Right then,

Today I called in to see Mr Duffy at the Bulls in follow up to the club-fan interaction discussion last week. He was extremely positive and would be more than happy to engage in some dialogue.
The club DO feel somewhat aggrieved that it is perceived they are “letting the fans down” or not giving us enough information.

As suggested last week I suggested a quarterly “briefing” between us and the club. I suggest we use three sections; Questions, Suggestions, Offers.
I think the first two are pretty self explanatory and Stuart will do his best to answer all sensible questions with the information he has, as honestly as possible. (Obviously some information isn’t for the public domain). He will also respond to each suggestion, i.e. we’ve tried that and it didn’t work, that’s a really good idea, we’ll look into it further, etc.
The offers part was something that came up as we were talking today and I’ll use the example we talked through. Someone on here is part of a classic cars club or Harley Davidson club and could/would offer their club to provide a pre match parade, free of charge – a genuine offer that adds to the game day buzz, which has no time or cost impact on the club.
Another example was downloadable pdf’s for children for colouring in or for posters. Does anyone possess the skills to offer here? (To be fair I don’t know the time and effort that would be involved here).
Anyway, you get the idea.

Stuart also asked what we want from the club as fans. What sort of things do we want to hear about? What can the club do to improve communication?

Further down the line he is keen to meet face to face as a group, pre / post game perhaps.

This is by no means my baby and I would welcome input / suggestion into refining the format into something people are happy to input into.

Mods, in the meantime would it be possible to have a sticky (with a submission date to the club – i.e.Sept 09 – as a reminder really)? I don’t think it really sits under the FAO any club officials reading – I see that more as a “Could you make sure there are enough paper towels in the toilets”, “could you clean the flag” type area.

Lastly if you are going to post in there, please make it constructive and sensible.

Suggestions (one is Andrea's that I've never seen a comment on)... [list[*Pre-match entertainment that's cheap and people might like - get an old player back each week. Post who it's going to be on here the week before, collect suggested questions, and have Stuart interview him on the pitch at half time or before the game. [/*:m [*Youtube virals to promote games - spamming people will put them off but if it's half funny people won't mind and will forward it on to current and lapsed fans alike. Get the players involved, two minutes with a handycam in the week and you're sorted. More on this here viewtopic.php?t=397340 [/*:m [*Given that the Bulls logo is pretty well known these days, maybe merchandising (t shirts, baseball caps) that just used its outline would look good in a minimalist sort of way. [/*:m [*On putting stuff on Ebay - I've been saying for a long time that the club should set up an ebay shop. It's pretty easy to do, requires little work and can be used to sell one-off items such as used bits of kit. If a player rips a shirt in training, get it washed, get him to sign it and bung it on the shop. It might only fetch a tenner but it'd all go into the community development pot. [/*:m [*How about a printable poster before each home game to be displayed in schools and workplaces? Same job done as a billboard on the M62, and done virtually for free. [/*:m [*A pdf for kids to print off that when stuck together and stuck to card makes a full size Sam Burgess cut-out. Add a 'be healthy, don't eat chips all the time slogan' and get the kids to take them into school to be put on display. Even if only a couple get made, it's better than nothing surely and wouldn't take much time. Take the pic in high resolution, email it to someone with some nouse on here and I'm sure it could be knocked up in half an hour. Maybe put a spot on it for a replaceable 'next home game' square. [/*:m [*Youtube highlights of Academy games for the website- don't know if they are/can be videoed or whether Sky has the rights, but if not it could help get the message out that we have some reason to hope for the future.[/*:m[/list:u

