Post by Jem on Apr 8, 2015 16:09:49 GMT
As you maybe aware, we met with Mark Ashton and his Commercial team on Tuesday this week at the Stadium. The meeting had primarily been scheduled to discuss the 'free ticket' offers and questions that we'd received from members, but as these things tend to do, it developed into other areas too! A brief summary of the discussions is below!
The OUFC attendees were – Sarah Gooding, Andy Wooldridge, Kevin Smith and Mark Ashton
Mark Ashton opened the meeting by delivering a very professional overview power point presentation on the Clubs ‘operating model’, which outlined the 4 key segments/areas of focus in the clubs strategy. These were:
• Football (on the pitch, ‘results’, player recruitment and player development)
• Community (how the club plan to engage with fans and the wider Oxfordshire community)
• Commercial (marketing, sales emphasis and promotional activity)
• Operations (which includes stadium management etc)
The plans shown were clearly well thought through. The OUFC team were as one in terms of buying in to the plans and all played their part in explaining to us how each segment worked and indeed linked together. It was an extremely interesting presentation and one that we agreed would be repeated to our full committee sometime soon.
We discussed the free ticket offers and MA and his team recognised that not all tickets ended up where they were intended, but they weren’t overly worried about it. The overriding aim was to collect data that could be used to deliver better and more focused offers in the future as well as trying to encourage new fans, particularly younger folk, to eventually become the fans of the future. We made them aware that catering under the North Stand was inadequate for big games, particularly when large numbers of youngsters are in attendance. They confirmed that the club made very little from the catering on these big days, but did benefit financially from extra program and merchandise sales.
Everyone agreed that the new bar was a great success on Monday and that it's something that if at all possible should be repeated again. MA made the point that although it looked great on the day, it had required an awful lot of work and the club had needed to overcome many hurdles to make it happen!
We discussed the match day atmosphere on the big freebie games and all agreed that it does ‘dip a little’ – maybe due to so many families and kids who are not used to attending a live match and who aren’t (as yet!) fully and emotionally engaged with our OUFC!
They described various initiatives that will be implemented for next season, including ticketing and a greater focus on junior fans. Significantly better club merchandise is also an aim for next season. We were told to expect some really exciting initiatives in the coming months!
Albeit that the commercial and community activities are very important, Mark Ashton fully recognised that the on the pitch results are always what the club (and he!) would be ultimately judged on.
They made it very clear that they want to work with OxVox and fully understand that there will be differences of opinion at times, but that a fans group working ‘together’ with the club could make a real difference and that we'd made real strides in building trust and openness with each other. They fully appreciate and recognise OxVox's independent position and The Trusts ‘fans first’ agenda.
Overall it was a very good session and we came away with the confidence that there ‘is a plan’ and that MA and his team want to engage with fans in a far more robust and collaborative way. The team of people we met were both professional as well as enthusiastic for what could be achieved at our football club
We’ll set up a further joint meeting for the end of April with the commercial team to brainstorm ideas and ways to support each other. We’ll then also be having another of our now regular and slightly more formal meetings with DE and MA around the same time. Pre these meetings we'll be consulting with members and the wider fan base to ensure we do our best to reflect the views and thoughts of as many people as possible.
Cheers!
Jem
The OUFC attendees were – Sarah Gooding, Andy Wooldridge, Kevin Smith and Mark Ashton
Mark Ashton opened the meeting by delivering a very professional overview power point presentation on the Clubs ‘operating model’, which outlined the 4 key segments/areas of focus in the clubs strategy. These were:
• Football (on the pitch, ‘results’, player recruitment and player development)
• Community (how the club plan to engage with fans and the wider Oxfordshire community)
• Commercial (marketing, sales emphasis and promotional activity)
• Operations (which includes stadium management etc)
The plans shown were clearly well thought through. The OUFC team were as one in terms of buying in to the plans and all played their part in explaining to us how each segment worked and indeed linked together. It was an extremely interesting presentation and one that we agreed would be repeated to our full committee sometime soon.
We discussed the free ticket offers and MA and his team recognised that not all tickets ended up where they were intended, but they weren’t overly worried about it. The overriding aim was to collect data that could be used to deliver better and more focused offers in the future as well as trying to encourage new fans, particularly younger folk, to eventually become the fans of the future. We made them aware that catering under the North Stand was inadequate for big games, particularly when large numbers of youngsters are in attendance. They confirmed that the club made very little from the catering on these big days, but did benefit financially from extra program and merchandise sales.
Everyone agreed that the new bar was a great success on Monday and that it's something that if at all possible should be repeated again. MA made the point that although it looked great on the day, it had required an awful lot of work and the club had needed to overcome many hurdles to make it happen!
We discussed the match day atmosphere on the big freebie games and all agreed that it does ‘dip a little’ – maybe due to so many families and kids who are not used to attending a live match and who aren’t (as yet!) fully and emotionally engaged with our OUFC!
They described various initiatives that will be implemented for next season, including ticketing and a greater focus on junior fans. Significantly better club merchandise is also an aim for next season. We were told to expect some really exciting initiatives in the coming months!
Albeit that the commercial and community activities are very important, Mark Ashton fully recognised that the on the pitch results are always what the club (and he!) would be ultimately judged on.
They made it very clear that they want to work with OxVox and fully understand that there will be differences of opinion at times, but that a fans group working ‘together’ with the club could make a real difference and that we'd made real strides in building trust and openness with each other. They fully appreciate and recognise OxVox's independent position and The Trusts ‘fans first’ agenda.
Overall it was a very good session and we came away with the confidence that there ‘is a plan’ and that MA and his team want to engage with fans in a far more robust and collaborative way. The team of people we met were both professional as well as enthusiastic for what could be achieved at our football club
We’ll set up a further joint meeting for the end of April with the commercial team to brainstorm ideas and ways to support each other. We’ll then also be having another of our now regular and slightly more formal meetings with DE and MA around the same time. Pre these meetings we'll be consulting with members and the wider fan base to ensure we do our best to reflect the views and thoughts of as many people as possible.
Cheers!
Jem