I believe that's how our crowds are announced.
i.e. If we have sold 1005 season tickets, each week our crowd starts at 1005+pay at gate numbers.

I think to increase attendances for Fev anyway, they need to get in peoples faces a bit more. Fevs biggest failure is marketing. Unfortunately it may cost money we dont have.

We seem to just sit and wait for people to come to us, when they need to get out there and try to convince people we're worth watching

As there is virtually zero marketing for the championship via national media its left to clubs to do it themselves.

If people in Featherstone, Pontefract etc, dont buy the local paper or the league express etc they have no Idea Fev are doing so well. When I ask people why they dont watch Fev you get the same reply

"im not paying 15 quid to watch that rubbish"

Its a comment that a few years ago may have been valid but not anymore, its up to Fev Rovers to somehow try and change that perception.

what didn't help is after the games against Cas and wigan, getting stuffed by Halifax lol

I suspect that there are no rules on what should be included in attendance. Imho, it should be the people who attend, including any volunteers and staff. I believe that there's a council requirement to know how many are in the ground, but that's mainly aimed at preventing overcrowding.

We probably have no right to ask about attendances. It's a business statistic - I'd never go into Lidl and ask how many customers theyt'd had this week or how many tins of beans they sold. Nor would I expect to see it published in t'Pont and Cas.

Gaz - at the risk of sounding like I'm constantly on your case, which I'm not... but I am at odds with this post.

How do you see this happening Gaz? Where is the money coming from for more marketing? Who's role is it to do this?

We have vans/lorries emulating Stobbart with Destination Superleague all over them!
We have had more copy in the P&C than ever before relegating Cas to the inside pages more now than ever.
We are on Vixen, Radio Leeds, Ridings and even the telly now more than ever.
We had the fantastic pics of "here kitty kitty" that Mark Campbell sorted out for the cup games.
We even trended on twitter at one point this season.
The web site is full of stuff and Possy uses the social media like nobody has ever done at fev. His Twatter account is full of fev stuff.

Marketing is our biggest failing?? Is this just waitng for folks to come?
Have you ever spoken with Possy? Go see him. He's a very approachable bloke. Get hold of Paul and bend his earoyle - he'll tell you (if he's honest) just how much time he spends "marketing" fev - everyday!!!

How do you see us improving on the above?

Firstly Im not gaz lol

Theres a clue in my post which say "Unfortunately it may cost money we dont have"

I would have a market stall in Pontefract selling merchandise and tickets, if anything its cheap advertising in a very very busy area. A way of chatting with the public, getting in peoples faces and reminding folk that we exist. Im sure they could volunteers on a weekly basis

A big failure this year has been the shirts. All kids shirts had gone by January, They had camps at easter with over 100 kids, with parents moaning that they couldn't buy Fev shirts for the kids. Fev get one batch of shirts and when they are gone they are gone. Very short sighted given we always had a good chance of getting to 2 finals. The shirts are another way of advertising especially when kids are wearing them and telling their friend they go to the games. Who in turn then get at their parents to take them.

whats wrong with asking schools to sent out some kind of news letter - not just fev schools, Pontefract too.

The web is full of FEV stuff if your looking for it. twitter isn't great for advertising, we cant even get 2000 followers for the free season ticket draw and probably anyone who follows is already going to games.

I know the BoD, most Very very well, im not digging at them because they are doing a great job. But its easy to look at it from the perspective of a big fev fan and think everything i rosy and great.

But from the other view, imagine your a big rugby fan who watches super league every week, you DONT buy the pont & cas, you have two kids, at the moment whats convincing you to go watch Fev - Nothing

The power of selling Shirts and merchandise on increasing attendances shouldn't be neglected. At the moment the only people buy Fev stuff are actual fans who go to the matches NOT potential fans. Convince someone to buy their son / grandson a Fev shirt or champions Clock etc in Pontefract town and the next step is for that kid to go to the matches.

