Nottingham Forest’s game against Bournemouth on Saturday, promoted as a ‘Kids For A Quid’ fixture at the start of half-term, saw an attendance of 28,070 at the City Ground, just shy of the season’s best to date which came, unsurprisingly, in the local clash with Derby County at the end of September.
There are always a few grumbles from season ticket holders and regulars when a club runs a promotion like this with comments on Twitter from Forest supporters about ‘17-year-old’s pretending to be under 16’ and ’15-year-old Man U fans’ and perhaps the blanket nature of the offer means a lot of people taking advantage of it who won’t be back for the rest of the season.
Ultimately, however, a crowd of over 28,000 for one of Forest’s lower-profile Championship games cannot be argued with and if only a small percentage of first-timers come back again or spent some money in the club shop then it would have been worthwhile.
Some of the comments, about people gaining discounted entry which they were perhaps not entitled to, reminded me of Coventry City’s game against Oldham in the 1991/92 season which the Sky Blues billed as ‘Ladies Day’ with all women entitled to free entry. Long before David Walliams had the idea for a sketch it was rumoured that some of those taking advantage may not have been all that they seemed!
Sheffield United, the bottom club in League One at the start of the day, also drew a healthy attendance of over 18,545 (a season’s best) with an offer for their game against Port Vale for season ticket holders to bring a friend for free.
Rewarding season ticket holders for their loyalty is part of the balance that needs to be struck when offering one-off deals to others. I blogged earlier in the season about Aston Villa’s ‘Villa Cash’ scheme which operates on a similar line to the supermarket loyalty cards we are all so familiar with now.
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