An article about the U's on the BBC website

[YF Dan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 897369.stm

Any thoughts appreciated, as I might make a little season long feature.

[boris]

Lovely, Daniel. See the comments at the end of the Saturday in Burton thread.

[slappy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 897369.stm

Any thoughts appreciated, as I might make a little season long feature.

If you haven't found the TIU replacement, there are some comments there.
http&#58//yellows&#46proboards&#46com/i ... thread=902

[wightyellow]

I like this, good biased point of view for once.....:0)

[neilw]

An interesting an enjoyable read, albeit not quite up to the standard required for YF publications. Doesn't even mention Banger's sun tan.

[Yankee Clipper]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 897369.stm

Any thoughts appreciated, as I might make a little season long feature.

Nice one Dan, it's a good piece and you should definitely make it a season long venture.

[Snake]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 897369.stm

Any thoughts appreciated, as I might make a little season long feature.

Bravo!

[Kernow Yellow]

Nice one Dan. Good to see you're being paid to watch the Mighty Yellows again

The one point in the article I would dispute is the bit about there having been at least 10,000 U's fans at Wembley watching their first game. I think it's more likely that there were 10,000|| people watching their first game in many years (I took a few of them myself, as did a lot of people I know). Sure there were a few people getting their first ever U's experience, but 30% of the Oxford end? I don't think so.

[YF Dan]

Nice one Dan. Good to see you're being paid to watch the Mighty Yellows again

The one point in the article I would dispute is the bit about there having been at least 10,000 U's fans at Wembley watching their first game. I think it's more likely that there were 10,000|| people watching their first game in many years (I took a few of them myself, as did a lot of people I know). Sure there were a few people getting their first ever U's experience, but 30% of the Oxford end? I don't think so.

You'll be pleased to hear I wasn't being paid. Not a bean of license fee money was spent on the trip. This was a case of Salford-redundancy-CV-padding.

The second point is possibly fair ... although, tough to prove either way. 25 percent of the people in my group (ie my son) had never been before. My mate Matt took three friends who hadn't been before (75 percent of his group). There were lots of families sitting near me, for whom I'd guess the vast majority had never been before. But we will never know.

But given that we average 5 to 6-thousand, to find a further 27-thousand &quotfans&quot on the day, I reckon 10-thousand OUFC virgins is a reasonable guess.

[boris]

Well in my group of nine there were no OUFC virgins. There was me and Jason (st holders), Dom (who goes to around half a dozen games a season), Ali and the other kids (who average a game a season each) and my brother and his bro-in-law who used to be regulars in the Glory Years but who hadn't been to a game for four or five seasons.

[BigCrompy]

Fantastic! Just see that someone gets knighted by season's end.

Sir Beano has quite a nice ring to it if you ask me.

[Kernow Yellow]

But given that we average 5 to 6-thousand, to find a further 27-thousand &quotfans&quot on the day, I reckon 10-thousand OUFC virgins is a reasonable guess.

I reckon it's reasonable to think that somewhere approaching 20,000 fans watched OUFC on at least one occasion last season before Wembley. If we had c. 3,000 ST holders last season, then if the other 3,000 people in attendance each game were made up of people who average 6 home games each year, for example, that's another 12,000, before you think about exiles who only make it to away games in their part of the country, friends of fans who come along once a year on boxing day. Then add the number of people at Wembley who hadn't been that season but are lapsed /very occasional supporters, (Boris' Wembley scenario is the one I recognise much more than yours from all the groups that I met that day) I reckon that doesn't leave much room for too many Yellows virgins.

I guess my point is that people often make the (false) assumption that we have 6,000 regular fans and everyone else at big games is a glory-hunter. Actually our fan base is made up of a much larger number of very committed fans, it's just that most of them don't go to every game.

[theox]

But given that we average 5 to 6-thousand, to find a further 27-thousand &quotfans&quot on the day, I reckon 10-thousand OUFC virgins is a reasonable guess.

I reckon it's reasonable to think that somewhere approaching 20,000 fans watched OUFC on at least one occasion last season before Wembley. If we had c. 3,000 ST holders last season, then if the other 3,000 people in attendance each game were made up of people who average 6 home games each year, for example, that's another 12,000, before you think about exiles who only make it to away games in their part of the country, friends of fans who come along once a year on boxing day. Then add the number of people at Wembley who hadn't been that season but are lapsed /very occasional supporters, (Boris' Wembley scenario is the one I recognise much more than yours from all the groups that I met that day) I reckon that doesn't leave much room for too many Yellows virgins.

I guess my point is that people often make the (false) assumption that we have 6,000 regular fans and everyone else at big games is a glory-hunter. Actually our fan base is made up of a much larger number of very committed fans, it's just that most of them don't go to every game.

Agree with that. I think that the number of actual OUFC Virgins was small.

Even those who aren't actually OUFC fans were probably not first-timers. I know a lot of people who follow other clubs (Brum, Spurs etc) but live in the local area who came to Wembley. However, even for them it was not a cherry popping situation as they had all been to at least one 'big' game in the past eg Slumdon, Leyton Orient etc.

[Mally]

As we all know our fan base is very large compared to our league position and I think the number of individual people who see Oxford play at least once a season is as others have said somewhere in the region of 15 to 20 thousand (apart from Wembley of course).

Based on this the best way for the club to increase revenues and attendances is to get the infrequent visitors to become more frequent visitors rather than trying to attract new fans. I'd have thought the best way to do this was heavily market future games at each home game and run volume purchase promotions.