Pre-Season Friendlies Thread 2015

[Garawa]

I can't agree with all but 1 part of you write Rimshot. Being tens of thousands out of pocket to glean some sort of positive out of a 7-0 defeat makes good sporting and business sense???? It clearly has no financial prudence whatsoever and I'm pretty sure had Scally announced just that you would be the first to slate his woeful business acumen! The one part I do agree on is that would be an attraction for the fans but, given the price of the tickets and from recent games, I doubt the ground would sell out even then - we are not a charity! It would be newsworthy but only at a local level and a few new fans might be made which I doubt would turn into season ticket ticket sales.

As most pre-season games are about trying out formations and getting players back into the playing frame of mind spending thousands on a match that could end up lowering morale just to appease a couple of thousand of supporters is daft. Without meeting you I KNOW you wont run your business that way!!!

[Rimshot]

Well then you don't know anything about promoting a brand or a business. Raising your profile, attracting potential new customers, associating with successful and influential market leaders, encouraging more media interest, why would any business do that ?
Rewarding your loyal customers, testing your own players at a higher level, networking with the great and the good, nah...no business wants to do that.
You have clearly swallowed the Scally dogma that you are only interested in today's profit not in investing for a successful future. No doubt you believe we are on the brink of finding new investors and moving to a new ground. I'll take lectures from you on football but not on business strategy mate !

[Garawa]

Fine.....you really MUST stop putting all comments down into a Scally box. I don't give one iota what Scally is up to, I care about my kids and my football club and he is not the obsession he appears to be to some! If people have an opinion accept that opinion and NOT base it on the blooming chairman every time! How we went the whole general election without a Labour v Tory debate I don't know....would Scally have been used then?! He seems to with everything else.

You missed my point. I fully appreciate about "rewarding loyal fans" and promoting the business but other businesses have a budget and they would use it in a way that guaranteed an increase in revenue. Pre-season friendlies get NO coverage at all, heck even league games don't feature on local news anymore so the only people you are "promoting the business" to is existing customers! This will hardly achieve anything especially if nobody gets to hear about it. I never ran my own business but I was in charge of a £3m store and even my 3 year old daughter would know that spending tens of thousands to earn thousands is NOT FINANCIALLY VIABLE and I challenge you again that if Scally spent thousands of the club's money on a prestigious fixture then you would be his very first critic claiming he wasted club funds that could have better paid for a loanee just to pander his ego instead.

Now I'm not saying these fixtures aren't possible, you may get a good deal out there somewhere but every club outside the PL wants to play the big sides in pre-season and its the highest bidder that wins out (if any were available at all). The manager however has 6 games or so to pick a side that is capable of competing (or winning promotion as most seem to demand) so what would he get from a thrashing? Nothing, it would be a wasted afternoon from his perspective. As for "today's profit" that is all current clubs can do as we always hearing about fair play rules. I would sooner the players get up to speed quicker and have a good pre-season by playing lower clubs as a good start could lead to a good cup run. Then instead of 9,000 in pre-season friendly against Arsenal and a thrashing we might get 10,000 and sneak a win........oh and get the exposure of national TV by the match being covered and actually noticed! Just to prove a point Bradford beat Leeds, Millwall, Sunderland and Chelsea in the cup but "only" played Guisely, UCD, Shelbourne, Ossett Town, Bradford PA and Hartlepool in pre-season friendlies with Blackburn being the only higher placed opposition. They didn't feel the need and it allowed them to start the season strongly which took them on that cup run. They have a significantly higher budget then us so could afford to outbid us on a high profile friendly.

[Rimshot]

Mate ....sorry, i don't mean to sound rude but for heaven' sake !

Since Scally is the Chairman, the de facto owner and the sole maker of policy how can you possibly claim interest in GFC and not in him ? Everything about GFC is determined by him, staffing, marketing, squad size and quality, ground location, media relations. He appoints the team manager, decides who we sell and whether we have any budget to buy players, There is literally nothing about us on or off pitch that isn't either directly controlled or substantially influenced by him.

Marketing. Do you not understand at all that the short term cost/returns of a project don't necessarily determine its long term impact? Simple example. Participation in a trade exhibition cost £10,000. At the end of the show you have no orders. Short term loss £10k. What you do have is 30 enquiries. Two years later you have an international order book for the product range you launched at the exhibition, worth in excess of £1.5 million ( this is a real example from one of my clients ). So the point about pre-season friendlies is that you might not make a profit on the day ( especially if you're so unpopular you don't have any 'mates rates' to call on) but you are building fan base, raising profile, encouraging media attention and generally promoting your club. Alternatively of course you could buy a Bentley, create 'consultancies' at the club for your family at 30 grand a pop and spend a fortune on air fares between here and your desert palace.

[Garawa]

I accept that in business you do have a potential as word of mouth can slowly grow and people can discover the company. Football has to be different. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who know of the "business" but have no interest in using it. That is a big difference. I have just finished looking through the season's goals and Coventry struck me a better example. Here is a club with average gates of 2,000 playing 34 miles away. Thousands stayed away and there was a massive clamouring for the club to return to the Ricoh. Finally they were allowed back and the euphoria was immense, every channel was broadcasting about it and celebs were hyping it in a way that would eclipse a cup final let alone a friendly.

