No

yes

You'd do it one of three ways:
1. Plan your ents budget equally across the season with the view that each fixture is as important as another.
2. You plan your ents based upon who you're playing and budget according to both the crowd and the money you'd expect to get back, especially if you can get decent numbers of fans in early and spending.
3. You wait for the fixtures to come out and plan the ents targeting certain games as key - for example do you have a 'family day' one Sunday or get a decent set up for one of the lower key games to drum up a bigger crowd.

I appreciate that the budget the club has to spend dictates the sort of entertainment you can put on and a decision has to be made as to how you spend the budget, but it was one of the things that made Odsal, and Bradford, different to what other clubs offered.

Yup, and entertainment has evolved globally but nor does that mean that it should be stopped because others do it, merely reinvented and surpassed. I think we've more than covered the how's why's and wherefore's. If anyone is interested the "stating the bleedin obvious" survey the RFL plagiarised, it can be obtained from: www.sportswise.info/newssection. ... itemid=363

Yup, and entertainment has evolved globally but nor does that mean that it should be stopped because others do it, merely reinvented and surpassed. I think we've more than covered the how's why's and wherefore's. If anyone is interested the "stating the bleedin obvious" survey the RFL plagiarised, it can be obtained from: www.sportswise.info/newssection. ... itemid=363

The "Matchday experience" and how to handle it is a very, very difficult thing to answer.

We already know what has worked in the past and the club will know what cost and benefit any of this actually was. Due to the budgeting constraints and the current economic climate the club has to be sensible in what it does and can offer in addition to the actual game.

As previous posters have pointed out, the club may need to manage it's budget to suit particular games and the idea that some matchday entertainment may encourage families to come to certain games.

The main problem we have is the weather and the vast open spaces and the lack of covered areas. This however, can also be our unique selling point when the weather is great.

In terms of what seems to have worked well in the past in encouraging kids, could the club spend some money to obtain their own bouncy castle/s rather than pay an outside individual to come in to provide this? The cost for a VERY large bouncy castle appears to be around the £1,500 mark - and this may be customised in club colours and badges (I've only had a brief look on t'internet). This could also be used to take around schools when the players do training sessions with them and a bit of fun for the players to teach some tackling on the inflatable!

For players not on first team duty, there could be an autograph tent (or plonk them in the big beer tent). Kids get to meet a first team player, get their shirt signed and maybe a photo taken with them. Granted you could end up with the same / similar players sat there a lot of weeks if they're injured, but I'm sure there'd be many on here who would be interested in talking to a player to see how the injury is coming along and when they expected to be back etc. Can't see this costing the club anything. Kids love being able to see their idols up close and personal. If we'd of had a tent with Lesley sat signing photos on a matchday when he wasn't playing he'd have been swamped.

I've always thought that the club could use the local junior sides a little bit better too. Each home game could be allocated to a different local junior club who are given free tickets for the kids in all age groups and they play on the pitch at half-time after joining in the Bullman parade prior to the game. These kids could be encouraged to bring banners to advertise the club and they all get the opportunity to tell their friends about how great it was to go around and play on the pitch. Any youngsters wanting to take up the game will see a junior side every week that they could potentially play for.

Going slightly off topic now, but one other thing that I know the club can do nothing/very little about is the timing of the Challenge cup semis and final. It's a shame that the Challenge cup is placed where it is as potentially, when the weather is supposed to be at its best in late July and August, all SL clubs lose out on two weekends of possible great weather to host home games. This would effect us more than others as we do have a "fair weather" support to some degree, where as at, Wigan for example, the weather probably plays less of a factor in a persons attendance due to the covered stadia.

I know the "game" benefits from the better weather and these games being shown on terrestrial TV in blazing sunshine and the Wembley weekend is a great one for those who go year on year, but for me, I'd have the final earlier in the season - I'm not saying place it in March or anything silly like that but we could advertise the game as the "Major" sporting final of the summer by having the final just 4-6 weeks earlier?

Some good points in there BB - they also cost very little.

Look no further my friend...

rlhttp://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/bring-wiggy-back-to-odsal.htmlrl

This fell on deaf ears so it's clear that the club don't care about this.

Was that black guy, Seal?

The day MC Wiggy played Odsal will live in infamy.

No MC Wiggy from "The Hit man and her".

But the spaces and setup at Odsal allows us to do something other clubs can't - get them into the ground spending money rather than in local pubs or arriving half an hour before KO.

I was reading about a new motorclub in Bradford called the Rotating Ferrets Motorclub - why not see if they can bring some of their motors (or from some other MC's) along for a pre-match parade? On the British Rally Forum they're always bemoaning the lack of exposure the sport gets so it could be mutually benefitial. You could have an area at the top set up so people can look at the cars close up beforehand and then get them down to the bottom for either a pre-game parade or for half time. Maybe even get some of them sideways!

Not at them prices!

But we were PROMISED at the forum that the club were going to look at the prices!

We were assured that although they felt the price of the beer was on a per with other sporting establishments and their margin and remained the same, that maybe they needed to review it as it might not be cheap enough for Bradford. Personally I think if they dropped their margin and sold it cheaper they might sell more and make more.

I wonder if anyones tried to go into partnership with someone like Wetherspoons? We provide the facilities and staff and they provide discounted Ale. Wetherspoons @ Odsal.

Wonder what the Prophet of Doom at the forum made of rlthis?rl