The Queen of the South thread

[SUPERSOUTH]

You're joking ? Where did you read that information ? The official site

Yes haven't spoke to my source today.

[RUSTY1111]

How does that work in terms of their amateur status? Presumably we still pay his wages and QP contribute nothing? Was thinking that about Slattery as well. Fair enough if the club thinks it is worth still paying 100% of his wages if he is going to return a better player. But Slattery didn't come back.

I was thinking about that myself with QP being amateurs.

[TeeMan]

Alright lads, I recorded a podcast with your erstwhile striker Colin McMenamin - CLICK.

This is the second part of his podcast but it starts with him talking about his time at Queens. He describes it as the most enjoyable time of his career.

Listened to part 1 and a bit of part 2. Another great effort.

[Northfield 53]

Hooper goes out on loan to Queens Park.

Good move for all.Never really thought Hooper was good enough for us yet but maybe with a bit more game time he should come back a better player.

Looks like now we are waiting for Hilson to come back rather than sign anyone.

Really need another striker there must be someone we can get in on loan but Fowler waiting for the right player

[JTulip]

There was a thread on Doonhamers mad re QOS AGM last week that led to discussing the falling crowds at Palmerston and what if anything could be done to help improve them. I posted a reply and someone has asked me to now put that reply on here. I assumed folk read both sites but maybe that's not the case.

I am sure folk will have a pop at some or all of these but hey I'm just putting some ideas and suggestions out there seeing as I was asked. It is not that long ago that crowds were bigger so I believe that the fans are out there. It's getting the ones who already go to go more often than they do at present and also constantly attracting new ones.

The start of the season is the time when you really to need to get folk hooked up for the whole year. So that no matter what happens the fans have already paid up and more likely to come along. This needs to be promoted and promoted very hard.

1. Make the adult season ticket much better value. It really doesn't make sense to buy one at present. All you need is to miss is two games and you are no better off. Now what can happen during a season you could miss a game if ill, holiday, work, wedding, birthday, bad weather, transport problems, having to look after someone, etc. So I would propose to make that the season ticket gives you four games free. So be able to miss 2or 3 games and still have a 1 or 2 game discount for buying for a year.

2. Promote the junior blues season ticket much harder. It is really superb value. In the past when the Trust was promoting it there were about 800 junior blues but now I think that number is about half.

3. Do season ticket holders get an reminder through the post to renew? If not this needs to be done. Make it easy for folk.

4. Reward loyalty. After say 3 or 4 years in a row (or for those who already have had a season ticket for a few years I a row) throw in some yearly reward. If they stop having a season ticket this reward stops and you start again at zero and have to wait a few years for the reward again. This might make the holder less likely to give up on the season ticket for a year. As it is you can miss one year come back and nothing is different. Even have another extra special band for those who have had tickets for say 8 or 10 years. Give folk something to aim for. Keep them hooked.

5. Possibly allow people to spread the payments prior to the season starting say 4 payments over April, May, June July. Help spread the cost.

6. Promote the fact that pre school children are FREE entry. Seems a bit hit and miss at moment but been told that they are but this is not advertised! Young kids can easily get bored by half time and want to go home. So the financial loss isn't wouldn't be to bad and make the parent happier to try it in the first place and again further times.

7. Provide a room at the ground as a crèche! But it's something I think most parents would be happy to pay for. It would get kids going to the stadium crèche with the parent(s) and would hopefully evolve to then going to the stadium to see the match with the parent(s).

8. Kids again. Sorry but getting the next generation is crucial. Each match every kid should get a free something. Whether each game is a different queens player postcard or even just a small sweetie. These things work it's why McDonald's have the happy meal. I asked my daughter almost 4 what her favourite class was and she said dance class. I said why you really like dancing - no because you get a free sweetie at the end. I took my son to a food court abroad and he picked subway. Why subway I asked he told me because of the free gift he saw in the poster. The price of the ticket doesn't matter to the kids as they are not the ones paying. But if it is a Saturday and they are likely to get a free something at the football they will ask to go.

9. I took my friends son with us to the last game of the regular season (last season) and at the end Derek Lyle and Zander Clark came over and signed some autos. They were the only ones to do this. But do you know it totally made that boys day. He was so happy to have got a players autograph. I would encourage the players to do this more often when ever possible.

10. Introduce a small area where kids can meet to swap their match attax and topps cards and stickers. The school kids are mad for them and some even feature queens these days! Gives the kids another reason to go to games and I would be happy cause I wouldn't need to buy so many packets!

11. At rangers game this season there were five of us together in new stand. People to either side and really busy so not easy to relocate. My sons seat had bird shit all over it. Of course he goes home and that is the first thing he says. Same with the game when the toilets were disgusting and the one where he really wanted chips but there were none before half time. Little things like that do go back to the houses and can make a difference to people going again.regardless of the result we need to get kids going back and talking more about the positive things that happened.

12. People really like parking to be easy. At even some of the not so big crowds recently the queens car park has been full. If you've had difficulty parking or had to go far away or miss some of the game it might make folk less likely to go again. Making things easy is number 1. So I would ask, now that we have a bit of money, if we could buy the triangle piece of land back and put extra parking on it. I reckon it could increase the car parking by about 30%.

