being the grand old age of 22 i can remember about 10 years ago when kids got into the willows for free, aslong as they were with 1 paying adult.

could this be brought back as a means of getting crowd numbers back up? and maybe bringing more money? in turn better wage deals for new or current players?

or am i just chatting rubbish?

free tickets for kids, that reminds me of the failed golden angel scheme. Yeah it boosts the crowd numbers but doesn't give the club more money.

Hey, at least your thinking though fella. Good idea.

Short term something on these lines has to done, certainly before we actually move into the new stadium.

In the fifties when I attended school in Brindle Heath each school used to receive an allocation of tickets from the club and 60 years later I am still watching so yes it can be used as a long term aim as well.

Every fan should try and introduce another person to attend matches, yes even though we aren't doing too well at present, this coupled with the new ground coming on stream will give the increase in attendances that the club needs.

The club needs to rethink its marketing policy now to take advantage of the new ground and the publicity that it will bring and I understand that they are exploring a sales drive for when construction begins and hopefully this will include enticing new fans as well as the corporate side of the business.

It is well known that if we could attract 2000 extra fans per match over a season then up to another £200k would be available for new players and this could enable us to recruit two/three top class people and if we could get an extra 4000 through the gates that equates to £400k and we could get at least four world class players.

A really simple way of improving things would be for everyone to become a little more positive about things instead of slagging the club off.

Wrong Wrong Wrong.

How an earth could the club lose money over it? It gets people through the gates and once they're throught the gates they're more than likely going to spend money which the club wouldn't have been getting if they wern't there. If the people from the golden angel scheme wern't there the places would still be empty and still bringing no money into the club IMO it was the best scheme the club has ever run.

Not to often we agree but on this occasion this mirrors my sentiments, even if the scheme brings in an extra 500 people per game and they each spend an extra £10 per person (£65000 per season so you see it mounts up) then the club is getting a whole new revenue stream that it wouldnt have had before.

For me the club should be giving 1000+ free kids tickets per game with the proviso that the adults who accompany the kids pay a reduced rate of £10 per head, as a result not only do we make money from ticket sales, bar/food sales but also if the right product is served to them on the pitch we stand a pretty good chance of finding new fans.

We can only stand to gain from this kind of iniciative.

I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with both Ave it! and Michigan Red. I'm going to lie down in a darkened room...

It's a balancing act - what you don't want to happen is that those who woud have paid full price start to pick up cheap or free tickets - unless you can get enough extra in on the disounted tickets to outweigh the loss of full price ones. Generally these things need to be time limited or just for specific games, but I do agree get more folk through the door and [isome[/i will come again

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It's pretty much common sense reasoning though, bring in new faces and try to get them interested to the point where when there is no buckshe tickets for them they stump up the cash to watch, at that point the investment in the future comes to fruition.

Now much go check that GT has seen the error of his ways and now dislikes wendyball as I can't be in agreement with a footballist

Next your'll be agreeing with The Optimist

Just hand out free tickets for the indivual games concerned, if it is organised (I know i'm asking a lot of the club by current standards) they can have them printed and go out and about to schools and hand them out, what better than for the players to split into teams of 3 or 4 and go see the kids themselves, hell if we had a decent mascot they could accompany them.

I know for a fact that many kids confronted with 4 rugby players and a mascot chatting and throwing a ball about with them for an hour or so and then being given free tickets would be home as quick as a shot pestering to be taken.

Yet again it comes back to why are we the fans coming up with these ideas and the fact that the mascot is an utter abortion that is neither use nor sodding ornament.

If the golden angel scheme worked and made the club money and gained loads more fans they would have continued to run it. Therefore it didn't work!

They club needs better advertising! posters, flyers, radio campaigns etc. On match days there isn't a single poster telling passers by that there is a match on.