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I was actually going to put a post on last night (and started typing it) about how I thought all this optimism was misplaced.

 

I think it is ridiculous that people are whipping themselves into frenzies about the fact that Scholes, Berger etc may be coming here. How?

 

There is no way of financing anything of the sort - Scholes maybe an exception as he is one of us, but come on, Patrick Berger is it really going to happen?

 

OK people can shout all they want about the fact that we have previous in the Berger issue, but we could put in a cheeky bid for Thierry Henry as he seems to be unwanted at Camp Nou - how far will it get us? Nowhere at all other than being ridiculed in the chip wrappers of tomorrow.

 

Todays words from SC - as much as I think that they are badly misplaced and more importantly timed - are ones I have been thinking about for a long time. We are forever doomed to be a bottom two tier club nowadays.

 

We are in the bottom third in division three in attendance figures and anyone that thinks that that is going to change in the next few years needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

 

We have no more pulling power than say a Yeovil, and we are pretty much destined to play our days out in the bottom two leagues because we have no financial clout in the grander scheme of the bottom two leagues. I truly think that the only way for us to get out of this division, and I think this sadly, is down a level.

 

Th Corp is right with many of his points about teams that were once a blot on our landscape have gone past us in the last few years - though I bear no ill will about this progression, it is football and happens all the time. Liverpool were a 2nd tier club for much of the 60's, Chelsea in the 80's and 90's played loads of football in the 2nd division. Bolton & Wolves were both 4th divsion clubs in the 80's whilst we were plying our trade in the old div 2. Look at them now. What the difference for me is catchment. We just don't have it.

 

Whilst the media is sodden in Premiership football we will always suffer because of it. The area we are in is sodden with Premiership and Championship clubs.

 

It isn't like a Plymouth scenario at BP. The closest decent team to them is probably 150 miles away in Bristol. There are 7 Prem clubs in under a 50 mile radius of us, another 6 big-ish Championship clubs and Leeds. Added to that Dale and Stockport had great seasons and Braddy were practically giving season tickets away. Where does that leave the casual football fan? I have no idea other than I know where it doesn't leave them. BP for one.

 

There should be no surprises in the fact that the owners are disappointed, but why did they not see the obvious? This was always going to happen and it will be worse next season I predict.

 

The numbers of people making footfall through the turnstiles will only change for the worst until we have a successful season again, and in all reality I think it may take a relegation and a level playing field for us to be able to be in that position again.

 

KtF,

 

Derek.

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It will change, Derek. All those fans, as I've already said, that have become bored with a continous League 1 season will come back if and when we are promoted.

 

If someone would care to get me the average attendances at BP since 2000 or something, I'd be willing to say that even though the attendances have dropped, there'll come a time where we get stuck with the fans who just can't not go to BP every other Saturday. I think we're reaching that point about now.

 

You hit the bottom, the only way you can ever go is up.

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What's wrong with a few posters in the town centre, I see nothing at all about upcoming games when I'm there,

 

I remember many many years ago Latics used to have plenty of posters advertising upcoming fixtures in nearby towns.

Nowadays you don't see any, and Latics matches are rarely advertised in the Tameside Reporter.

Some Tameside (who have no league teams) towns like Mossley, Ashton under Lyne and Stalybridge may be actually closer to BP in mileage than some Boroughs of Oldham.

A potential untapped source of revenue right on Latics doorstep.

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Agree with all you say except if we did get into the champiuonship I do feel 8-10k would be achievable on a regular basis due to the increased interest of home supports and the bigger away following that we would certainly achieve.

And is that sufficient to run a Championship club? Most clubs in the Championship get crowds over 15,000 and 5 or 6 get crowds over 20,000. Unfortunately Oldham can only sustain a League 2 team, where we would probably be one of the better supported clubs.I really wish this wasn't the case, but it is. Football on TV cannot be blamed. Granted Sky have games on which finish just before kickoff and start just after the game has finished on Saturday, but I can't see that people stay in and watch these games rather than going to BP. They just don't fancy going to the game and sitting in the cold, and possibly getting wet walking to the ground. Somehow kids need to be attracted to the match week in week out, not just for the odd game.

