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Post by charliesghost on Sept 25, 2017 12:36:41 GMT
Not sure what the effect the Thais had on Reading has to do with DE doing a "great job", but I am interested in what you perceive to be the "difficult circumstances"? Paying a huge amount of rent to the scumbag who owns the ground. Having very few revenue streams. Relatively low crowds, all pretty difficult! The relatively low crowds are un-remarked upon as yet, but a reality. I'd say that successive thumping price increases, allied to very little marketing spend or activity, is the cuplrit. It may be that the price increases are ensuring more revenue, despite lower crowds, so this is not a criticism. It is a viable business strategy, as demonstrated by Richard Desmond with the Daily Express. Rather than spending money improving quality and marketing against the Daily Mail, Desmond took the view that he had a large, ageing audience who would carry on buying the paper whatever, so he INCREASED the cost and slashed spending on journalism. The strategy has made him hundreds of millions of pounds over the last fifteen years. Of course, his asset is now virtually worthless, but he has made so much cash in the meantime that the price is paid for it has become almost irrelevant.
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Post by ox4eva on Sept 25, 2017 14:12:03 GMT
Paying a huge amount of rent to the scumbag who owns the ground. Having very few revenue streams. Relatively low crowds, all pretty difficult! The relatively low crowds are un-remarked upon as yet, but a reality. I'd say that successive thumping price increases, allied to very little marketing spend or activity, is the cuplrit. It may be that the price increases are ensuring more revenue, despite lower crowds, so this is not a criticism. It is a viable business strategy, as demonstrated by Richard Desmond with the Daily Express. Rather than spending money improving quality and marketing against the Daily Mail, Desmond took the view that he had a large, ageing audience who would carry on buying the paper whatever, so he INCREASED the cost and slashed spending on journalism. The strategy has made him hundreds of millions of pounds over the last fifteen years. Of course, his asset is now virtually worthless, but he has made so much cash in the meantime that the price is paid for it has become almost irrelevant. Whilst our away support is fantastic, at home it's quite poor. Season tickets, match day tickets, merchandise (don't start me on that!) and player sales are the only viable revenue streams available to the club. We cannot make money out of fresh air!
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Post by myles on Sept 25, 2017 14:38:57 GMT
Season tickets, match day tickets, merchandise (don't start me on that!) and player sales are the only viable revenue streams available to the club. We cannot make money out of fresh air! Which makes the failure to properly market those things all the more remarkable.
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Post by ox4eva on Sept 25, 2017 14:50:18 GMT
Season tickets, match day tickets, merchandise (don't start me on that!) and player sales are the only viable revenue streams available to the club. We cannot make money out of fresh air! Which makes the failure to properly market those things all the more remarkable. I agree to an extent but it's like flogging a dead horse. As we do not have a big enough fan base..
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Post by themightyaldo on Sept 25, 2017 18:58:42 GMT
Don't buy a programme so wasn't aware of this, but to add to this Eales and co left their seats rather quickly yesterday e.g. before the Oxford players had left the pitch which isn't like him as he tends to clap the players off. Like oufcyellow mentions above, he's got the additional funds he probably wouldn't have got if he sold to Satori and knows we've got little chance of getting promotion, so what better time to sell. Hope I'm wrong though and it's just a case of someone helping him out financially. He wasn't the only one who left quickly after that shower of shit
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Post by ryaniobirdio on Sept 25, 2017 20:02:54 GMT
Re low home gates, I was part of a group of four who sat together last season. Two didn't renew because of the price hike, but not purely in isolation, rather because of what exactly they get for that investment. The atmosphere is non-existent and the pathetic, rusting wind tunnel we inhabit isn't even ours. It's a dull and lifeless place to watch football and you can practically feel the resentment at how we came to be there rippling through the fans. Everything is filthy, run down and ramshackle, and being asked to cough up a big percentage increase for the second summer running has hit hard. I also know people who used to go to 6-8 home games per season and not ONE of them is willing to do so now, because it costs nearly £30 to sit in a seat they paid £22 for just over a year ago. And this was several weeks back, when we were flying high and turning it on at home. So I highly doubt that's going to change when we start getting our arses spanked in pathetic fashion like the last couple of games.
And that's just the match day experience and the facilities. I'm not even going to start on the shortfalls of the marketing and PR side of things and how it monumentally fails to even attempt to connect with people.
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Post by Long John Silver on Sept 26, 2017 11:33:53 GMT
Which makes the failure to properly market those things all the more remarkable. I agree to an extent but it's like flogging a dead horse. As we do not have a big enough fan base.. We have the whole of Oxfordshire to ourselves to do a bit of marketing to.
