Think that's a little harsh Steve as I know several people who don't attend anywhere near as many games as they used to because of work commitments, but they do turn up whenever they can get the time off.

We weren't discussing those that come when work permits , it was those who's stock reply is " I can't because of work " , when as has been suggested , we don't always play on the same days

Their actual reason is , " I can't be bothered " , but they don't want to say that

Like it or not, I think it [iis[/i a genuine reason for some.

My idea was originally to conduct a survey for any fan, be it stay away fans, first timers, part timers or season ticket holders.

If a survey was conducted by all leythers and there turned out to be a few distinct, cost free or profitable measures that could be taken on board it would be a success.

With Trevor Barton being so receptive to fans and open to ideas at the moment, it seems a good time to get a general view of what the current fans want.

I agree Matt , it is , and the problem maybe isn't that they can't be bothered , but maybe one of just ' getting out of the habit ' because of either work patterns or changes in match days , but the issue still is that those potential few hundred fans cannot be accommodated by the club , so do you expand energy trying , or do you look at the 50,000 who maybe don't have that problem ?

So jonny , tell us how you actually pyhsically ' survey 'those 4 different groups ?

That's why I was waiting to see what you thought before I actually carried on talking about it.

The club has contacts with season ticket holders, lottery members, e-mail subscribers and everyone in the town gets the Journal and Reporter. Why not do an advert for carrying out an online survey in one or both of these? Maybe do a prize draw for Season Tickets/replicas etc?

Sorry Jonny but I can't remember the last time I has a journal and not had the reporter for a few weeks now, plus carrying adverts in these papers costs money so any 'survey' would have to be cost effective especially in these austere times and compounding the cost of an advert by free gifts isn't on, I know where your coming from but the money is not there.
The only way of carrying out any survey that gets results is physically asking the questions not from newspaper returns, so which of the 2 full time members of the admin staff do it and when? so it's down to volunteers.
The lottery members etc.. could be surveyed by having the few key questions that need answering on the back of their weekly lottery sheet, the internet user by e mail but in the main these are the ones that go anyway and surely the questions need answering is by the lapsed or part time fan?

Jonny
The questionnaire was designed by the working group and passed to the club for comment.It was given out to fans as they came trough the turnstiles and collected in boxes at the exits and at the Mick Martyn bar.This method worked as we received over 100 completed questionnaires.if you wish to carry out a survey I would suggeest that you use this approach.Also ,if you wish I would get one of my former colleagues (an expert in questionnairs design) to advise on the questionnaire.
I am sure that Trevor would encourage such an initiative under the umbrella of the PSG.
Barrie

As has been explained , using local press doesn't work and as Fred has pointed out , the club just doesn't have the resources , also even just asking attending fans doesn't give you enough information , so how do you get the response we need to provide the answers we are seeking ?

Well if you look just beyond the LSV , you see what ?

A college , one that has students in it , students that are doing courses on media and quite probably marketing , and part of those courses include ?

Data collection , it is to the college we should be looking to provide us with the man/woman power to collect , then collate and provide the break down of information we need

But then you have the next question ? , what do you do with that information ? , how do you use it ?

As the song suggests jonny , there are more questions than answers

In fact my suggestion is you start with the questions first , and the questions you ask are to yourself , what am I trying to achieve , then decide how you get your answers

Forget it.

I bet if you ask the majority of people who have stopped going in the last 4/5 years why they will say no promotion!!

Until we have P&R back our crowds will NEVER increase much beyond what we have now. They are more likely to go down.

I wonder where all those people are who quite happily went to Blackpool and drank themselves silly all weekend now.

The only way that you could cover the area would be a royal mail letter drop or a volunteer one. I would before the drop puit an advert in the local press for a few weeks and get it put out on the local radio and if possible hit the local tv news desks with the idea saying "Leigh fans hit the streets to save the club" type of headline. The idea of a chance to win a ST could be a good incentive say offering five with lower prizes of shirts and so on down to stickers. The advert would be a plee to the people of our district to please just fill in the questionaire with the chance to win something. In the letter put a little brochure about the LSV showing what fantastic facillities we have ( a piece maybe the LSV could contribute to as they would be benefiting from it also). A tv press launch with loads of us in front off the stadium with postie bags on and our shirts,on Look North and Granada Reports would get it noticed also. I know it going to cost but how do we do it. I have sounded out the Post office to do this for me and would be looking at about £5000. That cost could be massively reduced with volunteers and cheaper printing. I for one would deliver a bag full.

That's one way of looking at it.

The other is that there's no evidence at all to support that argument.

We all remember the glory days of P & R in the 90's when we posted sub 1k crowds and a 1500 attendance was a good crowd. Then we remember getting promoted, smashed and then dumped back into the national leagues in 2006.
Our crowds then have gone from

2006-2281
2007-1867
2008-2490
2009-1984
2010-2144
2011-2379