$ydney VS NIX

[Sym]

pitch has been relayed I heard

 

[BAD BULLZ]

pitch has been relayed I heard

Wish i got layed as often as the aleague pitches................................................. :ashamed:

 

[Sym]

I set you up for that
I take some credit for you giving everyone the epic lolz !!

hahahahaha
eggbaaaaa !

 

[Forum Phoenix]

pitch has been relayed I heard

Thank god for that!

Also just heard prices were $60 cat A.
(On the NRL opening round mind you which is of course cheaper to attend)
Add parking and food... it's just too much. Obviously. You watch the cam scan past empty cat A seats... and then finally reach the mostly full lower cat seats... WTF does that tell you FFA???

When will they learn that 26 thousand at $30 will generate more revenue via food and drink and the superior atmosphere is worth much more, especially in these building stages of our game.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Looks to me like SFC have a core of about 10-12k and they went.

Reckon we would have got more than 13k in same circumstances.

 

[goingtoadisco]

i think we would have pulled 14000.

But at the same time as the opening nrl games.... hmm

 

[curious]

pitch has been relayed I heard

Thank god for that!

Also just heard prices were $60 cat A.
(On the NRL opening round mind you which is of course cheaper to attend)
Add parking and food... it's just too much. Obviously. You watch the cam scan past empty cat A seats... and then finally reach the mostly full lower cat seats... WTF does that tell you FFA???

When will they learn that 26 thousand at $30 will generate more revenue via food and drink and the superior atmosphere is worth much more, especially in these building stages of our game.

With only 13k in a 45k capacity stadium I'd assume the majority of the cheaper category seats were empty as well? Heaven help is if a prelim. final attracts no more than that in our largest city. The weather shouldn't be used as an excuse when the 3 nrl games last night/evening got 11,12 and 18. We also can't keeping using the nrl games themselves as an excuse when we will be overlapping more and more as the comp is extended. They have to either  learn to compete for bums on seats or get used to small crowds and low returns.

I noticed in the sfc forum the CEO commented (in answer to a question about the club it's  advertising/promotion policy) that they target the football community and don't intend to target advertising/promotion towards the general community. His reason given was that with the numbers of juniors/players in the Sydney basin they don't need the general community.  I think the regular numbers they have been getting might just show that up as how to bake an insular pie with a sprinkle of wishful thinking and a pinch of arrogance.

 

[Roy Law]

Apparently there are no NRL games today...but you wouldn't expect the FFA to have scheduled Sydney's game for today would you?

 

[bulldogmariner]

Apparently there are no NRL games today...but you wouldn't expect the FFA to have scheduled Sydney's game for today would you?

There is a blockbuster at ANZ. They were in a no-win situation.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I dont think you can blame the NRL comp starting for the piss poor crowd.

SFC obviously didnt do enough to make the people at the Major semi want to come back. Why they didnt, who knows.

Last week was an epic game of football and last nights was good if not as intense.

LOL, the 1st time SFC play aggressive, attacking (dare we say entertaining) football, no bastard turns up.

W Syd will piss all over them IMHO

 

[jiggles]

Only saw some highlights this morning...clearly a hand ball.

Hatred for Sydney has increased. Bring on the Grand Final.

 

[Jaza_SFC]

Prelims have a habit of being lower attendances don't they? To many people, the season ends when you lose the 1v2.

Ticket prices are also ridiculous. My seat was $37. Most of the ground was Cat A or Cat B - there were only 8 bays or so that were cat C (in the corners). So it's at least a 50% rise in ticket prices from the regular season - the FFA cash grab works against them in that regard IMO.

SFC have f**k all do with the finals. The FFA takes over the entire marketing and everything because they reap all the profits. SFC almost shut down outside of the football department, as it's almost all beyond their power.

 

[FFC Mariner]

The very same FFA who bragged that having the yoof semi at Pluim saved them money.

Still cant understand why they run the finals and not the clubs. If its all about the money, not too hard for ticketek to send to FFA not the clubs.

V odd

 

[Jaza_SFC]

I noticed in the sfc forum the CEO commented (in answer to a question about the club it's  advertising/promotion policy) that they target the football community and don't intend to target advertising/promotion towards the general community. His reason given was that with the numbers of juniors/players in the Sydney basin they don't need the general community.  I think the regular numbers they have been getting might just show that up as how to bake an insular pie with a sprinkle of wishful thinking and a pinch of arrogance.

