new away jersey & merchindising

[max power]

just got word that it won't be in the shop for another 2 weeks, over all i think the merchindiseing side of the club is bad at the mo,one of the lads went to get a tie....they had none, i went to get a baseball cap.....they had none, i went to get a training top......they had none...

for those of you involved with the club, get your finger out and get the gear, valueable revenue earning potential is being lost on a weekly basis.......

[Maz]

i think it would be a good idea to open up the shop they had in the shopping centre every once in a while.....wouldn do any harm and people would have a chance to purchase the gear other than at games!

[max power]

thats a point i've made before, i can't get to many home games because of work commitments, but if i'm town on a sat and i want to buy some gear i should have an alternative to just flancare park and having to pay in, in order to purchase some club gear, the amount of lotto tickets that could be sold in there on a sat would be huge...

the only major drawback would be the rent that would have to be paid on a weekly basis even if the shop is only open on a sat, one way around this would be to approch the shopping centre and see if they would be interested in using the use of the premises as a form of sponsership of the club.....we need more sponsership and it could be a nice money spinne rin the long run,

if only for tourists that are in longford and want to get a memento of the trip, a tshirt, hat, or jersey would be perfect.....

but before any of the above points are ventured into a full stock of club goods should be attained, they advertise training tops etc in the programme but yet when you go to the shop at the games to but such items your told " we don't have any and we don't know when we'll be getting in more " not very good for a team looking forward...

but the worst of the whole lot are the posters advertising the games, cheap looking and with a bit of thought and a few 100 euro sponsership sopme lovely small billborads could be on the edge of the town with the date of the next home fixture and a welcome to longford, home of DE TOWN !!!

sorry for the rant but we need money and willing customers are being turned away by the club every week........

[Maz]

cant really argue with anything you have said there max.....spot on!!

[Terry Phelan]

Why cant a shop keep and sell the merchindise for d Town? For example,Durkins or another sports shop in the town could keep stock of all the jerseys,coats,hats,ties etc. This would cut out the problem of paying rent for the unit in the shopping centre. There should be a place to buy to merchindise all year round. The shop at the flansiro's a bit of a joke anyway,they never have anything you want

[the 12 th man]

re the shopping centre idea,
what about a mobile/temporary stand that could be set up in the mall of a shopping centre at the weekends. you see them in the likes of liffey valley and the square etc(shopping centres in dublin).that means you dont incur
costs for the days you aint there.
might work at the weekends when the centres are crawling with people.
"daddy buy me a town scarf will yeh,go on da ,go on!!!!" :D

[Longfordian]

I think the Shopping Centre wouldn't really go for that, i think it was mentioned to them before and they weren't all that keen. If it was open every week you'd have to staff it too. I agree that it would be handy but given that there would be costs involved i dont know would it be viable, the merchandise side of things could be done better though i'd agree with you there

[Maz]

elverys do stock some town gear but it consists of jackets and jerseys. i think the stall idea is excellent and even volunteers could work on and off, i for one would help out but shopping centre may not agree......where else would be suitable?

[Longfordian]

whenever the Town get new stock some is given to Elvery's to sell in their store. Should have more gear coming in a couple of weeks i think, including the away jersey.

[max power]

i have been told by a member of the board that the new away jersey will be in stock in two weeks....but what about the rest, training tops, jackets, popl shirts, ties, pins etc....

lets face it, you can have all the will in the world and all the pride in youe club taht you want but money talks !!!! look at shels are they winning the league with pride, no money !!!

we need to generate as much revenue as possible and club gear should be a big part of it, if your willing to spend your money and they won't take it then there is some thing big wrong in there somewhere....

also on the camera recording the game issue, if you have billboards at the games for certain companies and they know that their billboard will be on tv at least every second week then is that not a good selling point for the club and a reason to up the price of the bill board and bother to have the games on video for tv 3 or more importantly for the team and management to review afterwards.....

and i'll go further, look at cork and pats, they have short sponsers, sponsers on the sleeves of the shirts as well.....we need some of this, we need to raise the profile of our club, we are alone in the midlands as a premier division club and have a big market...lavine is on his arse most of the time, get him out to the schools promoting the club and getting kids to the games who will bring their parents.......

my rant is almost over except to say that we are playing in europe in july and what has been done to the ground to be ready for the may deadline....the dugouts.....we are starting to take things for granted and it has to stop now...

it might be a football club but its a business as well and one that is close to a lo of peoples hearts so lets start askiing questions of those in charge.....

[Longfordian]

I'd imagine most of the gear will be coming in around the same time. Just to say regarding the ground, the club's not been able to start work as the government has still not officially announced the grants being given to the four clubs, no point starting to spend money based on a promise then find out youre not getting what you thought you were going to, it's happened to us before. You end up in financial sh*te, the next few weeks may see some movement there too though hopefully.

Just a thought Max, why dont you talk to someone at the club, like the marketing manager about whatever ideas you have, a lot of them have been explored before but people arent all that willing to commit to big sponsorships for whatever reason. As for the schools there's going to be another big push there again, to be fair most schools in the county have been visited by players and the FAI cup, and its going to go on another tour. Mr Lavine hasn't been to one of them however. Despite all his bull about what he does for the community of Longford.There's plans to run a summer camp too, the best lads are Kirby, Prunty, Dillo will get involved too, maybe Seanie Francis