Leicestershire County Cricket Club

[AjcW]

30 minutes ago, harpendenfox said:

They are advertising for a new Head of Marketing at the moment, so let's hope they get a good'un. Simple things might help. When I've been this season the tannoy announcer always sounds on the verge of despair (perhaps he's a fan too). I watched a bit of a game at Taunton a while back, and the announcer was upbeat and sunny. I'm not suggesting for a moment I want a woop wool kind of vibe, but this little things matter in terms of trying to build a more positive and welcoming atmosphere - or indeed any kind of atmosphere

I'd have loved to go for it but they've tied in 'sales' to the job description to save some cash....

 

I'd have enough of a job sorting out the marketing side so no idea how they expect someone to manage two specialisms. I know they're closely linked departments but that's going to put a lot of good candidates off applying.

[Lako42]

Needs a real change on tgd playing side for me. 

 

Would Nico get a top job anywhere else in the country? 

[harpendenfox]

19 minutes ago, AjcW said:

I'd have loved to go for it but they've tied in 'sales' to the job description to save some cash....

 

I'd have enough of a job sorting out the marketing side so no idea how they expect someone to manage two specialisms. I know they're closely linked departments but that's going to put a lot of good candidates off applying.

My first action would be to try and market County to the 40,000 or so City and Tigers season ticket holders and members, and try and persuade 1,000 of them to become County members for a year. There must be plenty of folk marginally interested in cricket amongst that supporter base

[AjcW]

1 minute ago, harpendenfox said:

My first action would be to try and market County to the 40,000 or so City and Tigers season ticket holders and members, and try and persuade 1,000 of them to become County members for a year. There must be plenty of folk marginally interested in cricket amongst that supporter base

Absolutely.

 

'Bundle' season tickets would work well for something like this.

 

It would be a very particular demographic i'd say but would be easy enough to do the research and target a select number of those supporters you mention.

 

Not something we could achieve fully from a branding point of view, given the different ownership teams, but the 'Bristol Sport' stable is a very good way of getting people interested in a variety of sports and certainly some ideas to be borrowed from them. 

[Voll Blau]

Feel like the biggest issue sometimes is that Grace Road is just that bit too far out of town. Move it a mile closer to the centre and a lot of problems with interest disappear overnight. Some public transport initiatives (putting shuttle buses on from the station or town, for example) would certainly help.

[AjcW]

8 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

Feel like the biggest issue sometimes is that Grace Road is just that bit too far out of town. Move it a mile closer to the centre and a lot of problems with interest disappear overnight. Some public transport initiatives (putting shuttle buses on from the station or town, for example) would certainly help.

When I used to play for Leccy Sports I always wondered why the **** the county didn't just buy that and put the ground there  

 

Would make absolute perfect sense and essentially give us the same layout as Nottingham sports wise. 

[Voll Blau]

3 minutes ago, AjcW said:

When I used to play for Leccy Sports I always wondered why the **** the county didn't just buy that and put the ground there  

 

Would make absolute perfect sense and essentially give us the same layout as Nottingham sports wise. 

Could have been very different if they hadn't moved back to Grace Road from there I guess. Likewise, would have been great if some of the land earmarked for the stadium expansion could have been transformed into a cricket ground. Pipe dream, that one though.

[AjcW]

1 minute ago, Voll Blau said:

Could have been very different if they hadn't moved back to Grace Road from there I guess. Likewise, would have been great if some of the land earmarked for the stadium expansion could have been transformed into a cricket ground. Pipe dream, that one though.

Bad that I had no memory that they used to play there to be honest  

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Lako42 said:

Needs a real change on tgd playing side for me. 

 

Would Nico get a top job anywhere else in the country? 

He’d probably get a job for one of the 100 franchises. There’s no doubt he’s good at that side of it and if it wasn’t for the pandemic, he’s probably be in the Carribbean right now 

[MaidstoneFox]

5 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

He’d probably get a job for one of the 100 franchises. There’s no doubt he’s good at that side of it and if it wasn’t for the pandemic, he’s probably be in the Carribbean right now 

The Hundred coaches are people like, Gary Kirsten, Stephen Fleming, Tom Moody etc, he's not in the same league as them. I also think some of his opinions would grate with the family friendly 'soccer mom' marketing of The Hundred.

[MaidstoneFox]

6 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

Feel like the biggest issue sometimes is that Grace Road is just that bit too far out of town. Move it a mile closer to the centre and a lot of problems with interest disappear overnight. Some public transport initiatives (putting shuttle buses on from the station or town, for example) would certainly help.

I used to walk all the way from Anstey Lane area, across town to Grace Road, when I was a teenager during the school holidays. I didn't have enough money for the bus fare. 

[Paninistickers]

6 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

Feel like the biggest issue sometimes is that Grace Road is just that bit too far out of town. Move it a mile closer to the centre and a lot of problems with interest disappear overnight. Some public transport initiatives (putting shuttle buses on from the station or town, for example) would certainly help.

Very true. I'd hazard a guess that out of 1000 regulars (obvs not all 1k ever turn up at the same time) well over half would be from the staff, monsell, Aylestone and a slow bleed into South Leicester suburbs (Blaby, wigston) thereafter. The ground is in a very niche part of Leicester. 