 

Why don't we make games free for the under 16's, and £3 for 16 and 17 year olds. Obviously the club would have to have some sort of ID scheme for anyone under 18, so that they would be charged appropriately. It's too late for the coming season because prices have altready been fixed.

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What an awful stereotype. Today actually, there was some decent talk about, albeit, Utd's chances at Wigan - some guy used Steve Bruce confidently - so they do care about football.

 

Yes,I agree, that a lot of the asian community who do take an interest in the sport seem to support the Utds, Arsenals and Chelseas, but when I used to be a paper lad, I worked for a lovely Indian couple, who's son, who is obviously totally westernised shocked me when I saw him serving with a Latics shirt on.

 

The older heads I doubt like football that much, because they are actually from Asia, but the younger lot is who I'm talking about. I mean, try and get a couple of classes in on a Saturday afternoon, as like a trip or summat, and see how the 8-9 year olds like it. If they don't, fair enough, but there would be some who do really enjoy themselves, and we may just stumble across an extra couple of fans.

tryed it a couple of years ago i helped out when my nephews school team won a day at latics (was qpr last day ) he went to clarcksfield 90% of the team were asian they got to have a kick around at half time spent the game in the main stand paddock . the abuse that the asain lads got that day was frankly embarasing ! none of the kids wanted to come back afterwards i wonder why ?

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....your sad....

there have been asians at bp watching games this season,i have seen plenty milling around the chaddy end,so no the theory that they dont like football is incorrect.

 

i can fully understand his comments,and how annoyed he is that in his eyes people are making excuses not to come.

 

is he forgetting people who smoke wont come back as they cant seem to sit for 3 hours without having a smoke,also that the jobless total in oldham has risen by 5% over the past 12 months,thus making casual supporters think twice about having to pay £20 to watch a crap game of football.

 

as he owns the club he is perfectly entitled to his opinion,and comment accordingly,but like i have posted many times before,this time of year we always get the emotional blackmail tactic,and the threat of pulling funds from the transfer kitty if we cant shift enough tickets.

 

im on £59 a week benefit,but i still managed my fair share of games,but next season unless i get a job sharpish i wont be coming.

 

like has been said,make the clubs presence felt in and around oldham,actively promote the club in as many different circles that it can,we do the strike it lucky draws on matchdays,why not expand it to do a latics online lottery or something.

 

if people are unaware of offers from the club,its not there fault,its the clubs for not promoting it right.

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“I hear various reasons for people not coming to games but, to be honest, I think most of them are easy excuses."

 

Bloody hell, is my wife Simon Corney in disguise???? She tells me all my reasons are excuses too.

 

Easy excuse or not, I reckon living in QLD has made it pretty tough to get to a game recently. Still, I wear my Oldham top to every Brisbane Lions game at the Gabba with unequalled pride.

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I seem to remember us spending 17 consecutive seasons or so in what is now the Championship with crowds that were worse than most (and when we left it, it was in the upwards direction).

Yes we might spend an eternity in the bottom two but it is not a given - if you cant dream, whats the point? I'm sure that if the internet had existed in the 60's message boards like this would have been chocker with people saying 'let's face it, we're bottom two divisions for ever, we dont stand a chance, we're all doooooomed. Stop slagging off Ken - he's the only one who can save us" etc etc

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Simon Corney might be a mobile phone mogul or whatever it is he does but he’s got this problem completely wrong!

 

As I said in another post It’s a sad fact that your neutrals these days couldn’t give a monkeys about history or tradition or even sentiment, they just want to pay their hard earned cash on attractive football that gets results in the comfort and surroundings of a nice stadia.

 

Our performance in the league this season no matter how you try and dress it up was mediocre to boring at BEST!

 

If the board aren’t willing to invest a fair bit in quality players with the prime goal of getting promotion next season, then pack your bags boys because the fans wont be coming back to watch a mid-table side again next year.

 

We never had a winning run or any excitement in the league last year so its no wonder the fans stayed away.

