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Post by buckrippers on Oct 1, 2015 8:50:04 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 9:00:33 GMT
Oh my, that will open up the proverbial can of worms !
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Post by WeAreTheGas on Oct 1, 2015 9:16:41 GMT
Good article and agree.
The club can have no complaints about fans selling their own stuff when the official merchandise is so unimaginative and (IMO) pretty dreadful.
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Post by Hugo the Elder on Oct 1, 2015 9:16:26 GMT
TUESDAY night's hugely satisfying win at Hartlepool gives me every confidence that Darrell Clarke and his men will get things right on the pitch. It's just a shame that our biggest win of the season came in front of our fewest number of supporters, but perhaps that isn't as strange as it might seem at first. Since the moment Bristol Rovers re-entered the Football League there has been a huge collective will for the club to do well and make up for lost time. Fans have expected them to return with all guns blazing, with the focus already on where we might be in three or four years' time. The fact the players want to keep that tremendous support on their side may even have been counter-productive, particularly at the Mem where performances have failed to match the attendances. That's not in any way a criticism of the fans – far from it. But psychologically, Tuesday gave the players the chance to just go out and play without the added worry about who they might be letting down if things went wrong. Of course, the 190-odd representatives of the Blue and White quarter army deserve huge respect for turning up at the Victoria Ground on a Tuesday night to urge on a team that hadn't won for five games. But what actually happened in the North East was a mirror image of what has been happening at the Mem – namely the home fans, who were well in the majority, heaped pressure on their own players when things started to go wrong. While I have every confidence we are on an upward learning curve on the pitch, I wish I could be so confident about our attitude off it. It seems to me, despite the idea that the club has come back newer and brighter, that nothing changes on the marketing side of things. If anything it is once again the fans leading the way. Over the last few weeks I have ordered a number of T-shirts relating to my club from Rovers followers advertising their wares on the internet. Fair play to these entrepreneurs who have been bright enough to come up with tee-shirt ideas and slogans, banging them on social media to make a quick buck, but I suspect it isn't just about the money, rather it's the pride in seeing others openly endorsing your design. These products resonate with me because they make the most of the things we love: the completely unique name for our fans, Gasheads, and our equally unique song: Goodnight Irene. As I parted with my hard-earned money this week I started to question why Rovers themselves had never sought to capitalise on these highly original assets. Gasheads: The Brand should be earning the club a pretty penny, particularly when you think of those who travelled around the world from places like Canada and Australia to see our team at Wembley. Yet nothing in the club shop seems to mention Gasheads or Irene. In fact on the whole I would humbly suggest our merchandise shows a distinct lack of imagination. Is it the fact someone has bought up domain names like Gasheads.com which is holding us up and, if so, have we tried to purchase them back? I realise it might cost a small fortune in the short term but someone with vision must see it has endless possibilities. We're always banging on about new stadiums, and a vision that our club is big enough to hold its own in the Championship, but if we truly want to move to another level then there are things we can be doing now to start the process. Nick Rippington is a sports journalist working on national newspapers in London but his spiritual home is the Mem. He has been an ardent fan of Bristol Rovers for 46 years, seeing them through the highs of promotion under Don Megson, Gerry Francis and Paul Trollope as well as many painfully remembered lows. Nick has just written his first novel, a suspense thriller called Crossing The Whitewash, which is available in paperback or as an Ebook from Amazon at amzn.to/1gMUjSD ...Catch up with nick at @nickripp on twitter. Read more at www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-Frankie-Prince-s-Bovver-Boots/story-27899297-detail/story.html#VaDkgGgfI1eMvIX7.99
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 9:21:52 GMT
I personally find items with "Gasheads" a little tacky.
Different people like different things I guess.
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Post by tommym9 on Oct 1, 2015 9:38:58 GMT
Well said and I hope someone at the club reads it and takes notice.
I emailed them a while back about the guy who runs Gas Prints (Gasprints on the forum I think) and if the shop was planning to stock them as they were quite popular and I got a reply that I thought had been written by someone who was drunk. Ultimately it was a no.
It may seem odd, but lots of pubs by me (Bedminster) have Upfest art hanging on the walls with prices. Would it kill the club to have some prints or pictures hanging up in the bar or the shop and take a percentage of the sale?
I think little things like this would at least bring in a few bob here and there and form a stronger relationship between the club and fans.
Anyway hopefully Sexton is looking at things like this!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 9:44:03 GMT
Excellent article - although I'm beginning to think that nothing will ever make those in power sit up and take notice regarding the poor retail and marketing.
