Bulls have probably been one of the best teams or markEting over the last few years from cut price season tickets that many on here thought wAS a good idea, apparantly NOW theres ticket for their easter game against Leeds on E Bay for £5, they've towed mobile advertising around Bradford Theyve had some of the best pre match entertainment (often better than what followed!) And theyre still BUST

as a club we decided to work within the money we have and not to speculate in the hope that spending lots of money will automatically bring in crowds

What we have tried are things such as . Frank has been into just about every school in Calderdale giving away Mascot packages and free kids tickets, Halicat is at some event or other just about evey week targeting youngsters, we've tried advertising in the local paper, we have a mobile application for those fans who can be bothered to down load it, we let armed forces in free, we send out thousands of e mails to our mailing lists before every home game courtesy of the Clubs main Sponsor Reactiv Media group, players attend local events gyms etc, we put up posters in just about every pub in the town centre, we have a regular spot on the local radio station, all this effort but still working within what we have and we're NOT Bust.


what else might we do to attract more supporters perhaps a better web site some people have said " or lets have more "free " tickets we believe possibly falsely that by investing in Karl and the players that he wanted we would build a team that might even top the table and that might persuade some former and possibly new supporters to come along to games

after all we lost a load of support the year we lost just about very game in SL.so perhaps a winning team might be the best advertising of all?

And after all the easiest way to double our attendances wold be for all those who come along to games to bring one friend, family member, colleague etc

and that way we'd have more money to invest in further promotional activities without jepoardising the financial structure of our club

Mike R Sorry for the rant But I do feel a lot better now!!!!

wow, relaxing holiday was it mike?

This is only simple but; I always thought inviting people to events/games on Facebook was a good idea (not sure why it stopped), it just seemed like a simple way of making people aware of what was going on and when. Also another thing that could possibly draw some interest is putting the match photos and maybe some highlights/tries on the Facebook page. It just gets people looking and interested. The recent activity on Facebook has been brilliant, but with over 4,000 fans on Fax's Facebook I think it's an area that really needs to be exploited, even if it attracted just one new fan it would surely be worth it?

Up the Fax!

These damned "speculative" finances of our club as opposed to the "real" ones in super league, eh Mike?

How dare you do such a good job running a club within its means. There'll be no reward for that my man!

Keep up all the good work, us fax fans appreciate every second you give!

im sure everone on here is wax lyrical about Fax, i for one neer shut up about it at work....but it is difficult to drag people kicking and screaming.

i agree if we have 4000 people on FB we should be hitting them 1st....

.....we need to find out on there who comes to games and who doesnt, a poll maybe?

also i seem to remember a voucher in the courier for kids for a £1, that used to go down well i think?

Dont worry Mike if the team carries on where they left off vs Sheffield, and continues to imrove we will attract some back. the way i see it, we need an average of 3000 plus in our league to be taken seriously. atm were nowhere near.

Hear, Hear !!!
And to all the rest of the office staff too.

Great letter in the League Express this week from Myton Warriors, well done to all.

part of our sponsorship arrangement with the Courier which is very valuable to us, is that they get to show our tries on their web site there has been a slight hiccup with facebook as our mr fax was unavaiable for a few weeks but i understand that he is now posting both on facebook and twitter?

we do have a vacancy around youtube videos so if theres someone out there who fances helping out with this (but remember just like Hotel California "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!"icon_wink.gif ring me at the Club late this week
cheers
mike R

here's one idea;
Along with the many cheerleaders (good idea btw)
Junior rugby curtain raisers.... get as many local juniors playing before the big game, u8,9,10,11,12, the lot.

They will bring parents, friends and most will stay for the big game.

I reckon 80-90% of kids playing jnr RL don't go to a senior game due to lack of interest or parent interest, play some at the Shay and they'll get hooked

might even be self financing as well

I heard an advert on the radio this afternoon advertising Bradford Football season tickets for next year. They were in particular advertising a certain type of ticket called a 50/50 . You pay £50 for this ticket and for this you get into the games you attend for 50% of the price, it is aimed at supporters who do not buy the normal season ticket because they cannot get to all the games.
Now I don`t know how much you pay for a season ticket at Bradford football so I wouldn`t know how many times you would need to use the ticket to get a good deal but I wondered if in princeipal it may not be a bad idea.
I`m not an accountant so I don`t even know if the price equates with ours or if it would need to be altered somewhat that would need to be looked at by the Club But having a fan who cannot attend every game paying a bit up front and buy into a season ticket of some kind rather than nothing and turning up ad hoc` may not be a bad idea really. The Club of course would still have to ensure that the "real deal" would be the usual season ticket of course.
I have never heard of another club doing this so wether it will work remains to be seen I would like to know if it does as we are always geting folk asking for mini season tickets and such because they cannot attend all season due to work / cricket or whatever.
Sorry going off subject but I think we will win by a margin of around 10 points due to Danny Jones playing out of his skin and keeping Keighley within shouting distance.

Well Mike I'm taking one for the team and bringing the wife down on Friday, true sacrifice. THis year also got my lads 3 mates and one parent so numbers should be growing but it'd be great if more of the fans who were there in the 80's came down with their kids/grandkids.
Oh and 28 - 18 to Fax but it'll be a tough game. With 2578 in there.

The biggest reason we fail to attract more fans is pure and simple. The costs to watch a game. I've tried to attract many a friend down to the Shay & they just can't afford it due to the recession.
Featherstone struggle for fans and they've been by far the best team in this league over the last few seasons.

Go into the Town Centre 10 years ago, and the pubs were packed on a Friday night. Now they're all dead, people just can't afford to put enough aside to fund any leisure activities due to high utility bills, petrol prices etc. etc.

I've made an observation over recent years that we don't seem to attract the "Lower working class" supporter anymore. They simply can't afford it. Also unemployment is at a very high level in Calderdale.

The only way to get 4000 down the Shay on a regular basis would be to do a "Bradford" and look where they've ended up!

However, with it being Easter, and folk who get paid monthly should have been paid last week, so I do expect the crowd to be around 2800ish.

Prediction: Halifax 34 Keighley 18
MOM: Ashall

Tough game and feel it will be very close. Keighley going well and feel home advantage will see Fax win.

Is it worth some people going into town and doing a survey as to why they dont go and if they ever have been to see a game etc. My opinion is the way the game is run has turned many fans away and have lost interest. I am sure there is little the club can do. It could be that prices are maybe putting some people off especially with petrol prices being high and the poor economical situation. Is it worth seeing if prices droppedto say 15 quid next season if it brought in more fans? The club is doing a great job though I do feel communication between people at the club should be better speaking from experience.

I agree with whats' been said but there is also one other major obstacle to getting fans thru the door. Yes its great to see a good team playing good rugby and winning but at the end of the season whats the point - without promotion I know some people who just cant be botherered because there is no end game. I go to all home games and a fair few away ones , but even then I do wonder why sometimes. I also agree about the price - once you factor in the £15 admission , a programme etc thats the best part of £20 gone -you take your kid / wife etc thats another £20 and in these tough times people will not fork out . Mind you I thought the crowd of just over 2k for the Hunslet game was a good effort and because the Cougars are going well I do expect another decent attendence. Also compliments to all staff at Halifax they are doing their best - big nod to Frank who does a lot of good work with the schools.