Plus £5 shirt voucher in the excellent season ticket pack with the badge etc which is a nice touch

The fact there is a smoking area in the ground helps as the smokers have no excuse not to have a beer at the ground before
the match now, but yes the lager and beer in Cats bar wasn't the best at times.
If the beer can improve there is no exuse not to get down to the ground early to support the club in putting money behind the bar.

Also - it would be good if the official website can have Downloadable Matchday posters on so we can print off
and distribute round local shops/bars/businesses ourselves like we used to do a few years ago.

Won't cost the club anything and may get extras through the turnstiles on matchday?

That's a good shout Wildthing, gets the word around and nobody minds in the fish shop or pub if you put a flyer up. How easy is it to sign up for the lottery? I think most people would prefer to have a go at the club one rahter than the national one. I would anyway, and could get more people involved at my quizzes as I do 4 a week.

Last time I was in the shop they were asking people getting served if they were lottery members and a few who were not members were signing up, which was good to see.

Up the Trin

First of all I need to very slightly castigate you. Whatever you feel about the apathy of the Wakefield public I think first of all you must accept that this situation in not their fault. The fault lays firmly with the club and the atrocious leadership it has offered over the past 40+ years. I’m sorry but like it or not to many of them you are simply another Chairman who never delivers, it’s unfair and not your fault but that’s the legacy you have inherited. It’s your job (that’s you the club not you personally) who has to win them back and telling them off how ever well intentioned won’t work.

Right that said I think you are onto something and hand on heart if you can offer me a club membership at roughly £20 a month starting next October I’d love to be member 00001 - I really mean that.

Problem is due to the current low standing of the club the only people who will take it up are existing S/T holders and a few dozen people like me and I’m not kidding when I say a few.

If you were to contemplate this idea of a yearly contracted membership and I really think you should it won’t work without some real incentives and above all some investment.

Working on the principle that we are stopping at BV might I suggest something along the following lines. Remember the art of great marketing is making people think that what they are getting is exclusive and of value which it should be I’m not suggesting a rip off but at the same time minimising the cost to the club. I n other words the punters are getting a good deal but maybe not quite as good as it looks. i think fans will know this but will hopefully accept the gesture.

so…

Bronze membership. Just a full set of match day tickets and admittance to the members bars around the ground on match day (I’’i'll come to this later). £20 pm

Bronze + Junior. Same as above but with a junior set of match day tickets. I think it’s very Important to get kids coming and the club IMHO must subsidise that. £22 pm

Now before I come to the silver and gold this is where you really need to invest but oddly you’ve had a stroke of luck here. What Silver and Gold members want is a feeling of exclusivity which admittedly isn’t easy at BV. That said you have to offer them some sort of hub in the form of a members bar etc.

Luckily from what I gather the old Superbowl is about to be re-developed into a small leisure park which suddenly makes BV a bit more of a destination. Meaning that dragging the wife or friends down to the BV members bar through the week will become a slightly more attractive proposition - something it hasn’t been for years. Works well having a few drinks at your well appointed and exclusive members bar then on leaving having a McDonalds or a Pizza or whatever is on offer (clearly I’m speculating here).

I have many ideas how to improve the ground at a fairly low cost and how to create a members bar etc but that’s to detail ed for now, but the point is you will need to offer that kind of hub and exclusivity to attract bigger payers who are not just in it for the game alone.

so…

Silver membership. As Bronze but for seated fans. Also includes a free program and a free drink on arrival (sorry but that will need a bit of investment). Full access to the Members bar throughout the week not just match day. Throw in a £50 voucher for the shop (real value about £20 at a guess) and mate a book of discount vouchers from local businesses and sponsors. The idea here is to make the package more valuable yet not overly costly to the club - it’s not misleading it’s just clever, it offers added value to the punters without costing the club. £35 pm

Silver membership + junior. As able but include a child under 16. Bit more than a bronze for the child but they are taking up a seat. £39 pm

Gold membership. Really this one depends purely on what money you throw at BV and what you want to offer. But basically it’s the best seats, exclusive bar open throughout the match and through the week, loads of free gifts and exclusive gym memberships etc and a parking space. No more than 50 full gold members.£100 pm.

Gold affiliates. Basically wives or friends of Gold members. Same package as above but no parking space. Another 50 of these. £90 pm.

As I say this is pure speculation from me, you’re the experts and the whole idea may be pie in the sky, I’m just thinking out loud, What I do think is you’re on to something here but IMHO to make it work will require real hard work, clever thinking, a lot of persuasion and I’m afraid some hard cash up front. In the case of the Silver and Gold members you simply can’t ask people to pay that kind of money to watch in those condition. I mean the back of the East stand never looked great but now it’s an utter shambles that really does resemble a building site.

