wonderful stuff, we still haven't actually won anything, or got to a Final as yet. When this eventually happens it'll PROVE we're the real thing which will get some of the floaters back. Winning the NRC for a start would be a great kick start.

Like I have said on another post I have seen people I have not seen for years down there just of late and this Sunday I saw someone who vowed never to come back again around 6yrs since but it is new fans we need to encourage as well.I still think the away support is down as people cannot afford it following home and away.

I thought the away support at Whitehaven was fantastic...and thats one of the most costly away trips we have to make.

I know we haven't won anything, but we are now top of the league, the press is good, people around the town are talking about the rugby and we need to get people coming back, and if good press isn't bringing people back then we need to be more creative...hence my original suggestion.

Hmmmm. Rather worrying. Could be a fly in the ointment in what is turning out to be a potentially historic season for the club. How long can we sustain this squad on crowds of 2,000? Finances could be eased if we progress beyond Castleford, take the NRC and appear in the GF but long term - we need to be converting on-field success into bums on seats. What if it doesn't happen?