Oi Livi! It’s time!
With ‘The Lions’ having made the move from Edinburgh nearly ten years ago, it’s fair to say that most people would have hoped that the support that followed them on a week by week basis, would have been far larger then it currently is. Especially after all the success that the team has brought to the town!
Then again it’s also probably fair to say that with owner after owner leaving the club on it’s knees at various stages over the last decade or so, the support has had any confidence in the team that it may have had built up dashed by power crazy zealots more than prepared to spend the clubs money and gamble its future on getting promotions or building unnecessary office blocks.
So what can the club do to build a solid support for the future, as well as keeping a hold of the fans it has now?
Well for a start it can ditch the all encompassing pandering to the ‘Family Club’ image. Then it can start to pro-actively look to encourage new supporters of all ages, not just kids! One thing that’s clear is that the ‘Family’ image certainly isn’t pulling in the punters as it stands.
What does ‘Family Club’ mean anyway? A happy clappy, all singing all dancing club, where nobody raises their voice, never mind utters a profanity? Bollox to that! What is needed is an ‘adult’ look at what is required as far as encouraging supporters who will want to return and not disappear to the swing park when conker season arrives. Its adult wage earners who pay for themselves, their partners and kids to come to the football, not minors with 50 pence pocket money, so these people/potential supporters should be targeted by the club as vigorously as the school kids currently are. Why does the club not contact work places in and around West Lothian with club details and match posters for notice boards?
Possibly even empower existing supporters to do this where possible. Blasé
While the number of free tickets handed out recently to schools has certainly boosted the crowd to an extent, the continued devaluing of the product in this fashion can only lead to disaster, possibly with free ticket holders becoming blasé and only attending games when it costs them nothing and existing season ticket holders getting cheesed off when they see folk who are only half interested get in for nought week after week while they’ve paid good money for their tickets.
Season tickets should be marketed more aggressively with all tickets priced fairly. If that means that kids tickets have to go up significantly then so be it. You only have to look at the 2/3rds empty South Stand to see that most folk are only buying their kid a ticket because they are so cheap, regardless of whether the kid actually wants to go or not. The club is hampering its growth by waiting for all these non existent kids to show/grow up!
While it’s appreciated that the club have recently begun to open the Almondvale Suite before matches for food and drink, they should be looking to encourage more fans/people to make use of the bar facilities at the club during the week, but seems strangely reluctant to open ‘Lions Den’ bar when regular opening hours would offer supporters the chance of a pint or sweet sherry and put pounds into the coffers at the same time. It’s been mentioned in despatches that the ‘Den’ will be revamped when the new owners eventually loosen their purse strings. The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.
The ‘Club Shop’ is badly in need of an overhaul too! It seems that the ‘Club Cupboard’, as its affectionately known, is such nuisance to the club, they can hardly be bothered to staff it or even open it! While the range of merchandise has improved this year, there is still no way of knowing just what the club can offer you. There is certainly nothing on the club web site that can help you!
All I really want is for Livingston FC, is for it to become less ‘small time’ in its outlook. I want to look at the club and see a slik, professional outfit that is working hard throughout the community to attract and keep supporters of all ages, from all corners of the region to come along and get behind their local team. I want to see a simple catalogue, online or otherwise, outlining the range of merchandise that these supporters can purchase. I want to see a web site that is informative and up to date. I want to be able to use the clubs bar facilities on a more regular basis, not just on the whim of a belligerent barman. I want the club to represent more than the sum of its individual parts, to many more people. I don’t care what league the team is playing in, I just want the club as a whole to ‘grow up’!
‘til next time, The South Stand Drum
(Since that article was written, the club have moved away from the "family Club" name and changed it to the "friendly Club")