Mad Man
Jan 7, 2013 - 1:30PM
Re: Latest Score

The 'crowd' was 486 on Saturday, only 25 away from being the smallest in the country. Stirling Albion are bottom of div 3 and had nearly 200 more than us. Clyde are third bottom of that league and also had more as did those giants of the game Brechin City, Stranraer (admittedly a local derby of sorts) and Peterhead.

Are other people concerned about this? Can we realistically expect more if our form picks up and we have a strong play-off push? I'm not sure we would to be honest as apathy in the area is now so entrenched but surely we should not have significantly lower attendances than the club currently propping up the SFL?

Stupid question , but does the Board have any long-term goals or any targets for attracting more people through the gate or should we just accept that no-one cares and plod on regardless?

I pinched this item from another thread as I consider the post extremely relevant to the current predicament of East Fife FC.
I am very concerned about the numbers currently attending Bayview as personally,I do not want to see the demise of the club I have supported for almost 60 years,during my life time.
Moreover there are far more,shall I say over 40's,as opposed to under 40's,
and a significant proportion of the fanbase who live outwith the Buckhaven,Methil,and Leven former fanbase heartland.
So therefor it would appear that the club need to focus attention on the younger fans in the immediate locality otherwise there will be no East Fife in the very short term.
So what has caused the reduction in numbers?
Is it cost? The Board? or did East Fife lose its heart when the pits closed.?
One thing I have never been unable to understand is how 200 plus fans recently travelled to both Forfar and Arbroath.- a not insignificant percentage when compared to our home support.
One thing is sure neither Forfar nor Arbroath will ever bring that number of their own supporters to Bayview.
Having looked at the Accounts for the previous year it appears to me that the Board have got the expenditure of the Club under control,although I seem to remember Eugene suggesting that there was now very little fat to trim, whilst Attendances,Corporate Hospitality,Advertising ,and Sponsorship were all down.
Moreover the players get paid on time,the Government gets its taxes paid,and parent clubs get paid for the loan players.
Hardly the actions of a Bad Board.
Indeed take away the £100k Rangers income still on Deposit Receipt and the immediate future looks bleak.
Additionally the Board is exploring the idea of having additional terracing in place for next season. Again positive noises from the Board.
So what can the Board do to attract more supporters whilst attracting more sponsorship.?
I find it strange that the Club's Solicitors are based in Bo'ness whilst its Auditors are based in Denny.Hardly an East Fife heartland but perhaps the heartland of our Chairman and Commercial Director.
I may be wrong(!!) but I am sure that there are both Solicitors and Auditors in the Levenmouth area.
I also find it strange that the Club's main sponsor's Pallet Recycling Services,Blackness Land Co. and M.T.E are not local businesses-at least I do not think they are.
If the Club had both local Auditor's and Solicitor's ,would that not open up avenues to local businesses who are members of the local Chamber of Commerce?

The Chairman and Commercial Director do not live locally but at the same time attract sponsorship for the club from their own area.
What then do the locally based Director's achieve?
What are the channels of communication between the Club and local schools , and local business organisations.?

I used to help out at the club about 10 years ago ,during the, whisper it ,
Derek Brown era, but during that time ,the club invited local businesses to an informal evening where the club had the opportunity to explain what it could do for local businesses and no doubt local businesses could do for the club.
It seems to me that the Club should consider exploring this avenue.
So fellow Fifers,what is the answer?

I would imagine the best way to get fans back is to have a winning team playing good football on the park,get the locals and buisness talking about East Fife positively instead of laughing.
We also need more communication from Bayview informing everybody via papers/internet etc. of matches/signings/team news.A lot of kids in the area dont even know where Bayview is!Pretty sure years ago posters were put up in the area advertising the next match.

When I was growing up in Leven many merchants had both the first team and reserve team home matches posted, in their windows during the season.

There again it costs money for the printing of the poster's, a cost that the club may not want to pay.

It's definitely a concern.

Hooking in the young support and guaranteeing a future should be one of our key aims these next few years.

And by young I'm including the key 18-30 demographic.

Raising the profile of the club is crucial. We need to shout out that there is a senior football club in the area and this must include getting the schools and, as GoF says, young people in general on board. Its just crazy that a town not much bigger than a village (Dingwall) can support an SPL club and we can barely get 500 through the gate. I remember all the posters around the area advertising forthcoming matches in the 70's, surely there is a way this can be replicated or by being a bit more savvy with social media etc?

