i'm sure a lot of it is unrelated but i've got to say that the home crowds over the last month or so have been beyond what i was expecting and i've seen a lot more groups of foreigners attending this season - every little helps as they say but the fact that with just a little bit of success on the pitch we can suddenly start to virtually fill the ground, despite the years of crap we've endured, is very pleasing. The owners must be thinking the same - in november they must have been thinking they were flogging a dead horse but the last few months have shown we're far from dead - get it right on the pitch and the support is there - even under sandgaard when we were absolute pants we sold 10,000 tickets for the man u cup game in a day - if u was a rich investor, why on earth would you be pumping money into the likes of stockport and wycombe? no disrespect to them but with the potential we have, its bizarre how the big money keeps on missing us.
Conversely, I have always wondered why a serious billionaire (ie proper, as I know some chancers have been around these already) doesn’t go for some of the following too:
Notts County - prestige of owning oldest professional club (fuck off Palace). They do share a city with the more successful Forest, but have a good hardcore fanbase already in place & with a Wrexham style takeover could have really grown. In fact, a much better Hollywood fairytale story imo.
MK Dons - not a likeable club for us English fans, but very attractive for Americans who are happy with franchising. Decent stadium already in place. Great potential for growth. No expectation from historical success to beat owners with. Every success will be theirs.
Derby County - proper one club football town, hence the big gates even when rubbish. Pretty much a whole county to themselves, bar Chesterfield. Great history. You’d be credited with returning the good times & restoring Brian Clough’s legacy.
Coventry City - another big, one club city ripe for a resurgence.
Gillingham - Medway is a big urban area & can provide the club with solid working class hardcore base, along with north and east Kent. Plus, have a whole county to themselves, with affluent areas to tap into to the south of them. No expectations, so can again be the hero finally delivering a decent team.
Bristol City / Bristol Rovers - Bristol & southwest is perfect for a top 10 PL club in modern era. Huge catchment area with great mix of working class & affluent support to tap into.
out of that lot i'd probably agree with you on derby and possibly bristol city
Howsabout a club being touted by my brother-in-law and uncle… New 999 year lease on stadium, with planning permission to develop up to 34,000 capacity, plus the surrounding footprint with homes, shops & hotel. Also a new tube station literally next to stadium. In up & coming part of inner-city London, in sight of the Shard & Canary Wharf. Decent Championship squad already in place. Great location for developing local talent.
However, awful brand reputation & volatile supporters.
Auctioned under the description of ‘mini Chelsea before the 1990s rebrand - your chance at turning around the fortunes of an unfashionable club, no-one likes’.
us , palace and millwall have all got the potential to do something - palace are currently having a go at it, we've had a go at it, - millwall's negatives are their smallish ground, and despite being able to call on a big glory boy turnout for one off's have no proven track record of being able to sustain big average attendances which is also a risk along with the hassle of building a new ground - their core support isn't that big and most of it now lives out of the area - palace need to sort their ground out as well before really pushing on and again, not proven they could fill it - i still think we have the most potential out of the 3 and our ground expansion would be a lot simpler - the 'jimmy seed wraparound' - all that is needed is investment and we could be battling it out in the prem in no time and thinking about expanding the ground which could be built without disrupting the existing capacity - lets hope we go up and some serious investors are attracted that are willing to throw a lot more at it - we've got all the bits in place now with NJ and his team to really give it a go
Oh dear lord. Another marketing bloke giving the word a bad name. With 10 marketing years at P&G (seems to be entirely authentic, albeit relatively low level after 10 years) he really should know better. I've, er, "reached out to" him on LinkedIn...
I used to send this to any of my team who used the phrase “reach out” in this context!! 😉
Yes, I agree we have the best potential. The location of The Valley creates a good catchment area between SE London & Kent. And Charlton are seen as a ‘nice’ club, so can easily pick up floating fans if doing well. We need to buy back The Valley though. And it needs sprucing up. However, it is restricted in terms of capacity I believe.