Suggestions (one is Andrea's that I've never seen a comment on)... [list[*Pre-match entertainment that's cheap and people might like - get an old player back each week. Post who it's going to be on here the week before, collect suggested questions, and have Stuart interview him on the pitch at half time or before the game. [/*:m [*Youtube virals to promote games - spamming people will put them off but if it's half funny people won't mind and will forward it on to current and lapsed fans alike. Get the players involved, two minutes with a handycam in the week and you're sorted. More on this here viewtopic.php?t=397340 [/*:m [*Given that the Bulls logo is pretty well known these days, maybe merchandising (t shirts, baseball caps) that just used its outline would look good in a minimalist sort of way. [/*:m [*On putting stuff on Ebay - I've been saying for a long time that the club should set up an ebay shop. It's pretty easy to do, requires little work and can be used to sell one-off items such as used bits of kit. If a player rips a shirt in training, get it washed, get him to sign it and bung it on the shop. It might only fetch a tenner but it'd all go into the community development pot. [/*:m [*How about a printable poster before each home game to be displayed in schools and workplaces? Same job done as a billboard on the M62, and done virtually for free. [/*:m [*A pdf for kids to print off that when stuck together and stuck to card makes a full size Sam Burgess cut-out. Add a 'be healthy, don't eat chips all the time slogan' and get the kids to take them into school to be put on display. Even if only a couple get made, it's better than nothing surely and wouldn't take much time. Take the pic in high resolution, email it to someone with some nouse on here and I'm sure it could be knocked up in half an hour. Maybe put a spot on it for a replaceable 'next home game' square. [/*:m [*Youtube highlights of Academy games for the website- don't know if they are/can be videoed or whether Sky has the rights, but if not it could help get the message out that we have some reason to hope for the future.[/*:m[/list:u

All academy and reserve home games are recorded by the club.

Wigan Bull has arranged with the Bulls to co-ordinate (sensible!) responses from his merged "Club – Fan Interaction" and this "FAO of any club officials reading!". These will be fed back to the club on a regular basis.

He is therefore a stallion of the first order

and certainly gets my thanks . . . as is the Duffmeister for working with WB from the Bulls perspective.



[size=150=red[uPLEASE[/u keep the posts sensible. It's going to be a hard enough job for WB.

[uPLEASE[/u refrain from posting "funnies" here.

[uPLEASE[/u use it as it's meant to be used and not for offering advise on topics such as, say, coaching - there are already numerous threads on that already.

This is real opportunity to get your ideas, input and suggestions to the clubs direct attention.
[/size
Good luck WB!

Aye, gonna be ruthless (as ever...). Use [url=http://viewtopic.php?t=412071&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0the gubbins thread[/url for comments on other people's posts that aren't further suggestions in themselves.

Good work Wigsy. Will get the grey matter into overdrive and put some ideas down.

what has happened to junior bulls club every month? they have organised 3 big events this year but my kids used to love going once a month.

cant be because people didnt go because it used to be packed every month.

How about some of the player's songs (as created by af) being pitched to the crowd at half time? Fans could perform their song, words on screen or in program, crowd can vote for their favourite by text (could this make some money for the club?) and then the winning song sang the next game for the player?

Something along those lines anyway!

Away kits that mean something - RAB hoops, amber with thin RB hoops, 93-94 style green, yellow and purple hoops, 91-92-style red with a RAB vee.

Price promotions on tickets - buy one, get one child's ticket half price, buy 2 get one free, etc.

Also on season tickets - free entry for a second person to Celtic, Harlequins and Cats.

Yes, I know that some of these will just be taken up by people who would be going anyway and know a season ticket holder, but this amounts to sampling. Retail manufacturers invest a lot of money in sampling products for free and when the biggest barrier to entry for people to he RL market is price it seem essential to get people through the doors for that first time / first time back. Every other in stadium game day initiative stalls if the people aren't there to see it, as it otherwise relies exclusively on word of mouth to bring people back.

Even go the whole hog and go BOGOF on the Saints Sunday home game for all home and away supporters, market the hell out of it and aim for a crowd of 16k+ thereby improving the gameday experience and increasing the chance of people coming back.


Personally I'd do a permanent buy 5 get one free all season. This might sound like a lot to buy but it's amazing how far some people will go to access an offer. The sums boil down to 6 people buying a ticket at £15 rather than £18 and could be the sort of thing that gets groups of mates who already go to games pestering oher mates to make up the numbers.

Could the club put artists impressions of the plans for the Sporting Village on display somewhere in the ground. Possibly the touchdown bar?

I think this would help create a bit of a buzz about the place and I'm interested to see what the development may look like.

Can I just suggest with regards to future fan forums, when it goes to questions from the floor, hand over a mic to the question asker so everyone can hear what's being said.