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beensaidbefore
06-09-2011, 05:33 PM
Can anyone give me a logical reason why Hibs for several years now have failed to cash in on any of the revenue generated by the festivals? Years agoi i sent an email to Mr Lindsay asking why i could only buy hibs strips form ER. Still nothing has changed. Do you not think tourist must think scotland only has 2 teams, and judging form Princes Street who could blame them?

Get it sorted hibs, cos even as a supporter i cant be arsed coming to the shop, let alone some guy from the pother side of the world when he can buy Arsenal, rangers, madrid, all in princess street??

Anyone know a real reason why we couldnt tap into this market? The population of edinburgh doubles during the festival ffs .:confused:

oldbutdim
06-09-2011, 05:40 PM
I think the view was that very few Hibs tops would be sold in such outlets, as the demand was greater for Old Bigots tops and the shops wouldn’t really stock them up – and by the time you knocked off the manufacturers and shops profits there was hee-haw left for Hibs.
Selling them ONLY from Hibs shop means that the bulk of the strips which would have been bought (ie from Hibs fans) are still bought, and all the cash goes to Hibs rather than share with a shop.
:agree:

Presumably a bit of market research was done to suggest this.
:confused:

Barney McGrew
06-09-2011, 05:51 PM
Although the OP's username says it all, it's worth looking at the current Celtc shop as an example of the running costs of a retail outlet in the centre of town, especially seeing that they are closing it down and looking for a new tenant for it and the figures are available (so obviously it can't be that profitable :greengrin)

Rent £60,000 per annum (plus VAT)
Rates Payable £27,760 per annum
Wages probably around £80,000 minimum inc PAYE
Plus utilities, insurances, and other expenses
The shop fit initially won't be cheap either, as well as ongoing marketing costs etc.

Although that's back of the fag packet stuff, by the time you add it up it will probably cost around £200,000 a year just to open the doors. If you work off a 50% profit margin, you need to take around £8k a week to break even.

That's a lot of merchandise to shift to tourists to make it wipe it's face let alone bring in some more revenue.

beensaidbefore
06-09-2011, 05:54 PM
I think the view was that very few Hibs tops would be sold in such outlets, as the demand was greater for Old Bigots tops and the shops wouldn’t really stock them up – and by the time you knocked off the manufacturers and shops profits there was hee-haw left for Hibs.
Selling them ONLY from Hibs shop means that the bulk of the strips which would have been bought (ie from Hibs fans) are still bought, and all the cash goes to Hibs rather than share with a shop.
:agree:

Presumably a bit of market research was done to suggest this.
:confused:

I agree to a point. in order to expand the hibs 'brand' (some may laugh) there should perhaps be an attempt to accumulate through a little speculation.

I see no reason that an 'Edinburgh Sports'(you heard ot here first) shop offering hibs, hearts, even livingston football, scotland, edinburgh rugby, speedway, ice hockey, basketball, and any others, would not be a success. The shop could be designed with a hibs n hearts halfs to highlight the edinburgh rivalry. If run in conjunction with hearts, the club could play a part in the running/ownership which could result in another source of income??

I pesonally dont have the finances or ability to pull this off, but for a long time have thought this idea would work, as we are a year round destination.

Barney McGrew
06-09-2011, 05:57 PM
I agree to a point. in order to expand the hibs 'brand' (some may laugh) there should perhaps be an attempt to accumulate through a little speculation.

I see no reason that an 'Edinburgh Sports'(you heard ot here first) shop offering hibs, hearts, even livingston football, scotland, edinburgh rugby, speedway, ice hockey, basketball, and any others, would not be a success. The shop could be designed with a hibs n hearts halfs to highlight the edinburgh rivalry. If run in conjunction with hearts, the club could play a part in the running/ownership which could result in another source of income??

I pesonally dont have the finances or ability to pull this off, but for a long time have thought this idea would work, as we are a year round destination.

If Celtc, who have a fanbase far bigger than Hibs/Hertz/Livi/Edinburgh Rugby and anyone else you've mentioned combined can't make it work, then there's no way we would.

It doesn't stack up.

smurf
06-09-2011, 05:58 PM
Although the OP's username says it all, it's worth looking at the current Celtc shop as an example of the running costs of a retail outlet in the centre of town, especially seeing that they are closing it down and looking for a new tenant for it and the figures are available (so obviously it can't be that profitable :greengrin)

Rent £60,000 per annum (plus VAT)
Rates Payable £27,760 per annum
Wages probably around £80,000 minimum inc PAYE
Plus utilities, insurances, and other expenses
The shop fit initially won't be cheap either, as well as ongoing marketing costs etc.

Although that's back of the fag packet stuff, by the time you add it up it will probably cost around £200,000 a year just to open the doors. If you work off a 50% profit margin, you need to take around £8k a week to break even.

