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Post by Mariner on Feb 9, 2008 9:54:19 GMT -5
I noticed a poll on the Canton website for a bus trip to a road game. I have been trying to schedule a trip for the Mariner fans and was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on how the Legend's fans have gone about details in the past. Any help or advice would be appreciated. We hope Baltimore wins the poll as we would love to see some Canton fans at the game!
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Post by Canton Cougar Fan on Feb 9, 2008 23:37:01 GMT -5
I noticed a poll on the Canton website for a bus trip to a road game. I have been trying to schedule a trip for the Mariner fans and was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on how the Legend's fans have gone about details in the past. Any help or advice would be appreciated. We hope Baltimore wins the poll as we would love to see some Canton fans at the game! We tried to do one to Erie last year and it failed miserably, so we are going to try some new things this year. So, truthfully, I've not heard of a successful bus trip in the AIFA yet. The best I saw was when Reading fans went to Florence for the Championship game last year. We are still trying to come up with the winning formula. Just as an FYI, the current poll results are: 6/14 @ Baltimore, MD 43 20% 4/25 @ Reading, PA 40 18.6% 5/17 @ Augusta, GA 33 15.3% 3/29 @ Florence, SC 30 14% 5/3 @ Erie, PA 28 13% 4/19 @ Huntington, WV 23 10.7% 5/31 @ Erie, PA 18 8.4% |
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Post by Gene on Feb 10, 2008 19:45:21 GMT -5
Yea, i tried to get bus trips together for Reading fans in the past and no one was really interested. They did get 2 busloads to go to the Championship last year so thats a positive. I am working on trying to get a trip to Erie & possibly Baltimore this season. I'd be surprised if either filled up....
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Post by gonzo13 on Feb 10, 2008 20:07:57 GMT -5
The Omaha Beef of the UIF do the bus trip thing with their "Meathead" fan club. maybe they could offer some pointers.
I understand the turn out is pretty good......Could also be there's NOTHING TO DO IN OMAHA!!
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Post by Mariner on Feb 12, 2008 23:03:28 GMT -5
We've got about 30 interested fans that want to go to the season opener in Reading. I'm just finding it hard to get everyone on the same page. Obviously, I do not want to learn the hard way. Any help from you guys as to the 'why' you think your trips failed miserably? Were there other logistical problems aside from just a lack of interest?
We have the interest, but scheduling, money collection, and communication seem to be the hard part. And that's even with a message board that has high traffic every day.
Thanks for the input so far.
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Post by Canton Cougar Fan on Feb 13, 2008 23:26:07 GMT -5
Last year, we had people sign up for the trip to Erie. When the time came to collect the money, most people bailed out on us.
I think this year, I'm going to take deposits. Half now, half later. No refunds.
As far as the communication part ... I think email might be best. Don't rely on a message board and keep the excitement growing.
Another idea is to get local businesses to sponsor the trip. Tell them you'll put their logo up or something, announce their name on the bus, play their commercial, whatever. It reduces the price of the trip and makes it less expensive for fans to go.
Just a couple of ideas.
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Post by scooter on Feb 14, 2008 13:38:52 GMT -5
Joe and I have tried this the past two seasons unsuccessfully. I think it was for Canton in 06. We had the bus reserved and had people put down deposits. I think we ended up with around 15 or so fans. We tried to get the Chillers to go to but they weren't interested. When we realized that weren't going to come close to filling the bus, we canceled it. We refunded the deposits and were able to get back our deposit on the bus.
Last year we decided to go with the Pittsburgh game as it was our last road game and we would have all season to promote it. Also having the interest in playing against our former starting QB as a rooting point. We set up a sign up sheet at our table and didn't ask for money until about a month before the game. All we asked was to sign up to see what kind of interest we had. This time we promoted the hell out of it all season. I made signs and we had them hanging up in the arena all season long. Not just for the Freeze games. The arena let us leave the signs up. Joe even got the newspaper to put it into some of the articles on the Freeze during the season. We had it up on the MySpace page and on the Freeze website and MySpace page. The interest was lukewarm all season. We had a lot of people talk us about it and ask questions but that was about as far as it got. Again the deadline approached and we had to abandon the idea.
A lot of the reason for the failure might have been the teams' poor record at the time. I don't think a lot of people wanted to go and see Dinkins possibly destroy us. Unfortunately they missed one of the most exciting AIFA games I've ever witnessed.
The thing was that what we were charging for the trips would have been break even money. We weren't even trying to make a profit on it. All we wanted was a bus load of fans cheering on our team. We divided the cost of the bus by the number of seats and added on about $5 apiece to pay for soda and snacks on the bus.
We also had a discounted price for fan club members.
That was supposed to be one of the perks of being a fan club member.
We also had a lot of interest from players families. Players parents, girlfriends and other relatives are people you should try to target to get on board your trip. They often travel to watch their sons play, so find out who the players families are. A number of our fan club members were players relatives.
(Note: An "alcohol friendly" bus costs more. You will also have more issues to deal with such as possible extra clean up or other issues that the bus company might charge you more for to cover anything extra that might occur. Also an alcohol friendly bus is not likely to be family friendly. So you have to decide which fans you plan on catering to before you decide on what type of to trip to book. You also want to make sure all of the rules for the trip available to your fans prior to them signing up for it. Ex. Smoking, Non-Smoking, Booze, No Booze. Kids, No Kids, etc.)
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Post by Mariner on Feb 21, 2008 23:04:05 GMT -5
Good info. We are right on the cusp. We have about 30 serious travelers at this point, and we're about halfway on collecting ahead of time for a group ticket purchase from The Express. If we get 40 on the proposed bus, it would be about $24 per person. Does that sound reasonable from what you remember?
Our terms are:
Bus from Baltimore suburb to Reading
From ~5pm to ~12am (2 hour ride)
Alcohol friendly
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Post by scooter on Feb 22, 2008 9:09:24 GMT -5
If that includes game tickets, that is a great deal!
Game ticket, designated driver (Bus) and a ride both ways!
I'd be on that bus in a heartbeat!
Another idea for you since you are having an alcohol friendly bus is to make sure that the fans that will be driving upon your return to Baltimore are "taking it easy" on the way home. That gives them some time to sober up and get home safely after departing the bus.
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Post by Mariner on Feb 22, 2008 11:12:36 GMT -5
The group rate we are getting for the game tix is $11.50 each (rows 6 and higher). That plus bus would total ~$35
My seaosn tix in Bmore with fees and parking are more than that per ticket....~$38, and I still gotta drive downtown!
Yes, those having to drive from bus drop off to home will be good to go.
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Post by scooter on Feb 22, 2008 17:11:40 GMT -5
That's still a sweet deal! I understand the costs in Baltimore are pretty high, Joe and I were there in October for the AIFA Owners meetings. We stayed at the Sheraton across from 1st Mariner. And the parking situation is interesting. We will also be making the trip to Reading, so I look forward to meeting you then. I also hope that we will be seeing Dave as well. And of course Gene will be there, hopefully with our Grilled Cheese Sandwiches! LOL! Warm up the griddle Gene!  |
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Post by Mariner on Feb 26, 2008 16:48:50 GMT -5
Great. We have 32 tickets reserved for our group so far (22 Paid). We'll be in section 115 rows 6-9 (F-J)
We just may get this bus trip finalized with the addition of 20 of our Lady Mariners making the trip. It's not final, but we're close!
This should be a great season!
And yes, Dave will be there.
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