What would get you to Lions' Games?

[Nottingham Lions]

Hi!

We're just interested in doing a small bit of research as to what would get any Panthers fans that have never been, or don't come to, Lions' games to come and watch.

Any ideas you have for attracting new fans, complains or feedback about when you've been before, or reasons why you would never come are welcome.

We are considering discounts for Panthers' season ticket holders to home games, but we don't want to give any more information on that until we've spoken to the Panthers themselves first.

For those who have never been before- we play on Sunday evenings in the Olympic Rink in the English National League. General ticket prices are Adults – £5.00, Students (with NUS)- £4.00, Children & OAP’s- £3.00. Robert Lachowicz, James Neil, and Sam Bullas all came from the Lions before going to on play in the Panthers, and currently we have Josh Ward on a two-way deal.

Our website is www.nottinghamlions.com/site.

We're always looking to get more people in the building, so please, fire away!

[pantherdman]

Free entry.
Cheap Beer.
Have the game right before a Panthers game.
The fact that all the games are on at 19:30 on a Sunday.

I have been meaning to go for a while, don't know why I've never been.

[buster]

marketing. aside from on here i havent seen any sort of advertising or merchandise that would make me ask myself 'who are the lions and where and when do they play?'

sure its a given assumption that most in the ice hockey community should know who they are, but if others dont know the team are out there, how are they expected to watch?

personally, the thought of bumping into Shaggy and his chocolate selling antics puts me off going regularly, but i know my coach for uni hockey suggested in the past that the lesser teams (C and D) go to watch the Lions.

[Jay]

Only reason i can never make it to the Lions games is due to when the games take place and also, because i never see it splashed everywhere like the panthers.

[tootoo]

Sept 7, 2010 18:24:27 GMT pantherdman said:

Free entry.
Cheap Beer.
Have the game right before a Panthers game.
The fact that all the games are on at 19:30 on a Sunday.

I have been meaning to go for a while, don't know why I've never been.

+1 to all that.

[Jasper]

Something you probably can't do anything about unfortunately - a better view. I find the view in the Olympic rink absolutely lousy.

[KIGOIUK]

Play their games in the Arena for one .

lets be realistic Free admission is a none starter

£1 admission for panthers season ticket holders in their own seat , and each season ticket holder paying a £10 membership fee for the lions season ,,, walk up admission £3 OAP , £5 for normal admission . NO STUDENT DISCOUNTS they get enough freebies in the world .

And for intermission entertainment , how many Chocolate bars can Shaggy get in his mouth in one go .

[charlielou]

I only found out about the lions though word of mouth at work at the start of this year, went to watch one with the kids and have been to every one since then.
I think the prices are reasonable enough no need for discounts, if you can afford a season ticket then five pound a game is nothing.
May be you should try and get some add space in the panthers match night magazine,
advertise it in the olympic rink on the walls, enough people use it through out the week so some should take an interest or even get that announcer bloke from panthers to go on about it during the breaks at the panthers games, at least he will have something else to go on about rather than whos going to fight who.

[Yotes]

I don't go because I don't want to spend any more time (and money) on hockey on any given weekend than I already do with the Panthers, simple as that really. So aside from the Panthers going bust, not much you can change that'll get me to show up. Sorry.

[Mark]

Never actually crosses my mind to go to a Lions game but I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

Maybe some kind of reminder during Panthers games the night before would jolt peoples memories. It'd certainly help me.

[Zukiwskyfan]

No import limit
No Wage cap
5 fights a game

Seriously though I've seen quite a few Lions games and they was ok. I always got in for free though because I had training after. I couldn't justify paying to get in though.

[Nottingham Lions]

Firstly I'd like to thank you all for your thoughts so far - they've (mostly) been useful - shame some posters used the opportunity to have a swipe at others though.