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Post by charliesghost on Sept 26, 2017 16:15:04 GMT
I agree to an extent but it's like flogging a dead horse. As we do not have a big enough fan base.. We have the whole of Oxfordshire to ourselves to do a bit of marketing to. Yes, the idea that we do not have enough people to market to is totally bizarre. We have 700,000 people to market to. That is huge, and growing every month. It'll be up to 900,000 by 2025, with huge growth in north Oxfordshire. Try comparing that with somewhere like Bury (this evening), operating in the shadow of mega clubs with giant marketing spend. They have to get SERIOUSLY smart to get people interested. OUFC has almost always been lazy in its approach. There has always been an assumption that people should want to come, right? Want to trek 45 minutes to Blackbird Leys to sit in a wind tunnel paying £4.50 for a bottle of warm beer watching lower league football. Kelvin grabbed the initiative for a couple of years. Then Tony Davison and Gerald Kelly for a year or two. But they were always fighting against pretty crap football. I'd imagine that if Kelvin and Tony were around right now, with the performances and national attention we have had over the last two or three years, they would have made some hay. But, as a club, we do need to consider what the market wants, as well as what we have to sell. And think, at the very least, for the medium-term and understand consumer trends. Because what IS true is that we do not, unlike say Portsmouth, have 15,000 die-hards.
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Post by Denissmithswig on Sept 26, 2017 16:51:48 GMT
We have the whole of Oxfordshire to ourselves to do a bit of marketing to. Yes, the idea that we do not have enough people to market to is totally bizarre. We have 700,000 people to market to. That is huge, and growing every month. It'll be up to 900,000 by 2025, with huge growth in north Oxfordshire. Try comparing that with somewhere like Bury (this evening), operating in the shadow of mega clubs with giant marketing spend. They have to get SERIOUSLY smart to get people interested. OUFC has almost always been lazy in its approach. There has always been an assumption that people should want to come, right? Want to trek 45 minutes to Blackbird Leys to sit in a wind tunnel paying £4.50 for a bottle of warm beer watching lower league football. Kelvin grabbed the initiative for a couple of years. Then Tony Davison and Gerald Kelly for a year or two. But they were always fighting against pretty crap football. I'd imagine that if Kelvin and Tony were around right now, with the performances and national attention we have had over the last two or three years, they would have made some hay. But, as a club, we do need to consider what the market wants, as well as what we have to sell. And think, at the very least, for the medium-term and understand consumer trends. Because what IS true is that we do not, unlike say Portsmouth, have 15,000 die-hards. Yes Kelvin was excellent at getting bums on seats but he was also great at spending their money too. Oxfordshire has a big catchment but is the passion for football really that big? Certainly not for lower league football and asa club Oxford in the grand scheme of things aren't a big club. You learn that when you live outside the bubble of it. A club the size of Bury wouldn't survive in a place like Oxford but it does in Manchester as the passion for football is greater up north IMO.
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Post by ox4eva on Sept 26, 2017 18:20:34 GMT
Yes, the idea that we do not have enough people to market to is totally bizarre. We have 700,000 people to market to. That is huge, and growing every month. It'll be up to 900,000 by 2025, with huge growth in north Oxfordshire. Try comparing that with somewhere like Bury (this evening), operating in the shadow of mega clubs with giant marketing spend. They have to get SERIOUSLY smart to get people interested. OUFC has almost always been lazy in its approach. There has always been an assumption that people should want to come, right? Want to trek 45 minutes to Blackbird Leys to sit in a wind tunnel paying £4.50 for a bottle of warm beer watching lower league football. Kelvin grabbed the initiative for a couple of years. Then Tony Davison and Gerald Kelly for a year or two. But they were always fighting against pretty crap football. I'd imagine that if Kelvin and Tony were around right now, with the performances and national attention we have had over the last two or three years, they would have made some hay. But, as a club, we do need to consider what the market wants, as well as what we have to sell. And think, at the very least, for the medium-term and understand consumer trends. Because what IS true is that we do not, unlike say Portsmouth, have 15,000 die-hards. Yes Kelvin was excellent at getting bums on seats but he was also great at spending their money too. Oxfordshire has a big catchment but is the passion for football really that big? Certainly not for lower league football and asa club Oxford in the grand scheme of things aren't a big club. You learn that when you live outside the bubble of it. A club the size of Bury wouldn't survive in a place like Oxford but it does in Manchester as the passion for football is greater up north IMO. Apart from our diehards the passion for football in Oxfordshire is just not there!
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Post by stokeu on Sept 26, 2017 18:29:01 GMT
The passion for 3rd division football is not there. I'd suggest there's many a sky subscription active
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Post by Common Villager on Sept 26, 2017 19:20:02 GMT
Heard from a good source (someone that has close links with the club, but isn't a 'supporter') that this is close to happening.
What he said to me was that a deal to sell the club to the Thai owners of Carabao is very close to happening. Could be announced in the next few days.
But then again, I was told that the Sartori deal was completed (albeit by a different source) so I won't make any bets just yet!