Obviously if we move to Dewsbury everything changes though I still think an in town shop and bar would be essential to keep the link with the city and it’s membership.

Over to you.

I'll gladly produce one of those if the club were willing to send me the advances details (wording dates etc) and some images.

I'll even print a dozen A3's to be collected by specific people who have a specific place to display them if needed - would need to investigate first.

I am on the case with Club 1873, got 3 signed up this afternoon and will mention it over the mic at tomorrow nights quiz and beyond. Happy to do my bit for the club as others have and do, some good ideas being mentioned, all extra revenue will be gratefully received i'm sure.

One thing which we can all do to help market the club which costs both yourself and the club nothing is to comment, like and share the clubs official social media posts

We're all great at posting on here and on some of the closed Facebook groups, but our wider social media friends and family never see these

If we all made an effort to comment on the clubs social media posts then that shows up on your friends timelines too. Some of your friends may already be fans who go to games, but I reckon many of them aren't and if they get exposed to the club through social media it might just pique their interest enough to ask questions or come along to a game

Returning to trying to get fan's into the ground for a pre match drink take a look at what is on offer probably the worst lager in the world served warm two ciders served warm most of the time and £3 a bottle or have a cold pint at the Conny club at £2-50

Yes agree Kenny pint in bv £3•50 con club £2•50 it's a no brainer

The quality of beer in bv is crap

So how many pints do people drink before and during a game to moan about quality or price

surely they can't remember much of the game after that much.

The point being that, if you want a couple of beers, are you going to go where the beer is better (and cheaper) or go and drink crap from a plastic glass.
I would prefer to support the club and put money over the bar in the Cats Bar but, as I said, the stuff they were serving, which was never brilliant, got a lot worse later in the season.

Well actually it's not a no brained if you put the club ahead of yourself which is exactly the point MC is making for heavens sake!

By all means let him know you're unhappy with the product but why rob the club and ultimately yourselves of much needed revenue. The revenue needed to create a team and keep the youngsters and give us the silverware we all crave. Surely that's more important than the cost and quality of the beer for 12-14 days of the year. How on earth do you think the club pays its players?

That for heavens sake this is the no brainer but very typical of Wakefield and RL fans in general, anything but pay the full amount - sorry but you're happy to see this guy pump thousands into the club to keep it going and you won't pay an extra quid for a pint, really.

Personally I can do 5-6 in a game a couple before and after Saturday afternoon s at eastmoor £2-50 a pint

Personally I can do 5-6 in a game a couple before and after Saturday afternoon s at eastmoor £2-50 a pint

It's a two way street though. You can't expect people to just buy rubbish because it benefits the club.

I always buy at least one of the home or away kits each year, even though they're pretty expensive compared to most clothes I buy, because I'd rather the club have the money. If they're all nice then I might get both the home and away (I got all three last season). But if they were all dreadful designs and terrible quality then I wouldn't bother.

I never drink on a match day so the beer doesn't particularly concern me but I think you've got to at least offer some sort of compromise. If you can get a nicer pint in the con club at a cheaper price then the club really needs to either a) make it the same price or b) make it better quality.

I'm sure most people wouldn't mind paying a bit more at the club if it was the same quality, or drinking a worse pint if it was the same price. But complaining that people won't pay more for a worse pint is taking the mickey.

Might be very basic and old fashioned but what I have done for years is put a tenner in a jar every week (without fail) and hence after a year I have £520 which covers my season tickets for both Oakwell and BV> Ok, I have concessions but you get the drift. The Barnsley FC ticket works out at £8.26/ match; excellent for Championship football.

It never fails to amaze me how people miss the point. Clearly under normal circumstances you'd be right. But in this case you only attend bv to support your team otherwise you'd be drinking at a nice country pub. Drinking there rank beer is just another way to support your club not quench your thirst. By not doing so you are cutting your nose off to spite your face and thus have no right to complain when we can't keep Jowitt or sign x y and z.

Yes the club should improve the product and you should let them know how you feel but to take your business elsewhere beggers belief to me, is it such a big sacrifice to have a warm pint - really?

I wouldn't mind if it were the clubs core business but in case people forget that's playing rugby.

I've bought endless crap from the club over the years much of which I've never used because it seemed an extra way to support the club.

Sorry but that's how I see it.

Get some of that lovely Trinity Ale flowing through the pumps around the ground. A real quality pint and brewed within the ground! I'm sure a deal could be struck with the brewers!!

Sod the football. What's the beer like?

Bloody awful Wollo!!!

Tbf the bars at bv are poor,it could be a good Money spinner but the ground situation prevents this that's why there's 300 wakey fans in con club