Bid progress

I'm no longer closely involved with the bid process so have limited up-to-date info, but just a clarify a few points of confusion -

- regarding preparation: the bid team is continuing to prepare and plan for a potential extension of the bid process even as negotiations continue, so that if negotiations are successful, we can hit the ground running. The fact that we are preparing for the next stage doesn't imply that the board have decided to back us and the extension will definitely go ahead.

- these plans include setting up a sub-committee/taskforce with the specific task of driving attendances (referred to in the business plan as the 1000BC project). I agree with Bristol Mike that the bid can do more to help widen the audience and have put my name down to work on this if it comes about. But as Marc says, we can't just go off and do this on our own - the big picture questions need to be settled first really. This is a pragmatic point, not a point of principle for us.

OliverH wrote:
- these plans include setting up a sub-committee/taskforce with the specific task of driving attendances (referred to in the business plan as the 1000BC project). I agree with Bristol Mike that the bid can do more to help widen the audience and have put my name down to work on this if it comes about. But as Marc says, we can't just go off and do this on our own - the big picture questions need to be settled first really. This is a pragmatic point, not a point of principle for us.

Over the months this recurring topic has always confused me. Why is it not possible to do this now? Would the current board actually discourage anyone from outside the board attempting to encourage more people to turn up at Twerton Park?

It's not a case of them discouraging anyone, but at the basic level you'd need a plan and a division of responsibilities etc. E.g. we probably need a poster/flyers that just targets students, and probably some other materials that focus on building name/brand awareness rather than advertising specific games. Who approves the designs? Who pays for them to be printed? Who puts them up around town? Who can approach the student unions and say "I'm from Bath City FC, can we do X Y & Z"?

None of this would be particularly complicated to sort out but you can see why these conversations would take a back seat during much more pressing negotiations.

And as Marc has said, the bid team felt very stretched over the summer just delivering the bid-related activity, so taking on club marketing & promotions on top of this didn't really seem feasible just in terms of sheer man-hours.

Following on from my last post on this thread, please let me direct your attention to the sticky above on the 1000BC fan initiative.