Will someone post this on the guestbook for me please i cannot get on
To Bobster and all other negative comments, it,s time to smell the coffee and get into the real world , We are promoted as a family club on the pretext of everybody pulling together and getting behind the team NOT deciding how the club should be run The club is a business and unfortunatley that means you cannot keep everbody happy all of the time , if you all think you can run the club , make money, provide a successful team and keep the fans happy all the time i am sure the club cannot wait to speak to you .
I cannot believe how negative you are all being on here, since when did the tickets not go up for the playoffs ! , they have gone up everyear whats new this year, and if you have a problem with this go and speak to NL he is on concourse every match. SUPPORT THE TEAM FOR CHRIST SAKE !!!!
James Haanson who wrote the plus and minus e mail you take your hat off to the people who stuck to thier guns and decided to stay away , that has hurt you me and everyone who actually CARES about this club Penny, the final straw because you cannot sit in your own seat ! well i am gobsmacked , dear me .
Bobster, you wont get people back to the areana while ever your silly and childish remarks are read on here , fortunatley the guest book is read by the minority of fans and fortunatley YOU dont speak for us all .
The Bobsters postings are far from negative mate...his commentas are aimed usually at the state of PR at this club...would you tolerate this from the Eagles Mick?..Good PR takes no doing whatsoever...
Most of his postings are on the "official" guestbook - looked like the poster (who was posting for a friend) chose the wrong guestbook - perhaps you should have read the posts again
and tho i havent always seen eye to eye with the man, I have never found his comments to be childish or inane.
the guy turns up week by week like the rest of us...thats supporting the club, putting money in.
The man wants a good run for our club..his suggestions are merely on the marketing side..not the running of the team...Do you agree that all is rosy in the PR depaprtments garden Katie?
If you have had enough of Hockey fair enough. But I don't understand why you would let off ice problems interfere with your enjoyment of the sport.
I don't necessarily agree with the management of ASDA but I like their product so I go. With Hockey it's as simple as that. If you enjoy the product (Hockey) then go if not don't. The management of the club is to a large degree irrelevant.
If the club was marketed properly and we had 6,000 people next season we all might have to pay a little less and we all might enjoy it that little bit more
.....wanting something for (next to) nothing? Why would paying less money mean more enjoyable hockey?, sorry but I don't see the connection.
At £12 or even £15 Hockey is still cheaper and, in my opinion, better value than most other sports.
It is a fact of life that prices (and incomes) rise. You presumably aren't earning what you were in 1998, so it would be unrealistic to expect to pay 1998 prices.
no Stewart...try if its cheaper people may consider it as a viable alternative to the flicks or a meal out for the family on a Saturday night..
Nobodies asking for something for nothing, just that if a bit of creative marketing was done (as we've seen before) then maybe, just maybe, a profit would be made without having to rely on price rises solely...
Cant help but think youre missing Bobsters point on all this Stewart..if he didnt care, why the hell would he be like me and thee, turning up every week and even sponsoring some gear for players..
...... but if cheaper tickets equal bigger crowds why are Nottingham pulling in more people than Sheffield?
I think you know I don't wear rose tinted specs, but I try to keep my negative stuff in check, at least to mass audiences. Imagine those 2000 ish stayaways hearing Bobster and Doom telling how bad things are, hardly going to make them rush back is it? What they need to be hearing are the positives. Good hockey (most of the time), players getting paid on time, no need for Save Our Steelers campaigns, no begging buckets on the concourse and a coach and arena time already booked for next season.
With regard to marketing and all the other costly things that need doing, lets not forget that the Steelers have had no income prior to January 31 when the arena handed over some of the ticket money. They didn't get the balance until March 1. Couple that with all the expense of franchise fee, flights, accommodation, cars and equipment, all of which had to be paid up front. Try paying your mortgage etc for 4 months when you have no income and then ask yourself if you can fit those new windows that you desperately need.
I didn't notice any real marketing of the Steelers in the last 4 years, crowds were way up and yet tickets were only marginally cheaper than they are now. Nobody complained yet we went bust.......TWICE!!
At least this year there is no talk of us going under and we can look forward to next season with some certainty.
no mate I cant accuse you of wearing em and I see your point on airing too much dirty laundry etc (we had enough people doing that LAST SEASON it seems)
BUT
Myself and to an extent The Bobster arent talking a huge negative here...merely a small but quite important negative...the one of communication and selling the club...Theres not a person can fault this club on the ice, for the effort and sheer will to win that has emerged over the last few months..what we want now is to see that translated off the ice and into a smooth running idea blasting PR and commercial side...Look at how a limited amount of merchandise is on sale in the HOS now..admitted that has been brought on by force of circumstance but the fact is that people who attend the games and their kids can buy a t shirt or keyring or badge when they go to a game...not have to first find out where Big W is, when its open and then trail round the store till they find the stuff in the farthest pokiest corner imaginable. Its there on demand...to the punter...
Simple stuff mate...often the best policy. especially in the marketing and commercial field. It costs very little to print leaflets (unless yer Darren Brown )and distribute em in shopping centre...It costs very little to set a YT or whatever they are these days to do the donkey work that other people are having to do and therefore detracting from what they should be doing..
It will be interesting to see how and who these Associate Directors that were talked about a month or so back pan out and what input they will
a) be allowed to have
b) actaully have
into the future running and image of this great club...
Scuff think yourself lucky at least u have some PR re. the after game press conference i dont think they know what they are in nottm talk about amateurs runnning a so called professinoal outfit, always thought things like that were more professional and ran better in sheffield that nottm and when we were in the old place it didnt seem to matter as the house full signs werent that difficult to achieve but when u have to alot more seats to put bums on it figures u up the ante regarding Pr and it still is run like it was when we had the old barn so be grateful for what u have it is better than most other clubs!!!