Tbf to Millwall, they have never had any sustained success to bring out that floating support on a regular basis. To take 49,500 to Wembley twice, once for a tinpot cup v Wigan; & then again for a L1 play-off v Scunthorpe is impressive by anyone’s standards. They even took the full 45,000 allocation the following season after Scunthorpe, v Swindon. What holds them back is their horrific reputation & complete lack of success (2 seasons of top flight football - so one a relegation season!), so they only get a hardcore of fans going regularly. As said, most of my family are Millwall & you’ll find that the hardcore (ie season ticket holders) are those still left in SE London (mostly Bermondsey & Rotherhithe). With that floating Wembley support out in Bromley, Bexleyheath & north Kent, who only come out for big games. Re the ground, the ‘New Bermondsey’ project has been approved, meaning that they can extend to 34,000 capacity and also include their own developments. A tube next to stadium will also help.
Which brings me on to Palace. They have a huge catchment area. But they are the club out of the three most constrained by their current ground. I know they have plans to develop it, but they keep breaking down. It is also in a crap location really re transport. The only way I can see Palace growing is by relocating. They need to build a new stadium. Ironically, the only way they may take advantage of their current status is by moving ‘back’ out to Surrey. A 40,000 soulless stadium off the M25 would be very them imo. Make it near the M23 junction & it cements their Palace v Brighton Classico fantasy!
They are not that strange. As I mentioned earlier P&G piled on the "digital' bandwagon like everyone else, around the time he was there, but then when they did their usual thorough evaluation of ROI, and it didn't stack up, they rowed back, quite a lot, and stuck with TV. he might not have "got the email" before he left them.
It's also possibly an indicator that even after 10 years there his title was still "Brand Manager". May be unfair, but it reminds me of the famous old poster for the The Economist magazine,
In my experience, P&G brands are the worst accounts to work on in advertising, maybe just outside of the Big China megacorps. With a few exceptions, they seem like jargon-heads who assess creative ideas on a spreadsheet.
i'm sure a lot of it is unrelated but i've got to say that the home crowds over the last month or so have been beyond what i was expecting and i've seen a lot more groups of foreigners attending this season - every little helps as they say but the fact that with just a little bit of success on the pitch we can suddenly start to virtually fill the ground, despite the years of crap we've endured, is very pleasing. The owners must be thinking the same - in november they must have been thinking they were flogging a dead horse but the last few months have shown we're far from dead - get it right on the pitch and the support is there - even under sandgaard when we were absolute pants we sold 10,000 tickets for the man u cup game in a day - if u was a rich investor, why on earth would you be pumping money into the likes of stockport and wycombe? no disrespect to them but with the potential we have, its bizarre how the big money keeps on missing us.
Conversely, I have always wondered why a serious billionaire (ie proper, as I know some chancers have been around these already) doesn’t go for some of the following too:
Notts County - prestige of owning oldest professional club (fuck off Palace). They do share a city with the more successful Forest, but have a good hardcore fanbase already in place & with a Wrexham style takeover could have really grown. In fact, a much better Hollywood fairytale story imo.
MK Dons - not a likeable club for us English fans, but very attractive for Americans who are happy with franchising. Decent stadium already in place. Great potential for growth. No expectation from historical success to beat owners with. Every success will be theirs.
Derby County - proper one club football town, hence the big gates even when rubbish. Pretty much a whole county to themselves, bar Chesterfield. Great history. You’d be credited with returning the good times & restoring Brian Clough’s legacy.
Coventry City - another big, one club city ripe for a resurgence.
Gillingham - Medway is a big urban area & can provide the club with solid working class hardcore base, along with north and east Kent. Plus, have a whole county to themselves, with affluent areas to tap into to the south of them. No expectations, so can again be the hero finally delivering a decent team.
Bristol City / Bristol Rovers - Bristol & southwest is perfect for a top 10 PL club in modern era. Huge catchment area with great mix of working class & affluent support to tap into.
out of that lot i'd probably agree with you on derby and possibly bristol city
Bristol City have the billionaire owner already with Steve Lansdown. Not sure as a local boy he'd ever sell up.
In relation to re-engaging lapsed fans - I am one such fan. Season ticket for 25 years, and then on and off since COVID. This is my second consecutive season without one.
Not received anything beyond weekly emails, and certainly haven't been aware of any attempts to re-engage with me. Likely to get a season ticket next year, regardless of play off outcome, as there does finally seem to be some competence and ambition on the pitch. But my general feeling is that, while things are moving in the right direction on the pitch, off the pitch we're a million miles from the club we used to be, where it felt like every fan, staff member and director was pulling in the same direction.
