I cant afford £40 for a shirt but there should be cheaper alternatives such as bright red polo shirts like last year. So at least you can see the red.

It was very noticable the amount of young male Widnes fans were there. Was just going to leave that statement at that but...... our very small band of loud ones where on holiday this week. Joe who used to be the loudest is now your DJ so we need more groups of men/lads to shout and bang the drum. Our audience seems to have a lot of maturer followers, plus me and very little 13 - 30 people. Would love to see more young ones down at Cougar Park. Where are all the Albion players and Cubs players etc??

I fall in to that age category. The question has to asked. What's being done to attract people like me here? Not a lot to be fair, it's all aimed kids and families instead.

Why aren't people in like me coming? Well for a start since I started coming in 1991 the entry price has nearly trebled. Wages haven't. It affects younger people because they tend to be in lower paid jobs.

What can we do about it? It's a difficult one, there's no guarantee that just reducing ticket prices will equate to more fans. I think it would need a multi faceted approach, make it more than just the rugby but a cheap social event, sell high quality merchandise that we want to buy, that we're happy to wear. A young lad/lass walking through town in a nice Cougars shirt is a walking ad hoarding for the club.

When I was at the away game in Toulouse I came across a club shop for the Union team. It was a boutique full of top quality nike merchandise, jeans, shirts and accessories you'd wear on a night out . Ours in comparison look cheap and poor quality and the only place you can buy them is out of a cargo container at the ground.

Don't get me wrong, I know we can't match what they had in Toulouse but have stuff on sale that resonates "buy me" maybe have it available in Willis Walkers or something.

This has been brought up before at meetings about the "Cargo" hut no matter what you paint it, it just doesnt encourage you to buy, but perhaps thats a project for another season. The main priority is to get people in, young people, crowds of them so they can drink, eat and buy tickets. Not sure what the answer is, many of Keighleys residents dont have the spare money, if its a choice between, spoons, royal, rodney, k2 and a kebab saturday night or Cougars on a Sunday............................

Or £6 for a couple of hours at the cinema as opposed to £14 for a couple of hours at the Rugby.

Cougars are in the entertainment business and there's a lot of competition about.

just an idea..maybe you should try speaking to the club about having home games on a friday/saturday night next season if you are looking to attract the younger generation? we did it at widnes last year..the general concensus was that the younger fans preferred fri/sat nights and the older fans preferred to stick to sunday afternoons. although we have now gone back to sundays this year..i prefered the fri/sat nights

mainly because im 21 and usually go out on saturday nights, im not a big fan of the sundays because im in work monday morning ha

I agree, but a £6 cinema ticket quickly inflates when you take into account all the "extras" at cinema prices. They get you in then rip you off. If you inflated beer prices by the amount cinemas inflate popcorn and pop you'd end up with a mutiny.

I wonder if the club could do a promotion such as buy a ticket for £14 and get a beer and a burger for a £1, or something along those lines.

Although I'm and "oldie" I quite like Friday night games and you get the bonus in summer of having Sunday free for other things.

Maybe we could conduct a poll as to favoured kick-off days and times, corresponding to age groups? I don't mean on here, but at a home game. I.e how old are you? Friday nights, or sunday afternoons? that kind of thing.
Personally, I like sundays but if friday night gets a bigger crowd, I'd go for that.
Here's one - a spot prize for someone wearing a Cougars shirt around town during the week, say fifty quid or so, so's it's worth buying a shirt just in case...

I don't think you would need to raise the price of "extras". If you can get 1400 in paying £10 as opposed to 1000 paying £14 you should make more 40% money from these extras anyway due to there being 40% more people in the ground, possibly more due to economy of scale.

I know they tried this at Br*dford City and they are by far the best supported club in their league.

Not sure moving games to Friday would work. Firstly we're dealing with part-time players with jobs, they are more likely to working during the week. Secondly you'd lose away support for the same reason.

Higher profile and winning games - only way to get fans in - Cougars have improved the match day experience. We have lost our young male thread/pull.

As for reducing prices:-

I would be mighty peeved if I were a Season ticket holder and Cougars reduced prices. Wouldnt buy one for next season.
£10 or £14 you wouldnt get many more I dont think.

Well, I'm a season ticket holder too; I'm sure I could be appeased by some vouchers for the shop or summat to compensate, if match day prices were to drop. If it gets more fans in, it makes my day more enjoyable too.
Sounds like a plan to me.