Turbulence (then calm sailing, then turbulence) thread.

[pjennings]

Perhaps for us to hit that target without having to rely on "event" games like SFC/WSW matches and the NYE game? It's all well and good for us to have an average above break-even, but averages don't equal cashflow.

What we need is more 'events'. This year we only have 3 NSW only games. It should always be a minimum of 4 maximum of 5. Throw in the NYE game and that gives you 5.

This year if we had the right timetable we still could have averaged 10,000. We need to take low drawing games away and make events of other low drawing games.

We should have had these 'event games'

3 derby games to bring in 40000
1 NYE game against Perth for 15000
1 ANZAC day game against the NIX 10000

and if you need to move games move low drawing games like Nix last year.

1 Adelaide game at NSO for 10,000
1 City game at Brookvale for 10000

The remaining non event games would then only need to average 7,500. 1 game each against Bris, Victory, Perth, Adelaide, City and Nix for a total of 45,000

So in a year where we only have 3 derby games and two games against 3 of our 4 lowest drawing teams in Heart, Nix, Adelaide we could still have got a 10,000 with a little bit of planning and seen every team on the Coast.

 

[VicMariner]

1 ANZAC day game against the NIX

That's a brilliant idea!
If ever there was a way to make a Nix game an event this could well be it.

 

[sydmariner]

Annoying thing is in just a few years the next media deal and COE income should see us sitting pretty.
So close.

Yet so far

 

[Capt. Awesome]

I wouldn't mind a 2-3 games at NSO if it actually worked. But it won't. I can't see how anyone from the North Shore would relate to a team called the Central Coast Mariners. You would have to then change the name to the Northern Mariners. This would then alienate all the Coasties.

As it is I think half the reason why crowds are down is because they think Charlsworth is going to take the club away anyway. As seen on here everyone is peed off.

Us dedicated fans need to get together and work out some ways we can turn this around. For a start we could start a petition to reduce the stadium costs. Maybe the yellow army or the Supporters club can can facilitate this?

If you have a twitter account hit up Lawrie Mackinna ( @LawrieMcKinna ) and the Gosford City Council (@gosford_council). tell them to do it for the people of the central coast not Charlsworth.

 

[VicMariner]

A couple of quotes from FourFourTwo:

I went to the game on the weekend. Because of the heat I arrived early for a few cold ones in the CCLC. I must have had a dozen people ask me 'Are the Mariners playing today?'.

If Charlesworth really wants to engage the Central Coast it might help to advertise that the games are on.

Someone asked what they're doing locally. Truth be told the hard work done in the first 3 seasons when they were in the community at EVERY event you could think of is no longer.

We had heavy community engagement under Lawrie alongside decent results (even posted a profit one year), then we had little community engagement under Arnie but had a class team. Now under Moss we have zero community engagement and a team even members are pissed off at.

The Central Coast is sustainable as a football club. It just has to be done right.

It is not being done at all right now

So MC wants more people at games but won't lift a finger to make it happen.
It is so basic that you PROMOTE your product that not doing it seems like deliberately failing.



I wonder how much it costs to get say 100,000 flyers printed up and distributed by the junk mail guys?
Something before every home game so everyone knows it's on.

 

[dibo]

Two minute google:

http://www.bellprint.com.au/leaflet-distribution/leaflet-distribution.html

There are roughly 115,000 households on the Central Coast. At $36 per thousand it's about $4,140 to do a leaflet drop.

Add another thousand or so for printing of DL leaflets. If you can sell another 170 tickets at $30 a pop, you make your money back for *each* game. That's a rate of 1.7 tickets sold for every thousand leaflets distributed.

Correct me if I'm reading this all incorrectly, but that means it's about $65,000 to do a leaflet drop for every game of a 13 match home season. You reckon our average might nudge up a little bit?

 

[nebakke]

More games at NS is unacceptable to me. First it was 'let's just try it' - then it became 'it's just two games, no more' now it's 'several' games.
I support CCM, if they move to NS, it's not CCM anymore, so why should I support them?
Why should I even be paying past this season if all I get is this sort of b******t in return?

 

[rbakersmith]

now it's 'several' games.

They're the writer's words, not MC's... for all we know it's the 3 games that was already proposed for next year.

In any case playing many more than that would become impractical due to the ground also being used for grade cricket matches - even with a drop-in wicket.

 

[adz]

Might help if they had someone selling to the public (lots of ideas have been floated here over the years) and corporates to generate income, instead of moving games around to save cash.

On the corporate side of things, we (CCMFans) had a $3,500 sponsorship last season, as well as our logo in the Loose Cannon game day handout. Nobody contacted us this season to see if we wanted to renew either.

Now I realise the amount I'm talking about is small in comparison to what the club needs, but these small amounts can add up pretty quickly.