...only at the moment there doesnt appear to be anybody selling our club to the great unwashed of South yorkshire....see Skank Martins posting above on 'ISL doing their part' for some sort of idea on what could be done..
there doesnt appear to be alot between us on that score does there mate...
.... and don't necessarilly disagree with all that you say. However if you have ever run a business you will now that things have to be budgeted for (difficult when there is no income), nothing comes quickly and VERY rarely does a first year business make a profit.
You must also realise that if you as a regular hockey attendee keep telling all those stayaways how bad things are it's not going to make them rush back is it? Why not try to accentuate the positives occassionally?
The biggest PR machine for any organisation is word of mouth - let's all be spreading the word that it's a good evenings entertainment, I don't ever recall the game marketing being any good anyway!
Running a sports business is never going to be easy unless your top of the league, every club fan wants cheaper seats and better quality players, but the equation doesn't add up. Go to 99% of any sports events and you will hear the crowd moaning about how the 'board' should put more money in. be sacked, etc.. - steelers fans should know very well what happens if you don't have tight financial control...NL is what Sheffield needed, he aint goner be perfect but who is? We have a foundation, we finished 3rd (which considering the circumstances was bloody good!), good chance in play-offs, things look a hell of a lot better than they did 12 months ago (from a future point of view if not the playing front)...
Nobody is criticising the on ice product
Ive not even criticised the price increases
At the end of the day when things aren't right the word of mouth isn't going to be good, when people don't get what they are promised, little kids don't get what they are promised and even all the season ticket holders don't get what they are promised who is going to be positive
Let me give you an example
You can sponsor a players stick for £ 15, remember Lipper couldn't get the blades he likes nobody had sponsored a stick, lets be honest £ 15 is one game now.
Do you know how many stick sponsors we have ? 2
At Bracknell they had a sponsors night from the smallest to the biggest investors, they made a fuss of people and actually appeared to be greatful, whereas, we cannot be bothered to even advertise the fact.
Little Johnny could have a stick sponsorship for a Christmas present, he gets to meet his favourite players and WHAM you've got him for life, isn't that important ? How much effort does it take ? and why aren't we doing it ?
cant agree more with u bobster and it isnt only sheffield it happens i think if anything we are actually worse in nottingham so its edemic throughout if u ask me!!!!
....... I sponsored Rob Wilsons stick in 1996. Part of the deal was for a signed photograph. I am still waiting for it!!
Off ice marketing was only done successfully in the first 2 or 3 years. So marketing now is no worse than in recent years, but I agree, unfortunately no beter. However I do believe this to be a learning year for NL and things will improve next year. You cannot put everything right in one year and I believe that this year the priority was actually getting the club up and running with next year being the time for fine tuning.
You say that you have a lot of ideas on how to bring people back. Have you approached NL with them? He is on concourse every game night and I have never seen him shun somebody who wanted to talk to him.
I think you will find Lipsetts stick shortage was a supply problem rather than a monetary one.
...The point i can see there is that yes it hasnt been good due to recent administrations...here the present admin have had an ideal opportunity to enlist, utilise and spout forth in an inexpensive manner (seem to remember the first set of management did a lot of brainstorming and a lot of leg work, not necessarily at a lot of expense)
And I seem to remember on numerous occasions Bobster mentioning that he had approached the management with his ideas and got no reply...
....look at Bobsters comments on the "Official Site" you will see that he hasn't approached the Steelers Management with his ideas. He said he is "still awaiting that opportunity". Now maybe he thinks NL will come looking for him, but in his position I would speak to NL on concourse and make it such a brilliant sales pitch that he couldn't wait to hear more!
Im begining to wonder who you are because you do an incredible job of picking someone out and alienating them from the pack, someone else I know had that technique
Ron Shudra
Betty Waring
Dave Simms
A letter to the office and a call to the office
So don't accuse me of not trying when you know nothing about me or who I am
I do not with interest though that whether I post and whatever I post you always seem to find something negative to post about me
Like I said on the official GB, where you never leave an email address [ neither do I because idiots send me nasty emails ] I don't give a monkey's anymore
If your so in with Mr Lea why don't you pass on some of the comments received via the GB's and let him see what is really going on
...i remeber earlier on in the season the man metioning that he had indeed appraoched certain folk and had not had a reply..not just this particular episode..
Lets be honest Im not a mug, I understand business and know what goes on, I know NL will lose a lot of money, BUT, if we dont do the minimum to get people back [ and Im not talking speculate to accumulate ] we will eventually drift down to 1 to 2 thousand
As for the comment about people comming back, if we don't change and start to get things right, they might come back and see things aren't rosey and never come back again
So i think it is inappropriate to start picking out inviduals because people wont come back, lets be honest, there are a hell of a lot of scumbags ahead of me in their queue of people not to trust
..that as a ST holder for 6 years prior to last year..I WILL be back next season (if they have season tickets!!). I didn't come this year cos during the summer I got sick of waiting and spent me money on summat else. I couldn't then afford to go on a week by week basis - maybe a lot of other "stayaways" are in this position. I couldn't afford to risk buying a season ticket in case everything went wrong again but this year (fingers crossed) will be different. I have been to games - but I've chosen very carefully, sorry if this means I haven't supported the team properly but it couldn't be helped. Hopefully, and I know there are at least 6 in my family, many others out there will come back now there is stability.
On the management side - I think we'll see a vast improvement this year. NL will know a little more about how the system works and as long as the arena co-operate....well, we'll see won't we??!!