His point was more about marketing $$ wasted. Have you ever tried to market a product in Sydney? The cost is outrageous. Everyone cries out for standard stuff like print media and TV ads, but that's easy to say when you're not the one signing off on $30k cheques for one-off medium-sized ads in the big papers. The cost is ludicrous.

Quick marketing lesson - since you don't seem to understand the basic principles. There are generally two reasons you market something:
*Immediate ROI (return on investment) - Where you spend directly with the intent of making your money back on your expenditure ASAP.
*Brand awareness - Where you spend money on getting the brand name out there and getting people familiar with your product, but not necessarily with them getting involved with it straight away (as good as that would be). The idea is that over time they develop feelings and associations with the product that make them a long-term purchaser.

The problem with the HAL marketing (IMO) over the past 5yrs is that it's largely been in the form of the latter, when it needs to be the former. When you have limited budget and limited cashflow (like the FFA and all HAL clubs have), you can't spend money without getting a return on it. It's financial suicide. Now is not the time for brand awareness.
For me, too much of the HAL advertisement has been about creating excitement and awareness around the HAL (and to a lesser extent the club) brand(s), but not focusing on the basic premise of "come to the f**king game". I work in corporate sales / service, and I put up with this sort of nonsense from marketing people all the time (notably the ones with marketing degrees). They want all the nice fluffy stuff that builds brand awareness, but what we actually need is an ad that costs $x and brings in $x + more in revenue that week from an increased gate. It's not happened yet.

Over the past few years, SFC have advertised extensively through traditional media like newspaper adverts, bus stop adverts, etc. People keep crying out for more, but the simple fact is we (like all HAL clubs) don't have the money to saturate any media with ads. It's made even worse by the fact that the NRL and AFL (two key NSW competitors) do have the money to saturate the market with advertising, which then dwarfs our marketing even more. It's just a game of $$$ and they're far ahead of us in that regard.
(I would also argue that the form of "traditional" advertising is very hard to get ROI from - but that's a matter of opinion and I'm not the best qualified to entirely justify it aside from very limited personal experience at work.)

The advertising by HAL clubs hasn't worked that well, despite best efforts in tough conditions. SFC as a club has a choice - they can either throw more money at it (which they don't have), and pay the price if it doesn't increase ROI ... Or they can try something different.

So Edwin's idea is to target almost entirely the football population of Sydney. And the numbers make sense - even if we only get 3-5% of the football community involved with SFC each week, we'd pretty much double our attendances. They've tried to engage the public for a few years (both in advertising, as well as a shitload of community work like school visits, shopping mall visits, and all that nonsense), and for whatever reason (there are many) it hasn't worked. The overall spend on advertising to the masses would be huge compared to what it's got back in revenue.
So next year they'll be pushing even harder at the football community. I'll be interested to see how they do it. I think there's an element of risk involved (the assumption that football player will often = football viewer is the first one I question), but the numbers make sense given the small amount of success required for required return.

One day when we have the money to compete with the other codes marketing, and can afford to spend on the fancy brand awareness stuff, it will be a great idea. Over the long-term that may help bring in the general public. But that model does not suit the restrictions under which the HAL/FFA run at the moment, and should righly be dumped. It could certainly have been done better over the past 5yrs (I think the theory behind all the ad campaigns has been terrible at best), but ultimately I think the theory is just as broken as the application. Time to stop tossing $$ out the window and try something new.

 

[Jesus]

The very same FFA who bragged that having the yoof semi at Pluim saved them money.

Still cant understand why they run the finals and not the clubs. If its all about the money, not too hard for ticketek to send to FFA not the clubs.

V odd

FFA are confident they can do everything properly and the clubs cant.

There may be some merit to this, but in fact when we get the independent commision, which i cant see happening til lowy retires, the ffa will run everything.

I think the commision was in crawford? And within a few years we shall outgrow the ffa being able to work it, especially if we win a world cup hosting. The ffa will have to pass on responsibility to the commision, who would be wholey charged with protecting and growing the league and its clubs. The FFA is then left to build football and national teams etc

 

[Jaza_SFC]

It's pretty stupid when the FFA's "better" is actually a headf**k each year for numerous issues, including:
*Ticketing (ignoring everyone's allocated seating they've had all season, ignoring almost all aspects required to generate good home end support [which they use for marketing ffs], putting the bandwagon ahead of the year-long supporters, etc)
*Security (overzealous visits from Hatamoto and Riot cops, etc)
*Stuff like Tifos (the amount of hoops that needed to be jumped, and begging that needed to be done to get a tifo in the ground for club legend Steve Corica last night was disgusting)

The problem is that the club focuses on numerous things about spectator experience, as well as the bottom line. The FFA just focuses on the latter.
They'll have been kicking themselves when we qualified last night. It's not the final they wanted at all. Far too much work for them to do now.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Good post Jaza and dont get me started on finals ticketing, I have never fought my own before but came close at the away leg of the major semi at EAS.