That's a lot of merchandise to shift to tourists to make it wipe it's face let alone bring in some more revenue.

They could though look at much shorter term 'premises'...

beensaidbefore
06-09-2011, 05:59 PM
Although the OP's username says it all, it's worth looking at the current Celtc shop as an example of the running costs of a retail outlet in the centre of town, especially seeing that they are closing it down and looking for a new tenant for it and the figures are available (so obviously it can't be that profitable :greengrin)

Rent £60,000 per annum (plus VAT)
Rates Payable £27,760 per annum
Wages probably around £80,000 minimum inc PAYE
Plus utilities, insurances, and other expenses
The shop fit initially won't be cheap either, as well as ongoing marketing costs etc.

Although that's back of the fag packet stuff, by the time you add it up it will probably cost around £200,000 a year just to open the doors. If you work off a 50% profit margin, you need to take around £8k a week to break even.

That's a lot of merchandise to shift to tourists to make it wipe it's face let alone bring in some more revenue.



First point, iv only bee a member for a couple of weeks so who knows whats posted in the past.

However the figures you mention, i agree are not really workable, didnt know thats how much it cost. Still think it could be workable tho if not focussing on hibs alone...

beensaidbefore
06-09-2011, 06:02 PM
If Celtc, who have a fanbase far bigger than Hibs/Hertz/Livi/Edinburgh Rugby and anyone else you've mentioned combined can't make it work, then there's no way we would.

It doesn't stack up.

But how may places sell celtic tops??, you can get them all over the world, you dont need to get one in edinburgh, if your a toursit and like celtic, you prob go to parkhead to see the stadium and but a top/scarf. Dont think ER has the same appeal for stadium/trophy tours.

How many places can you buy sports items representing the Edinburgh sports?

Barney McGrew
06-09-2011, 06:09 PM
They could though look at much shorter term 'premises'...

They could, and IIRC from a previous fans forum I was at it's something they have looked at. Any retail unit, particularly in the centre of town won't let on anything less than a six month lease so all you'd do is pro-rata the figures down - unfortunately the break even figure would remain the same.

The other option that's been mooted is some sort of mobile caravan of the likes you see outside Hampden selling the Official Scotland Merchandise, but there's not really many places they could site it in the centre and it would no doubt cost a lot for the pitch too.


But how may places sell celtic tops??, you can get them all over the world, you dont need to get one in edinburgh, if your a toursit and like celtic, you prob go to parkhead to see the stadium and but a top/scarf. Dont think ER has the same appeal for stadium/trophy tours.

How many places can you buy sports items representing the Edinburgh sports?

I don't think many tourists would bother TBH. They're far more likely to get the strip of a team they know. How many people going on holiday to Mallorca or Tenerife for example buy the strip of a local team and how many buy a Barca or Real Madrid one?

johnrebus
06-09-2011, 06:13 PM
They could though look at much shorter term 'premises'...

Exactly.
Why could we not hire a church hall to sell merchandise?
That has never been done befo... No - wait....,

Darth Hibbie
06-09-2011, 06:15 PM
I would expect the costings of a city centre shop have been looked at several times in a variety of different forms. If the board thought it would be profitable then there would be one.

smurf
06-09-2011, 06:16 PM
They could, and IIRC from a previous fans forum I was at it's something they have looked at. Any retail unit, particularly in the centre of town won't let on anything less than a six month lease so all you'd do is pro-rata the figures down - unfortunately the break even figure would remain the same.

The other option that's been mooted is some sort of mobile caravan of the likes you see outside Hampden selling the Official Scotland Merchandise, but there's not really many places they could site it in the centre and it would no doubt cost a lot for the pitch too.



I don't think many tourists would bother TBH. They're far more likely to get the strip of a team they know. How many people going on holiday to Mallorca or Tenerife for example buy the strip of a local team and how many buy a Barca or Real Madrid one?

The mobile caravan was what I was thinking off.

I've mooted this idea before but it could also be used outwith the festival for school visits etc

There's potential. Would allow the club to save money on other outdoor advertising its currently using etc

grunt
06-09-2011, 06:35 PM
Heh heh, selling Hibs gear from a caravan in Princes Street gardens...
Perhaps if we sold clothes pegs from the caravan as well, our neighbours' dreams would come true!

Albion Hibs
06-09-2011, 07:17 PM
We dont have a big enough fan base to justify our own shop in town, no where near it I would suspect. The hertz one has closed down, as did the rangers one, if the celtic one is still there I would assume it does little to no trade, may even be a loser for them, but with there finances and support they can probably afford to lose that money.

In terms of putting our gear in existing shops I suppose we are then into sharing the profit from the strips and the risk that our own fans end up just picking one up in town rather than in the club shop where we get all of the money.