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Post by justin blue on Oct 1, 2015 9:50:45 GMT
I really cannot agree with the view that our support is in any way responsible for poor home performances. Players are responsible for their performance true players take responibility for their performance only the weak ones make excuses.
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Post by CheshireGas on Oct 1, 2015 10:09:22 GMT
My concern about us getting to the UWE (if we ever do) is that we are told that it will generate extra revenue. However it certainly won't be from merchandising, the current ideas are old and dated, but not retro as even though fans can sell merchandise that is retro apparently its not in vogue...!
The club have little clue now so unless we get new people on board I fear nothing is going to change and as the fans prove this is an area we could really do with stepping up.
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Post by Hugo the Elder on Oct 1, 2015 10:17:08 GMT
My concern about us getting to the UWE (if we ever do) is that we are told that it will generate extra revenue. However it certainly won't be from merchandising, the current ideas are old and dated, but not retro as even though fans can sell merchandise that is retro apparently its not in vogue...! The club have little clue now so unless we get new people on board I fear nothing is going to change and as the fans prove this is an area we could really do with stepping up. If you wait long enough the stuff we do sell will become retro. It's all part of the forward thinking marketing departments plan.
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Post by Centenary Gas on Oct 1, 2015 10:38:04 GMT
A little bit of imagination takes you a long way... The crazy thing is, football clubs aren't competing for fans (generally) and can copy eachother, whether that be merchandise (how hard is it to phone other clubs and find out their biggest sellers?) or matchday experience... It's not just what they offer, it's the inviting attitude by which they offer it...
New Brighton chief executive Paul Barber only visited the club's former home at the Withdean Stadium once, but his memories will sound familiar to anyone who did take in a game at the athletics stadium. "It was cold, wet and windy," Barber told BBC Sport. "I only went there once but I remember every minute of it vividly, which perhaps tells you all you need to know." It is 15 years since Brighton left their old Goldstone Ground, but after a ground-share with Gillingham and 13 years at the wet and windy Withdean, the Seagulls are back in business. The club currently boast the highest average attendance in the Championship at their new Amex Stadium home and, despite expanding the capacity during the summer, are already well under way with installing more seats. Brighton played at the Withdean Stadium between 1999 and 2011 The stadium held only 8,850 Tickets for the final season at the Withdean were priced between £23 and £28.50 Fans are now charged between £28 and £39 at the £100m Amex Stadium Despite the BBC Price of Football study showing the average cost of the cheapest adult ticket in the top four divisions of English football has risen by 11.7% in the past 12 months, and with the Seagulls themselves charging up to £39 for an adult ticket, the club continues to add names to its waiting list for season tickets. "There was always a huge pent-up demand for supporting the football club in Brighton," Barber said. "But you have to be reasonable to fans and provide value for money. "We are never going to be the cheapest to come to, but we try and keep the prices in line with the experience we offer. At the end of the day, people will always have a choice where to spend their money, whether they are on a high income or a low income. "On a Saturday, we want the fans to choose to come here and support the club financially. What we have seen is that people are prepared to do that if you give them quality on and off the pitch." Fans have flocked to watch Gus Poyet's side since they moved into the Amex last summer, with the club averaging 25,512 in the league so far this season - more than the likes of Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds and Nottingham Forest. The capacity is set to reach 30,000 in January and, far from feeling the pinch of the recession, Barber revealed that Brighton have managed to entice thousands of fans to arrive early and stay late for each game - spending more money at the club all the time. "This is a great place to watch football and we are keen to get people here for the day out," he said. "We are in the entertainment business and we are trying to give people an all-round package. The majority of fans arrive and depart using public transport, and they recognise that if 30,000 people want to leave the stadium all at once it is going to be difficult. "The stadium is designed to allow people to hang around after the game, enjoy something to eat, have a few drinks and for the kids to be able to run around and play in the wide concourses. "We have people staying after the game in their thousands. "We keep the bars open, we don't have a set closing time. We want people to feel like they can relax and stay at their leisure." That invitation extends to away supporters, with Brighton lighting the stadium in the colours of the travelling fans and even importing local beers. Barnsley fans, for example, were greeted by a red concourse and served Webster's Yorkshire bitter on tap before their visit in August, and the Seagulls also take the radical step of bringing together rival fans after the game. Barber said: "After the game we open up the bars, there's no segregation and they can mingle and mix. You don't have a segregated environment in your living room or your local pub so why should there be one at the stadium? "We make fans feel comfortable. It tends to mean then that they spend more, they are more respectful to our club staff and fans and, after the game, they are invited to join our supporters for a few drinks and a talk about the game."