Get a shirt on someones back and theres a good chance they will go to a game

I agree, I would have a stall in ponty market - but who man's this and again at what cost? We do have a stall at ponty and it's manned by volunteers and so far has been very successful - but unless someone is to be paid for doing it everyweek I can't see how that would work. There would have to be a sufficient market to make a stall viable every week. I'm not sure there is.

Now the bit about the SL fan having nowt to convince him to watch fev.
I would suggest that any big wakey/cas/leeds fan will always remain a big wakey/cas/leeds fan. There never will be owt to get them to watch Fev or Fax unless their club doesn't have a game that week then they might choose to come and watch the champions, cup finalists, european champs etc..... they get the "get in cheap with your season ticket offer" too. What other incentive do you think could help???

The shirts issue is always a tough one. They are very expensive to produce/purchase and so the club has to estimate how many people want and usually take pre-booked orders with a number left over to shift. In the past the club has been left with smaller/kids sizes on their hands at a big cost to the club. Getting the ordering correct so the club makes on the deal and doesn't have to sell goods cheap/at a loss is difficult. When margins are so tight do you have any other answers on that one?

In regards to the SL fan it was just an example could include ex fev fans, just general local rugby fans. In my view any Rugby fan especially with kids not emotionally attached to any of our rivals is a potential fan.

In the past there as been no kids camps or at first the camps weren't as popular. My kids went to the first ever one which was free and there were about 20 kids at most. They are now massive and are growing each term / year, and at easter I saw it first hand parents asking for Shirts etc but they had sold out long ago.

The rugby / dance / Olympic camps are a fantastic initiative by the club and I applaud them, but they could take more advantage of having that number of kids and parents at the club twice per year.

Obviously the market stall would help with shirt sales - I have only ever seen a stall in ponte once a few years ago trying to sell left over shirts not as an attempt to get in people faces and get people interested.

Again though i know cash is tight and its a big problem. The RFL want increase in attendance but expect clubs to wave a magic wand

Rovers have had a couple of stalls on Ponte market in last few months, plus at local Galas and the liquorice fair, either selling rovers gear or tombolas to raise much needed funds, if they ordered too many shirts especially the smaller sizes, the club as generally in the past been left with merchandise that they cannot sell, or have to sell off at discounted prices,which then becomes false economy. The club are working very hard to raise the profile of Featherstone Rovers from chairman Mark Campbell down to all the wonderful volunteers, but it appears that some people are hard to please.

I think anyone who takes on a Rugby League club clearly has a self sacrificing personality whether their on the board or sweeping up.
Money, time or a dozen different ways, there's no chance of personell gain.
Keep going boys what teams such as Fev/ Fax have achieved / are achieving is massive and only underestimated by the stupid.

Like most things at our level, there is no easy answer , there is no magic idea, no wand we can wave and miraculously attendances rise, it needs hard work, massive increase in community work, dedicated marketing budgets being the 1 st money allocated every year

It needs collaberation between clubs, we are not in competition with each other

You need to set reachable targets, say an increase of 2/300 per year, quite possily those being juniors to start with

The TV deal needs to be ended NOW, it does none of us any favours, but once again with a little thought, a little money and the clubs working together a review/preview/highlights show could be put together initially for the internet but potentially on FTA

Similarily with merchandice, a leap of faith, and some ( I hate the term ) outside the box thinking

But unfortunatly the rugby gets in the way of rational thought , that lazyness and stupidity

The proposed development of PO road will have both positive and negative results, people dont like change, and it looks like the standing facility will remain just at the one end , this will probably result in the opposite end of the ground being empty most of the time , reducing the atmosphere at the stadium

The positive aspect will be ( in best MI mode ) if the club decide to do it, is it will allow the club to set aside dedicated areas that can be used to try to increase attendance by utilising their community dept

Capacity at BV is 11k not 13k.

He was right then.

He sure was