13. I think Queens could make MUCH better use of social media to promote games. Even sometimes sending direct emails to fans re matches coming up and promotions / offers. Need to promote and intice.

14. Bring in some promotions / offers and change them about a bit. Gets folk talking and see what works and doesn't. Makes it a bit different. At moment it's the same teams and same old stuff every week.

15. Everyone loves Dougie. Does a fantastic job. I would get him a friend to work with. I don't know who though. Maybe a sheep (dolly) for dougie to chase and round up. A giant hand (in honour of the great work of our fan David Gow) could get the hand claps going etc or maybe even a Peter Pan or tinkerbell. Kids would love these and get their photos taken with them and post them on social media - free advertising.

16. Love the murals. They are fantastic. I would have a few wooden cutouts around the ground painted with scenes from queens or football history but have it so can stick heads through and get a photo taken, again just to make it fun and get folk spreading the word of where they are and what doing and what fun they are having.

17. The segregation between the terrace and the new stand is it really necessary to be there between the home fans? If so fine but if not please move it as it really does seem to interfere with a lot of people's matchday,

18. If the segregation of terrace and stand is necessary then I would try bringing in a slightly different pricing system and make the terrace cheaper than the stand. I would like to drop the overall price but I'm sure they would say we can't. So even if instead of all being same price if the terrace price dropped by a £1 and the stand price went up by £1. Then at least when folk ask me how much to get in to Palmerston I could say you can get in for £15. Then it's up to the individual if they wish to pay more. You have try and get it cheaper for the people that need it and also get more out of the ones who can afford it. Like the hospitality box when it's a cup game and there is no actual hospitality I think it's £30 and it usually seems quite busy. So there are folk who will pay more for a few comforts.

19. Could there be a quick food kiosk that just sells cold stuff that doesn't take long to serve. Crisps, juices, chocolate bars etc. Cut down the amount of queuing.

20. Matchday programme. Two ideas here. The programme could be a really good promotional tool for the club. Say it was monthly and full colour a4, less adverts, bits on all activities, promotions parties, hire pitch, gym, arena, youth teams etc sponsorship opportunities etc. Mixed in with great stories relating to the club. Make something people want to pick up have a look and be impressed with. Could sell it in newsagents around town or in arena at cafe etc.

The other idea is a much simpler programme covering every game or 2 possibly (cheap or even free like many other clubs I have seen) with basic match info that folk can take home then fold it out into a really big poster that kids can put on their walls. Get them hooked, replace some of those posters of messi etc.

[JTulip]

18 just to add - ideally I would like to see adult pricing of £10 terrace and sitting at £15. I know I've heard the club say we tried lowering the price before and it doesn't work. Well I don't think it would work for just one off games. It needs a bit of time to get the message out there so it would be really great to try if for a season. If you take the crowd and take out the junior blues and kids and the seniors and the shirt draw season tickets holders then you are maybe left with say 500 adults. Reducing some by £1 and some by £6 say average £3.50 would cost about £1750 a game. So you would need to attract an extra (at say average of £12.50) adult crowd of 140. I think it could work. I know a lot of folk that would possibly start to go or go more regular if they could get in for £10. Would be fantastic publicity and could result in more sponsorship, merchandise, drink,programmes 50/50 tickets and catering. And having extra folk could make the atmosphere better which in turn may help keep attracting folk more regular. Even at say £12 for the terrace with those figures it would only need an extra 92 extra to replace ticket revenue.

21. There was some photographer that took photos fairly recently of Palmerston and posted them online and heard a few folk say that the place looked a wee bit rundown. These things might be oblivious to us that go regular and not very important but to people that may be new to the ground the club wants to create the best possible impression.

[Chupacabra]

21. There was some photographer that took photos fairly recently of Palmerston and posted them online and heard a few folk say that the place looked a wee bit rundown. These things might be oblivious to us that go regular and not very important but to people that may be new to the ground the club wants to create the best possible impression.

Just on this point here, I was watching the game on Sky earlier (couldn't make the game) and the roof of the main stand almost looked entirely green. Certainly has seen better days. My flatmate even pointed out how minging it looked a few days ago when some Queens fan he follows on Instagram uploaded a picture of Palmy. Is it really that difficult to get sorted?

[Gaz FFC]

Just on this point here, I was watching the game on Sky earlier (couldn't make the game) and the roof of the main stand almost looked entirely green. Certainly has seen better days. My flatmate even pointed out how minging it looked a few days ago when some Queens fan he follows on Instagram uploaded a picture of Palmy. Is it really that difficult to get sorted?

Powerwash will sort that right out

Failing that sawdust

[Dougie Mills]

Just on this point here, I was watching the game on Sky earlier (couldn't make the game) and the roof of the main stand almost looked entirely green. Certainly has seen better days. My flatmate even pointed out how minging it looked a few days ago when some Queens fan he follows on Instagram uploaded a picture of Palmy. Is it really that difficult to get sorted?