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Post by Gas Go Marching In on Oct 1, 2015 10:57:29 GMT
I personally find items with "Gasheads" a little tacky. Different people like different things I guess. That is a bit of a generalistic view. Whilst I actually agree with it on the whole (especially with the bloke who sold 2 quid polos off amazon, stuck an 1883 badge on and sold them for £20 a pop) there are items like gasprints put on here that look decent.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 10:58:40 GMT
I personally find items with "Gasheads" a little tacky. Different people like different things I guess. That is a bit of a generalistic view. Whilst I actually agree with it on the whole (especially with the bloke who sold 2 quid polos off amazon, stuck an 1883 badgeron and sold them for £20 a pop) there are items like gasprints put on here that look decent. That badger must have been watered right off...
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Post by Gas Go Marching In on Oct 1, 2015 11:00:02 GMT
That is a bit of a generalistic view. Whilst I actually agree with it on the whole (especially with the bloke who sold 2 quid polos off amazon, stuck an 1883 badgeron and sold them for £20 a pop) there are items like gasprints put on here that look decent. That badger must have been watered right off... You don't hang about, edited it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 11:01:17 GMT
That badger must have been watered right off... You don't hang about, edited it. It's a forum bud, chill!
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Post by baggins on Oct 1, 2015 11:26:01 GMT
TUESDAY night's hugely satisfying win at Hartlepool gives me every confidence that Darrell Clarke and his men will get things right on the pitch. It's just a shame that our biggest win of the season came in front of our fewest number of supporters, but perhaps that isn't as strange as it might seem at first. Since the moment Bristol Rovers re-entered the Football League there has been a huge collective will for the club to do well and make up for lost time. Fans have expected them to return with all guns blazing, with the focus already on where we might be in three or four years' time. The fact the players want to keep that tremendous support on their side may even have been counter-productive, particularly at the Mem where performances have failed to match the attendances. That's not in any way a criticism of the fans – far from it. But psychologically, Tuesday gave the players the chance to just go out and play without the added worry about who they might be letting down if things went wrong. Of course, the 190-odd representatives of the Blue and White quarter army deserve huge respect for turning up at the Victoria Ground on a Tuesday night to urge on a team that hadn't won for five games. But what actually happened in the North East was a mirror image of what has been happening at the Mem – namely the home fans, who were well in the majority, heaped pressure on their own players when things started to go wrong. While I have every confidence we are on an upward learning curve on the pitch, I wish I could be so confident about our attitude off it. It seems to me, despite the idea that the club has come back newer and brighter, that nothing changes on the marketing side of things. If anything it is once again the fans leading the way. Over the last few weeks I have ordered a number of T-shirts relating to my club from Rovers followers advertising their wares on the internet. Fair play to these entrepreneurs who have been bright enough to come up with tee-shirt ideas and slogans, banging them on social media to make a quick buck, but I suspect it isn't just about the money, rather it's the pride in seeing others openly endorsing your design. These products resonate with me because they make the most of the things we love: the completely unique name for our fans, Gasheads, and our equally unique song: Goodnight Irene. As I parted with my hard-earned money this week I started to question why Rovers themselves had never sought to capitalise on these highly original assets. Gasheads: The Brand should be earning the club a pretty penny, particularly when you think of those who travelled around the world from places like Canada and Australia to see our team at Wembley. Yet nothing in the club shop seems to mention Gasheads or Irene. In fact on the whole I would humbly suggest our merchandise shows a distinct lack of imagination. Is it the fact someone has bought up domain names like Gasheads.com which is holding us up and, if so, have we tried to purchase them back? I realise it might cost a small fortune in the short term but someone with vision must see it has endless possibilities. We're always banging on about new stadiums, and a vision that our club is big enough to hold its own in the Championship, but if we truly want to move to another level then there are things we can be doing now to start the process. Nick Rippington is a sports journalist working on national newspapers in London but his spiritual home is the Mem. He has been an ardent fan of Bristol Rovers for 46 years, seeing them through the highs of promotion under Don Megson, Gerry Francis and Paul Trollope as well as many painfully remembered lows. Nick has just written his first novel, a suspense thriller called Crossing The Whitewash, which is available in paperback or as an Ebook from Amazon at amzn.to/1gMUjSD ...Catch up with nick at @nickripp on twitter. Read more at www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-Frankie-Prince-s-Bovver-Boots/story-27899297-detail/story.html#VaDkgGgfI1eMvIX7.99You lost me after 'Tuesday'.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 11:49:20 GMT
