Can't argue with any of the above really, well - apart from the kiss-cam. I think you'll find that was Mick's favourite, not mine.



I don't think you can pick any one specific detail to copy, and some would work, some wouldn't. Overall I think you have to do what Starbug says and just go all out to make it as good and fun an experience as you can within the budgets & limits you've got.



What it does need, though, is a "can-do" attitude - so for example rather than list the reasons we can't recreate the USC Trojans or Notre Dame bands, do we know a local community band that would be prepared to learn "Tom Hark" and "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and rehe in front of a rugby crowd 4 or 5 times a year, for the price of travelling expenses and a few new instruments for the band? That wouldn't be beyond us and again could be seen as the club putting something back into a community music project at the same time.



Re: number of games - American football (pro and college) don't play a lot of fixtures thats true. But looking at other sports my Basketball side the Spurs just lost the NBA finals last week after a season including 4 home preseason, 41 home regular season & 10 home playoff games. Regular baseball season also includes 41 home games, so they regularly have to put on matchday experiences 3 or 4 times a week in both of those sports.



Basketball in particular is unbelievable - every stoppage in play (which is a lot of stoppages, albeit most only 20 seconds at a time) has some sort of giveaway, video clip, mascot antics etc - one time it'll be a video or audio clip starting a crowd chant, the next 1 row or selected seats getting given free hotdogs or free coffees, another it'll be dancers, the next one £20 Walmart (Asda) voucher giveaways, half time fan participation competitions, then some cheerleaders, then a video clip encouraging the fans to get behind the lads, then another giveaway... And so on... It takes a lot of putting together but there's also a large element of freebies being donated by local and national supermarket and food chains, and particularly the stadium food/drink franchises. Again, it's about the ideas and what we could do in a similar vein, rather than replicating the magnitude of it and every single detail to the letter.

Ok, in that case, I was probably only really referring to American Football as referenced in the earlier post.

Fred we’ve discussed this before and of course it would be better if it could be all singing and dancing ‘live’ but if cost/manpower/match day time etc prevents it, we should still be looking at ways of improving what we are currently doing.



Pre-recorded players photos as the players are announced. I presume Alan more or less has a photo of most of the players.



Pre-recorded crowd photos, taken from one match shown at the next. Ask the photographer to take 4 or 5 crowd shots each game, (Wayne use to) once they know they might be shown on the screen you’ll soon start to see the funny faces, etc.



Kids in the stand making noise, great if shown live on the screen but wouldn’t really matter, if they could see photo’s themselves the following game.



Interview of match day mascot, first time I saw it was when we played Wakey in the Cup a couple of years back they didn’t have a screen. Just the little mascot and the PA guy on the pitch, as the teams warmed up.



HT entertainment the odd funny clip pre-recorded from Centurion’s TV doubles up as an advert. Other on field events great if they can be shown but doesn’t really need to be on the screen.



MOM again was done at Wakey without the screen.



How much manpower/cost would that require?

I can't argue with that (but I will

) it is the 21st century and if we are to attract younger fans we must move into it, I don't care what other clubs do I want the things we produce to be the things other clubs want to copy, we should use the facilities more.

When we first went to the LSV we used the big screen for crowd and player entrance shots why dont we now? I was still plugging into the system for months after it stopped and kept asking the question but when one is seemed to be ignored after a while I gave up even bringing the wiring, but I still have it. People must understand we do not control the screens and appear to have little control of what goes on them during OUR match day.

Manpower my end is improving thanks to a new additional volunteer to my 'little band' Tom Mottershead, we now have the tools, basic may they be but they should be utilised and I shall be having a word with the Community and Commercial groups of the club to that effect but to entertain the crowd these days we must have a talented person to do that.

My call re the wireless system was just that, I cant afford it the club cant afford it but if anyone has one lying in a drawer somewhere we can use it, and we can always utilise volunteers to operate cameras re crowd shots, people to undertake interviews etc...to make game day more enjoyable (or some may think it irritating?).

Fair enough!



The whole "matchday" experience is key - you cannot get a ticket to a Maple Leaf hockey game in Toronto for less than 100 quid and that's basically the equivalent of watching rugby at the LSV from a hot air balloon! Sold out every single game for decades. Bigger catchment area for sure but lessons can be learned, irrespective of it being a different culture - it still involves spending your hard-earned, at the end of the day..

A full stadium generates its own atmosphere, magnifying the effectivness of whatever you do, starting from a 10/15% full stadium is a much harder job, add in then the lack of funds and personnel and you probably need to be more selective on what and when you do ' push the boat out '



Also you need your existing fans to buy into what you are trying to achieve, even if it really isnt what they want from the day



Take for example my Beer and Lobby, if the club was to try this in the format I suggested, ie as a double header and a potential 8 hour day of food,beer,entertainment and RL, you would hope that you wouldnt have people sticking to their normal pre match rather than supporting an event