 

As for marketing, understandably they go after membership, guaranteeing income. I think they need to go after casual fans. Build some kind of database of text numbers (free entry with a registered text to build the data) and afyerwatds blast the data on, say, a friday when the forecast is good for a game scheduled sunday.  Nobody has a fcking clue when the games are. 

 

Returf the Bennett car park. Create a big picnic / trailer picnic type vibe up there. Knock down  that stand at the Bennett milligan Road side and build a big grass hill, again for picnics and bbqs. Devote some outfield to more marquees and food trucks. Let the kids run riot on outfield during breaks of play. 

 

And just text punters about coming to a sunny, sporty, boozy, lazy picnic summer's day 🙂

 

 

[HaroldBazBo]

If one club could have tapped into the local Asian population it is Leics yet they haven’t ever cracked it despite the huge potential.

 

[Paninistickers]

3 minutes ago, HaroldBazBo said:

If one club could have tapped into the local Asian population it is Leics yet they haven’t ever cracked it despite the huge potential.

 

I.mentioned it above that grace road is in a very hidden, niche, backstreet part of Leicester. The Saff, Monsell and Aylestone are still very working class white (and to a lesser extent working class black). Almost the old guard of old Leicester. 

 

Welford Road is massively asian yet there seems to he an invisible rule not to cross the rail line at Asquith boulevard or Knighton Lane east! Some kinda self imposed apartheid!

[HaroldBazBo]

Have they ever put a big bill board on the main roundabout on the inner ring road?

[Plastik Man]

20 hours ago, AjcW said:

When I used to play for Leccy Sports I always wondered why the **** the county didn't just buy that and put the ground there  

 

Would make absolute perfect sense and essentially give us the same layout as Nottingham sports wise. 

I've often thought this. Too late now with all the flats built around there now though I would guess.

[The People's Hero]

20 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

Feel like the biggest issue sometimes is that Grace Road is just that bit too far out of town. Move it a mile closer to the centre and a lot of problems with interest disappear overnight. Some public transport initiatives (putting shuttle buses on from the station or town, for example) would certainly help.

I imagine it would make some difference but not as much as you'd think. Kent for example attracts supporters from all over the county. A more natural home would probably be Maidstone; but its not as if people don't travel from Maidstone to Canterbury to watch. 

[Sunbury Fox]

12 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

I.mentioned it above that grace road is in a very hidden, niche, backstreet part of Leicester. The Saff, Monsell and Aylestone are still very working class white (and to a lesser extent working class black). Almost the old guard of old Leicester. 

 

Welford Road is massively asian yet there seems to he an invisible rule not to cross the rail line at Asquith boulevard or Knighton Lane east! Some kinda self imposed apartheid!

To be fair to County, they did even sign some true Indian megastars (eg Kumble and Sehwag) as overseas players back in the day and that still didn't encourage much support from the Asian population.

[MaidstoneFox]

1 hour ago, The People's Hero said:

I imagine it would make some difference but not as much as you'd think. Kent for example attracts supporters from all over the county. A more natural home would probably be Maidstone; but its not as if people don't travel from Maidstone to Canterbury to watch. 

Too right! Kent is a county of towns though isn't it and very affluent in the west, so people have the means and there's no other option but to travel. What's the population of Canterbury? Around 40000 I think, whereas Maidstone is pushing 130k with all the the development. No logic for it being in Canterbury apart from heritage, especially as Maidstone is closer to places like Bromley and Bexley, which historically would have been in Kent. Sorry don't want to turn this into the Kent forum! But I agree people will travel to watch a winning side with good players - Somerset fans aren't just from Taunton etc

[MaidstoneFox]

1 hour ago, Sunbury Fox said:

To be fair to County, they did even sign some true Indian megastars (eg Kumble and Sehwag) as overseas players back in the day and that still didn't encourage much support from the Asian population.

They did bring in a few fans, but we couldn't afford current stars now. The whole issue is more complex. Work commitments and cricket being part of a community activity, inhibit attendance at LCCC matches amongst the Asian population in Leicester. There's also barriers in terms of finance for the less affluent and not feeling welcome, with the potential for experiencing racism (that doesn't mean you likely to experience racism, but it might stop you doing something). Add to that the pull of IPL and Indian national team, which are now very glamorous and easily accessible on TV and wider media. Then you have to ask the question, well how many fans do you actually want or need in the ground anyway? It only holds 6000, and the vast majority of cash comes from ECB. Isn't growing a fanbase remotely just as important these days?

[Lionator]

Looks like we’ve breached our suspended sentence conditions in the first game back. Wright reported for swearing at an umpire, subsequently Ackermann gets a suspension and we’ll be deducted 12 points. Embarrassing. 

[harpendenfox]

6 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Looks like we’ve breached our suspended sentence conditions in the first game back. Wright reported for swearing at an umpire, subsequently Ackermann gets a suspension and we’ll be deducted 12 points. Embarrassing. 

Yep. Embarrassing is the word.

[HaroldBazBo]

Rot starts with the leaders I’m afraid

[Mike Oxlong]

The most committed performance I’ve seen from anyone down the county for many a year was by Reg Dwight

Edited 5 September 2021 by Mike Oxlong

[MaidstoneFox]

12 hours ago, Lionator said:

Looks like we’ve breached our suspended sentence conditions in the first game back. Wright reported for swearing at an umpire, subsequently Ackermann gets a suspension and we’ll be deducted 12 points. Embarrassing. 

Disgraceful. The culture is all wrong.