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Calzo96

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Was good to see at the Hearts game the amount of boys clubs in attendance. Something like that with 15 boys in a team. Some will be Killie and most will be OF or not bothered. Brings along some paying adults in a space that would be sitting  otherwise empty. Kiosk intake is increased due to them wanting food etc. I’d be giving the tickets away allover the place to schools, Boys clubs and unemployed etc.

 

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1 hour ago, rb_506 said:

No it wouldn't. That's just a fairy tale invented in Michael Johnston's time when they were adverse to change and too bloody lazy to try and do something about attendances. If you are going to make rash statements like this then you should check your facts first. You don't know how many will attend, you can't legislate for the head count, you can only hire enough stewards to adequately man the number of stands open. Even that is open to interpretation and we could effectively employ our own stewards. Celtic do this, take unemployed fans and give them training, they then get into games free and it costs the football club less for security. We now have people in charge at the club that might see the benefit in training our own people and getting more youngsters into matches as well, if you could get it past MJ's clone. This was mentioned at the Killie Trust AGM a few years back but it never got past the planning stage due to you know who.

Mrs McLeish sounds like the ideal person for this.......

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2 hours ago, Bhamkillieken said:

if we gave away an extra 2,000 free tickets we would have to put on more stewards, as a result. all of this would cost the club.  

i am not sure free tickets to all kids is the answer, people rarely value free stuff.

I disagree. I think the club would make money. If every one of those kids bought a pie or a fruit shoot then you've covered staffing costs and made money. Who would send their kids to a game without cash in their pocket.

If the club pushed this and properly engaged with schools and PTA councils they could increase attendance, encourage younger supporters and make extra money every home game.

To me it's an absolute no brainer but it needs championed by the club to make it work. Everyone on here (almost) is in agreement... It's now up to the club to implement it.

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The idea that a wee guy who's a Rangers fan would have no interest in seeing his local team is nonsense. I've had TONS of kids come up and chat to me about the fitba in the past year cos they know I'm a big Killie fan and they said "aye we'd go for something to do". Reasons: a lot of them genuinely do have nowt to do, love football and seeing a match would be cool; and also a lot of them come from homes where there's very little money about, and whilst they're "cultural" Rangers fans, their families don't/can't/won't take them to Ibrox on a fortnightly basis.

Tickets used to be given out fairly regularly but they're not any more. My school hasn't had any tickets for around a decade. Can anyone spot the timeline going on there?

This thread spurred me into action again, stop being a greety-faced nob about the club being unresponsive, and went direct to Paul DiGiamcomo this time and he responded immediately, and pretty positively. So fingers crossed it'll work out and we can get some weans into following their LOCAL team! Without putting up pointless barriers to it.

 

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3 hours ago, Bhamkillieken said:

how many are season ticket holders now?

None, but that’s not my point. they went to games, bought pies, juice, sweets etc. All money the club would never have had. Aside from the financial aspect, they got the chance to watch premier league football on a Saturday afternoon and we still talk about it now. 

You don’t need to be a Killie fan to go to Rugby Park and enjoy watching a game. 

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I am all for giving out the free tickets, though I would like us to spread our wings a bit, Ardrossan & District have been responsible for bringing fans from North Ayrshire for decades, work alongside the supporters clubs out with Killie to arrange free kids with additional free transport, that way their buses would eventually show increased numbers traveling away from home, Mauchline meets the same criteria, The Valley and Districts should all be catered for.

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6 hours ago, rb_506 said:

No it wouldn't. That's just a fairy tale invented in Michael Johnston's time when they were adverse to change and too bloody lazy to try and do something about attendances. If you are going to make rash statements like this then you should check your facts first. You don't know how many will attend, you can't legislate for the head count, you can only hire enough stewards to adequately man the number of stands open. Even that is open to interpretation and we could effectively employ our own stewards. Celtic do this, take unemployed fans and give them training, they then get into games free and it costs the football club less for security. We now have people in charge at the club that might see the benefit in training our own people and getting more youngsters into matches as well, if you could get it past MJ's clone. This was mentioned at the Killie Trust AGM a few years back but it never got past the planning stage due to you know who.

