There is an advert letting the denizens of Derwentside know that next week there are season tickets to the SoL to be won in the Northern Echo. Now, it would be easy to mock the Makems about this (and it SHOULD be remembered when they have the temerity to call US bandwagon jumpers) but I actually think that you have to hand it to the Makems on this one. The board of NUFC just wouldn't be sufficiently enlightened to have a campaign like this or to run the "Premiership Football is for us all" ads in all the local papers. I can seriously see Sunderland taking some ground off us in places like Consett.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2001

Answers

Aggressive Policy of Advertising.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2001

The board of NUFC just wouldn't be sufficiently enlightened to have a campaign like this or to run the "Premiership Football is for us all" ads in all the local papers

Or just possibly they haven't any seats to give away...

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2001

Lack of Demand in Spins clothing that one, if you know what I mean.

LOL, its false advertising. Call Watch Dog.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2001

So there aren't ALWAYS empty seats in the Milburn, Jonno?

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

PS. Jonno, I can't believe you said that...You surely admit that something is wrong in a club's tciketing policy when there are 10000 on the waiting list and the match never sells out..

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

... frankly, it wouldn't occurr to them if SJP was entirely empty for every game!

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Got to say, Clarky, as you know I'm very much in the middle on the board: they do some stupid things but periodically they get things right, but on the issue of protecting current support and ensuring future support, I think they are very poor. The Makems have been advertsing cheap (and I mean cheap) season tickets in the Advertiser for weeks..it makes sense: Consett is a desperately poor area and there is an "up for grabs" element which support all North East teams - given the option of paying a hundred for a Makem ST and 400 for one of ours, where are they going to go?

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Dougal,
I try to judge every issue on it's merits, and don't criticise just for the sake of it - despite what some may believe.
As you say, in relation to encouraging future generations of customers they are utterly clueless. The problem appears to be that they are so utterly divorced from the realities of most supporters lives that the very need for such consideration goes straight over their heads.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Sorry, Clarky, I wasn't trying to suggest you were against the board on principle. I was trying to say that this wasn't just board-bashing for the sake of it but a genuine concern that we are disenfranchising whole sections of support.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

If you have a product which sells itself you don't need to worry about bargains. You'll not see Ferraris getting flogged off cheap. You start offering discounts then you wander into the wonderful world of Ratner. Try selling corporate seats when it's known that you can get them free elsewhere in the ground: it would be like taking your Japanese business clients to a Punch and Judy show instead of "Cats" or somesuch bollocks. Face it, 50,000 people didn't go to SJP as bairns (I certainly didn't) but it doesn't seem to have stopped them wanting to go in later life. Sport is wasted on kids: they are actually able to achieve something whilst the rest of us start living vicariously as the blood slows and we coincidentally start earning enough to invest in a season ticket.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Couldn't disagree more with that, Softie - we are all going to die onew day, you know ;)

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Sorry, Softie, the point I wanted to make was that, unless we do a Man United, we are depending on local support and on that very basis alone, you have to make sure that your local customer is guaranteed. We aren't doing that. It ISN'T like we sell out every game: we'd apparently prefer to have 1000 seats empty than use them for local families etc. I agree that 50 000 didn't go every week but I think the best part of 50,000 probably went every so often as kids - that was the beauty in those days: you could go to as many or as few games as you wanted to.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Dougal, I actually doubt many of the Milburn seats will be empty this year as the price is fairly good. However, last season, if I'd shelled out £1200 for the best seat in the house only to find some work dodger had picked up a ticket for £100 a year payable ininstallments, I'd be less inclined to buy a ticket this season. Once the club had decided on the prices, it couldn't change them half way through.

Funnily enough, I was at a wedding yesterday & a lad who was a ST holder for 7 years had been undecided about renewing due having been brainwashed by the SOS brigade. A few weeks of being dragged around Ikea at the weekend he swallowed his pride & applied for his ST. Guess what, deadline missed and now back on the waiting list.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Dave - people who aren't able to afford £1350 aren't necessarily workdodgers. And for what it's worth, there are adverts in the Ronnie daily for the Posh Seats so we obviously aren't quite sold out. Incidentally, saw your letter in the Sun.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001

Fame Dougal! I was just trying to wind Farrington up! I thought his stand-in got quite defensive. I'll be following up with a request that as a highly qualified jounalist would he make reports on NUFC less ambiguous & easy to understand for those of us who aren't as clever. trying to put something together for the Mag about negetive press on all things NUFC.

Back to the tickets, I agree that there will still be gaps in the crowd in the pricey seats but there will not be whole chunks of unused seats as per last year. Generally I agree with the notion that no-one sould be priced out but nevertheless, the best seats should remain at premium prices. If there were seats spare at the back of the upper leazes end, then yes we should be filling them at rock bottom prices but the top seats should command top price. It's always been the way, I used to ask my Dad why we couldn't go in the middle of the upper East stand, "it's bloody expensive" was the reply.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2001