The word "consultant" gets my hackles up. My employer consistently wastes hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants, instead of asking staff and external stakeholders what we could do better and how we could do it. This feels like more of the same - instead of chucking money in the bin, get the Supporters Trust on board, speak directly to some lapsed supporters, ask them what world persuade them to come back, ask them what are the qualities the club used to have that have got lost.
I always get the impression that consultants are a vanity project for egoistic employers. As you say, consultants just ask the same questions of the same people that the boss could do themself if he/she had half a mind to, but he/she thinks it is beneath them, so they waste money on some outsider while telling you they can't afford to give you a pay rise.
Yes, I agree we have the best potential. The location of The Valley creates a good catchment area between SE London & Kent. And Charlton are seen as a ‘nice’ club, so can easily pick up floating fans if doing well. We need to buy back The Valley though. And it needs sprucing up. However, it is restricted in terms of capacity I believe.
Tbf to Millwall, they have never had any sustained success to bring out that floating support on a regular basis. To take 49,500 to Wembley twice, once for a tinpot cup v Wigan; & then again for a L1 play-off v Scunthorpe is impressive by anyone’s standards. They even took the full 45,000 allocation the following season after Scunthorpe, v Swindon. What holds them back is their horrific reputation & complete lack of success (2 seasons of top flight football - so one a relegation season!), so they only get a hardcore of fans going regularly. As said, most of my family are Millwall & you’ll find that the hardcore (ie season ticket holders) are those still left in SE London (mostly Bermondsey & Rotherhithe). With that floating Wembley support out in Bromley, Bexleyheath & north Kent, who only come out for big games. Re the ground, the ‘New Bermondsey’ project has been approved, meaning that they can extend to 34,000 capacity and also include their own developments. A tube next to stadium will also help.
Which brings me on to Palace. They have a huge catchment area. But they are the club out of the three most constrained by their current ground. I know they have plans to develop it, but they keep breaking down. It is also in a crap location really re transport. The only way I can see Palace growing is by relocating. They need to build a new stadium. Ironically, the only way they may take advantage of their current status is by moving ‘back’ out to Surrey. A 40,000 soulless stadium off the M25 would be very them imo. Make it near the M23 junction & it cements their Palace v Brighton Classico fantasy!
they could come and share ours, we are only a short bus ride away after all.
or the final irony Roland kicks us out and installs palace!
I don't know what Bazballers do to tenaciously sell tickets, but if we get a last minute dump of tickets back from Wycombe in the JS without much time to communicate and chase up sales, perhaps they have a role to play? I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here, but time will be of the essence to shift any extra tickets we get.
I don't know what Bazballers do to tenaciously sell tickets, but if we get a last minute dump of tickets back from Wycombe in the JS without much time to communicate and chase up sales, perhaps they have a role to play? I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here, but time will be of the essence to shift any extra tickets we get.
Bazballers (or should that be Bazballer as, after all, it seems to be a one man band) are the strategic brains behind long term growth, which wouldn't have been achieved without them. I doubt that selling high demand tickets late in the day was on the strategy powerpoint.
Yeah fair point. I was latching on to his claim about chasing every ticket sale, which sounded a bit more real time. I'm sure if Bazballer(s) has any involvement he'll be the first to let us know!
I wonder if BAZBALLERS will take credit for the 4 extra people at the Valley on Thursday (My Mum, aunt, and her two boys) who I myself converted to Charlton fans over the past decade or so.
I wonder if BAZBALLERS will take credit for the 4 extra people at the Valley on Thursday (My Mum, aunt, and her two boys) who I myself converted to Charlton fans over the past decade or so.
I think he already has taken the credit, sharing it with on the pitch results.
@Braziliance - just watched your latest vlog with my boy - good content as always - not for the first time the pair of us were singing along with the chanting in the away end, that you capture so well. Don't post this on your LinkedIn whatever you do (!!!) but online content like yours also helps the cause, and certainly 'sells the story' with the camaraderie of supporters in the previews etc always shining through.