There are some things that aren't going to change however much we want them too..
Free entry - as pointed out, not going to happen unless we can find a sponsor who will pay the £200-£300 per game for the referees. The entry money you pay goes towards paying those costs, and if there's money left over it goes towards paying for the cost of buses for away travel.
The Arena/Olympic Pad - basically we can't play out of the arena for a number of reasons but the main one is cost. IIRC it's about 50% more for the Arena ice than the Olympic. Plus if we get booted for a gig then we're screwed with ice time. Personally I'd love us to be in there, but it's not going to happen regularly.
Face Off Unfortunately due to the constraints on ice time we will never face off any earlier, yes it's a late finish on a Sunday but that's all we can get. We did enquire a few years ago about facing off early (like the ENL Vipers used to do in Newcastle) but the answer was no.
Marketing Panthers spend thousands a season on advertising but it's something we simply can't do. We have to rely on word of mouth. Now if anyone wants some home fixture lists to put up in their local shop or wherever then let me know and I can get some produced!
Stuff does get sent to the NEP but I guess they have space issues as it doesn't always get used.

We have approached the Panthers about putting something in the programme or announcing on game nights but we've yet to hear back from them. I suspect with it being the start of the season then Mr Moran & the Panthers office have been a little busy!

KIGOIUK - the idea of a Lions "Season Pass" then a discounted admission rate is one we'll certainly look into.

If we were to offer discounts for Season Ticket holders, or for games where we follow on from your game, would that help?

Please keep your ideas and thoughts coming - either on here, by PM or email [e-mail]

[buster]

implying that my suggestion of more marketing wasnt useful? you've just lost yourself a fiver.

[Nottingham Lions]

Sept 7, 2010 23:16:10 GMT @buster said:

implying that my suggestion of more marketing wasnt useful? you've just lost yourself a fiver.

No, it was fair comment about the marketing.
This however?

Sept 7, 2010 18:32:18 GMT @buster said:

personally, the thought of bumping into Shaggy and his chocolate selling antics puts me off going regularly

No need at all.

[misssammylou]

I've never really thought about going but might do now, especially as my brother is starting to play so I guess it'd be good to get him to more games!

This is probably going to be an unwelcome thing to say but I couldnt afford to pay out for season tickets in one lump sum (I'd have to get two and just couldnt do it!) but still go to every home game and as many away Panthers games as possible, in the long run I pay more out for the Panthers games (if you work it out over the amount of games) but don't get any kind of discount offers as I don't have a season ticket.

[dms41853]

part of the problem is the majority of those that are aware of the lions are first and foremost panthers fans and with the clash of games on a sunday for those that travel away to panthers.

lions are games that some will go to but only in times there is no other hockey on for example myself and quite a few others went to the home game vs whitley at the end of last season merely as it was the lost hockey to watch before the summer

[pantherdman]

If you could have the games before the Panthers games, on the Arena ice, you could split the cost. Let people make an afternoon / evening of it.

Perhaps give away 1 free entry to the Lions, when you buy a Panthers season ticket.

Personally, I think the Panthers should support the Lions more as they keep nicking their best players.

[Rich]

Id love to watch the Lions more but dont want to stand around or sit in naff seats missing half the ice. If it was on the arena, lots more would go, but obviously it would take a very ambitious sponsor or owner to take over and put the money up, on the hope enough people would go.

At the mo, despite the Lions paying astronomical costs, the fact is paying £5 to enter, having already paid in the region of £6-£7 to park to either stand up, or have poor sightlines of an ENL game wont appeal to a lot of people. You cant change the parking situation, or the layout of the olympic rink but the only major way I can see the Lions really kicking on is to find a way to link with the panthers (at least offering panthers ticket holders a couple of quid off) and getting on the arena.

There are lots of panthers fans who would watch any hockey, look at the open training sessions etc, but you have to make it extremely easy for them to watch the lions, and at the moment it isnt.

Personally, whilst on the subject Iv enjoyed every Lions game Iv been to. The hard work and determination, plus the fact its something a little different make it a good watch.

