A local brewery involved with the cougars? not a chance.

Sorry, no more information than you have, thiis is just a general observation, like I said, in any kind of business the directors can only act on in formation passed onto them, this being by the people whose duty it is to do so....

' Contra deals ' are hardly a new thing , many clubs already do them , as many clubs sell off certain parts of their activities for a set amount of money , personnally if I was in control of a club I'd be looking at running everything myself to maximise profit , it seems to me that sometimes the clubs just ' cant be bothered ' or it's ' too much trouble '

If somebody else can afford to pay you for the ' franchise ' and then make a profit , then that profit could be the clubs as well , quite often once a club gives up the control of something they no longer seem interested in it , this can result in bad feeling when the fans either get fleeced financially or are provided with sub standard service , this then can affect the ' feel good ' factor that all clubs need to build

The bottom line is getting enough ' payers ' through the gates to finance a self sustaining club spending max salary cap and having money left over to invest in youth development and marketing is exremely difficult , to me no stone can be left unturned or ignored when it comes to bringing in finance , clubs need every last penny of every revenue stream , and if that needs a bit of organisation and work , then it has to be done

Starbug, I agree with you about bringing more fans in, Cougars actually did a great job with that last season with a 25% increase.

Likewise regarding franchising services, catering, cleaning etc. They should stay inhouse where possible.

I was more on about tangible things like beer, merchandise, scoreboards, PA systems etc.

We've some ad hoardings still up from the Fiji vs South Africa Centenary World Cup Game we had. So in my opinion we should look to trade some this space in exchange for things that will improve the clubs infrastructure or sell on for greater profit.

Which tells you that the boards around the ground are of little real value , this is not a criticism , just the way it is , the boards facing outwards onto the by pass and ASDA at Hilton Park brought the bulk of the money in compared to the ones facing inwards , ultimatley a lot more people in the ground or a reasonable TV audience is what will produce real results , I'm not saying dont do it , just that dont expect people knocking the doors down

I can see the point of free tickets for kids, but I'm not sure about for adults as well? Cheap certainly, free no. I think if you've paid for something you'll value it more; in the case of a ticket, it perhaps means you'll definitely turn up, whereas it wouldn't matter with a free ticket wether you did or not.
The problem is making sure they go to new supporters, not existing ones; A maybe not perfect solution would be to give them to schools/organisations on a strictly rotational basis, not just hand them out all over the place. So you may get a cheap ticket for one game because you go to a certain school or belong to a certain organisation, but if you want to go to the next game you'll have to buy, as it will be some other groups' turn to get the cheapies.
Maybe have a nominated game where a season ticket holder can bring a friend for a fiver or summat...

Well your first postIt seems to me that there are people on here calling fior the heads of the Directors(2001 Ltd), in my view a little unfairly, directors of a rugby club and indeed any kind of business, can only act on the information given to them.
'"

The directors are responsible for the company. It is them that sign off the accounts to say that the company is a " Going Concern", so I think it would be very difficult to miss a £183,000 debt.

Anyway in a business, such as a rugby club it is the directors that fully determine the direction the company takes, and should therefore be fully aware of everything that goes on.

As I posted earlier



Apparently your near neighbours gave out a lot of freebies and it was abused , resulting in most owners using that as an excuse not to do it , free adult tickets must be the aim , but as you point out , control is the issue here

Who gets them and uses them has to be cosely defined and also communicated to the paying fans , when you get the local ' glory fan ' boasting in the pub that he gets in for free you create all sorts of problems , so close control and letting the ' payers ' know what you are doing , why you have to do it , the long term benifits of doing it , and that you will do all within your powers to stop it being abused is vitally important

You've got be really careful not to alienate season ticket holders and regular fans.

Why should they pay to get in and see people get in for nowt.

From personal experience though it does work.

When I was about 9 I got free tickets at school and it was what eventually got me hooked.

One thing that I really remember back then was how much more interactive the players were with the kids.

I used to remember Carleton Farrell running up and down the edge of the pitch high fiving everyone and being able to run on the pitch at the end of the game and shake the players hands and pat them on the back. There isn't that player/kid interaction of the early cougarmania years now.

Communication

My wife and I came to Cougars in the early nineties because our kids got free tickets - it really does work if the product is right.

I recently spoke to a fan from a superleague club who came to watch us and commented how good it was that players came into the bar after the game and interacted with fans. He said at his club you had to pay a fortune for the privilege.

There was a tangible spirit amongst the players last year I only hope that continues this year.

If the new directors are up to anything (and I assume they are) they should understand the tools available to analyse a business and set the necessary targets and responsibilities to take it forward.

I agree with being involved in every revenue stream and striving for customer satisfaction, but sometimes it makes sense to franchise ie the burger van. The key business decision is making the call of when its viable.

Yet again it seems that Cougar fans live in "interesting times".

I think its about time the new directors held a forum with the fans to give a broad outline of what they intend and to dispel the growing rumour mill.

www.keighleynews.co.uk Basically the article confirms the new board of directors and the way they see us going forward, however to my suprise, more disappointment than suprise really is Neil is on the new board. Forwardpass tries to pass the criticism of Neil and Colin without evidence to the contrary that as directors they were ultimately responsible for ensuring payments were being made. How could we be told in papers weeks ago we are in stronger position yet this bill was outstanding, can someone explain this. The reason for my disappointment of Neil being on new board is simply that without a full and frank public statement the club in my view cannot be seen as moving forward as this is not the 1st time under the stewardship of Neil. Whilst I may come across as harsh all that is needed is evidence that as chairman Neil ACCEPTS responsibility. Without is whilst I will attend games and watch and support the players I will not be going in bar and spending money as to me its like rewarding failure. If at such a time as a full statement is public that is my position

www.keighleynews.co.uk Basically the article confirms the new board of directors and the way they see us going forward, however to my suprise, more disappointment than suprise really is Neil is on the new board. Forwardpass tries to pass the criticism of Neil and Colin without evidence to the contrary that as directors they were ultimately responsible for ensuring payments were being made. How could we be told in papers weeks ago we are in stronger position yet this bill was outstanding, can someone explain this. The reason for my disappointment of Neil being on new board is simply that without a full and frank public statement the club in my view cannot be seen as moving forward as this is not the 1st time under the stewardship of Neil. Whilst I may come across as harsh all that is needed is evidence that as chairman Neil ACCEPTS responsibility. Without is whilst I will attend games and watch and support the players I will not be going in bar and spending money as to me its like rewarding failure. If at such a time as a full statement is public that is my position