I wonder if BAZBALLERS will take credit for the 4 extra people at the Valley on Thursday (My Mum, aunt, and her two boys) who I myself converted to Charlton fans over the past decade or so.
@Braziliance - just watched your latest vlog with my boy - good content as always - not for the first time the pair of us were singing along with the chanting in the away end, that you capture so well. Don't post this on your LinkedIn whatever you do (!!!) but online content like yours also helps the cause, and certainly 'sells the story' with the camaraderie of supporters in the previews etc always shining through.
Sorry, not wanting to get all Bazballers on you!
Wow, thanks for the kind words.
Sorry if your lad is young, as I was a bit of a potty mouth last video. Years of my work environment hard to get out of my system 😂 my Mum has told me off many times and said younger fans could be watching something I might keep in mind.
But thank you, I really appreciate that and glad you and your son enjoyed it.
I'll make sure to keep aggressively pursuing my match day interviews! #BRAZBALLERS
No probs! Don't worry about the language - the vlogs are authentic and not contrived, it's why they work so well. Swearing at the football is ok for us, and the vlog counts as being at the football. That's our rule, anyway! Besides, he learnt plenty of new words at Cambridge away, the genie is already out the bottle.
No probs! Don't worry about the language - the vlogs are authentic and not contrived, it's why they work so well. Swearing at the football is ok for us, and the vlog counts as being at the football. That's our rule, anyway! Besides, he learnt plenty of new words at Cambridge away, the genie is already out the bottle.
I sort of had this rule with my boys and luckily enough they listened for once. Never been in trouble at school for swearing and they don't do it around strangers. Potty mouths at The Valley
No probs! Don't worry about the language - the vlogs are authentic and not contrived, it's why they work so well. Swearing at the football is ok for us, and the vlog counts as being at the football. That's our rule, anyway! Besides, he learnt plenty of new words at Cambridge away, the genie is already out the bottle.
I sort of had this rule with my boys and luckily enough they listened for once. Never been in trouble at school for swearing and they don't do it around strangers. Potty mouths at The Valley
My daughter learned all her swear words from Charlton fans. Not sure it was at The Valley though.
Find this whole thread a bit of an unnecessary dig. Russell is a lifelong Charlton fan and has worked bloody hard for the club. Not saying everything and everything is down to him but as the previous poster says, what’s he supposed to say?
Especially at the moment when numbers are a bit light he’s going above and beyond hours wise. Don’t see why anybody would knock that.
Find this whole thread a bit of an unnecessary dig. Russell is a lifelong Charlton fan and has worked bloody hard for the club. Not saying everything and everything is down to him but as the previous poster says, what’s he supposed to say?
Especially at the moment when numbers are a bit light he’s going above and beyond hours wise. Don’t see why anybody would knock that.
I think people that don’t work in that industry just get sick of all the bullshit spouted by the people in it.
Yes, I agree we have the best potential. The location of The Valley creates a good catchment area between SE London & Kent. And Charlton are seen as a ‘nice’ club, so can easily pick up floating fans if doing well. We need to buy back The Valley though. And it needs sprucing up. However, it is restricted in terms of capacity I believe.
Tbf to Millwall, they have never had any sustained success to bring out that floating support on a regular basis. To take 49,500 to Wembley twice, once for a tinpot cup v Wigan; & then again for a L1 play-off v Scunthorpe is impressive by anyone’s standards. They even took the full 45,000 allocation the following season after Scunthorpe, v Swindon. What holds them back is their horrific reputation & complete lack of success (2 seasons of top flight football - so one a relegation season!), so they only get a hardcore of fans going regularly. As said, most of my family are Millwall & you’ll find that the hardcore (ie season ticket holders) are those still left in SE London (mostly Bermondsey & Rotherhithe). With that floating Wembley support out in Bromley, Bexleyheath & north Kent, who only come out for big games. Re the ground, the ‘New Bermondsey’ project has been approved, meaning that they can extend to 34,000 capacity and also include their own developments. A tube next to stadium will also help.
