HalifaxCougar wrote:What the hell is a matchday experience? I go for the rugby. Stealth, what would make you return to the rugby given no Cas players play these days? The agreement with Cas would have be ended before i'd consider coming back. Ideally the RFL kicking the whole concept in to touch. You know it's not working when a player is announced as a loan signing from a club he's not even registered to play for.

HalifaxCougar wrote:What the hell is a matchday experience? I go for the rugby. Stealth, what would make you return to the rugby given no Cas players play these days? The agreement with Cas would have be ended before i'd consider coming back. Ideally the RFL kicking the whole concept in to touch. You know it's not working when a player is announced as a loan signing from a club he's not even registered to play for.

The German Football business model is actually a very sound one. 51% of shares must be owned by fans. They invest very heavily in coaching and youth development which is starting to produce a huge amount of talented young players that can be sold for big money like Mario Götze, Mezut Ozil, Sammi Khedira and Manuel Neuer. They have safe standing areas in grounds that can be converted to seating go European games which improves atmospheres and lowers ticket prices. Clubs and fans generally have a tremendous sense of loyalty towards each other not the one way loyalty we have in British Sport where fans are just considered a cash cow to be exploited. Corporate Revenues are used to keep ticket prices low for regular fans. There are even grounds where you can get food and drink brought to you so don't miss any action. Average attendances across the Bundesliga was 45,179 compared to 35,816 in the Premier League this season.

Dubane:
Just wondered how you are going getting match build-up music and tunes for each player organised?
Will you be ready to publish details of all the tunes on here in time for the Sheffield match?
Thanks

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Agree 100%

If you were a director of Keighley Cougars wanting to bring success by daring to be different (as Cougarmania 1), what might be things you could learn from this?....

51% of shares must be owned by fans.
Mr Fawcett owns all the shares (all £10 worth of them). Why not offer issue shares to supporters in £10 (max) blocks so the club would be run on a one member, one vote basis? Then more people would be likely to volunteer their services as they would feel it would be serving their club?

Clubs and fans generally have a tremendous sense of loyalty towards each other
Keighley Cougars needs the whole of Keighley to be proud of it and to feel a part of it.
Unfortunately, for most people in Keighley, the Cougars now would seem to be a closed shop for a minority clique.
There needs to be a mass leaflet drop making Cougars seem much more welcoming to Everybody and explaining when matches are on and how to get tickets etc.

In many holiday places in Europe you see several generations of German families gathered in big numbers on beaches under flags of their football clubs. Everything Cougars does needs to generate that sort of feeling of belonging in a wide supporter base.

Corporate Revenues are used to keep ticket prices low for regular fans.
I know there were supposed to be 20,000 free season tickets issued to under 16's - but this obviously hasn't worked as attendances at matches have fallen well below 1,000.
Can the directors be brave and forget season tickets for next season (apart from those who want them for the stand) and charge just say a fiver on the gate for everybody and see what happens?

Whatever the club does isn't good enough
for some people.Hard facts are till we have
a successful team the likes of fev and
Halifax crowds aren't going to improve.

Hit. hammer, nail rearrange this well known phrase.

I go for the match too, that's the most important thing. But next to that it's the social atmosphere generated by the people who I stand with. It's like we are a bunch of friends all meeting with a common purpose then have a few beers, a good moan, put the world to rites, or celebrate depending on how good we (and the referee have been)

Sport is FIRST but the social side comes a very close second.

However I first started watching when we were in the third division, on the run up to the win against Batley. The only reason I came down was because the kids got free tickets from school. Keighley RL was simply not on my radar. What kept me coming was the sport and the atmosphere, what kept the kids coming was the cougarmania experience, razmataz and all. Our young kids were happy, so we were happy, we could all enjoy a day out as a family.

A winning team is first and foremosts, but it's quite obvious looking at the makeup of the crowd, that we need to do something more to attract kids (therefore more parents like me) and also 18 to 30's.

After further thought, I think that the club should just go for it and, after the build up music, just have Cougars walk (not run) out of the tunnel to Land Of Hope & Glory!

I can confirm it is planned to launch the new club website at some point throughout this week.

The website forms only part of the thread here. Does the club have plans to improve the matchday experience?

Are there plans to improve on the merchandise available? I'll give you an example, my other half wanted to get me a hoody for my Birthday and thought of buying a Cougar hoody. She went to shop in the town centre which was closed down and nobody was available at the club?