I agree that with success the crowds would come back.
The 'Dolls' were costing the club a lot of money weren't they?
As for the name, disagree completely. I would drop the stupid wildcats tag. Supporters follow success not a name but ironically the name Wakefield Trinity is known the world over but the Wakefield Wildcats - no!

If we're dropping names we drop the Wildcats.

After 16 years the average 'home' attendances still sit around the 3-4k mark. The club has not moved on and it could be argued are in a worse position on so this bull about kids been attracted by the name is just that, plainly they're not. Hull FC don't have a childish moniker yet they get 10k crowds despite being dire.

I do agree with the other elements of your post however.

Add to that the laughable bunch of clowns who run our so called local council, who have little interest in the City of Wakefield.

Why all the faux outrage regarding crowds, go back to the year we got to the challenge cup final and our crowds weren't much better back then. The people of Wakefield are fickle, whether it's the Rugby team or going to gigs etc, I've been to gigs at the Unity hall in the past and there's only been a couple of hundred people there.
A winning team might drag them out but to keep em coming? I wish I knew.

I can't agree with this

..IMO our home attendances are not "still" 3-4k. They have been much higher and have only fallen back to this level over the last couple of seasons.

Using Hull FC is very selective when rhinos, Warriors and in particular wolves have been very successful. Always impressed with the huge amount of young kids when you go to the HJ, and they are always kitted out in all the gear.
Even just around the corner in castleford, hardly a hugely successful team but the community buys into the club.

The point of this is that you have to promote whatever it is that you do. Currently we do absolutely nothing to attract new supporters off the field. Our visibility in the city and community is practically zero, no one buys the club merchandise because it is quite frankly crap! (First time in 20 yrs I did not buy a shirt this season) ,so as far as I can see dropping the name wildcats would make no difference at all.

Dropping the Wildcats moniker would be good for the club the wildcats add on is nothing but an embarrassment. A good product atracts fans, kids and sponsers not a cartoon cat. You mention warriors they dropped that badge years ago with the badge on their shirt the Wigan town badge. Hull saints HKR Wigan all have badges/names that represent something to young and old. We are the world famous Wakefield Trinity.

Tickets are too expensive to take a family of four with seated tickets for kids now £11 when at Huddersfield for a child under 12 they are £5. That's how you can get the youth more interested, either that or offer family tickets. It costs over £70 to take a family of four to see a match now, get it reduced to £50 and more families may go...they'd make the money up on the burgers, drinks, merchandise etc...

Hull FC is hardly a great example of a successful team. Let's look at the Rhinos and Warriors and see how they have done. There comes a time when you need to move on and that means we become Wakefield Wildcats so be it

I personally want a team that competes and at least have hope that we might have something to cheer. Whilst acknowledging the success with the Trinity name, the past is gone and we are now 50 years in the future. I'm sorry, but Trinity sounds dated and last century. If we have on the pitch success with the Wildcats name it also will become known across the world

Still doesn't help Huddersfields crowds. We all know what the cheap tickets did to us attracted good crowds but little income I agree we should try and keep kids tickets as low as we possible can.

Leeds do not do so bad with a cartoon Rhino! It's all about promotion of a brand - or in our case the lack of it!

Hull are struggling at the moment if they add Sharks to their name see how they'll like that, returning to Hull F C was a new start to them even when they were still at boulevard.
If you had Wakefield shirts on sale with our traditional badge representing our City it would vastly out sell a cartoon badge version. It obviously wouldn't solve all our problems but it would be seen as start with the club representing our City and its people.
Wakefield Trinity RLFC
Trinity Forever

On what do you base this assumption? Like it or not the Wildcat badge is attractive to our younger fans and they would not relate to a badge that is and sounds ancient.

Research shows that most children by 7 have chosen the club they will support for the rest of their life which is why family tickets may help the club financially and in the long run, without going back to the give-a-way culture of a couple of years ago.

and exactly the reason why we need the "cartoon cat" and not something from the last century!

I didn't cite Hull FC for their success I did so because they get 10k crowds and have a traditional name, the fact they've been poor emphasises the point.

