St James Park Investments

[RedPaul]

We will need the screen anyway when they bring VAR in down the League's! Heck we might even make the Championship one day.

If fans are needed in the ground early due to social distancing then we need to provide some entertainment. Put the various wins over Argyle on loop!

All sorts of options for better comms and engagement provide themselves.

Else I concur with Egg's excellent rationale. It is about widening appeal, not the 3.5k hardcore.

 

[JCWhoosh]

People are saying the screen is a big waste of money. You know what city are like with spending! I'm confident that a lot of thought must have gone in to this before commitment to spend. You never know, it may even bring more money in through advertising etc so I'm optimistic.

 

[IndoMike]

Not my thing either. But my point was that events could be screened on non-match days, as a way of increasing income. You could have a live concert in the stadium, relayed to the screen to improve atmosphere.

Maybe watching the Euros could be popular. But don't know what the cost would be for right to broadcast.

 

[Trapdoor]

At least the screen would last longer than the pitch....

 

[malcolms]

Not bothered by the seats but the scoreboard, if it can more or less break even, should be good. If possible it should go in the gap at an angle facing towards the far corner of the main stand so all sides of the ground can view it.

I'm sure that some people have misunderstood Julian's announcement. I believe he meant that the pitch and the screen would cost 100,00s of thousands together ( i guess we would need him to clarify what he really meant) If he is genuinely spending 100,000+ on the screen alone then the chances of getting a return are the better part of nil...

 

[grecianstew]

Presumably, the Big Screen would be capable of showing live events? Possibly we could stream concerts, live sports events etc. Another possible non-matchday income stream?

Certainly Somerset Cricket Club have streamed films and Football matches on their big screen scoreboard to decent commercial effect. I doubt that we would be going that big though

 

[IndoMike]

I'm sure that some people have misunderstood Julian's announcement. I believe he meant that the pitch and the screen would cost 100,00s of thousands together ( i guess we would need him to clarify what he really meant) If he is genuinely spending 100,000+ on the screen alone then the chances of getting a return are the better part of nil...

We didn't misunderstand what he said, Malcs : "“It’s a hugely expensive piece of kit running into the hundreds of thousands, but the fans want it and we want to provide it.”
He either meant it or got muddled up.

 

[ExmouthMart]

FWIW, on a personal level I'm pretty indifferent to a new hi-tec scoreboard.

At the same time, I'm always surprised by the number of people I come across – often entire families – who tell me how much they enjoy going to Sanday Park.

In many instances, I think it's fair to say these people aren't huge sports fans; rather they go for the 'experience'. Now I'm not suggesting a scoreboard alone will bring thousands of new fans flocking to SJP but, as part of a series of measures designed to ensure spectators derive the maximum possible enjoyment from their visits to SJP, it can only help.

For instance, I'm sure the majority of ExeWebbers can easily identify all our players, but what if you're not a regular at SJP? How good would it be if as Fullsy announces the team each of the player's mug shots appeared in turn on the screen? How quickly could we grow our social media audiences [with all the benefits that brings] if, say, at some point during the course of a Saturday afternoon / Tuesday evening the screen shared some #ECFC tweets from fans? How many people might be persuaded to join the Trust / or up their subscriptions if the scoreboard were to feature a video with someone such as Jake Taylor or Ollie Watkins tugging at the heartstrings?!

Of course, some may prefer that we splash the cash on a new striker, but in the medium to long-term a new scoreboard could, IMHO, be just as valuable an investment if it helps encourage a new generation of supporters to come along to the Park.

What a load of old cobblers! A successful team encourages new people along to the park or handing out free money! The match day experience..... perhaps we could host Devon day with us, Argyle and Torquay playing games one after the other, all for the price of one ticket!! That would be a nice experience.....

 

[ExmouthMart]

I can’t believe the number of people on here justifying this amount of expenditure on a flashy big tv! By the sound of it, it’s a done deal already for next season. How has this been sanctioned (hundreds of thousands remember!) when in January we couldn’t bring in players to get us over the line?! Only an injured player who still has made no impact! A successful team drives everything.
Matt Taylor has continually said after games that his tactics are being shaped by the state of the pitch and its effecting our performance because we can’t play our game. This is the Manager publicly stating that the pitch is not good enough. When does he ever say a bl**dy flashy score board will help anything?!

 

[Boyo]

Else I concur with Egg's excellent rationale. It is about widening appeal, not the 3.5k hardcore.

Improving fan experience is really important. My boy was absolutely made up when he had a birthday announcement read out over the tannoy a few years ago. The opportunity to do something with a video scoreboard takes it to another level. To do it well however takes serious investment. Not just the initial layout or lease costs, but the ongoing resources required to produce quality content will be significant. It will need a matchday operator and other staff to generate real-time and interactive content. There's no point having a bit of kit that costs hundreds of thousands if we cannot optimise its use.

If advertising revenue can be generated above and beyond our current level that will pay for the majority of the above, then let's do it. If it takes significant cash away from the club, then it's a fool's errand in my book.