I am afraid I don’t believe you about the amount of stewards required. If we gave away 7,000 free tickets for one game we would certainly need to employ more stewards for that game. 

The only sure fire way to increase the crowd, and a paying one at that, is to improve on the park and off it. 

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8 hours ago, Bhamkillieken said:

I am afraid I don’t believe you about the amount of stewards required. If we gave away 7,000 free tickets for one game we would certainly need to employ more stewards for that game. 

The only sure fire way to increase the crowd, and a paying one at that, is to improve on the park and off it. 

You can have games with zero police...Its rhe clubs decision. 

Same with stewards.  Can have in house ones. 

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16 hours ago, Bullitt said:

I have a season ticket I got free that has been taken up by my son's best pal... he's a little hun but more than happy to switch allegiances because his father never took him to Ibrox. Plenty will be the same. That's a kid from Hamilton mind... not Ayrshire where there is many Killie fans

"A little hun" :) :) 

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Children can definitely be hooked if they are encouraged to go to games. My granddaughter is enthusiastically spreading the word in her school in Glasgow. In the nineties, when I lived in Ayr, the kids used to bring their friends. They were from Ayr and had no Killie connection but some of them are now lifelong supporters. One of them still travels from Edinburgh. 

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9 hours ago, Bhamkillieken said:

I am afraid I don’t believe you about the amount of stewards required. If we gave away 7,000 free tickets for one game we would certainly need to employ more stewards for that game. 

It's 7,000 now? It was 2,000 a few posts ago. 

Give it up - you really think we shouldn't do this because we might have to bring in more stewards? 

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I've said it many times before on here, the club have been absolutely brilliant with our youth group. Literally any time we've asked for tickets we've been given them, no hassle. We've met players, had a tour of the stadium, had a Health and wellbeing presentation, been on the pitch for a kickabout, watched a training session. They can't do enough for us. 

You only have to ask. 

And trust me, over the years I've lost count of number of kids who now consider themselves killie fans as a result. Living on arran they maybe don't make many games, but have bought merch and make the odd one when they can. One used to be a rangers fan into the bargain!

It would be good to see that opened out a bit more to all schools in the area, so that rather than needing someone like me to take the initiative, the club are actively pushing the free tickets. Our kids absolutely love the trips to Rugby Park and never stop bending my ear about the next one 

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1 hour ago, Squirrelhumper said:

You can have games with zero police...Its rhe clubs decision. 

Same with stewards.  Can have in house ones. 

I think though there are government regulations when it comes to school trips. It's something like one adult to 15/20 kids, meaning we would need to 100 "helpers" probably with full background checks to make it work if we went for something as radical as 2,000 children.

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2000, 7000 - I think this is getting a bit extreme. In my view we are talking about a few clubs/schools being invited to each home game. They come ready made with the correct number of adults (or they're not a proper club or school) so there is no issue with that. A high percentage of the kids will not really be interested, but a few might be and that's the aim.

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I don't think we should dish out a large amount of free tickets unless they are with local schools, youth teams, etc. The last thing we want to do is undermine the people who are paying for family tickets in the Moffat. If they see the same kids getting in for nothing they are bound to wonder "why the hell am I paying for this ?" By all means encourage kids to sample a home game but protect our paying customers.

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1 hour ago, Dillinger said:

I've said it many times before on here, the club have been absolutely brilliant with our youth group. Literally any time we've asked for tickets we've been given them, no hassle. We've met players, had a tour of the stadium, had a Health and wellbeing presentation, been on the pitch for a kickabout, watched a training session. They can't do enough for us. 

You only have to ask. 

And trust me, over the years I've lost count of number of kids who now consider themselves killie fans as a result. Living on arran they maybe don't make many games, but have bought merch and make the odd one when they can. One used to be a rangers fan into the bargain!