The one time we had excitement was in the FA cup at Everton and we took 5500 fans.

 

If Simon reads these posts I would say directly to him that, its no good spouting the fact attendances are down to the loyal fans we all know, we are the ones who sit next to the empty seats on match day in a ground that has no atmosphere.

 

By cutting investment its going to get worse.

If you want bigger crowds the first port of call is the managers office, you have to get it right on the pitch to attract your neutrals and this is the only way your hardcore number of fans will increase in the future.

 

 

KTF.

Edited by KYLEOAFC
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If you want bigger crowds the first port of call is the managers office, you have to get it right on the pitch to attract your neutrals and this is the only way your hardcore number of fans will increase in the future.

 

Agree 100%. To suggest that fans are making easy excuses and then staying away is simply alienating those who could be swayed in the future to return once the product on the pitch improves.

 

Whilst flogging their network or mobile phones, is their sales strategy also to suggest that people are making easy excuses not to buy? To win them over they have to sell a handset that has more flash features than the competition so that they are desperate to buy despite the price.

 

I still don't understand the argument that attendances are affected because we have the big boys on our doorstep. At our level, matchday tickets are £20+ less than the Prem and £10+ less than the Championship. You're already pricing yourself under that section of the market. Our competition are those other League One teams in the area, which charge the same ticket price. The only way to attract the fans is to differentiate yourself from the rest and that's to promote attractive, passing football that is equally successful by bagging goals. You'll entice fans back who used to come to the ground but you'll also win over new followers simply because the product is better BUT cheaper than those teams in the leagues above. IF our product is that good then those who cannot afford to take their kids to a Prem or Championship game will be influenced to take their kids to Oldham because they are entertained. Once in, the club should then aim to retain those kids as the next generation of fans - maintain the quality, subsidise merchandising i.e. football shirts so that kids opt to wear Oldham than your Man Utds, Man Citys or even Chelseas.

 

Cutting attendances prices simply devalues your product and has one result - you lose money! You may attract a few extra but they are driven by price. If you don't improve the product and have to increase prices to sustain income then you lose them again. It doesn't work in any business unless you can afford to cut admission prices permanently BUT maintain product quality.

 

The simple answer (as I said last night) is look at the manager not the fans Mr Corney. Motivate the players to succeed on the pitch and maximise the homegrown quality, which have lower overheads than expensive imports. If importing players in the only solution then the pressure is on the manager to guarantee results so that fans are attracted to reimburse that investment.

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I understand why permanently lower ticket prices doesnt grab everyone as a good idea but the only club that has tried it has turned the corner financially - I really hope Bradford get promoted next season, more chairmen will start to look at it.

I dont think the Huddersfield situation is the same as they've set them so low that they know they'll make a loss but dont care.

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I understand why permanently lower ticket prices doesnt grab everyone as a good idea but the only club that has tried it has turned the corner financially - I really hope Bradford get promoted next season, more chairmen will start to look at it.

I dont think the Huddersfield situation is the same as they've set them so low that they know they'll make a loss but dont care.

 

I'm of the opinion that it isn't just the football that is stopping crowds turning up, it is the complete lack of atmosphere at both Boundary Park and alot of football grounds. It is just plainly not fun to watch football any more. It is now more fun to watch a game on the telly. You don't have the cold, the wet, the loss of £60 (including petrol), you are right there instead of spending hours travelling (alright these might not all apply if it is on your doorstep), you get a better level of football, you get to turn it over if it is crap. There's as much atmosphere half the time in my living room.

 

We can't compete against that unless we offer something different. Which we don't.

 

I'm not saying the football is great. I would go as far to say that this sport is as dire as it has ever been. Division 1 loading their third reserve team with the cream of Division 2. Division 2 taking every other league player to fill their reserves. Division 3 playing with players of such minimal ability they should be playing in pub teams. It's awful. God knows what Division 4 is like (they probably play with gay abandon in the most exciting league in the world).