Regarding the stadium, I think terracing or standing areas will help a lot. I remember as a kid in the late 60's being able to run around old Bayview well away from my dad or older siblings and this is something you just cannot do at the ground right now. A 10 year old finds it very difficult to sit still for a couple of hours and you need more flexibility for kids to move around during a match. Other entertainment inside the ground would also help, getting kids more involved in the match day experience is part of this I feel.

Oh, and a decent team challenging for the 1st division might help also. Just a thought.

I think one of East Fifes biggest problems is actually this web site.A lot of lapsed supporters still read this forum and it defiantly doesn't show the Fife in a good light.Whatever happens at Bayview there are always more moans and groans than praise,be it about players,games or decisions the board make.Why are the people on this site doing this,dont you realise you are dragging your club down.

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+1

New owners and a new direction needed. EF will limp on under the current owners and do nothing.

At the recent well attended trust meeting I did ask how the trust would try to increase the crowds.I remember as a youngster seeing thousands at games.The opinion of the trust seemed to be improvement in results and an improvement in crowds.I still think there should be more of a push/ incentive to get more younger people through the gates.Another negative New Bayview in its current state does not really give you any atmosphere.

A winning team will put 200-300 on the gate long before any other initiative.
Of course there needs to be a concerted longer term plan to encourage younsters and sell/advertise the club but success on the field is a permanent fix. A successful 3rd Div. EFFC will pull bigger crowds than a mediocre 2nd Div EFFC.
Given the current finances of EFFC any ground development, other than a temporary fix to generate profit from two Rangers games, would be suicidal.
With or without terracing the attendance on Saturday would not be different.
This is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts of the Trust.

I think the club should give away free tickets.

Not to the regular paying supporters, but aimed at people who don't normally come.

Pick out local amateur teams, schools, workplaces, mother & toddler groups or whatever. Send them a nice letter offering a free group ticket for one of our home games, and a list of the remaining fixtures. Invite them to phone up and book their match. Wee bit about the club giving back to the community, a reminder that the bar opens at 12, and not to miss the gourmet pies.

EDIT: They may well do a bit of this already, I don't know. If theydo, do it more! We've got all these spare seats. Might as well get folk here to buy a pie and spread the East Fife gospel.

I agree with the last post about giving away free tickets to games and fill the stadium as much as possible but the way we are going to attract fans in the area is having a winning team on the park remember fans saw two defeats before albion so no doubt we saw a less crowd on Saturday that we did it would drive fans away right away.
I think also the club should start building a new stand/terracing behind sea wall end, defo...need to be on the plans now at the meeting to drive our club forward because of rangers and if that's a big if we got promoted how the hell we going to have the fans from big clubs in Div one in our stadium, need to expand this for the future even though we currently can't fill the stand we have. Most people do miss old bayview and we can get this ground be good, wheather the board can get plans the go ahead.

I take my old neighbours in the area to every home game and I live in glasgow and There's nothing in the area accept for east fife, that's a good thing get young ones off the streets etc..and its far better than sitting in the house which I agree but its upto others to see sense and support east fife! 4months until the end of season folks that's how long we have this season, be right shame those fans that thought staying away was good cause we would be doomed for relegation that it wasn't and would miss supporting the club, time to come back?

Having only left school a few years ago, from what I remember there was absolutely NOTHING done by the club to rope any of us into coming along to a game. I don't live in Fife for much of the year so can't say for sure how things are now but it seems the board just have no clue as to how to branch out and get more people through the gate.

Free tickets to primary schools surely would be a start if nothing else. The lack of advertisement throughout the local area for the team is also nothing short of shameful. Without having been to Bayview you'd be lucky to know we have a football team playing every Saturday.

