Personally, I think we need to improve our off field gear next year. Me and a group of 3 friends (19-21 years old) all wear rugby training gear for the gym and sunny days. None of us have any Wakefield training gear because the designs are too plain. We must of spent around £400 between us on NRL gear because the tops and vest are fancier looking. I'm sure that is £400 that the club would rather have and we would rather have spent the money on Wakefield.


Now I have got no proof and I haven't done any research but I assume that most "real" fans buy at least 1 of the kits each year. This should give us a guaranteed/minimum amount of shirt sales. I have no problem with having a heritage home kit, it appeals to the "older" fans. However, I feel that the away kit should be more "alternate" and stylish, this would attract the younger customers who have no memory links to the heritage kit. Basically, I want to spend more of my money at the club and to do this, they need to tap into my desire to wear the products

...and beach towels!!
We go on holiday on Monday and I've lost count the amount of times I've asked in the shop or on the website why we don't sell them with no reply!

Join Easyfundraising and buy your sports wear through the below if you don't want some Trinity kit and raise money for the club.... www.easyfundraising.org.uk/sportsdirect/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/lovell-rugby/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/jd-sports/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/tog-24/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/kitbag/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/sport-and-leisure-uk/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/2JV9KP/ After £5 is raised another £5 goes to Trinity...£785 raised so far..

Join Easyfundraising and buy your sports wear through the below if you don't want some Trinity kit and raise money for the club.... www.easyfundraising.org.uk/sportsdirect/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/lovell-rugby/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/jd-sports/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/tog-24/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/kitbag/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/sport-and-leisure-uk/ www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/2JV9KP/ After £5 is raised another £5 goes to Trinity...£785 raised so far..

Please give it some. Lots of some. Appeal to the Wakefield public on heritage and history, their city, their team, not some gimmick that was relevant only to a point in time.

The last great shirt we had was probably the Rooftop Gardens one! I think the last time I actually bought a replica shirt was 2005. I'm not a big fan of the modern shirts, a lot of this year's look like football shirts. A really good heritage shirt would definitely get my vote, ideally the Wally Lewis era Adidas. I used to collect vintage and reproduction Adidas. I might start making some enquiries.

Maybe a link-up with a trendy clothing brand would be worth exploring? Aren't 'Own Character' a Wakefield based fashion label that appeals to the yoof? Admittedly I'm a bit out of my comfort zone here, but no 1 son (15), who is a slave to fashion, regularly spunks £20-40 on ridiculously garish t-shirts. Some kind of dual branding deal with a label like that might well get young people interested - as well as getting the badge into different outlets.

And to the poster who berated people for 'having a go' at MC; where did that happen? It's good to be able to have a sensible discussion about this kind of thing with the Chairman - I don't think it's helpful to stifle it by wading in with size 9's to protect him from a perceived slight, especially when it didn't actually happen.

KC - re the 'Heritage Commitee' idea; that could easily become an unfocused forum for fans to a) moan or b) be totally unrealistic; I'd rather see a Heritage theme being overseen by a marketing professional, who can monetise some of these ideas and deal with the Chairman's entirely reasonable concerns about RoI.

I certainly didn't take it as anyone having a go. Just trying to get the message out that financially we aren't quite there yet and there is still work to do

I didn't berate anybody. There are loads of great ideas on here and I hope someone at the club with a better business brain than mine is considering them. But - having a good idea is the easy bit: making it work is a lot harder. Very few of the ideas on here, if any, involve zero initial outlay and I was just making the point that had already been made that we don't have the money for speculative marketing projects. It has to be slow and steady. If you don't like it then put some money in to back up your idea.
I may have over reacted slightly but, "stifling discussion" and, "wading in with size 9s to protect the chairman" - that really is over reaction!

Again, a bit unnecessary - it's not essential for people with suggestions and good ideas to have the means to fund them themselves is it? I like these discussions - you would hope that there might be some pearls that MC or someone at the club might be able to pick up and run with.



I don't think so - MC has engaged with the conversation and is being treated respectfully; he's made it clear that whilst the ship has steadied, it's not yet in calm waters - and that's helpful to know. I still don't think that anyone had a go at him, nor have they since.

Anyhow - we've had it confirmed that the club is looking to appoint to a marketing role; that's a very positive step forward. If the right appointment is made, we can expect to see a more focused marketing strategy being executed - if I were in charge, I'd make the 6300 attendance that MC mentioned as being the threshold for enabling us to spend the cap, an over-arching KPI for that function; if they achieve that, it will unlock all sorts of other potential within the club, so it seems like a reasonable thing to aim for.

On a related matter - Martin Hopkins last day today; has his successor been appointed?

Would it be possible to seek the help of a sales and marketing company /promotions on a performance related pay.

Like anything Bren it would need to be overseen by the clubs professionals in order for it to work, but I genuinely think that some additional help from supporters would be a positive I something like this, it would help the club who are" stretched" and who knows something decent could come of it, there are clearly some strong views by supporters wanting a heritage aspect to be explored and it's certainly something we have failed to do as a club for years.
It's a no brainer for me, but it must be done well.