TUESDAY night's hugely satisfying win at Hartlepool gives me every confidence that Darrell Clarke and his men will get things right on the pitch. It's just a shame that our biggest win of the season came in front of our fewest number of supporters, but perhaps that isn't as strange as it might seem at first. Since the moment Bristol Rovers re-entered the Football League there has been a huge collective will for the club to do well and make up for lost time. Fans have expected them to return with all guns blazing, with the focus already on where we might be in three or four years' time. The fact the players want to keep that tremendous support on their side may even have been counter-productive, particularly at the Mem where performances have failed to match the attendances. That's not in any way a criticism of the fans – far from it. But psychologically, Tuesday gave the players the chance to just go out and play without the added worry about who they might be letting down if things went wrong. Of course, the 190-odd representatives of the Blue and White quarter army deserve huge respect for turning up at the Victoria Ground on a Tuesday night to urge on a team that hadn't won for five games. But what actually happened in the North East was a mirror image of what has been happening at the Mem – namely the home fans, who were well in the majority, heaped pressure on their own players when things started to go wrong. While I have every confidence we are on an upward learning curve on the pitch, I wish I could be so confident about our attitude off it. It seems to me, despite the idea that the club has come back newer and brighter, that nothing changes on the marketing side of things. If anything it is once again the fans leading the way. Over the last few weeks I have ordered a number of T-shirts relating to my club from Rovers followers advertising their wares on the internet. Fair play to these entrepreneurs who have been bright enough to come up with tee-shirt ideas and slogans, banging them on social media to make a quick buck, but I suspect it isn't just about the money, rather it's the pride in seeing others openly endorsing your design. These products resonate with me because they make the most of the things we love: the completely unique name for our fans, Gasheads, and our equally unique song: Goodnight Irene. As I parted with my hard-earned money this week I started to question why Rovers themselves had never sought to capitalise on these highly original assets. Gasheads: The Brand should be earning the club a pretty penny, particularly when you think of those who travelled around the world from places like Canada and Australia to see our team at Wembley. Yet nothing in the club shop seems to mention Gasheads or Irene. In fact on the whole I would humbly suggest our merchandise shows a distinct lack of imagination. Is it the fact someone has bought up domain names like Gasheads.com which is holding us up and, if so, have we tried to purchase them back? I realise it might cost a small fortune in the short term but someone with vision must see it has endless possibilities. We're always banging on about new stadiums, and a vision that our club is big enough to hold its own in the Championship, but if we truly want to move to another level then there are things we can be doing now to start the process. Nick Rippington is a sports journalist working on national newspapers in London but his spiritual home is the Mem. He has been an ardent fan of Bristol Rovers for 46 years, seeing them through the highs of promotion under Don Megson, Gerry Francis and Paul Trollope as well as many painfully remembered lows. Nick has just written his first novel, a suspense thriller called Crossing The Whitewash, which is available in paperback or as an Ebook from Amazon at amzn.to/1gMUjSD ...Catch up with nick at @nickripp on twitter. Read more at www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-Frankie-Prince-s-Bovver-Boots/story-27899297-detail/story.html#VaDkgGgfI1eMvIX7.99You lost me after 'Tuesday'. Too many long words Bags?
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Post by baggins on Oct 1, 2015 12:09:23 GMT
You lost me after 'Tuesday'. Too many long words Bags? He disappears for months on end, then takes a handful of happy laxatives and spews that out? Far too much for me.
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Post by Topper Gas on Oct 1, 2015 12:20:55 GMT
Surely there was more pressure on the players to beat Barnet than Accrington etc? Plus last season i think we were expected to win every home game? This season we're just not good enough to unlock better Div 2 defences and fan "pressure" as nothing to do with it, particularly in most games we have tended to be strongest in the last 15 mins - usually after Bodin makes an appearance!
Although you second part of the blog is spot on, it's almost as if you've lifted it straight from the forum "Retail panel" thread!!!
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Post by Hugo the Elder on Oct 1, 2015 12:23:12 GMT
Too many long words Bags? He disappears for months on end, then takes a handful of happy laxatives and spews that out? Far too much for me. It was a cut/paste of Buckrippers article to save you poor folks from navigating the Bristol City Evening Post site. You fool.
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