The Kraken

Given that in recent years Utd have loaned out Gabriel Obertan to Leyton Orient, Danny Welbeck to Preston and Tom Cleverley to Watford and Leicester, its not inconceivable that they will look to offload one of their kids on loan again. Granted, not Macheda or Diouf, but the top sides can be a very good source of loan material. Look at Henri Lansbury also from Arsenal.

I have actually considered that, and am surprised if I'm honest. Of course no-one has any clue how much a marketing campaign would cost the club (and whether the increased revenues would offset the costs involved), but I'm surprised it hasn't at least been tried. It's not as if we're selling out every week. Perhaps its an avenue of promotion that the club just don't believe is cost-effective.

Nice logo! The guy on the right is clearly not a fan, hiding it and trying to suppress his laughter at how bad it is.

This guy looks like he's auditioning for Star Trek.

I've already stated on this thread that I believe that is what the club is trying to do (post 140) so I'm not sure what you're on about now. On this point I was answering Jimmy Gabirel's Halo's assertion that the club are actively encouraging sales by pointing out that, compared to previous years, the club is doing far less external marketing. I'm not sure why you're trying to hijack that point to reinforce a different point I've already made.

Technically that's not external, your name is on the database. In any case, I've had none of those emails (and I'm on the database), so its up for debate how many of those emails are actually getting out there. The club does the complete bare minimum of marketing for the sale of season tickets. There is zero external advertising as far as I can see, and the Echo are far less inclined to market the sale of season tickets as they have been in previous years. I can even remember seeing billboards around the city advertising the club and ticket sales, which I don't see any more.

Can you point me in the direction of any direct external marketing the club have done to sell season tickets please?

That's why I brought it up. I always assumed (and I guess many others have done too) that renewals were only available to today. It would seem from the actual terms on the OS that that may not be the case after all.

On that note; I've just read the actual wording for renewals on the OS. It doesn't specifically state that renewals are only available until today. Here's the wording: "Season Ticket renewals open from friday 1st July with priority given to existing season ticket holders until Thursday 14th July before new sales begin on Friday 15th July over the telephone or at the box office. Sales of all Season Tickets will cease on friday 5th August, on the eve of the new campaign." There's nothing else in the wording to suggest on there that you can't renew after the 14th July.

The only time we'll properly find out is when all of the new season ticket holders are added to the renewal figure; that's where any major increase in numbers is going to be seen. Whether there are many thousands of people waiting to come out of the woodwork for regular Championship football, I don't know, but I get the feelign we'll be around the 15K mark. I guess we'll find out on 6th August what the total numbers are available.

Can I make of it that it's pre-season, and they players don't wear squad numbers yet?

Again, agreed. I think the method I outlined will be the club's approach to sales of STs from here on in. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with it, by the way.

I think that's an exaggeration. If they were being discouraged the price would be much higher; it's still a pretty significant saving getting an ST compared with match by match prices. And as much as there have been complaints on here about getting an ST (parking, showing ID etc), it's still a relatively simple exercise to take advantage of the potential savings on offer. Especially if you're paying up front and not for a concession, which I assume the majority of people will be.

Agreed. I'm very much of the opinion that the club knows they need a core support of ST holders but are not going to go out of their way to encourage their sales. So they are making the facility available but doing the absolute bare minimum to promote it. Of course, none of us really have an accurate idea of just how many extra STs they could sell with an aggressive marketing campaign, so it's all purely speculation. But the lack of such a campaign is noticeable in any case.

Exactly right. The level of season ticket holders in the very benchmark for how well-supported the club is. Its why Rupert Lowe in his chairmanship in the Premier League set it as a barometer for whether we needed to look at a stadium expansion (we clearly didn't because the season ticket level was too low). Match by match results are variable in tracking total supporter number and can be offset/influenced by a number of various factors; season ticket numbers will show how large/small the core support is.

Full-Time: FC Biel 3-3. Entertaining game and probably a fair result in the end. Decent start to pre-season./

86 mins: Biel keeper denies Chamberlain with a great save, tips it round the post

2-3 Safari. 3-3 chamberlain.

Morgan's biggest problem IMO; too casual. Still, only a friendly and all that.....

The second team has Tommy Four-past in goal, who at times struggles to out-perform a traffic cone. No contest.

Yes. Apart from the fact that he's playing.

The thread was removed at the request of Mike (who started the thread). I believe he thought he had enough input and ideas from here to progress with the design. To be fair, some people were getting quite abusive and belligerent about the design, comparing it with the original Ted Bates statue amongst other things. Its a flag! Most people seemed grateful that Mike had done as much work as he had and that the finished product would be a suitable tribute.

I'm speaking as someone who spent half of last season working in France. I just find the match thread a bit ridiculous, often full of over-reactionary nonsense. I always preferred to find somewhere with Sky Sports News and watch that instead. The match thread always seemed a bit pointless to me (the "just back from the game" summaries were often useful though).

Yep, Coventry really aren't a roller-coaster club; you need to have ups as well as downs for that. Here's a bit of trivia for you; Coventry have gone 40 years without finishing in the top 6 of their division.

I agree with this. Back in the Premier League prices were much higher. It wasn't necessarily that I couldn't afford it, but I couldn't justify the expense to myself of going every single week. So I used to go anywhere between 5 and 10 times a season. The past 3 or 4 seasons I think the value has been much better, and so I've decided to go to games much more often. I've still followed Saints in all that time, but the amount of times I have attended has changed. That's the choice that I made, and that is available to everyone to make. Going to a game of football is a privilege, not a right of everyone.