[pantherinmanc]

I agree with a lot of what Rich has said. I think really it would need someone to come in and push it on financially. I am not sure looking to grow the operation commercially is the right thing to do though so a more organic push to get a few others interested may be the most sensible route. Yes there are plenty of people who would watch both Panthers and Lions hockey however plenty wont watch both and probably wouldn't even if the lions played on the arena pad. There is a limit to the appeal of ENL hockey so I guess what I am saying is pushing it within the context of that appeal would appear the most sensible and financially viable route to pushing the crowd figures up. I'd be interested to know what the reason for this push is? Do the Lions need more fans attending to make them viable or reduce the amount of external funding they require? Other than for that reason I am not sure of the justification, the entertainment product in Nottingham Ice Hockey is Panthers, Lions should be fulfilling part of the conveyor belt that supports that product. Commercial success should, in my opinion, be considered reached / achieved when the Lions operation is self sufficient in that respect.

[lee]

its essentially rec hockey and i think thats the problem, (for me).

cheap entry suggestions are all well and good, however until the quality pics up i won't be going back, i have attended a fair few lions games in the past, however at a Fiver i just don't think its value for money.

i can't knock anyone for getting padded up and playing, or guys for running the team etc i think it should be commended. but the simple fact is its just not that entertaining... in my opinion of course, i don't want this to come across badly, but you asked what would get you to games, the following would:

better match presentation / organisation

Get a better announcer!! last time i went it was a woman (no offence to her) but she had the most boring voice ever, and was announcing the calls about 5 minutes after they had happened.

the reffing is just plain useless! no lino, one ref. poor calls.

you ask people to pay £5 to sit in the rink freezing, amongst a bunch of people who genuinly don't seem to want you there (thats the impression me and my wife got everytime). then there are a bunch of people watching from the bar / balcony for free.

these kind of improvements would make the experience worthy of £5 in my opinion.

[lukef]

Thank you for all the comments & suggestions so far- it's very useful and certainly given us things to think about and some potential ideas to try out. Please do keep them coming.

Lee- not much we can do about the officiating (sadly), but Match Night Presentation and announcing is something that we can definitely take note of.

People watching for free in the bar is an excellent point, and probably our biggest problem that we can't do anything about. The NIC won't let us check tickets of people going into the bar, so they're free to go in there and we can't do anything about it. One idea we have is to put a large banner across the balcony that blocks out most of the view.

With the Panthers games on Sundays now being pushed back this means that in theory you could do both- so we've got a couple of ideas to try and get people to make an evening of it as you suggested Pantherdman

Marketing is a good point too. Whilst we don't have anywhere near the budget of the Panthers to do it city-wide, I'd be interested to know where you think we'd be most effective small-scalex- Panthers' programme and game-night anonuncements suggestions taken on board and are being looked at if the Panthers will help.

Reason for the push? Well, at the moment the Lions is mostly financed by the players themselves- even the ones on two-way deals with the Panthers have to pay for their training and busses to away games, and we'd rather that wasn't the case, as there's a danger that wewill lose players to Sheffield & Coventry who aren't pay to play for more "play for free". But to get any sport of sponsorship we know that we need to have a better package- better presentation, and in turn more people makes sponsoring the Lions more attractive- and the more players we can keep 'in the system' the better for everyone!

Any further suggestions greatly appriciated

[5+game]

Sept 7, 2010 23:16:10 GMT @buster said:

implying that my suggestion of more marketing wasnt useful? you've just lost yourself a fiver.

Yet again Buster tries to hijack a thread

[pantherdman]

What is the Lions UPS?

Contact the Panthers supporters club, see if they will push it via E-Mail shots (or just lend you their contacts list), offer a discount to card holders.

See if the Panthers will send out Mail shots to their season ticket holders. again offer a discount.

Hand out flyers at Panthers games. get in for £2.50 with this flyer.

Get something on the Panthers website.

invite Holland and Johno down to write an article about the Lions.

Covering the Bar windows over when you have a game would be a good idea.

See if you can get Penner down for a game. lol!

[Higgy]

For me it's not the pricing,the time slot or being in the Olympic rink...but just the standard of ENL hockey that makes me not want to go...i've been to a few games in the past but got bored to be honest.

[eyeonthepuck]

we watch lions away at ice sheffield its cheaper 8 pound for a family of 4 free parking and a earlier face off