The green stuff is probably the only thing keeping roof watertight!

[19QOS19]

The segregation really infuriates me at Palmerston just now. It is an unnecessary idiotic move by whoever implemented it. I know it came about after the St Johnstone incident, but has the best course of action been taken? Absolutely not. Why stand in an area between two sets of home fans? It's ridiculous. If they really want to solve the issue then why don't they put the jobsworth who stands at the barrier (and believe me, he IS a jobsworth) at the area between the home and away fans? There is one guy who currently stands down there, is he expected to hold back the away fans should it be required? I think the biggest laugh is the fact that away fans actually queue up in the same area as home fans for food at a lot of games. If trouble is going to occur it's surely down there?

Get the jobsworth (how I want to use another word for that deplorable man) off the gate and let the home fans move freely like they've always done

[palmy_cammy]

Although I'm not personally affected by it, I can understand why it would be annoying for something that has always been allowed, to suddenly be revoked without any prior warning. In defence of the club, not many stadiums these days allow free-roaming between stands, so perhaps this is us getting in line with the rest on the advice of the SPFL or the police. If this is the case then an announcement of some kind wouldn't have gone amiss.

If we are going down the route of separating the terrace from the stand then I'd be open to introducing a different pricing structure to go along with this. We'd probably need to increase the price of a stand ticket to do this, but as we are already considerably cheaper than any other club in the league I don't think that would be too big an issue. I doubt we could afford to drop the price of the terrace to as little a tenner, although it'd be great if we could. So something like £17 to sit or £15 to stand might be more realistic.

As you say though, it all seems rather ridiculous making wholesale changes to stop Queens fans interspersing on the grounds of health and safety when away fans can, and do, mingle quite freely with home supporters in the new stand.

[Doonhamer doon south]

Some excellent points.

Kids. My own situation is driving up from Wales for a game I either take my now one year old to the game where after a while she getting bored prompting my missus to leave game early with her or me and the missus go the game but leave daughter at play centre with my mum so can watch the game. The rangers game in august I had to pay for a seat when she was 6 months old. Which she didn't even use as she was on my lap or missus. Maybe not best game to take her too however I agree with the point kids free along with if the arena could do some sort of creche I would give that a go.

Prices. I agree with the point on varied prices. I have sampled all three stands and I prefer standing behind the goal. I think an option could be done where if your happy to stand pay slightly less than if you want a seat.

Loyalty. Yes but could there be two schemes. One for the season ticket holders and one for on the day games. Could do a system of every home or away game attended is worth points reach a certain number of points and get free or money off food/entry/something from club shop type thing. Cos of where I live I attend 3-5 games a season so a roll over to next season system would be great.

Some good points though

[the_vortex]

The segregation really infuriates me at Palmerston just now. It is an unnecessary idiotic move by whoever implemented it. I know it came about after the St Johnstone incident, but has the best course of action been taken? Absolutely not. Why stand in an area between two sets of home fans? It's ridiculous. If they really want to solve the issue then why don't they put the jobsworth who stands at the barrier (and believe me, he IS a jobsworth) at the area between the home and away fans? There is one guy who currently stands down there, is he expected to hold back the away fans should it be required? I think the biggest laugh is the fact that away fans actually queue up in the same area as home fans for food at a lot of games. If trouble is going to occur it's surely down there?

Get the jobsworth (how I want to use another word for that deplorable man) off the gate and let the home fans move freely like they've always done

Absolutely bang on . Get it sorted Queens

[Guest Flash]

Just on this point here, I was watching the game on Sky earlier (couldn't make the game) and the roof of the main stand almost looked entirely green. Certainly has seen better days. My flatmate even pointed out how minging it looked a few days ago when some Queens fan he follows on Instagram uploaded a picture of Palmy. Is it really that difficult to get sorted?

4G moss.

[HoBNob]

How did Coogans look when he was on loan?

[19QOS19]

How did Coogans look when he was on loan?

Could walk by Queens fans in the street and he wouldn't be recognised. I think he had one sub appearance but I could be making that up/getting confused with a development game.

Complete waste of time but tbf he was brought in when another player (who never featured) left so I wasn't expecting him to feature much anyway.

[Distant Doonhamer]

Could walk by Queens fans in the street and he wouldn't be recognised. I think he had one sub appearance but I could be making that up/getting confused with a development game.

Complete waste of time but tbf he was brought in when another player (who never featured) left so I wasn't expecting him to feature much anyway.

Came on as a sub and missed a decent chance in our 2-1 defeat at Ibrox- score was 1-1 at the time

. Not sure if he featured at any other time.

[Monkey Tennis]

I like a lot of the ideas.

Anyone who's taken kids along before they're properly hooked, will recognise the wisdom of providing incentives.

[Doonhamer doon south]

I like a lot of the ideas.Anyone who's taken kids along before they're properly hooked, will recognise the wisdom of providing incentives.

do you think any will be more than just an idea?

[Monkey Tennis]

do you think any will be more than just an idea?

I don't know.

Let's see.