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Post by Common Villager on Sept 26, 2017 19:21:46 GMT
Heard from a good source (someone that has close links with the club, but isn't a 'supporter') that this is close to happening. What he said to me was that a deal to sell the club to the Thai owners of Carabao is very close to happening. Could be announced in the next few days. But then again, I was told that the Sartori deal was completed (albeit by a different source) so I won't make any bets just yet! Note - not the owners of Reading but the owners of Carabao (Reading's shirt sponsor)
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Post by holdsteady on Sept 26, 2017 19:24:11 GMT
We have the whole of Oxfordshire to ourselves to do a bit of marketing to. Yes, the idea that we do not have enough people to market to is totally bizarre. We have 700,000 people to market to. That is huge, and growing every month. It'll be up to 900,000 by 2025, with huge growth in north Oxfordshire. Try comparing that with somewhere like Bury (this evening), operating in the shadow of mega clubs with giant marketing spend. They have to get SERIOUSLY smart to get people interested. OUFC has almost always been lazy in its approach. There has always been an assumption that people should want to come, right? Want to trek 45 minutes to Blackbird Leys to sit in a wind tunnel paying £4.50 for a bottle of warm beer watching lower league football. Kelvin grabbed the initiative for a couple of years. Then Tony Davison and Gerald Kelly for a year or two. But they were always fighting against pretty crap football. I'd imagine that if Kelvin and Tony were around right now, with the performances and national attention we have had over the last two or three years, they would have made some hay. But, as a club, we do need to consider what the market wants, as well as what we have to sell. And think, at the very least, for the medium-term and understand consumer trends. Because what IS true is that we do not, unlike say Portsmouth, have 15,000 die-hards. Did Portsmouth have 15,000 diehards before the two promotions to and subsequent spells in the premier league, plus two FA cup finals with one win? That success increased the fan base of that club, if we had a similar successful time it would do the same to ours, football today is (and perhaps always has been) about the top flight, with a bit of attention for the promotion battle to reach it. We haven't played top flight football in near 30 years, which for most people is ancient history, haven't even been in the second tier this century, so I don't think our crowds are that bad considering we have been down among the dead men for nearly 20 years, sadly to a lot of people League one isn't much above park football.
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Post by oufcyellows on Sept 26, 2017 19:24:25 GMT
I give it an hour before this is breaking news on oxbible 😉
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Post by Common Villager on Sept 26, 2017 19:41:20 GMT
Charlie, fancy getting on the phone to our old mate Juan?
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Post by uptheus on Sept 26, 2017 19:57:11 GMT
Heard from a good source (someone that has close links with the club, but isn't a 'supporter') that this is close to happening. What he said to me was that a deal to sell the club to the Thai owners of Carabao is very close to happening. Could be announced in the next few days. But then again, I was told that the Sartori deal was completed (albeit by a different source) so I won't make any bets just yet! Cannot wait until we release our club record, not. How can this be better for the club, more like Darryl, if true! Assets sold with little chance of getting promotion, would make sense to sell now!
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Post by uptheus on Sept 26, 2017 19:58:35 GMT
Charlie, fancy getting on the phone to our old mate Juan? Please Charlie
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Post by socrates on Sept 26, 2017 20:25:11 GMT
Re attaendances/marketing.
You can only do so much.
The bottom line is that people are not fools. They can see what has gone on at the club this summer. And that's a load of talen out, and very little in.
The loss of the manager, captain, top goalscorer, flying winger and McAleny to everyone else who does not claim to be some sort of football expert or ITK, screams SINKING SHIP.
And then you look at the replacements.
This screams NO AMBITION.
SO why should the fan with the passing interest (ie not on in here every hr debating tactics etc) pay MORE to come and watch?
This is as it has been since time began.
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Post by backonthecoupon on Sept 26, 2017 21:11:44 GMT
According to this forum, maguire lundstram and johnson were crap anyway so no loss
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Post by 1OUFC on Sept 26, 2017 21:20:15 GMT
Charlie, fancy getting on the phone to our old mate Juan? Please Charlie Pretty please Charlie....
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Post by uptheus on Sept 26, 2017 21:43:28 GMT
Pretty please Charlie.... Give me his number and I'll call him.
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Post by charliesghost on Sept 26, 2017 22:07:50 GMT
Pretty please Charlie.... Give me his number and I'll call him. Sean, I think that it is a matter of public record that the issue wasn't that Juan did not want to buy the club. The record states quite clearly that it was in the club's interests for his offer not to be accepted. So you can contact him all you want, but that won't change a thing!
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Post by uptheus on Sept 26, 2017 22:35:22 GMT
Give me his number and I'll call him. Sean, I think that it is a matter of public record that the issue wasn't that Juan did not want to buy the club. The record states quite clearly that it was in the club's interests for his offer not to be accepted. So you can contact him all you want, but that won't change a thing! Charlie, oh I forgot that small issue! I wonder if it wasn't in Darryl's best interest, no surely that wouldn't have been the case.
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Post by Surreal Madrid on Sept 27, 2017 15:19:25 GMT
.
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Post by oufcyellows on Sept 27, 2017 15:27:16 GMT
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Post by Eaststandboy on Sept 27, 2017 15:57:11 GMT
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Sept 27, 2017 16:53:55 GMT
I think you have to take the positives out of Surreal's post.
There were no grammatical or spelling mistakes, the content was unarguable and he is obviously READY to pen a real corker in his next post.
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Post by Pete Burrett on Sept 27, 2017 17:19:26 GMT
I'd love to know what Surreal originally posted, before deciding against it!
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Post by mariokempes on Sept 27, 2017 19:08:14 GMT
I'd love to know what Surreal originally posted, before deciding against it! When he deleted it he should've put a question mark instead of a full stop
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