Not a massive fan of the idea of a hibs caravan! which out with the month of august (festival) would be used for school trips, dont know what that means, but I think our money would be better spent on the team rather than one of those VW passion wagon vans - Rod and Scott would look a little sill driving about in that!

Fantic
06-09-2011, 07:45 PM
Another angle would be for Easter Road to be made available as a venue for fringe shows. This would get tourists down to the shop and some may buy a ticket for a cat b game if we had one at the weekend.

smurf
06-09-2011, 08:38 PM
Heh heh, selling Hibs gear from a caravan in Princes Street gardens...
Perhaps if we sold clothes pegs from the caravan as well, our neighbours' dreams would come true!

If it was nicely branded it would look good and not be tacky.

beensaidbefore
06-09-2011, 09:08 PM
Another angle would be for Easter Road to be made available as a venue for fringe shows. This would get tourists down to the shop and some may buy a ticket for a cat b game if we had one at the weekend.


Very good idea indeed. Tbh could probably host quite a big name due to the potential crowd. How many could Forth suite hold? could make sure shop was open befeore and after and shows and give discound vouchers etc to get them through the door.


Re caravan in town, i wouldnt give a monkeys whay our neigbours say, if it brings in a little bit money, even selling pin badges and scarfs and t-shirts would be better than nothing. how much would it cost to have a couple people working one of stalls on the Royal Mile, cant be that much judging by the tat thats usually on sale.

hibs could in addition to stalls or even on its own do keepy uppy comps , crossbar challenge tyep things for kids, both tourist and local, get them all having fun at the minor expense of hibs. happy memories of hibs as kids may bring their support and £'s as adults.

greenlex
06-09-2011, 09:48 PM
Could we sell Calum Booth and buy a shop in Princes Street.?

HibsCan
07-09-2011, 03:43 AM
I remember vaguely early 70's Ronnie Simpson had a shop on Rose Street and Thompsons on Great Junction Street and Leith Street sold Hibs/Hearts stuff no?

jakki
07-09-2011, 04:30 AM
I remember vaguely early 70's Ronnie Simpson had a shop on Rose Street and Thompsons on Great Junction Street and Leith Street sold Hibs/Hearts stuff no?
I remember that. I bought my first Hibs scarf from the shop in Great Junction Street over 50 years ago. Also bought the Hibs kit for my wee 4yo foster brother.
:thumbsup:

Gala Foxes
07-09-2011, 04:52 AM
Its not rocket science - a shop in Edinburgh City Centre would not be financially viable. Selling a couple of shirts at best a day would not pay wages, rent and rates. Other than at the start of a season and at Xmas the shop would be dead. I walked past the old Hearts shop in St James Centre every day, rarely even one punter in the shop.

Hibs are also right to sell shirts exclusively through our own shop - rather than getting modest monies for shirts sold through the nationals like JJB etc

Hearts have shut their shop down, Celtic's store is up for lease - tells its own story

cocopops1875
07-09-2011, 05:04 AM
I agree to a point. in order to expand the hibs 'brand' (some may laugh) there should perhaps be an attempt to accumulate through a little speculation.

I see no reason that an 'Edinburgh Sports'(you heard ot here first) shop offering hibs, hearts, even livingston football, scotland, edinburgh rugby, speedway, ice hockey, basketball, and any others, would not be a success. The shop could be designed with a hibs n hearts halfs to highlight the edinburgh rivalry. If run in conjunction with hearts, the club could play a part in the running/ownership which could result in another source of income??

I pesonally dont have the finances or ability to pull this off, but for a long time have thought this idea would work, as we are a year round destination.

Yeah I did hear this here 1st but around 2 years back ;-).

cocopops1875
07-09-2011, 05:24 AM
I agree there is a market for this type of thing as i would always buy a shirt from where I go( assuming its not a hideous maroon affair), that said I would happily make the trip to the stadium to make this purchase. If it was a viable option the gold bros would have looked into tying up a deal with Hibs, hearts, sfa, sru, Edinburgh rugby, livi, hockey team, basketball team, and speedway. Also it has to be mentioned that we have a specialist football shirt shop in the city center who sells niether our shirt or hearts so you would assume they have enquired about it at some point.

Brizo
07-09-2011, 05:43 AM
I don't think many tourists would bother TBH. They're far more likely to get the strip of a team they know. How many people going on holiday to Mallorca or Tenerife for example buy the strip of a local team and how many buy a Barca or Real Madrid one?

In a nutshell. That applies even in the UK. I was in Bristol in summer , didnt even cross my mind to buy one of their two clubs strips. Why would someone from there buy a Hibs strip when up here. Were not a household name in England let alone the USA or mainland Europe and buying a fitba tops bound to be at the bottom or pretty near to it of your average tourists "to do" list.

