i8cornwall
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2006
- Messages
- 2,745
Very true and fully agree with what you have said, I had just never thought of it as two separate “issues”.Personally, I think that Community and Fan Engagement are two seperate, but linked, items - both equally as important as each other. What we do in the community creates a goodwill towards the Club around the city which you couldn't get from just focusing on the team and the fans. That brings with it a number of benefits, including politically (imagine if the City Council did something which ultimately led to the collapse of the CCT) but most importantly access to convert people who are not currently fans to being fans.
Without community engagement, we'll only maintain our fanbase over time through children of current fans going and then sticking with the club. Community engagement enables the club to reach people who aren't currently fans, but could be converted. Particularly with children who might end up nagging their parents to go to games if they been visited by a player, or attended one of the courses the CCT run.
Community Engagement is therefore all about accessing people who could be fans, but aren't yet, whereas Fan Engagement is ensuring retention of the fans we do have. Both require different strategies but are equally important if the aim is to grow the club, rather than standstill.
It is important to carry on the community engagement to get new fans through the door and it has lead to my two nephews becoming city mad which otherwise would not have happened as other then me know one in my in-laws is really into football. I do honestly feel that fan engagement for longer term fans is something lacking but there are only so many hours in a day that the club and trust can do things in.
sadly I have a few friends who have simply stopped coming to city over the last couple of years because of this and over the last year or so I have somewhat started to become more disillusioned Myself.