A question that seems more and more relevant as we go forward into 2010.

People question if the Bulls are paying upto the salary cap given the decline in crowd numbers. But a more pressing question is; What is the club doing to get it's brand out into the market place?

I work for a large insurance company who've recently changed their name and ran a large ad campain to tell people this. Now, customers that I've spoken to have called the ad's a waste of money and the name change pointless. However, the fact remains they have seen the ads, know the brand and are talking about it.

I only know there's a rugby club in Bradford because I'm a fan. How many people in the city either don't know about the club or only know it in vague terms of their being a rugby team in the city but would be unable to tell you which code they played?

The club needs to bring back the fans. Now, I know that money is tight at the club, we all know this and despite Peter Hood tell us that, and i quote, "if the league was played on financial terms, we'd be top" it is still cause for concern.

I'm not suggesting the club blow a load of money on an ad campain, however, they DO need to do something to make the city aware of the club and get people through the gates.

Obviously something that would help towards achieving this would be the construction of the OSV. But as that looks to be going the way of every other redevelopment plan for Odsal I guess we'll have to put that idea to one side.

We got hit with a lot of critism in the early days of SL for giving away tickets (though myself, I never saw a single one of these tickets nor spoke to anyone who wasn't connected to the club some how who got one either). However, I think there's some merit in papering the crowd for specific games.

Salford, Celtic, Les Cats, Quins, Hudds. All 5 of these clubs represent small gates for the club from smaller than average away support. So why not throw out a few free tickets to these games? However you want to do it, free kid ticket with every adult ticket, take a mate voucher for season ticket holders, buy 2 get 1 free on adult tickets. Once these people are through the gates you can start pushing for concession sales (beer, food etc) and look to make back whatever you might have lost in ticket sales that way. After all, the stands will all be open on matchday regardless of who's standing on them, which means you have to pay for the stewards, so if you're going to be paying anyway, you might as well get some use out of them.

Now, the other thing is getting the brand out there into people's minds. I work in Leeds and at least once a day I see something that says the Rhinos are from Leeds. There's towable billboards on the outskirts of the Headingley area promoting the club and their next game along with a number where you can get tickets. Now, I can't see these things costing a great deal and putting them on a main road will implant the idea of the game on the people passing by.

The only real problem is that I don't see the club wanting to do anything like this. They seem content to bury their collective heads in the sand and assume that people will still want to pay out money to see a club that is failing on the field. But it's precisely that point that needs addressing. If we can increase our fan base despite a lack of success on field then the club can be more confident of it's future as well as truely be capable of paying to the maximum salary cap and on the strength of that bring back the glory days of the club.

Right, that's my editorialising done with. I'm off for a pie.

I argee that the club name is not visible enough. I think the community need to be shown that there is still pride in the Bradford Bulls name.

Is there something that the fans can do? I know people have talked about downloadable posters for games which people can print out and display, and there's things like car stickers too (I used to love the big sticker with the bulls eyes on it) which are cheap but effective. Is this something that we can organise?

I know the general consensus is that the club could be doing more, but maybe we'd have more of a right to complain if we were trying to do something about it ourselves too.

To be fair to the club, they utilised plenty of these schemes last season to try and boost attendances.

The club need to be careful though, otherwise, to quote Ryan Ducket, "the season ticket will become devalued".

Every road into Bradford has a sign saying "The Home of The Bulls". They always used to anyway.

Is that not enough?



On the subject of car stickers, I went to get one for my car and they only had really expensive, really rubbish ones. What happened to the huge piles of free ones they used to give out. I used to get loads and give them to all the kids at school. Everyone loves a sticker.

Exactly. Surely we can do better

Yes I think stickers should be item 1 on the agenda!

That will have been in the days before Harrisgate when the club had a decent marketing budget?

But they were sponsored I'm sure. Pulse maybe, and JCT600 logos all over them. [size=59(I always used to just cut the Bulls logo out for the car.) [/size
I'm sure they would not cost too much after that.

But maybe a serious point for the supporters trust, a good cheapish way to raise awareness about the Bulls and the trust?

When I was a kid, the Bulls gave free season tickets out around the local amateur clubs. Subsequently most of my friends and I are Bradford fans. Been in Dewsbury between a few Super league clubs, the free tickets influenced a lot of young lads.

I now coach at the same amateur club, and the majority of young players support the Rhinos because of their success, but these kids are there for the taking if the club was to give them an incentive to get to games.

A very quick scout about the 'net and I have found a 1000 car stickers for £150. That's not so bad. It gets cheaper the more you get too.

Just a thought.

You're right! After all we have to get our priorities right!

A few cars back I used to have the "BULLPOWER" sticker on my back window - along with what seemed like the rest of Bradford.

I spent ages trying to get it off in one piece before selling the car on. Gutted that I couldn't . . . .

We NEED more Bullpower stickers.

(IF anyone has one knocking about - drop me a PM

)

I had one of those! Nicely decorating the back window of my then company BMW which peed my MD off no end. And yes it definitely would NOT come off at all. I got into serious bother with the leasing company over it at the end of the lease, and even more from the driver who came to collect it who was a staunch Leeds fan and complained at his acute embarrassment at having to drive it back to the depot...

PMSL

Fantastic!