I don't think captain_cougar is knocking the hard work going on at the club. I think he is on about the number of young kids coming to watch the Cougars.

If he is then you would have to say he has a point.
During the Cougar mania years, there was loads of kids about the ground on match day.


Cougar-mania was a great time to be a fan but its part of history and those type of days are unlikely ever to return for several reasons :-

1. Cougar Mania took the Club into financial territory where it had never been before and ultimately nearly saw the demise of Rugby League at Lawkholme because of it.

2.It came at a time (pre 1995) when success as a club on the field ,would see tangible rewards for finishing top ,e.g. promotion, a situation certainly not guaranteed in todays RL.

and finally , Cougarmania was unique because it brought ideas into British Sport that had never been tried before (for example the Cougar Classroom was a first , today there are 190 plus similar venues throughout English & welsh sporting arenas) and are now the norm at most forward looking sporting organizations.

Rachel - I am one of your biggest fans, dont doubt the classrooms will be a success . Just need to see more children down. Love it when there are children at Cougars because they are the future for us. I just hope that we give away free tickets for the Dewsbury game, not just for the children but perhaps a "one adult and one child ticket" as a taster session, get the ground filled so people on telly can see what fun it is.

The stand opposite the cameras should be full to brimming so it looks like its full and perhaps you get the feeling you may be missing something if you dont go.

I would be more than willing to run a stand in keighley centre taking names and addresses and then give out free tickets. (saturday before???).

York had 3,000 + at thier game last night and of course they are winning matches at the moment but how did they do that???

Captain Cougar is only stating that our attendances are dwindling, we have fans and fanatics amongst us who go every week in week out, but we need new people. People who will buy ice creams, beer, raffle tickets, season tickets etc.

(PS the rain had stopped at the game where the kids were called off a lot of thier parents had paid to get in, including the opposition team parents)

Rach don't forget all the good thing Cougars mania brought to the club.
It got the people of Keighley behind it.
5000 gates.
It got kids involved 1000 going to watch the Challenge cup final.
It got a lot of kids playing the game.




On this i have to agree with you, but that cannot be a reason for stopping people coming down.



And i have to agree with all the points you have raised.
The one thing the club needs to do is try and find something new. Something no other club is doing.
Or something they are not doing well.

York has a population of just short of 90,000 people , whereas Keighley has just over 51,000.If you also take into consideration

On that basis (taking into consideration the economic and ethic make up of our town and the fact that the Knights have very little competition from other Pro RL , unlike ourselves n Dewsbury with the Bulls n Rhinos just up the road) if York cannot draw in a bigger crowd than us, then if I were them I'd worry.

Prior to Thursdays game their best attendance was only 1300 and odd against Dewsbury ,with the other NL1 games averaging only around 800 and
if you read their message board , what a suprise, a big percentage of those attending last night were on free tickets.

Maybe so, but if a proportion of those on free tickets liked what they saw, maybe they'll be back, p'raps bring a mate and so the crowds grow.
Above all, it needs to be friendly, so if someone wants to come but they'll be on their own, they won't feel left out. It's all about feeling that you're part of something.
What about each area having it's own little 'fan club', with an easily reachable point of contact for would-be, but shy, new fans?

free tickets exactly

It also eventually took the club into administration....

We are currently seeing the very real effects of a club throwing it all in to try and achieve the impossible and failing (Doncaster)...having been in that situation before at Cougar Park ,do we really want to go there again?

Ambition, yes , but not a the risk of financial suicide.

On the subject of free tickets , I've been told by the Development Lads that over the past few weeks 600 free kids tickets have been distributed

I'm fairly sure that I've seen a poster advertising a limited amount of free family tickets available on a first come first served basisfor the Dewsbury game.

I think I saw one

You may well have, they're on the little Dewsbury game flyers. I think it's 200 of them, first come first served.

Rach as i said it also brought a lot of good things to the club.

Maybe getting someone who was involved, at the time of Cougar mania might be a good thing.

I am pretty certain i have seen Mike Smith down at Cougar park.
Now he really was a man of ideas.
I wonder if anyone at the club, has ever thought of approaching him to see what ideas he would have.
If he didn't want to be involved. What have the club lost?

I must admit i to am like goosey. In that i have my doubts if the classroom thing will bring in a lot of new supporters.

You are in a good position to answer to this.

How many kids who regularly attend the classroom sessions, also turn up regularly at home games?

Is the success of the scheme meeting the forecasted growth rate?

This is something that the club must surly be keeping a count of. If for no other reason than to work out the success of it.

I can see the benefit of the classroom scheme for the work in the community. This also ties in with getting new sponsors on side as they love that type of link.