Doug King Takeover (40 Viewers)

[rexo87]

They would need to refund everybody who had paid the standard price also.

That really shouldn’t be that difficult


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[Nick]

He owns CCFC now, he can absorb the costs if he wants to. If you want him to make as much money as possible out of it - even if it comes at fans’ expense - then that’s fine, but it’s not my priority.

Where did I say anything about "him" making money?

 

[MalcSB]

The only way the club loses money on a reduced ticket from the standard price is if the cost of providing the seat is not already absorbed

It would reduce profit which is where transfer fees and higher players wages come from. In any case, are the ticket prices currently covering all operating costs? The hitherto increasing level of internal debt would suggest not.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

One thing, of many, the club is piss poor at is contacting people who no longer go. I've gone from being a season ticket holder to not being able to attend games. Not one call too see why or an offer of a cheap / free ticket

Fair enough my non-attendance is due to having to deal with family stuff so even if they offered something I couldn't go but there must be plenty of people on the database who just don't go anymore and could be persuaded back

Its a very basic thing to do and if they're missing things like that there's no chance they're sorting out much else

Twitter aside, their marketing in general is also awful and outdated.

There's so much they could do which wouldn't really cost a great deal that they just don't bother with/don't do.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

So how else was he supposed to fix the lack of funding issue if that was his only option? You would have been pissed if we had a points deduction for an unfit pitch. I am not defending him but the options he has had were always shit due to SISU controlling the cash flow.

You try and start a bidding war

 

[MalcSB]

That really shouldn’t be that difficult


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Has anyone ever introduced you to the real world?

 

[Nick]

It would reduce profit which is where transfer fees and higher players wages come from. In any case, are the ticket prices currently covering all operating costs? The hitherto increasing level of internal debt would suggest not.

Yeah but Doug King should pay for it all. Give all the tickets away cheap to get bums on seats.

See Wasps.

 

[rexo87]

Has anyone ever introduced you to the real world?

What’s your point


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[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

Why? The person made the choice to pay at that price

Then you’re penalising the people who had supported us all season, to try and get fans who couldn’t give a shit. Shooting yourself in the foot there

 

[AndreasB]

The crowing about Fisher being "sacked" is just stupid. He probably made himself a millionaire after his stretch at the club and would have been more than happy to walk away. He was the one conduit to Seppala and probably stopped us going into administration a few times over the last 5 years. Now we are left with Boddy (hmm) and King- a massive unknown quantity with no experience in Sports management.
Debt free but continually trading at a loss, ground we still dont own, only assets are 2 or 3 saleable players- be really interested to see the business plan because it doesnt really make sense. Expect lots of talk about FFP.

 

[SBT]

Where did I say anything about "him" making money?

Well “maximising every revenue stream we have” would make him a lot of money as the club’s owner. Personally I’m not opposed to him absorbing the costs of say, deals on ticket prices, or subsidised travel to games, but you seem to feel maximising profits is more important.

 

[Sick Boy]

I’m sure Big Dave has got everything in hand.

 

[Skyblueweeman]

People talking about the marketing strategy being poor etc. Is DB at fault - maybe?

But, the club has been/is currently run on a shoestring budget as far as staffing levels go. There's simply not enough resource to do the things people have mentioned. To @chiefdaves point about no one contacting him as a lapsed ST holder - there's not currently enough resource to do things like that.

One thing that would be good with this takeover, is an investment in that side of the business. Get people in who can help connect club more with the fanbase. It does need it.

 

[Nick]

Well “maximising every revenue stream we have” would make him a lot of money as the club’s owner. Personally I’m not opposed to him absorbing the costs of say, deals on ticket prices, or subsidised travel to games, but you seem to feel maximising profits is more important.

Why wouldn't anybody want the club to maximise their revenue streams as much as they can?

You seem to be trying to blur things a bit by trying to make out as if ticket money is going to go into his pocket? Very strange.

 

[Grendel]

People talking about the marketing strategy being poor etc. Is DB at fault - maybe?

But, the club has been/is currently run on a shoestring budget as far as staffing levels go. There's simply not enough resource to do the things people have mentioned. To @chiefdaves point about no one contacting him as a lapsed ST holder - there's not currently enough resource to do things like that.

One thing that would be good with this takeover, is an investment in that side of the business. Get people in who can help connect club more with the fanbase. It does need it.

You don't need any resource to contact a lapsed customer. A cheap as chips CRM could do that and you could get an intern to programme the data

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

Well “maximising every revenue stream we have” would make him a lot of money as the club’s owner. Personally I’m not opposed to him absorbing the costs of say, deals on ticket prices, or subsidised travel to games, but you seem to feel maximising profits is more important.

No it wouldn't, what a ridiculous statement. With wages currently being at or exceeding turnover, further revenue is needed in order to plug the gap. A gap that isn't likely to be filled by Doug King year on year.

Maximising revenue to ensure the club is run more sustainably is vital for its future.

 

[Grendel]

Well “maximising every revenue stream we have” would make him a lot of money as the club’s owner. Personally I’m not opposed to him absorbing the costs of say, deals on ticket prices, or subsidised travel to games, but you seem to feel maximising profits is more important.

Maximising revenue and profit are two different things

 

[Nick]

You don't need any resource to contact a lapsed customer. A cheap as chips CRM could do that and you could get an intern to programme the data

They have somebody who does that and a new CRM system?

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

You don't need any resource to contact a lapsed customer. A cheap as chips CRM could do that and you could get an intern to programme the data

You wouldn't even need to programme any data. Platforms such as Mailchimp pretty much takes care of all that for you now.