 

I just think until we have at least a return to standing in the arena's this sport will continue to be on its knees until something is done. Until that will be the case, chasing any form of promotional dream beyond our means will result at best in losses for the chairman, at second best Administration and I need not spell out the more likely third best/worst option.

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Just to add another note of gloom into the pot... I think another crucial reason why the club is dying on its arse is because of the older demographic of the town, and the act no young kid wants to be a latic...

 

Take my dad for an example, mid 50s in the pinch me years and a latics die hard, now would rather sit at home and watch the prem on TV... we have such an aging fan-base and no kids coming through to take thier place... I honestly dont know how any kid would support oldham being born after say the late 80's... there is just nothing appealing to be a latics fan and no memories to hang on to... even those who come to the odd game will be reds by the time they win the european cup... it just aint worth being a blue...

 

I think the biggest age band we are missing out on is the 16-25 bracket which is the cornerstone of any football club... (and the generation who respond best to Marketing, and in turn are incredibly fickle by generational typing) these people have just missed any positive reason to support latics... why go and watch some rubbish football at a crap stadium when UTD are conquering evrything... and then they are are having kids now too and suddenly they are reds too... I know a lot of people that age post on here... but compared to most clubs i'd say most of our fans are 30-50 ish... all of whom were totally captured by the football from 85-94

 

We need to give positive reasons for watching oldham again - attractive football and a decent ground are the only way forward.. price incentives aint, we just have to make people proud to be a latic again...

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Agree 100%. To suggest that fans are making easy excuses and then staying away is simply alienating those who could be swayed in the future to return once the product on the pitch improves.

 

Whilst flogging their network or mobile phones, is their sales strategy also to suggest that people are making easy excuses not to buy? To win them over they have to sell a handset that has more flash features than the competition so that they are desperate to buy despite the price.

 

I still don't understand the argument that attendances are affected because we have the big boys on our doorstep. At our level, matchday tickets are £20+ less than the Prem and £10+ less than the Championship. You're already pricing yourself under that section of the market. Our competition are those other League One teams in the area, which charge the same ticket price. The only way to attract the fans is to differentiate yourself from the rest and that's to promote attractive, passing football that is equally successful by bagging goals. You'll entice fans back who used to come to the ground but you'll also win over new followers simply because the product is better BUT cheaper than those teams in the leagues above. IF our product is that good then those who cannot afford to take their kids to a Prem or Championship game will be influenced to take their kids to Oldham because they are entertained. Once in, the club should then aim to retain those kids as the next generation of fans - maintain the quality, subsidise merchandising i.e. football shirts so that kids opt to wear Oldham than your Man Utds, Man Citys or even Chelseas.

 

ok the other week due to my finish friend desire to watch a premiership I took him to the city v fulham game. And with regret I have to say what a bloody good game it was for the neutral supporter. I bought each ticket for £31 but if I had the city membership card I would have got £5 of the price of the ticket which equals £26. so for an extra £6 a week I could watch premiership football with a cracking atmosphere and a much better quality of football.

 

Let's get it straight I'll only ever support and watch latics but I can easily see why others would go and watch the likes of city when you look at the relatively small difference in price.

 

Cutting attendances prices simply devalues your product and has one result - you lose money! You may attract a few extra but they are driven by price. If you don't improve the product and have to increase prices to sustain income then you lose them again. It doesn't work in any business unless you can afford to cut admission prices permanently BUT maintain product quality.

 

The simple answer (as I said last night) is look at the manager not the fans Mr Corney. Motivate the players to succeed on the pitch and maximise the homegrown quality, which have lower overheads than expensive imports. If importing players in the only solution then the pressure is on the manager to guarantee results so that fans are attracted to reimburse that investment.

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Just to add another note of gloom into the pot... I think another crucial reason why the club is dying on its arse is because of the older demographic of the town, and the act no young kid wants to be a latic...

 

Take my dad for an example, mid 50s in the pinch me years and a latics die hard, now would rather sit at home and watch the prem on TV... we have such an aging fan-base and no kids coming through to take thier place... I honestly dont know how any kid would support oldham being born after say the late 80's... there is just nothing appealing to be a latics fan and no memories to hang on to... even those who come to the odd game will be reds by the time they win the european cup... it just aint worth being a blue...

