The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Rb123]

Season tickets need to have additional perks nowadays on top of the access to matches. 

It should maybe allow you one free drink in the hub, a percentage discount in the shop, able to bring a friend along for a discounted adult price instead of the full whack £22 or whatever it is. Slightly more random idea also but perhaps every season ticket holder gets entered into a draw to get a signed top at the end of the season or something like that.

[ComradeDiego]

39 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:L

So the only people who buy them are doing it through duty. 

This, basically.

26 minutes ago, Hawk89 said:

Was there not a supporters club you used to be able to sign up to along side the season ticket which gave a range of additional perks? 

Was that not the supporters club?

Basically paid an extra £20 on top of your season ticket for access to the hospitality before and after games or something like that?

Am sure this was the season after folk worked out you could sneak in for a swift one at half time, halcyon days.

[Sortmeout]

4 hours ago, Hawk89 said:

I'm hopeful that part 3 is the moonhowler stuff, already had one in part two asking "will we win a cup?" 

If ever a statement summed Ayr United up its this. The notion of winning a cup being “moonhowler stuff”.

You guys are doing my work for me here.

[eez-eh]

2 hours ago, No_Problemo said:

whenever we attract a bigger crowd we are also absolutely terrible. 

I’d love to see the correlation between us having a big crowd and turning in a terrible performance.

The r value must be about 0.9.

[AUFC 1910]

Without taking away the essence of the Scottish football match day experience, can we not look to other teams, countries and sports?

I know the hub definitely provides a spot for me to go to pre-match and has been a fantastic addition.

Could we provide a “fan zone” pre match?

In some kind of extension of the hub (not in the physical sense) but maybe forgoing some carparking space, or utilising some space near the north terracing.  I’m thinking of maybe a large marquee with entertainment, aimed at families, with food and drinks of course.  Gets somewhere out of the elements to spend some time and money before the game.

I also think it would be great to have somewhere at half time too.

I think a bit of respite from the weather will help some stay away supporters back.

[1nickydevlin]

The big away crowdds up at  Falkirk and partick really put stop of any lapsed fans returning. 

[diegomarahenry]

47 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

Season tickets need to have additional perks nowadays on top of the access to matches. 

It should maybe allow you one free drink in the hub, a percentage discount in the shop, able to bring a friend along for a discounted adult price instead of the full whack £22 or whatever it is. Slightly more random idea also but perhaps every season ticket holder gets entered into a draw to get a signed top at the end of the season or something like that.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a cost reduction, just an enhanced value. 
£200 to sponsor a player or £180 if you have a season. Player sponsorship is basically free money to the club.

You can buy kits a week before non-season ticket holders. Or invited to the kit reveal. Invited to player/formal player socials in the Hub. Stuff that makes the club money on top of you buying a season. Have any gaps topped up by selling tickets to non-season ticket holders.

[Rb123]

20 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

I’d love to see the correlation between us having a big crowd and turning in a terrible performance.

The r value must be about 0.9.

You mean like on the two occasions last season we sold out the away end at Falkirk and Partick Thistle and came home empty handed?

[Rb123]

5 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a cost reduction, just an enhanced value. 
£200 to sponsor a player or £180 if you have a season. Player sponsorship is basically free money to the club.

You can buy kits a week before non-season ticket holders. Or invited to the kit reveal. Invited to player/formal player socials in the Hub. Stuff that makes the club money on top of you buying a season. Have any gaps topped up by selling tickets to non-season ticket holders.

Yep absolutely, advertising season tickets as meaning you get the value of a couple of games free isn't enough when there's a lot of people out there who don't know how many home games they'll be able to attend

[Hawk89]

31 minutes ago, Sortmeout said:

If ever a statement summed Ayr United up its this. The notion of winning a cup being “moonhowler stuff”.

You guys are doing my work for me here.

It was more so the fact someone felt the need to ask that question and the fact it was even put forward that made me thing we must be getting towards the clutching at straws stuff to fill the Q&A.  There had already been plenty of questions around the vision and targets of where the club wants to ultimately get to. 

[Young Eddie]

5 hours ago, United1973 said:

It of curiosity  what do you think stops more people coming through the door at Somerset Park? 

There are loads of OF fans in South Ayrshire. The place is infested with them.

I think the club need to come up with radical ideas to increase attendances. Just hoping that attendances might increase if the team start winning doesn't work.

Also as someone said earlier Somerset looks like a prison when you approach from Hawkhill Avenue. Ladies and young families won't dream of going near it and who can blame them.

[GaryMc93]

The same lapsed fan argument has been used since about 2004. At this point it's about being able to attract the young generation and keep them coming back.

Question for the club would be with the free school tickets do they see any boost in ST sales or even increase tickets for the next home match.

Challenge in Ayrshire will always be competing with the existence of the Old Firm. Sure plenty of us would have went to school with so-called OF fans that would laugh at the idea of supporting Ayr but would struggle to find the way to Glasgow or name 3 players from their favourite team. Doesn't help either that some kids grow up here thinking it's perfectly normal to only support an English team,  which doesn’t extend beyond watching them on Sky.

[United1973]

3 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a cost reduction, just an enhanced value. 
£200 to sponsor a player or £180 if you have a season. Player sponsorship is basically free money to the club.

You can buy kits a week before non-season ticket holders. Or invited to the kit reveal. Invited to player/formal player socials in the Hub. Stuff that makes the club money on top of you buying a season. Have any gaps topped up by selling tickets to non-season ticket holders.

So qhat your saying is for instance  if I pay at the gate for all the games as I can't afford the one of cost season ticket buyers should get treated better ? 