To whoever thought that a mobile billboard featuring Elrich was a great ad spend, I have some news for you.

Talk to most Coasties and they dont even know when games are on. Surely local radio could be used better?

Or how about email lists held by club/CCF - or is that too cheap and simple. Emailing to members to tell them the game is on is fairly pointless. I ALREADY KNOW.

 

[Jesus]

Good post Jaza and dont get me started on finals ticketing, I have never fought my own before but came close at the away leg of the major semi at EAS.

To whoever thought that a mobile billboard featuring Elrich was a great ad spend, I have some news for you.

Talk to most Coasties and they dont even know when games are on. Surely local radio could be used better?

Or how about email lists held by club/CCF - or is that too cheap and simple. Emailing to members to tell them the game is on is fairly pointless. I ALREADY KNOW.

Agreed entriely

 

[curious]

I noticed in the sfc forum the CEO commented (in answer to a question about the club it's  advertising/promotion policy) that they target the football community and don't intend to target advertising/promotion towards the general community. His reason given was that with the numbers of juniors/players in the Sydney basin they don't need the general community.  I think the regular numbers they have been getting might just show that up as how to bake an insular pie with a sprinkle of wishful thinking and a pinch of arrogance.

His point was more about marketing $$ wasted. Have you ever tried to market a product in Sydney? The cost is outrageous. Everyone cries out for standard stuff like print media and TV ads, but that's easy to say when you're not the one signing off on $30k cheques for one-off medium-sized ads in the big papers. The cost is ludicrous.

Quick marketing lesson - since you don't seem to understand the basic principles.

Excuse me noodle nuts, I was quoting your CEO. My further comment reflects  his advertising policy isn't working regardless of targeting football juniors or holding up placards at city traffic lights while standing naked and singing 'Oh lord it's hard to be humble". The crowds are laughable in a one team city.
Roars policy isn't working in a one team city. Newcastle............. Mariners ...the  gold coast.....ect ect,.....they aren't freaking working and it's not sustainable.

Regards your comment about ticket prices, get used to it like every other code has  or get used to a comp that cannot afford to sustain operations at the present level. You bastards ( the ticket price whingers) are the biggest whinging pricks i've come across in 5 decades of paying to attend sport. What do the poor little diddums want, a 10 pound product for a 2 bob price? You want to compete with other codes for recognition as a legitimate multi million dollar, high quality  national league, but the fans are so special they should only have to pay pub comp prices? If what you claim is correct, that football fans won't pay prices similar to that of other codes for  special events like semis, (and maybe even regular season games? Which was both Roar and GC's excuse) what is it that makes football fans so different to all others? We all wear long pocketed pants and have short arm birth defects?

 

[Jaza_SFC]

Well, it's obviously not worked so far (for the reasons I stated, quite clearly), thus the change to a different strategy next year as Edwin outlined. Pretty sensible huh?

As for ticket prices, I think we get great value through the season. My season pass is exceptionally cheap for what I get. Ticket prices usually aren't the HAL's problem.

But I just paid $52 for my ticket to the tard dome next week. During the season, that same ticket was less than $30. If I, as a die hard supporter, can't justify that ~100% mark up, how will non-die hard supporters?

EDIT: make no mistake, if it was your team in the GF, the response from your supporters would be the same. And rightly so.

EDIT AGAIN: It says a lot about the FFA's attitude towards it's supporters IMO. They take all gate receipts, all merch receipts, and just about every piece of money collected from the finals for themselves. Keep in mind the clubs still incur operating costs in this time, so essentially run at a greater loss the longer they go in the finals.
Not content with just taking the profits, the FFA want to jack up the prices as much as possible to maximise their return.
I would understand a price rise, but consecutive price rises (in line with the game's importance) and removal of most Cat C seating (to drive average ticket price up) is a blatant money-grab. It is in no way aligned with any improvement in product, and symptomatic of an organisation that frequently shows disdain for the hands that feed it (IMO).