A fan's view of things Port Vale
Would season ticket incentive schemes be successful in growing Vale’s fan base long term?
Over to you Smurf. Over the last season chairman Norman Smurthwaite has spoken on numerous occasions about how he wants more ‘bums on seats’ inside Vale Park. Well this got me thinking, given that the ‘Target 5000’ of 2008 was such as success, albeit short term, could incentive schemes such as those seen at Bradford in recent years be successful at Vale. In the 90’s successful schemes at Charlton Athletic saw their gates rise from 8-9000 to over 200000. Recently I was talking to a fellow Vale fan who suggested an idea where you could buy a ticket for a block of 10 games and then choose the ones you wish to attend. A great idea in a city like Stoke, where a lot of people tend to work shifts. It’s ideas like this which, if used to maximum effect, along with effective marketing to entice more “floating” fans into Vale Park could see our averages rise to around the 8000 mark regularly, which undoubtedly would equate to one happy Papa.
Shaun Crank