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Ayr United - 17-18 rumblings and mumblings


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Just now, singin am no fae killie said:

 


What on that list has been done by the club?
AUmedia are volunteer run.

Rome wasn't built in a day and I agree everything was really positive. WAS they brought everything out and that was that. No momentum to get folk wanting season tickets there was literally nothing from the club for a month. That kind of disengagement from a club hoping to go full time could cost you 100 season tickets.

Is anyone sponsoring a player this year? Has this been mentioned by the club? Have the club thanked or advertised the people who have parted with cash.

 

Giving out tickets to schools, visiting schools (Devlin bounced around local schools like a rubber ball), paying for buses to games, reducing ticket prices, letting in kids for free with a paying adult, family days.    I'm not saying give up on these ideas, but it's been tried umpteen times.  You seem to be advocating more volunteering but complain that au media, which I think is great, is...volunteer run.  The sponsor a player thing has been running for years, so I don't see any reason it won't happen this year.

Usually we complain about a lack of signing activity, but this year we have got our business done early, but people still complain.  There is clearly a lot happening behind the scenes with the set-up of full time football and the hospitality and club shop being brought back in house.  Maybe some things have fallen through the cracks (the Footgolf guy seemed pretty upset but never really explained why), but sometimes there just seems to be a lot of petty moaning for no real reason.  We are a small club with a small staff being run on a shoestring budget.  Look around, and you'll see that pretty much every club in Scotland has the exact same issues we do.  

For me, the biggest single issue for Ayr in recent years has been trying to compete as a part time club.  It was a failure, and the club are trying to address it.  I've personally lost a lot of confidence in McCall, but on paper we should be challenging for the league title this season.  If that doesn't persuade someone to buy a season ticket, I doubt a fan liaison officer is going to make much difference.

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Anybody heard if we've played any pre-season games yet?

Ayrshire Post had us playing closed door games against Livingston, Morton and Motherwell. Looking at their friendlies they've announced it would suggest we've either already played or are playing this week against Livi and Motherwell and playing likely next week against Morton.

Livingston playing: 1st, 4th, 8th & 12th

Morton playing: 1st & 8th

Motherwell playing: 1st, 4th, 8th & 11th

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32 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Didn't know that much about Calvin Ayre, and after looking him up, if the worst criticism we have of being associated with him is over a few naked painted ladies then we're getting off easy.

 

When it comes to the naked painted ladies I'm definitely getting off easy.

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Didn't know that much about Calvin Ayre, and after looking him up, if the worst criticism we have of being associated with him is over a few naked painted ladies then we're getting off easy.

 


Fair to say he's a bit dodgy. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that he's wanted in America but that sounds really far fetched.
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4 minutes ago, somerset_lad00 said:


Fair to say he's a bit dodgy. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that he's wanted in America but that sounds really far fetched.

He was on the Department of Homeland Security’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives list, and is still playing a game of cat and mouse with the Justice Department and the IRS. And his dad is a convicted drug dealer, of which he is undoubtedly considered as playing a part in.

Money for the club though.

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He was on the Department of Homeland Security’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives list, and is still playing a game of cat and mouse with the Justice Department and the IRS. And his dad is a convicted drug dealer, of which he is undoubtedly considered as playing a part in.
Money for the club though.

Sounds like a good guy to be in business with then
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Let's be honest here. He's only classed as a fugitive by the USA due to their disproportionate clampdown on online gambling.

Totally understandable in a country where you can buy an assault rifle in k-mart.

its not like he's in isis.

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Personally think a Supporter Liaison Officer is a great idea, see a few other clubs doing it and think it's the way forward in terms of fan/community engagement. At the moment, all we have is Graeme Miller's Twitter account..

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Lots of talk about community/fans engagement, social media presence, more insight into behind-the-scenes etc.
I'd much rather they were working on set-pieces and things like that.