 

I think the biggest age band we are missing out on is the 16-25 bracket which is the cornerstone of any football club... (and the generation who respond best to Marketing, and in turn are incredibly fickle by generational typing) these people have just missed any positive reason to support latics... why go and watch some rubbish football at a crap stadium when UTD are conquering evrything... and then they are are having kids now too and suddenly they are reds too... I know a lot of people that age post on here... but compared to most clubs i'd say most of our fans are 30-50 ish... all of whom were totally captured by the football from 85-94

 

We need to give positive reasons for watching oldham again - attractive football and a decent ground are the only way forward.. price incentives aint, we just have to make people proud to be a latic again...

 

:applause1:

 

And there it is....

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Not being racist but why spend money on pakistanis/bangladeshis trying to come to Latics when we know fully well that they don't like football. Fair enough if we had a chinese population in Oldham then maybe we could. Plus they don't have the spare money to splash out on football.

 

The match day experience at Oldham is shocking, improve that then you'll gradually win fans back.

 

 

Just counted 17 Asian students around campus at luch with football shirts on!!! Must admit they were all premiership / european club shirts, but your telling us that they have no interest in football :shock:

 

What worries me is when some fans welcome / join with these 'so called Latics fans' who are stuck in the dark ages with their 'no surrender' and 'ten German bombers' songs. What shocked me is that some young fans at Crewe video'd these 'fans' singing in the pub and then put in on youtube. Attitutes in Oldham are a long way from changing. This is a shame as I know many Asian Latics fans who simply won't come to games as they a worried about the abuse they will get and until this kind of stuff stops nothing will change. Thats why it may be a waste of money trying to promote to these communities.

 

Personally I'd go all out promoting in these communities

 

P.S what makes you say that pakistanis/bangladeshis don't have the ££ to spare for football ?????

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Why don't we make games free for the under 16's, and £3 for 16 and 17 year olds. Obviously the club would have to have some sort of ID scheme for anyone under 18, so that they would be charged appropriately. It's too late for the coming season because prices have altready been fixed.

I've been saying this for years, we need to get this young blood in. You could even have a 'free' season ticket for under 16's just charge £10 for the administration or whatever. the point being you might gets the parents interested in a season ticket if they only have to pay for themselves.

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Just counted 17 Asian students around campus at luch with football shirts on!!! Must admit they were all premiership / european club shirts, but your telling us that they have no interest in football :shock:

 

What worries me is when some fans welcome / join with these 'so called Latics fans' who are stuck in the dark ages with their 'no surrender' and 'ten German bombers' songs. What shocked me is that some young fans at Crewe video'd these 'fans' singing in the pub and then put in on youtube. Attitutes in Oldham are a long way from changing. This is a shame as I know many Asian Latics fans who simply won't come to games as they a worried about the abuse they will get and until this kind of stuff stops nothing will change. Thats why it may be a waste of money trying to promote to these communities.

 

Personally I'd go all out promoting in these communities

 

P.S what makes you say that pakistanis/bangladeshis don't have the ££ to spare for football ?????

 

Fans singing those songs are hard to police as unless some people actively complain about it and the police get involved nothing would happen, but this would have a negative effect as it would be bad publicity having a load of Oldham fans arrested for racila chanting. However any 'Oldham fan' shouldn't post that sort of thing on You Tube as it gives the club a bad name. Oldham does have some Asian fans but for a town of Oldham's size with an asian population as large as it is it should have more. Its interesting to see that when we give tickets away to schools no obviously extra asian school children turn up. This could be because they aren't interested, didn't get a ticket, or could it be that we don't do the scheme in those schools which have a larger asian population than most (I hope against hope it is not the last one). One of my friends at school set up some form of after-school club for the asians near where he lived (not to far from Gigg Lane) to play football I'm 90% certain he did this so it would look good on his CV for medical school and not because he was interested in football as he never really got involved in any school yard kick abouts in the 8 years i knew him (he was on the local news as well). The club could do something similar in Oldham without too much effort. However, the big problem with trying to attract fans from the asian community is the cost benefit as not matter how hard we try we may only attract a few dozen and sadly this is because they don't like the club and a big part of that is down to fear. Oldham needs to clean up its image of its fans as although I got laughed at last time i suggested we had a hooligan problem we've not done much to combat it. (In fact recently its been the opposite due to the significant number of banning orders that have elapsed). Posting videos of Oldham fans singing racist songs on You Tube will not help this image and the only good thing i could see coming from it is if the club used it as evidence to at minimum warn fans about their future conduct.