It would be good to see that opened out a bit more to all schools in the area, so that rather than needing someone like me to take the initiative, the club are actively pushing the free tickets. Our kids absolutely love the trips to Rugby Park and never stop bending my ear about the next one 

Spot on.

 

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1 minute ago, Wrangodog said:

I don't think we should dish out a large amount of free tickets unless they are with local schools, youth teams, etc. The last thing we want to do is undermine the people who are paying for family tickets in the Moffat. If they see the same kids getting in for nothing they are bound to wonder "why the hell am I paying for this ?" By all means encourage kids to sample a home game but protect our paying customers.

I don't think anyone would argue with that, maybe Birmingham but apart from that.

I'd have 2 or 3 games a season, perhaps against Livi or the likes where I would have a massive push to try and fill the chadwick with Killie fans.

Get players to attend schools handing out tickets, speak to local companies about sponsoring or subsidising buses, totally hype it up about packing RP.

If we are going to get youngsters hooked, it'll be when there's 1) a big crowd and 2) a chance of a decent win.

Would be great to see 4 stands at RP with Killie fans in it, even just for a couple of games. I think this approach is better than handing out 500 tickets each game.

We need to capitalise on the hype just now. I'm sure if we did something like this it would get great exposure on social media etc. If kids see other kids going to an event on facebook or whatever then it'll make them keen to do likewise.

 

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5 minutes ago, Wrangodog said:

The last thing we want to do is undermine the people who are paying for family tickets in the Moffat. If they see the same kids getting in for nothing they are bound to wonder "why the hell am I paying for this ?"

They are not paying though are they? Family season ticket holders are getting in cheap and they are not paying for the kids tickets at all. Adult season ticket holders are not paying for their kids either.

It makes no sense whatsoever that we are not just allowing under 12's in for free with an accompanying adult. There equally should be no strict ratio as we understandably have with schools (its not their own kids). If some guy is willing to trail wee Johnny and his five pals along to the game then we should be damn grateful that he's doing it and let him bring them for free, plus encouraging him to come back for every home game. Set a precedent. Be the leaders in bringing supporters back to games. Break out from the mindset that its going to cost us money and we are going to be overrun with screaming kids running about everywhere. Let away supporters kids in for nothing as well and maybe some of them will get forced to do likewise by their own fans. We used to be innovative in this kind of thing but now we make excuses, I hope that our expanding board room is going to give us room to expand our horizons again as well.

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It would be great if they target the primary schools in ALL of Ayrshire. Unfortunately, from memory, they don't really go out of East Ayrshire much. Get some daft competitions going that also fit in with a part of the curriculum so the schools can get more involved, with tickets for a game being prizes. As suggested by the rodent lover, games against Livi, Hamilton, Dundee etc are obvious choices.

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18 minutes ago, killieblues said:

It would be great if they target the primary schools in ALL of Ayrshire. Unfortunately, from memory, they don't really go out of East Ayrshire much. Get some daft competitions going that also fit in with a part of the curriculum so the schools can get more involved, with tickets for a game being prizes. As suggested by the rodent lover, games against Livi, Hamilton, Dundee etc are obvious choices.

Agreed the club has been all but invisible in North Ayrshire in my experience in recent times.

Which is a shame as they used to be very visible when I was a kid. There is still a huge section of our support from out with East Ayrshire and we'd be bonkers to ignore this.

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39 minutes ago, killieblues said:

It would be great if they target the primary schools in ALL of Ayrshire. Unfortunately, from memory, they don't really go out of East Ayrshire much. Get some daft competitions going that also fit in with a part of the curriculum so the schools can get more involved, with tickets for a game being prizes. As suggested by the rodent lover, games against Livi, Hamilton, Dundee etc are obvious choices.

The Trust had an award winning school programme called K-Step which ended up being halted because MJ wanted to start charging us for everything and restricted access to the club. It was trialled in Patna and was a huge hit with the teachers and the kids. It could easily be resurrected by the club and rolled out again with the help of volunteers. It's one of the best things the Trust ever in terms of club/community engagement and hopefully when things are more settled something we could look at doing again.

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