Which brings me on to Palace. They have a huge catchment area. But they are the club out of the three most constrained by their current ground. I know they have plans to develop it, but they keep breaking down. It is also in a crap location really re transport. The only way I can see Palace growing is by relocating. They need to build a new stadium. Ironically, the only way they may take advantage of their current status is by moving ‘back’ out to Surrey. A 40,000 soulless stadium off the M25 would be very them imo. Make it near the M23 junction & it cements their Palace v Brighton Classico fantasy!
they could come and share ours, we are only a short bus ride away after all.
or the final irony Roland kicks us out and installs palace!
I can only speak for myself @DamoNorthStand but the LinkedIn word soup probably doesn't translate well on a football forum - not that it was the intended audience - and all I had to go by was Russell's own PR/words. But what you say is a ringing endorsement, in more blunt words, so thanks for setting me straight!
Find this whole thread a bit of an unnecessary dig. Russell is a lifelong Charlton fan and has worked bloody hard for the club. Not saying everything and everything is down to him but as the previous poster says, what’s he supposed to say?
Especially at the moment when numbers are a bit light he’s going above and beyond hours wise. Don’t see why anybody would knock that.
I think people that don’t work in that industry just get sick of all the bullshit spouted by the people in it.
The thing is it’s intentionally obtuse which just leads you to think it’s cobblers. And if you’re a Charlton fan why wouldn’t you mention it in that post? Would be a really useful selling point!
In relation to re-engaging lapsed fans - I am one such fan. Season ticket for 25 years, and then on and off since COVID. This is my second consecutive season without one.
Not received anything beyond weekly emails, and certainly haven't been aware of any attempts to re-engage with me. Likely to get a season ticket next year, regardless of play off outcome, as there does finally seem to be some competence and ambition on the pitch. But my general feeling is that, while things are moving in the right direction on the pitch, off the pitch we're a million miles from the club we used to be, where it felt like every fan, staff member and director was pulling in the same direction.
The word "consultant" gets my hackles up. My employer consistently wastes hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants, instead of asking staff and external stakeholders what we could do better and how we could do it. This feels like more of the same - instead of chucking money in the bin, get the Supporters Trust on board, speak directly to some lapsed supporters, ask them what world persuade them to come back, ask them what are the qualities the club used to have that have got lost.
I always get the impression that consultants are a vanity project for egoistic employers. As you say, consultants just ask the same questions of the same people that the boss could do themself if he/she had half a mind to, but he/she thinks it is beneath them, so they waste money on some outsider while telling you they can't afford to give you a pay rise.
A surprisingly narrow view of a long established profession. From personal experience of working with consultants, I've often found them an unwelcome distraction, but their remit is usually to improve systems and efficiency, so they need to have a good understanding of them first.
The employees have the knowledge to identify problems areas from their experience, but the consultants have a breadth of knowledge, gained from their experience in other businesses, that the employees and their employers don't necessarily have, which enables them to propose and implement system changes.
In this instance, I don't know how difficult it is to get the football ticket sales marketing model right, I'd defer to Airman on that, but there's a distinction to be made between good and bad consultancy firms I think. They aren't all a waste of time and money.
Comments
I used to send this to any of my team who used the phrase “reach out” in this context!! 😉
Bristol City have the billionaire owner already with Steve Lansdown. Not sure as a local boy he'd ever sell up.
or the final irony Roland kicks us out and installs palace!
When they have to open the North, East and Jimmy Steed Stand for the (Charlton) Women's games I will believe this- until then this is rubbish.
With their aggressively relentless ticket chasing methods, Wycombe might start selling out.
Sorry, not wanting to get all Bazballers on you!
Sorry if your lad is young, as I was a bit of a potty mouth last video. Years of my work environment hard to get out of my system 😂 my Mum has told me off many times and said younger fans could be watching something I might keep in mind.
But thank you, I really appreciate that and glad you and your son enjoyed it.
I'll make sure to keep aggressively pursuing my match day interviews! #BRAZBALLERS
Especially at the moment when numbers are a bit light he’s going above and beyond hours wise. Don’t see why anybody would knock that.
The employees have the knowledge to identify problems areas from their experience, but the consultants have a breadth of knowledge, gained from their experience in other businesses, that the employees and their employers don't necessarily have, which enables them to propose and implement system changes.
In this instance, I don't know how difficult it is to get the football ticket sales marketing model right, I'd defer to Airman on that, but there's a distinction to be made between good and bad consultancy firms I think. They aren't all a waste of time and money.