vastman wrote:Spot on.
Money comes to money.
No new fan was ever going to be attracted to BV as it was. The days where you could get people turning up purely because you were winning are long gone. Sure it keeps the existing fans happy, but a modern family of four was never going to come back to BV again after seeing the facilities even if we'd just beaten Saints 100 to nil. No kid was ever going to drive past the old BV and say to his dad, can we go to a game. Far more likely to now, image means a lot, especially these days.
Sponsors and corporate even more so. It amazes me how well we do in that regard as it is but it can't be easy. What sort of serious businessman or investor was ever going to be impressed as they pulled into the car park and faced the old East stand and by way of a further slap down got a puncture.
New fans want a bit of luxury, bars, good toilets, food etc. The prawn sandwich brigade want even more. They don't care about the viewing angles on the West terrace. They just want their guests to be razzle dazzled by the match day experience, for that they will pay top dollar.
We can sort the rest of BV out in the years to come but the East stand gives the club a focal point, a real presence and at last an element of modest grandeur. Everything we have been lacking for forty years.
Agree with a lot of that. We have to simply move with the times.
There are a number of things that can be done alongside this development (albeit cosmetic) that can probably make the stadium look a touch better.
The barriers are getting repainted or replaced on the northstand. Surely we could get the right paint and re-paint refresh the west stand barriers at a small cost. Just a small example really. Repaint the boxes on west stand or bolt on a large trinity logo board onto them.
I remember years ago we had a little stand/stage that was moveable and we had a few local bands/ even chico (lol) before matches.
With the match day experience part of focus for licensing maybe we should look for local bands or singers or performances to run up to kick off. Maybe something to consider with the opening of the new east stand.
One things for certain. We can’t stand still and we have 2023/2024 to improve the marketing and game day experience.
I think we are very good on being a financially stable club, we are well run, the youth and reserve teams are of a very good standard. There’s alot of positives but it’s clear this licensing/img and RFL are going to push for continual improvement from clubs like ours.