 

[Einstein]

I heard 5 + games away min.

 

[VicMariner]

I work it out as about 1.3 tickets per thousand to make your money back? But anyway 1.3 - 1.7 per thousand seems quite achievable.
I was thinking along the lines of something us fans can do to help out but $65k is pie in the sky stuff. Should be well within the advertising budget of the club though....if they had an advertising budget.
If it was tried for a game or two, I wonder if there was any way to reliably measure the result?

 

[nearlyyellow]

Interesting that you have raised the subject of promotion. I have always thought that emailing members promoting any particular game in an effort to get extra bodies through the gates is a little bit strange. Because how many members do not have ground admission tied to their memberships? A small % I'll bet. And there would be some people on the email list who aren't actually members, I guess. But that would be in the small minority I'd bet.
So the letterbox drop would be a great idea, cost effective. Extend that to handouts in the shopping centres, malls, streets etc. by recognizable Mariners spruikers and you would have a much better chance of getting extra, non member, bodies through the gates, I would have thought.

 

[nearlyyellow]

I heard 5 + games away min.

Errrkkk

 

[nearlyyellow]

Two minute google:

http://www.bellprint.com.au/leaflet-distribution/leaflet-distribution.html

There are roughly 115,000 households on the Central Coast. At $36 per thousand it's about $4,140 to do a leaflet drop.

Add another thousand or so for printing of DL leaflets. If you can sell another 170 tickets at $30 a pop, you make your money back for *each* game. That's a rate of 1.7 tickets sold for every thousand leaflets distributed.

Correct me if I'm reading this all incorrectly, but that means it's about $65,000 to do a leaflet drop for every game of a 13 match home season. You reckon our average might nudge up a little bit?

Great post dibo. And VicMariner What has happened to the Mariners Marketing people that they haven't used this idea? Not much point selling to the already converted, the members, like us!

 

[localpom]

Interesting that you have raised the subject of promotion. I have always thought that emailing members promoting any particular game in an effort to get extra bodies through the gates is a little bit strange. Because how many members do not have ground admission tied to their memberships? A small % I'll bet. And there would be some people on the email list who aren't actually members, I guess. But that would be in the small minority I'd bet.
So the letterbox drop would be a great idea, cost effective. Extend that to handouts in the shopping centres, malls, streets etc. by recognizable Mariners spruikers and you would have a much better chance of getting extra, non member, bodies through the gates, I would have thought.

Totally agree. I have always thought the club could do more to get people through the gates without all this move into the North Shore. We are a growing area and attendances will rise anyway year by year just by growing the brand on the coast. Really, if the games are not on a Friday when you get the after work crowd then crowds may be embarrassingly small. Will not be a good look for us or the A league.Unfortunately the clubs owners are not Coast people so don't understand or care about the fans wanting to keep our identity of the club. Play in 2 locations and you lose that. Cannot understand this at all, fair enough a couple of games a year. Any more will potentially do long term damage to the club. I understand the financial aspect of all this but feel the owners are not giving their best shot at growing crowds on the Coast. We could easily average 10k a game with good marketing and a successful football team.

 

[VicMariner]

Incredibly frustrating that the average attendance in season 3 was over 12,000. That's more than any break even number that's been bandied about, which seems to jump around from 9k - 11k.
Over 12,000!!! The fans are there if they would just get off their backsides and go after them.
Instead they alienate and drive away the fans that do attend, friggin' engineering their own destruction.
Over 12,000 average.

Why did MC even bother buying the club?

 

[Roy Law]

Incredibly frustrating that the average attendance in season 3 was over 12,000. That's more than any break even number that's been bandied about, which seems to jump around from 9k - 11k.
Over 12,000!!! The fans are there if they would just get off their backsides and go after them.
Instead they alienate and drive away the fans that do attend, friggin' engineering their own destruction.
Over 12,000 average.

Why did MC even bother buying the club?

And in Season Four we went to Canberra...

 

[Capt. Awesome]

Just been chatting to Lawrie Mckinna on twitter. He said Stadium rental is only $7500. It is the lowest in the league. There are other costs involved to put on the event that are not council costs.

This less about stadium fees and more about moving the club to a more profitable area.

 

[BrisRecky]

I read the article re Charlesworth moving games and while don't agree, I can see his point, it is his hand in his pocket after all ...must be hard running a HAL team
and on a side note...shortly after reading the article, I got a txt from a bloke bitching about the article, he used to travel on the train to Sydney with me, he claims to love the Mariners yet his been to approx 3 games EVER...I texted him back telling him that he is exactly the kind of alleged fan that would cause the move of the team....don't think I will be getting another txt from him anytime soon

 

[sydmariner]

I heard 5 + games away min.

well f**k me