 

The other thing we could do is look not to attract the asians but also any other recent immigrants as I would imagine that there are a few Eastern European citizens (and those from elsewhere) in and around the Oldham area who are exactly the sort of demographic we are looking for (young men in their 20s and 30s who might start taking their families in the future) and might well want to see English football but can't afford (or get) tickets to some of our more illustrious neighbours.

 

Another idea which could well be very cynical is Old Trafford plc signed the Chinese centre forward and judging by the number of league games he's played in this was mainly in an attempt to sell extra merchandise in a country with a population of 1.2 billion. We could try something similar with any number of countries (we could even try and get said Chinese centre forward on loan) or areas such as sections of Africa, and maybe just maybe some of these players will be good enough to get us out of this divison, plus i think they could be cheaper to pay than some of the wages demanded by the sort of players we need from England.

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Its interesting to see that when we give tickets away to schools no obviously extra asian school children turn up. This could be because they aren't interested, didn't get a ticket, or could it be that we don't do the scheme in those schools which have a larger asian population than most (I hope against hope it is not the last one).

 

 

Erm, did you look at the RRE during the Cheltenham game? There were plenty of asain kids and a few dads in there too. Let's hope (on any number of level) that a good few of them come back.

 

One thing the club REALLY need to do is push the game by game price of STs - RRE is under £13.50 a game. They could perhaps do a comparison table with City / Manure to show how cheap it really is. And for kids, £2.17 a game for up to 16 is great value.

 

The other thing that perhaps L1 & L2 need to do is promote REAL live football, against so called "live" TV football:

 

TV football is like listening to a band one instrument at a time, only drums (defence) then only bass (midfield) then just the guitars (going forward) then just the vocals (shot at goal). REAL LIVE football is the full set!

 

 

Edit: Just checked Manure and Citeh season ticket prices. Cheapest adult ticket is £494 and £461 respectively. Kids are £95 at citeh, but at manure it's £190 BUT an adult in the same stand (the only one with kids prices) is £627.

So 1 adult and 1 kid at Latics is £15.56 a game, Manure is £43.00 and citeh is £29.26.

1 adult and 2 kids is £17.74 Latics, £34.26 citeh, £53.10 manure.

 

REAL LIVE FOOTBALL for HALF the PRICE?

Edited by real
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I've been saying this for years, we need to get this young blood in. You could even have a 'free' season ticket for under 16's just charge £10 for the administration or whatever. the point being you might gets the parents interested in a season ticket if they only have to pay for themselves.

 

It's only £50 in the Chaddy and Rochdale Road Ends for U16's which is pretty reasonable. It's about £160 in the main stand though which is a bit much i think, but i'll still be paying it for my nephew next season, i've spent 7 years buying him latics shirts, chaddy the owl teddys, making him watch old latics videos so now he is finally taking an interest in football £160 seems like a bargin if it stops him going on about how good Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool or whoever (not utd though, he knows not to say they are good in our house!) are when he's watching them on sky.

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£50 is a very good price for under 16's, but they really need to advertise this otherwise only current fans will benefit from this. Last game of the season we had 1000 kids there in the RRE, did the club not hand out fliers saying that you can see a Latics season for only £2.17 a week? If you gave loads of kids fliers like that in local schools, get them exicted about watching live football with there mates, then you build from there. It seems from the outside theres a can't be arsed trying attitude from within the club on stuff like this. It won't do any harm trying will it?

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