Cash conscious fans

Director Josh Easby asked fans to devise ways to generate much-needed income.

Here are just a selection of their suggestions:

From Nick Martin (Manchester):

Go part time. It won't be popular but might be necessary.

Get rid of the highly paid players who sit on the bench for two years, always "just short of match fitness".

Review the current club staff and replace paid staff with volunteers so far as is possible. Apologies to those club staff who this would affect.

Advertise and promote the club in York and the surrounding towns.

It is all about building that link between the club and the community and creating a bit of interest.

Hire out meeting facilities for businesses at Bootham Crescent. Is the gym at Bootham Crescent suitable for aerobics classes on an evening?

The ground is in the city centre, easily accessible and if the facilities are there then let the public pay for using them.

I'm not sure what the training ground has but the same applies.

A club shop presence in the city centre would be useful. Use the club car park as a public car park on non-match weekends and in summer.

Ground share with York Wasps RL Club at BC, with us the landlord and them the paying tenant.

From Ben Whitworth:

Target the university, the College of Ripon and St John, and other colleges.

Some sort of promotion such as "bring your university ID and get in for £5" might bring in a bit more revenue.

If everyone on the Arthur mailing list sent a request to all the people in their address book to have a look at the York City website, this might bump up the amount of money we get.

From Tom Pountain (Buckinghamshire):

A group of wealthy QPR fans recently paid the transfer fee for the club to buy Daniel Shittu from Charlton for £250,000.

Now they have set up a company with several other QPR fans, WeAreQpr.plc, in order to raise transfer funds for the manager.

The idea behind it is that fans pay a minimum £250 each towards the cause. If a player bought by the company is sold on at a profit, they would receive 25 per cent of it.

If York were to directly adopt this system it would probably take a wealthy benefactor to kick-start it or a huge combined effort from fans.

From Andy Borrows:

Raise the club profile by using the players more in terms of accessibility and availability to the general public. Invest more time and money into the youth set up. Development of players is a surefire way to make more money.

Utilise contracts with the coach companies by offering a park and ride scheme for home and away visitors, maybe even throw in a discounted entrance fee for those who use the park and ride.

From Barry Nicoll:

If City home games do not clash with Leeds United home games how about an offer to Leeds fans for discounted entry to our matches on production of their season tickets.

From David Craven (York):

If City invited a local school free of charge to home games - say one school each home game over a season - and have them all on the pitch before the game or half-time taking part in various activities, five-a-side games etc. then you would be likely to see their families paying to come and watch.

It would vastly increase the chance of the kids coming back with their family again the next time and onwards after that.

From Ian McDonald (Brighton):

Hold an exhibition on the the history of York City FC and Bootham Crescent. It might help to promote the profile of the club and stress the club's importance in the community as well as its relevance to the sporting and cultural heritage of the City.

Invite supporters from other clubs to attend a home game at Bootham Crescent.

From Brian Cooke:

Could the Save City Committee find a financial institution, which has cash and is looking for a long-term investment, and persuade them to purchase Bootham Crescent for at least ten years?

They could lease it to the club, who would then have at least ten years, rather than ten minutes, to make other arrangements.

With such a good prospective rate of return on the capital investment, this institution may be persuaded to sponsor the club with a deal on the rent.

Turn the players into personalities. It is all part of building the relationship between the players and the community.

From Ben Howard:

Get some good old fashioned tray carriers with refreshments to sell near the front of the crowd. Perhaps local confectionery firms will even donate goods to sell at 100 per cent profit?

Also increase programme sales in the same way.

A stand in Parliament Street on a Saturday morning or all-day on an away match day, promoting the Save City Campaign and, if possible, selling tickets for the next home game, plus merchandise.

Iain McGuffog (York)

We may have to consider one option that we will all feel uncomfortable with - going part time.

Lower league football teams in Scotland have survived for years through this route. We will need to maintain our youth structure, combined with some part time more experienced players until we have the transfer income, sponsorship or other external resources to afford full-time football.

If we can find some way within Football League rules of acting as a feeder club, and therefore a way of getting some experienced players to gain the balance in the side then this will help minimise the adverse effects of this proposal.

From Phil Harvey (Melton Mowbray):

Develop a system of fans' pledges which could also be extended to include the wider football community nationally. We should look for a minimum pledge of £200.

The scheme could be a one-off pledge or renewable annually as a type of debenture or membership fee. There would be a little bit of expenditure to produce some marketing leaflets or an electronic and postal mailshot.

From Dave Atkinson (Leamington Spa):

Sell 50-50 tickets inside the turnstiles where most people have just been given a pound in change.

From Antony Barley (York):

Have a 'Kid a Quid' and a 'Fiver for an Adult' admission. This would generate a shortfall in income if the crowd remained at 2,000 to 3,000 but maybe the reduced admission would encourage people to come along that stay away due to the fact the admission is £9 in the David Longhurst stand and thus boost gates to 4,000 plus.

If the team were then to perform with the crowd behind them, the larger crowd would keep coming and maybe bring others along.

How about a Shed Seven benefit gig at the Barbican with the Save City campaign benefiting?

From George Davidson (Slough):

Put up admission prices. This is quite simply something we are going to have to face up to doing as we are amongst the lowest in the league.

The one exception should be kids aged between 8 and 11 which is the age they get hooked on a club and we have to ensure that this club is York City.

Have more kids playing at half-time and before the match so they get to love Bootham Crescent and their parents and grandparents come and watch.

Draw more and more on the skills of the fan base to do work that it would otherwise have to pay for - from painting and decorating to stewarding.

Slash the costs for travelling away and training.

Bring on young blood that will develop a transfer value. We have good older players but it is the younger ones who will be sold on.

Ask Premiership clubs to commit to give us friendlies.

Committed fans buy a season ticket. Really commited fans buy a lifetime ticket. Sell the right to see York City for the rest of your life.

Every fan should bring one friend to each match. That would double our attendance.

Play attacking football. Better to lose 4-3 in front of 3,000 than lose 1-0 in front of 2,000

When Ian Botham played for Scunthorpe he put 1,000 on the gate. Can we find a gimmick player who would do this?

From Stu Robertson (York):

How about an Internet auction? If items were requested from every club in the country and auctioned on the net it would generate cash.

From Richard Corney (York):

Would it really make that much difference at the level at which we operate? Most Conference teams are made up of part-timers and from what I've seen there's not much difference between the standard of football in the Conference and the Third Division.

I'll bet that if we go part-time there will be a considerable number of similarly threatened small clubs following suit.

Updated: 10:53 Saturday, January 19, 2002