Thanks for all your contributions.
How sad it is for supporters to feel that the gulf between Club and Supporters has widened especially since it would appear that the Board has managed to get the costs of the Club under control.
I must admit that it does appear that the club expects supporters to merely turn up for games without actually having anything in place to either entice ,inform,or encourage supporters to come along.
It seems to me that in 2013,the 110th anniversary of the Club and 75 th Anniversary of the Scottish Cup victory that the way forward would be for the Club to appoint a local Director with a remit to act as a Supporters Liaison Officer to SELL the club and its history to local schools,groups,and business organisations and indeed its supporters.
Suggestions would include visits to the 7 or so local primary schools to,say ,Primary 6 and 7 pupils and educate the pupils about the club and its history.
Offer stadium tours as a follow up, and leave eg 20 or so free tickets on the basis that an accompanying adult would pay say £10.
Update the Official Site on the eve of a match to update supporters on injuries etc. Forfar Athletic do this regularly.
Run a feature with the East Fife Mail-"LEVENMOUTH SUPPORTS EAST FIFE" offering
cut price admission on production of "this coupon" for a specific game.
As I said from the outset the Club MUST get on board local businesses and their trade organisations.
East Fife is a LEVENMOUTH club,not a Central Belt club.

A winning team and some covered terracing. Quite simple really.
My 7 year old boy said he doesn`t want to go see the Fife anymore as it`s too boring, nuff said.....

My 8 yr old son goes to the games and enjoys them. Nuff said.

Nuff said? Don't think so. You seen the crowds?

One thing's for sure, if we end up playing a load of meaningless games in an 18 team bottom division that'll finish us off for good. We struggle badly to draw crowds just now when we can still go up or down.

I have a local business and i have never had anyone approach me from East Fife since Davie Hamilton was commercial director.
I get the feeling the current board are happy to plod along on a day to day basis and if it it happens, it happens.

There are businesses out there (Diageo, Silberline etc). Why not invite some of them along with pupils from local schools.

The trouble with the kids not going in my humble opinion, lies squarely with their parents. I have been at Bayview with my son at the coaching sessions held there, and know that most parents are happy to take their kids there for the coaching, but won't take them to Bayview on a Saturday to watch East Fife.

They are also happy to go to these coaching sessions with their kids wearing either Rangers/Celtic/Man U etc strips. What chance do the club have when we have people born and bred in Levenmouth, who are keen to take advantage of the facilities being provided by the club for the coaching, but won't return the favour by supporting East Fife? They are supporting these other clubs through buying their merchandise, why not EF merchandise? There are quite a few kids with the EF gear on as well thank goodness, so all is not lost.

I am sure a lot of these kids would become supporters, if their parents had the will. My son is an ardent EF supporter now, which didn't happen without encouragement from me.

My advice to these parents is, give your kids the encouragement to support their local team, a team they can get a real attachment to and not a team that exists only on the tv to them and they have little hope of ever actually seeing in the flesh.

Clyde (a supporter led club) have just announced a £10 for 9 games deal for under 16s. This includes a game against The Rangers.

Big Teams like Chelsea and Man City have deals with internet ticketing websites to sell unused seats.

Restaurants and Theatres who know they have spare capacity use Group on and the likes to sell their product at discount prices.

If I had one wish for the new league set up it is that the changes to wealth distribution mean the overpricing of football is addressed. £13 for the casual/occasional visitor is neither value fr money or affordable for a lot of people in the Levevenmouth area.

To be fair to those running the club I suspect they are mostly part time or voluntary, a situation the actual owners of the club, whoever they are must be content with.

Until paid community development/marketing staff are in place then very little will change despite the best efforts of the staff and volunteers.

I'm not too sure what the solution is, obviously it isn't just one thing, but I must say that the club have been very active in the primary schools in Levenmouth within the past year. I work in a school in Leven and we've had invitations to compete in inter-school football tournaments, free tickets for pupils and even players visiting the classes to try to drum up support and get young fans to bring their folks along! Harry Blyth has been in touch with our school regularly and has been trying to encourage children along to the games. I've worked in Glasgow and Aberdeen and I must say East Fife have been the most pro-active football club in making an effort with young fans in schools that I've encountered.

I'm aware that this changes nothing but I wanted people to know that, at least within the local primary schools, the club are trying to entice new fans to the ground.

Thats really good to hear.

I agree there is great concerne for the future of the club and agree that the board needs to be more involved with local businesses,and the youth in the area.all the comments have missed the most important fact that the club needs to be more transparent,a good start would be to tell the fans who actually owns the club,and get away from the cloak and dagger mentality

Better team on the park of coarse but I think a big reason kids wont go to games is the Stadiums just too cold.Now I know some smart arse is thinking we cant control the weather but we could make just a few improvements to shield the crowd from the constant wind thats blowing into the Stand.I have to leave some games early just because of the cold.Im sure something can be done to enclose the stadium just a wee bit.