[Shibuya]

2 minutes ago, United1973 said:

So qhat your saying is for instance  if I pay at the gate for all the games as I can't afford the one of cost season ticket buyers should get treated better ? 

I know it's not for everybody but the club did offer a pay in three installments deal to help alleviate the pain of the one-time cost of a season ticket. I do feel this could be started a little sooner and expanded even to four installments to further help fans. 

[No_Problemo]

1 hour ago, GaryMc93 said:

The same lapsed fan argument has been used since about 2004. At this point it's about being able to attract the young generation and keep them coming back.

Question for the club would be with the free school tickets do they see any boost in ST sales or even increase tickets for the next home match.

Challenge in Ayrshire will always be competing with the existence of the Old Firm. Sure plenty of us would have went to school with so-called OF fans that would laugh at the idea of supporting Ayr but would struggle to find the way to Glasgow or name 3 players from their favourite team. Doesn't help either that some kids grow up here thinking it's perfectly normal to only support an English team,  which doesn’t extend beyond watching them on Sky.

Free school tickets is an okay start, and I know there is other bits and pieces going on, but say a school gets free tickets - child attends and then they don’t get more tickets for another six months/a year. There really isn’t much chance of that being built on - it needs to be targeted free season tickets IMO. 

[Iain]

58 minutes ago, United1973 said:

So qhat your saying is for instance  if I pay at the gate for all the games as I can't afford the one of cost season ticket buyers should get treated better ? 

Yes. The club needs people to buy season tickets to give them a cash injection at the start of the season. It's fair and reasonable to incentivise that. There should be finance options that allow the fans to pay it up, but allow the club to get all the money at the start though.

[Iain]

A sensible instalment plan would likely increase season ticket sales noticeably if it was marketed well, I would think. My guess is the club would be hesitant because the finance company will take a fee and they'd worry it would only or mostly be used by people who would buy a season ticket anyway, effectively costing them money. That's a very cautious view though.

[Broken Algorithms]

2 hours ago, Young Eddie said:

There are loads of OF fans in South Ayrshire. The place is infested with them.

I think the club need to come up with radical ideas to increase attendances. Just hoping that attendances might increase if the team start winning doesn't work.

Also as someone said earlier Somerset looks like a prison when you approach from Hawkhill Avenue. Ladies and young families won't dream of going near it and who can blame them.

This isn't just a South Ayrshire problem, it's a Scottish problem. 

In recent years, you don't just have the Old Firm, and the English sides, but also the Spanish, German and PSG to contend with. 

Rovers seem to have somehow turned a bit of a corner this season, following the lead of Partick and offering free season tickets for kids. Our last couple of home crowds brought in around about 3,000 for two fixtures that were roughly about 1700. Of course, it helps that we've recruited well, but the engagement on social media has been exceptionally consistent and the first thing the new board did during the summer was to get as many volunteers in for a meeting to talk about what they wanted the club to do. 

There's also the community foundation - I've absolutely zero doubt that having youngster down playing at Starks during the week means that they feel more of a connection to the club. That could only be possible through our articifial pitch of course. 

It's an absolutely brutal environment for clubs just now. The main thing is trying to sell the actual match day experience in a lot of cases, something you can't get by watching on a TV channel. 

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

This isn't just a South Ayrshire problem, it's a Scottish problem. 

In recent years, you don't just have the Old Firm, and the English sides, but also the Spanish, German and PSG to contend with. 

Rovers seem to have somehow turned a bit of a corner this season, following the lead of Partick and offering free season tickets for kids. Our last couple of home crowds brought in around about 3,000 for two fixtures that were roughly about 1700. Of course, it helps that we've recruited well, but the engagement on social media has been exceptionally consistent and the first thing the new board did during the summer was to get as many volunteers in for a meeting to talk about what they wanted the club to do. 

There's also the community foundation - I've absolutely zero doubt that having youngster down playing at Starks during the week means that they feel more of a connection to the club. That could only be possible through our articifial pitch of course. 

It's an absolutely brutal environment for clubs just now. The main thing is trying to sell the actual match day experience in a lot of cases, something you can't get by watching on a TV channel. 

I’m quite looking forward to hearing Mathie’s take on the free season ticket aspect etc, which I’m assuming will be coming in his next Q and A instalment. 

Certainly not hard to look for positive examples, it’ll obviously be interesting how your crowds look over the season. Do you know how many free season tickets have been given out?

With the hub we at least now have something there in terms of engaging the local community to be around Somerset, and for match day too. 

[GuyIncognito]

11 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

This isn't just a South Ayrshire problem, it's a Scottish problem. 

In recent years, you don't just have the Old Firm, and the English sides, but also the Spanish, German and PSG to contend with. 

Rovers seem to have somehow turned a bit of a corner this season, following the lead of Partick and offering free season tickets for kids. Our last couple of home crowds brought in around about 3,000 for two fixtures that were roughly about 1700. Of course, it helps that we've recruited well, but the engagement on social media has been exceptionally consistent and the first thing the new board did during the summer was to get as many volunteers in for a meeting to talk about what they wanted the club to do. 

There's also the community foundation - I've absolutely zero doubt that having youngster down playing at Starks during the week means that they feel more of a connection to the club. That could only be possible through our articifial pitch of course. 

It's an absolutely brutal environment for clubs just now. The main thing is trying to sell the actual match day experience in a lot of cases, something you can't get by watching on a TV channel. 

I do agree that this problem affects the whole of Scotland, but from my perspective it just feels like Ayrshire is affected more by this. Don't know what it is, location, religion, larger towns with no professional teams, but it just feels like Ayrshire is probably the biggest hotspot of Old Firm fans outwith Greater Glasgow.