After 16 years of Wildcats (added to the club name in the last century by the way!!) we're in the same position as we were at the beginning. Where are all these kids who are attracted to the club because of the Wildcats moniker? Are we seriously saying if the Leeds Rhinos were not so called they would be bumping along with sub 10k crowds because no kids go to watch them?

So, 16 years in and the wildcats brand is well established. I agree as a marketing tool for the kids Trinity is a non-starter. I can see its appeal to the under 12's but beyond that it's a complete embarrassment.
Look at the other names and tell me you can't spot the odd one out? Rhinos Warriors Vikings Wolves Tigers Bulls Broncos ... All pretty macho stuff.
The wildcats sounds like an American women's ice hockey team. It is by far the worst nickname in the whole of RL.
Added to that, our colours are red white and blue and definitely NOT amber. So why do we have an amber cat on our badge?
There's no reason we can't keep the cat for merchandise and promotion with the kids as it's now well established and difficult to change to another random (more suitable) animal.
It's ok pitching to the future fans but you need to appeal to proper serious grown-ups and sponsors.
Whilst Trinity may be old fashioned it is also full of the tradition and history of a 142 year old sports club. It is associated with all the historical success.
Wildcats is only associated with failure both sporting and business. Relegate it to where it belongs. Cheesy merchandise for kids. I can't see Chelsea changing their name to Coyotes any time soon.

Agree with everything

its only a couple of years ago that the wildcats brand was thriving. Backed up by the wildcat dolls brand, the wakefield wildcats netball team and the wakefield wheeled-cats.

Whether people like it or not it's a brand that can be marketed to women and children alike. Trinity, which I love dearly offers no marketing opportunities.

At the moment we simply have no interest in marketing anything ,so as I said it makes no difference whatsoever.

Thriving? Really? The club was certainly promoted more as a whole and with cheap tickets and freebies crowds did increase, but Wildcats has always been an ill thought out name pulled from a hat just because the powers that be insisted on awful Americanism tags because they thought that was all they needed to do to increase the numbers watching the game.

Wildcats is a failed brand in my eyes. I was 18 when it was brought in, I disliked the name then just as much as I do now.

I don't particularly like or dislike the name, but there are plenty of sports clubs around the world called wildcats it is not unique to us.

It really is not the name of the brand that has failed here.

Im sure that MC would drop the name Wildcats like a shot if he thought it would help us win more games or get more folk through the turnstiles. It won't. Does the wildcat logo tackle no! Does the wildcat logo score winning try's no! Im waiting for the first person to stick the boot into the kids who dance on the pitch. Usually a good soft target when the team arnt doing well.

I believe most successful businesses thrive because they get to understand their 'customer/fan base' whether through surveys, market research, feedback forms etc. ..'

To understand, in order to predict, in order to control' . Understand what the club is doing well and not so well in its marketability (obviously not including on field issues).

Trinity, as I prefer to refer to them, do not do this. It may be worthwhile to get a snapshot of the Trinity fan base and feedback that the club can work on.

MC did it briefly on this forum which led to some ideas including Easyfundraising which led to £1000 to date raised for the club. Have any other ideas through that forum discussion been actioned? Probably not...

Well that won't take long!

To increase crowds we need to understand why people AREN'T coming...those already in the fan base aren't put off by the "cartoon cat".

To be honest, I can save the club a it of money wasted in market research...crowds will improve relative to fielding a competitive team, sustained success on the field, match day facilities, increasing crowds (circular argument), and a new stadium.

In that order.

we had big crowds in the 1960s when we were a good team,we have had mediocre crowds ever since do you think leeds and wigan would have big crowds if they had a poor team and no success and bad news all the time, wakefield people are just like everyone else if the team is worth watching they will support the club.

The club I believe already have a marketing manager so no extra money wasted. New stadium unlikely.

However I agree with a competitive team being fielded breeds some interest just look down the road at Castleford that squad can't have cost the earth and they were a sell out against Leeds plus had a great season last year. Yet they seem to have a good community model also.

We beat them only a few weeks ago!

Think the club misses a trick or two to get a few more through the gates when the team has been better than now which is a point I was trying to make. Uninterested in cats don't think it adds anything forced upon us by Sky no doubt. Football clubs don't need it and neither do Trinity.