Very true but we need to do something to get the crowds back in. Think McCall said he wanted was it 1500 or 2000 at Somerset every week? What are the club doing to achieve this? If they were getting bigger crowds that equates to more money for players therefore it would be better players working on those set-pieces.
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9 minutes ago, Joma Boo said:

Lots of talk about community/fans engagement, social media presence, more insight into behind-the-scenes etc.

I'd much rather they were working on set-pieces and things like that.

Appreciate the point you're making, but there could be so much more done off the field that, if we did it right, would lead to better things happening on the field. This conversation has been done before, but again I'll say it, the club doesn't have anywhere near enough of a 'presence' in the town. People in Ayr need to have Ayr United rammed down their throats until they finally crack and go and see what it's all about.

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Talking of fan engagement it's good to know that the first day of ticket sales for the Killie game has gone tits up.

Tickets were supposed to go on sale at 10 and the club only put this out at 11 "Just to confirm the tickets for the Kilmarnock match have not arrived yet. We have been advised they should be here shortly and we will update immediately we have them".

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43 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said:

This conversation has been done before, but again I'll say it, the club doesn't have anywhere near enough of a 'presence' in the town. People in Ayr need to have Ayr United rammed down their throats until they finally crack and go and see what it's all about.

Very dangerous approach - I've had Ayr Utd rammed down my throat for over thirty years and it's almost had the opposite effect. Ayr are usually hard to watch, lower league Scottish football generally is. You tend to have to have a real passion for, and loyalty to a club to continue following them. That's not something that is easily brought about through reduced pricing or adverts in the paper. Every so often a club like Albion Rovers or Stenhousemuir introduce an initiative that has a handful of online hipsters salivating as 'the way forward' for Scottish football. These things never last though and if it was that simple everyone would do it.

I don't want to come across as particularly negative. I just think there are a few simple basics to get right and sufficient focus should be applied there for maximum benefit.

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Might sound old but I still feel the best way to attract bigger crowds is by winning matches and challenging for the league.

You can advertise all you want but people want to watch a winning team. Two seasons ago I believe the crowds went up when we were challenging Dunfermline for the title. It was more of a case of regular fans bringing a couple of their mates along because they were aware of how well we were doing.

It's simple, win football games and you should see a steady rise in the crowds imo.

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The best way to increase crowds significantly this season will be to beat Killie and win the first few league games scoring a good few goals in the process. That will get more folk talking about the team and wanting to come along more than any facebook campaign / poster in a load of pubs will.

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6 minutes ago, Joma Boo said:

Very dangerous approach - I've had Ayr Utd rammed down my throat for over thirty years and it's almost had the opposite effect. Ayr are usually hard to watch, lower league Scottish football generally is. You tend to have to have a real passion for, and loyalty to a club to continue following them. That's not something that is easily brought about through reduced pricing or adverts in the paper. Every so often a club like Albion Rovers or Stengousemuir introduce an initiative that has a handful of online hipsters salivating as 'the way forward' for Scottish football. These things never last though and if it was that simple everyone would do it.

I don't want to come across as particularly negative. I just think there are a few simple basics to get right and sufficient focus should be applied there for maximum benefit.

I just think it is far too easy to walk through Ayr on a match day and not even know there is a game on, would it not be achievable to have a bit more presence in the Town Centre for example? What about contacting the Council/Ayr Renaissance to see how feasible it would be to get an Ayr United display in one or two of the disused shop fronts? They did it with old photos of Ayr, there's no reason they couldn't do it for the club. Also, why not sell tickets in the Ayr Central? I can't walk through Ayr Central without being hassled by Sky or some Hippie from West FM at their wee temporary stalls in there, there's no reason Ayr couldn't do similar.

I get what people are saying about the product on the park being the best way to bring folk in, but why limit ourselves to that when there are other avenues out there that we have not even attempted to explore?

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If the whole town of Ayr came to a game one week, and you told them all they could have a free season ticket for the season, I bet almost all of them would say no thanks.

I don't think you can give the product away.

That said, I agree with all you say in terms of it's the club's responsibility to try everything it can to be successful.

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