Good piece on the Fans Forum on the T&A site www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ulls_fans/

Good piece on the Fans Forum on the T&A site www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ulls_fans/

One of the problems with the obsession tickets, both season and advance is that the effect it has had on the walk up crowd. This isn't just a Bulls problem but is more pronounced if your season ticket is discounted. People are reluctant to pay £20 for what the person stood next to them has paid £10 or less. According to an article I read about champagne

they over produced, discounted to sell the over production. When the price went back up sales collapsed as even the people who had previously paid full price stopped buying it.

Similarly with discount on away game tickets bought in advance. it's a significant disincentive to simply turn up as to all intents and purposes you have incurred a levy, rather than the pre-payer receiving a discount.

Whilst we might sell less season tickets I'd hope the walk up crowd returns in numbers.

I'll stay firmly on the fence thank you very much, but in general people are a little too quick to label others as 'negative' if they have the opinion that 7,500 season ticket holders is a bit of an ask.

You may disagree but it's hardly bristling with negativity is it? There is broad middle-ground between happy-clappy and woe-is-me.

I'm not sure if any of Lynch, Godwin, Hudson or Platt are available for picking again?

Was not talking about players.

Oh Dear Adey! TT got you that time!

Think Platty is available until the end of next season - unless you know different?

That will be the I'm not sure bit.

Oh yes, Hudson. Another good bit of business.

I am far from a pessimist, but I've been labelled as one.

Whilst we are all thrilled that Omar and Gerry have stopped our club from falling over a cliff, we need to temper this elation and stop it from making us blindly follow in the way that we did under Caisley and Hood.

Every other day I read things in the T&A and on here that make me feel that in OMar Khan and Gerry Sutcliffe we have two very dedicated and well meaning Bradfordian men who want the best for our City, and who will do all they can to bring success. This is all well and good, but only success on the field will bring in fans in the numbers that we need.

The genius of Peter Deakin would not have had the impact he did in 96-97 has we not beaten Leeds at the McAlpine in 1996 and reached Wembley! Even the timing in the season of the CC Final now works against this happening again.

7500 full price paying season ticket holders is an unrealistic target in a city like Bradford. People have less disposable income and need value for money. That cant be guaranteed, as in rugby terms, many people will judge how much value they get by how much/often we win! Some people might not like that, but it's an opinion I am entitled to.

One of the major issues about season tickets at Odsal now and always has been, is the fact that the ground has far too much capacity. There is absolutely no chance of not getting into the best games, therefore there is no desperate need to purchase a season ticket on the basis you will need one to actually get into the ground for the top 4/5 games per season. Capacity needs to be capped at c18,000. At the height of the Bulls' most succesful seasons, say 2003/2004, the absolute maximum income form ST sales was around £1M. If you consider the first (successful) Pledge achieved sales of c.£800K after several extremely bad seasons, with the benefit of the big story of a brand new coach, MP, who was admired by the fans, the generation of income from STs is far from easy. You can assume that OK and GS are looking at between £1M to £1.5M from ST sales working on the new average prices and their forecast for the number of buyers. We really need to get behind them and buy, buy, buy! But, they need to get some messages out there through mailshots to all fans, billboards, A frames, all social media, a door drop to the best post codes in Bradford and the surrounding areas where are current best fan base comes from, all the local media - tv, radio, print and lots of PR and players out meeting the fans in the community. Also OK needs to generate interest amongst the Asian community which is totally under represented at the Bulls.
Good luck to them!

Not sure I'm totally happy with the term 'pessimism', especially when it's thrown at people whom are merely being, what I'd term 'realistic'. We may well need fans who are 'realistic' and realise it's probably going to be a hard season. Supporting a team which is doing it's damnedest, but maybe not winning quite as much as the more optimistic might like, is just what the realistic will do - and without spitting the dummy and taking their bat home. I salute the realistic.