Lewes FC Quest For Football Tourists Falters

What is a football tourist ? It is somebody interested in a football team, but not enough to spend a lifetime dedicated to it.

Why have Lewes FC been chasing after football tourists ? Lewes have introduced ‘budget parity’ and are the first semi pro  /pro football club to do so. The board decided that rather than concentrate promoting it locally they would start a large media campaign to attract national and international interest.

They stated they thought they could attract a large number of new members paying £30 a year from around the globe.

Really, very ambitious ? yes and  initially apparently even 3 people from Japan signed up.

So it worked ? Initially there was a growth spurt rising from 1100 members 4/9/17 to 1300 in 14/3/18. The board were very bullish at the prospects of the initiative.

That’s 20% not bad in six months? Not quite, membership has been rising about 100 per annum so 150 maybe.

£4,500 extra revenue is still good though, what then? Sadly, the figure from 1300 14/3/18 to 2/9/18 only went up to 1350.

So 50 but the club gets 50 in that time frame ?  Yes, the tourist trap failed.

Why has it failed ? Because basically the board at the club misjudged the interest there might be, there is minimal interest in women’s football.

Shame though ? Not really, when the quest for football tourists was announced at our fanzine we said it was a stupid idea and that rather than actively pursuing football tourists, Lewes FC  should be attracting new people from the local area who would not only pay the membership but also pay admission, for catering product and merchandise etc.

What a cock up, are the figures accurate ? Yes the figures are all from emails from the club and their twitter account

Have they dropped it ?  Go to the website they are still heavily promoting the initiative.

And ? The light is on but nobody is in apparently.

The moral ? Try not being so clever, knuckle down and grow your support base and membership in the tried and tested fashion. You can’t beat the system with ‘smart’ ideas.