TTA "HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT"

[Diego_Sideburns]

Maybe there's a few who like football but they'd much prefer to watch Man U than come to watch Oldham. The fear of coming to a lower league ground puts them off, so they end up at Old Trafford where they fit in more.

 

With that description it is obvious that those to whom you refer are totaly integrated into the Oldham sporting culture.

[jimsleftfoot]

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.

 

 

I have taken 2 Asian mates to watch Latics and their experiences have wholly been positives ones. Admitedly their perceptions before hand were not great but that changed at the match. One of them was a Man U fan but said he would be happy to come to watch Latics and sees them as a bit of a second team..... if it wasn't for the cost. Unfortunatley to get a neutral in £18-£20 is too much in comparison to other entertainment activities you can do. Changing the point slightly , it seems our Oldham's problem with "racism" is still a major issue. I have had a couple of people who recently have mentioned, "have you still got the racism problem in Oldham" to which I replied have you in (insert place). One of which was a friend from Barrow?????

[rudemedic]

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?

 

Thanks for poining out the baddness of my eyesight for the Cheltenham game (although in my defence i had recently had my pupils dilated so focusing was a problem). I hadn't noticed the extra fans from the asian community but some of my other points still stand

[slurms mckenzie]

For the most part latics have been poor for the last 18 months, thats the main reason why crowds have declined. That and high prices which people can't afford. Improve the product on the pitch and cut prices, and that would at least arrest the decline. However, a signifcant chunk of our traditional support has moved away from the town, and continues to do so.

Edited May 10, 2008 by slurms mckenzie

[LaticsPete]

However, a signifcant chunk of our traditional support has moved away from the town, and continues to do so.

 

Explain please.

 

I live in North Yorks but I don' think I'm a "chunk"!

[edhunteruk]

For the most part latics have been poor for the last 18 months, thats the main reason why crowds have declined. That and high prices which people can't afford. Improve the product on the pitch and cut prices, and that would at least arrest the decline. However, a signifcant chunk of our traditional support has moved away from the town, and continues to do so.

 

 

like has been said elswhere good football will put bums on seats....the trouble is it takes time to get a sizeable run together,then undoutdly we get a good few extra in and put in a bad shift,so they wander off again.

 

if latics are in the top six all next season i would say that a decent increase will only occur for the last 2 months.

 

mr corney is perfectly entitled to be a bit peed off,after all he is one of the 3 who keep us going,but they do need to get a major majoer advertising campaign sorted out asap,and not just the odd game,keep it going all season,and have an outlet in the town centre,other than the club shop where in oldham can you buy kit or other things.

[opinions4u]

Do discounted prices attract new fans?

 

Yes. I took my lad to the two matches where it was £2/£1 in 2006/7 and bought two season tickets on the back of it for 2007/8.

 

Based on my experience, this sort of idea is an ABSOLUTE MUST every season for one or two games, but push some sort of season ticket with it as you go through the turnstile

 

E.g. £2 for adults, free for kids for the match 11 games from the end of the season - there's 10 games of the season left after this so have a season ticket at £160 for Dad and FREE for kid if you buy it before the following Friday.

 

Additionally, the club missed a trick after the Everton win. A couple of weeks earlier they were promoting 'half season tickets' on the website. This promotion really should have been extended while they had 8,000 fans queuing for tickets for the Huddersfield game. Even to the point of "We'll knock £20 off the price of the season ticket to effectively make the Cup match free".

 

Flog the part-season ticket hard when the club is playing well and things are looking good.

[Markoasis]

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 Tneighbours.

 

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.

 

 

Thats because we haven't a hoolighan problem. Singing racial songs and being what I would define as a hoolighan is totally different. The fact they all had banning orders shows that that THEY ARE combating it. As soon as they step out of line again, they'll have bans again.

 

40+ games each season over last few years and all I've seen is an egg being thrown by a couple of scouse scallies that missed by miles.

[BlueJazzer]

It costs £15 a week more to fill my car with diesel than it did 18 months ago. There's my ticket. Not to mention the gas and electric going up and the mortgage is about to do likewise. Its possibly hard to understand why people are not coming in to your football club when u have so much money that the price of a season ticket is spare pocket change. I'm not suggesting that the TTA need a reality check or are out of touch but do they consider these things?

 

On a personal note, I don't buy a season ticket because I work a 2 days 2 nights shift so I would miss half the games I had paid for. Not having a season ticket makes it that much easier to skip unattractive fixtures. Plus my missus moans like hell if my only saturday off in x-amount is spent at latics! Er indoors 1 TTA nil...

[ajjovek]

for the 1st time in nearly a decade i recieved a piece of direct mail marketing in the post from latics 2 weeks ago. It told me how much i'd save game by game in the RRE and i swiftly bought an ST. More SIMPLE marketing like this needed from TTA, sometimes football clubs can make it much easier for themselves...!

[Stitch_KTF]

Here's a strong Latics link to the asian community.

 

'Latics Backed League'