 

[Grendel]

They have somebody who does that and a new CRM system?

then they should be programming response e mails to lapsed customers

 

[chiefdave]

The data must be in their system somewhere. I have a supporter number and a ticket purchase history. You could probably even pay ticketmaster to provide you with the relevant email addresses and phone numbers

That side of the operation really needs looking at, are local companies being contacted about sponsorship & hospitality or is everything done on the basis of waiting for someone to approach the club?

 

[Grendel]

You wouldn't even need to programme any data. Platforms such as Mailchimp pretty much takes care of all that for you now.

true I don’t like mail chimp personally as it can be received as spam but there’s no excuse - it’s not a resource issue just poor competency

 

[Grendel]

The data must be in their system somewhere. I have a supporter number and a ticket purchase history. You could probably even pay ticketmaster to provide you with the relevant email addresses and phone numbers

That side of the operation really needs looking at, are local companies being contacted about sponsorship & hospitality or is everything done on the basis of waiting for someone to approach the club?

I tried to sponsor the club it’s a joke

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

The data must be in their system somewhere. I have a supporter number and a ticket purchase history. You could probably even pay ticketmaster to provide you with the relevant email addresses and phone numbers

That side of the operation really needs looking at, are local companies being contacted about sponsorship & hospitality or is everything done on the basis of waiting for someone to approach the club?

Beyond scrapping a local sponsor for an identikit gambling company, and having 10% off at XL motors, I can’t think of much else.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I tried to sponsor the club it’s a joke

‘Corner kick sponsored by Grendel Spreadsheet Solutions’ wouldn’t fit on the scoreboard

 

[Nick]

I had no issues when I sponsored players, to be fair.

I agree though, somebody really needs to maximise it all.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

The data must be in their system somewhere. I have a supporter number and a ticket purchase history. You could probably even pay ticketmaster to provide you with the relevant email addresses and phone numbers

That side of the operation really needs looking at, are local companies being contacted about sponsorship & hospitality or is everything done on the basis of waiting for someone to approach the club?

They have all the data. It was on Excel spreadsheets from speaking with Tynan in the past. I think the issue is they either haven't bothered uploading relevant contact information to their CRM, or certainly not all of it, or they're not using it properly.

Most CRMs are capped with regards to number on contacts on there - the more contacts the higher the annual/monthly fee. At a guess that could be where the issue lies.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

true I don’t like mail chimp personally as it can be received as spam but there’s no excuse - it’s not a resource issue just poor competency

Just using a cheap example. There's certainly far better CRM platforms out there! But yeah, unfortunately as with anything CRMs are only as effective as the people managing them.

 

[Skyblueweeman]

true I don’t like mail chimp personally as it can be received as spam but there’s no excuse - it’s not a resource issue just poor competency

Of course it's a resource issue. If you use a CRM system to auto-generate those emails, who follows up the responses? Who contacts Dave to get him to book a ST again.

Look, I get the hatred from you for DB...but it is still a resource issue. You need people to run effective marketing campaigns - someone of your calibre should know that. The club have been running on as few staff as possible as we've been 'cutting our cloth' accordingly. That doesn't mean that it's worked from a financial point of view and undoubtedly, the marketing has likely suffered.

The point still stands - hopefully this takeover will help re-engage with the fan base with a better strategy.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

That side of the operation really needs looking at, are local companies being contacted about sponsorship & hospitality or is everything done on the basis of waiting for someone to approach the club?

Also, on this note. There's just not enough incentives to sponsor the club. The packages are basic and incredibly mundane. They just don't have the quality to think outside the box on this. I've spoken before to Commercial Managers from other Championship clubs about how they maximise ROI for their sponsors and it's clear from conversations I've had that the club is way behind in this regard.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

So how else was he supposed to fix the lack of funding issue if that was his only option? You would have been pissed if we had a points deduction for an unfit pitch. I am not defending him but the options he has had were always shit due to SISU controlling the cash flow.

You exploit that it’s the last week of the window and use the player’s agent to privately drum up interest and thus the fee

 

[SkyBlueMatt]

You don't need any resource to contact a lapsed customer. A cheap as chips CRM could do that and you could get an intern to programme the data

It depends on the quality of the data. If it hasn't been maintained, it's a pig of a job but like you say, nothing that a couple of interns couldn't clean up.

Through my experience I'm often amazed in how little resources are assigned to managing customer data and their perception on it's importance.

You wouldn't even need to programme any data. Software such as Mail Chimp pretty much take care of all that for you now.

It's never as simple as that. Plus Mailchimp is just one part of the whole process, it's not a fully integrated CRM system.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Also, on this note. There's just not enough incentives to sponsor the club. The packages are basic and incredibly mundane. They just don't have the quality to think outside the box on this. I've spoken before to Commercial Managers from other Championship clubs about how they maximise ROI for their sponsors and it's clear from conversations I've had that the club is way behind in this regard.

How much extra cash would you estimate we’re missing out on?

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

How much extra cash would you estimate we’re missing out on?

This is very much a 'how long is a piece of string' type estimate as you have to marry it up to what is feasibly possible given the staff count but I'd comfortably wager seven figures per season.

 

[SkyBlueMatt]

Of course it's a resource issue. If you use a CRM system to auto-generate those emails, who follows up the responses? Who contacts Dave to get him to book a ST again.

Look, I get the hatred from you for DB...but it is still a resource issue. You need people to run effective marketing campaigns - someone of your calibre should know that. The club have been running on as few staff as possible as we've been 'cutting our cloth' accordingly. That doesn't mean that it's worked from a financial point of view and undoubtedly, the marketing has likely suffered.

The point still stands - hopefully this takeover will help re-engage with the fan base with a better strategy.

And good marketing managers (or agencies) are not cheap. In footballing terms they are but if not if you don't have a pot to p*ss in.