[spireitematt]

Bob's is back to talking about protesting against Dave Allen again. I'm usually up for a protest but I wonder what good could come of it in these circumstances.

We owe Mr Allen loads of money. He'd like to be rid of us, but the club is worth nothing like the amount he is owed. The best we manage is clearing the interest on our debt! To be worth anything like the amount Mr Allen wants back the club and the team in particular need to be completely transformed. How protesting against the status quo will improve anything is difficult to see. Mr Allen could just react by pulling the plug, and it is both his plug and his hole!

Seems to me what we really need is a blueprint for how a sports club in a central position in a town like Chesterfield can transform itself into a profit-making enterprise. Part of that is going to be creating a football team at minimal cost which is capable of regaining its EFL status, but that can only be part of the operation. As we are witnessing across the lower divisions the football model struggles to be anything but loss-making. We need something much more effective than a restaurant and the odd Lionel Ritchie concert and some pretty poor team shop. We need income streamS and sportS not one sport and we need community involvement that stretches beyond showing our face to the community.  

Only by making MONEY are we likely to either re-kindle the interest of Mr Allen, or motivate him to sell us. We can't batter down his door and demand he gives us away and rides off into the sunset. Well we can, but we could also piss into the wind, though I wouldn't advise it.

Lower ticket prices to £10 for adults and £5 for everyone else. Bring in some marketing for events at the stadium, get the players doing a meet and greet in the town centre, give free tickets and shirts to schools. Get concerts in the summer and also rent an outdoor screen on the pitch so you could have an outdoor cinema and have deckchairs on the pitch. You could have beer festivals as well. Split the pitch into 3 ways and have a 6 a side tournament as well. There are so many things you could do to bring in more revenue but you have to speculate to accumulate.