Revert back to Trinity for 2015 and make the whole season a heritage season?

Sell a shirt and other merchandise harking back to the glory days, and hold a series of events around match-days celebrating the heritage and history of the City's only professional sports club? A music festival on the pitch, an open air showing of the Watersplash Final on a massive screen, proper engagement with former players and fans, events for young people from the District's schools and amateur clubs (link in with History courses to give it some purpose?) armed forces day, public sector 'everyday heroes' day, disability awareness day etc etc

There's a whole host of things that could be linked together to really get the club back into the public consciousness, but it needs a coherent strategy, a skilled marketeer and of course, some money - which MC has already said we don't have.

Why can't we be called Wakefield Trinity and have "The Wildcats" as our nickname? We can still keep all the Wildcats merchandise (and Daddy Cool!!!) but keep the heritage. It's like Arsenal are "Gunners" and that appears oa lots of merchandise but they're not Arsenal Gunners.

B2k some great ideas. It's a bit of a catch 22' you HAVE to speculate to accumulate .

I'd agree and with the extra SKY funding in place it could be a worthwhile investment to get us back on the map.

I don't know what we have spent this year but suspect it is under the cap due to the financial difficulties we were in, and Michael's reluctance (which I wholly agree with) to spend more than we can afford.
I believe MC was quoted as saying if we could get our average up to 6300 we "could" (not would) spend up to the cap. Given that statement someone needs to analyse whether diverting £50k (I'm guessing, as I have no idea what you'd have to pay) to employ a Marketing expert is a good investment.

On the face of it, it looks like a good idea to me but you'd have to figure in the general apathy of the Wakefield public to see whether it would be worthwhile. Maybe see how the early bird offer for Season Tickets goes and then make a decision.


PS some good ideas from B2K (perhaps he'd fancy the job )

Don't most businesses budget for advertising and promotions. We have a facility that ain't used for the closed season. I used to drive past the debs bury ground quite often on a Sunday they had a car boot sale in the carparks. Thornes park used to have a business to business event that lasted for 2days. Accountants have proved to be a stumbling block when it comes to speculating, and many would never entertain spending cash on any kind of event. They are however first in line to claim the best hotel accommodation for themselves, claim back the expenses.

That sounds likes bit of a dig and IMO not at all necessary. MC seems to be doing a great job in very difficult circumstances. Please don't try and derail a good thread on next years merchandise

The top line! Brilliant I would buy this but it needs a EMBROIDED BADGE.I wont buy any shirt with cheap printed badge.

These two caught my eye, the blue and red vertical stripes in particular, and then as an alternative to a band or V the white one could be a smart home shirt.

Not a dig and aimed at M C , just a comment on how difficult accountants can be to work with directly. I have yet to meet 1accountant that will ever agree to spending money if the odds are not stacked or guaranteed . M C s done like you say a great job. If you had taken the trouble to read all comments from page one I feel sure you would not have felt it necessary to comment further. Cheers.

It's a valid point, derailed slightly by your unnecessary dig about hotel accommodation.

In my experience, accountants like predictability and being able to make accurate financial forecasts based on what's happened in the past, and what's going to happen in the future; marketeers like to speculate, try new things and take risks - the two things don't go together very well and in virtually every business I've worked in, there has been antipathy between the two functions.

I can't remember who it was who said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half," but it's a truism; that's why marketing activity needs to be designed and coordinated by someone who not only knows how to do the activity itself, but also knows how to measure and quantify the results of each activity. If that is done correctly, so that evidence of what works and what doesn't is gathered, eventually, marketing can become focused and results-driven and only those activities that are proven to deliver a decent RoI are carried out. That way, even accountants can learn to love marketing.

Anyway - I have no right to spend the club's money, but I would suggest that a marketing professional would be a good investment round about now.

It's one of the easiest sayings going. However who's money do you want to use to speculate? And who will underwrite it if it doesn't work?

Maybe the club could do a Poll on social media of a descriptive shirt (no pictures) and see which fans like best?

Bloody hell underwriting what. It was an idea put forward that I agreed with. Many of the things suggested could be self financing. AS for one of the easiest sayings going I think of a few more, but will not bore you with them.

I think we understand that the club is still watching the pennies and are not out of the woods financially, however if we are going to rebuild the image of the club and attract more fans at the same time then something different and new needs to be done!

If people just see us bumping along the bottom then they won't find us much more attractive than we are this season, which crowds have proven, isn't attractive enough.

A Heritage shirt, an adidas shirt, promotional events whatever we do is highly unlikely to be free so speculating is the only way. If we can't afford any speculation then that's fine because I for one don't want us to overspend again.

If it is to be an image and support based rebuild based on results alone then we have to accept it but must also accept that it'll be painfully and frustratingly slow.

Could be self financing ?? What happens if it isn't? And that's a genuine question?