27,306 people turned up to watch the match in an evening kick-off and they won. You couldn't wish for a better opportunity to galvanise everyone. Their next home match saw 11,085 in attendance, the next 10,006, the one after that 7,708 and it tailed off to the low 7,000s - a lower tally than when they last played at the Ricoh. That says to me you have a core support, you can add a few hundred here and there but it generally doesn't alter a great deal and certainly not enough to pay back an investment which needs thousands extra coming through the door.

As for Scally I am indifferent. I LOVE real ales but I have no idea who the CEOs are. I LOVE Tassimo coffees but I don't care who their's is. I shop in Blue Inc......well you get the picture. With a different chairman we could do much better, with a different chairman we could do worse. You can only guess unless you can see the future. I'd rather have our chairman than Newcastle's, Cardiff's, Blackpool's, Leed's, Hull's......yes I know you will say they invested in their clubs buy by and large all have caused far more hatred by the fans than ours. I care deeply about what we do not what he does and I think we have taken a step forward this season. If we take a step back at some point then that sums up our history but there isn't a club that doesn't. I just don't have the time or the inclination to worry about his antics and I have started to switch off from it all as most people that slate him don't know the basics of football! (see comments on social networks about pocketing the Bertrand cash even though it is to be paid in instalments)!

[Robpthegills]

I dont like Mike Ashley, but he cannot be branded totally useless.

He cleared 30 million pounds worth of debt and lent the club 100 million on an interest free loan.


I remember watching gillingham play chelski in a pre season friendly. Ground was packed. Ruud Gullitt made his english debut, sun shone and was a great advert for the game.

I dont bother with all these pre season friendlies at local kent clubs, doesnt seem a point, if I want to go and watch non league football I would

[gillsfan1066]

So there is a reason we could not play Charlton, QPR and say Norwich or Ipswich ?? I just do not see the point of playing Dover, Dartford, Faversham and Tonbridge, lets get real , me ,you and the " lover ball " Ms.Fanny Mulligan could beat them, even with Mr Lidbit in goal, these are teams that GFC should beat by 7 or 8 goals any given Sunday if their serious about promotion. but we never do.
All this split squad " stuff ", whats the point, play the 15 guys you are going to have starting F L D 1 , DAY ONE,against Port Vale away, not someone who might be playing in November if the first team player is injured.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

We tend to play the Kent Teams to help them out,and also promote ourselves around Kent.I`m sure there will be another home fixture sorted before long.

[fan_of_mulligan]

I think the day's of Gillingham playing Arsenal and Chelsea in pre-season are gone for good now, Arsenal tend to play in The Emirates Cup and Chelsea will probably go off Asia to play in a pre-season tournament (after all Chelsea are sponsored by Samsung, so there must be a agreement in place for Chelsea to play in a pre-season competition in Asia).

Our only hope is that Justin Edinburgh's connections with Tottenham will see Tottenham send a XI Team to Priestfield Stadium to play against Gillingham, Spurs won't play any first team player's against Gillingham because Mauricio Pochettino will want to look outside his first team squad to see if he has another Harry Kane or Ryan Mason in Tottenham's Youth Team Set Up who are ready to play for Tottenham's First Team.

I would like to see Gillingham play against Margate, Chatham Town, Whistable Town and Lordswood as I haven't been to these football stadium's before, always nice to tick off new stadiums while watching a local pre-season friendly at the same-time.

Also, I think Season Ticket Holder's should watch pre-season friendlies for free, I know it isn't possible financially, but at least Season Ticket Holder's would get an incentive that benefit's them, all the incentives in My Season Ticket Book benefit someone else.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Bromley is the next friendly announced,which will be played on Tuesday 21st July 7:45pm Kick off.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I see Burton are going to play Benfica at home,how did they pull that off?

[gillsfan1066]

Stop the bit about we won't be able to play Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United, I understand they travel the World making more swag in one day than GFC does in a year, I UNDERSTAND THAT, so whats wrong with Charlton, or Leeds, or Notts Forest or Norwich or anyone that is not ******* Bromley or Margate or Faversham.
Playing tomato cans does nothing for the build up to the start of the season ,it's Bull Corn.

[Robpthegills]

It should be silly games to get the match fitness up with a build up of at least 3 games against decent opposition to be combat prepared.

All the kids that come along to these games have a chance of falling in love with live football, just need to get them there in the first place.

My first gillingham game was against newcastle in the cup in the early seventies. I went with a newastle scarf on and supported newcastle. However I fell in love with the ground and all the live football stuff and have been going to see the mighty gill's ever since.

[Garawa]

I can't see how Burton will pay for that one seeing they only get 2k in each week! When Bournemouth played Real Madrid and lost 6-0 it cost every Bournemouth fan £60 and they had to sell every ticket. Even then I think they were out of pocket but then they had a chairman with plenty of spare cash who fancied a bit of attention!!

[Rimshot]

That's exactly the point I've been trying to make; they don't expect it to pay on the day, they expect it to be part of a long-term programme. There is risk of course, but then sueing everybody in sight ( and almost always losing) is not exactly a blue-chip investment is it ?