What the club should be doing is maximising the potential of the club shop. I find most of the stuff pretty naff and while they have made some improvements in that area theres still scope for further improvement

carnoustiehibee
07-09-2011, 05:45 AM
On a side note, is there still a big polish community in leith?

Just thought we might've bought an old polish international, to encourage more fans down to Easter road

marinello59
07-09-2011, 05:53 AM
On a side note, is there still a big polish community in leith?

Just thought we might've bought an old polish international, to encourage more fans down to Easter road

I'd rather we bought we new one. The second hand marked for old Polish internationals can be a bit of a minefield.

Jack
07-09-2011, 06:59 AM
I agree to a point. in order to expand the hibs 'brand' (some may laugh) there should perhaps be an attempt to accumulate through a little speculation.I see no reason that an 'Edinburgh Sports'(you heard ot here first) shop offering hibs, hearts, even livingston football, scotland, edinburgh rugby, speedway, ice hockey, basketball, and any others, would not be a success. The shop could be designed with a hibs n hearts halfs to highlight the edinburgh rivalry. If run in conjunction with hearts, the club could play a part in the running/ownership which could result in another source of income?? I pesonally dont have the finances or ability to pull this off, but for a long time have thought this idea would work, as we are a year round destination. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how little the SPL appear to do in promoting the SPL. Part of that was SPL shops, selling all SPL kits, in the bigger cities in Scotland and the airports.

superfurryhibby
08-09-2011, 11:53 AM
I remember that. I bought my first Hibs scarf from the shop in Great Junction Street over 50 years ago. Also bought the Hibs kit for my wee 4yo foster brother.
:thumbsup:

John Paterson, the father of Craig Paterson and centre half from the title winning teams of the 50's worked there for many years. They still have an outlet on Elm Row.

LancashireHibby
08-09-2011, 12:36 PM
Don't think there's anywhere near the footfall to justify a city centre shop, although I do like the idea of a temporary store that would include all the other Edinburgh sports teams.

Do not though underestimate the power of the tourist - I know I've probably told this story on here in the past, but the whole reason I began to follow Hibs was coming up for a weekend away with my parents when I was 7/8 years old and saw Easter Road from Calton Hill; HFC have since had probably thousands of pounds out of me and my family since then, so it's worth following up in the long term!

Calvin
08-09-2011, 12:53 PM
Even if a shop is not viable, we should still be pushing the matches to the tourist market. We had home matches against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Berwick during the festival. How were any of the hundreds of thousands of tourists meant to know about this? Even if you are a big football fan visiting, your mindset is to look through the International Festival and Fringe brochures, not to be checking up on the Hibs website in case there's a match on.

If countless dire English student groups can get people through the doors for their pathetic productions by flyering on the Royal Mile, then I have no doubt at all that Hibs could. Especially with matches on Saturday at 3pm, when the peak of the festival isn't in full flow and tourists are looking not for shows but for attractions to visit, a football match would surely be an attractive proposition for a lot of people.

Some flyposters about the place advertising a Scottish Premier League match at Easter Road Stadium and a few guys on the Royal Mile trying to target getting some new fans through the door could work wonders. Tickets could be sold directly by the guys on the street so that they didn't have to trek down to Easter Road twice, and getting people to matches would also boost merchandise sales because they wouldn't come all the way down to ER without having a browse in the shop.

Fair enough if we tried this and it was concluded that it was not worthwhile as tourists simply aren't interested in Scottish football, but it's worth a shot for a year at least.

Albion Hibs
08-09-2011, 12:56 PM
Even if a shop is not viable, we should still be pushing the matches to the tourist market. We had home matches against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Berwick during the festival. How were any of the hundreds of thousands of tourists meant to know about this? Even if you are a big football fan visiting, your mindset is to look through the International Festival and Fringe brochures, not to be checking up on the Hibs website in case there's a match on.

If countless dire English student groups can get people through the doors for their pathetic productions by flyering on the Royal Mile, then I have no doubt at all that Hibs could. Especially with matches on Saturday at 3pm, when the peak of the festival isn't in full flow and tourists are looking not for shows but for attractions to visit, a football match would surely be an attractive proposition for a lot of people.

Some flyposters about the place advertising a Scottish Premier League match at Easter Road Stadium and a few guys on the Royal Mile trying to target getting some new fans through the door could work wonders. Tickets could be sold directly by the guys on the street so that they didn't have to trek down to Easter Road twice, and getting people to matches would also boost merchandise sales because they wouldn't come all the way down to ER without having a browse in the shop.

Fair enough if we tried this and it was concluded that it was not worthwhile as tourists simply aren't interested in Scottish football, but it's worth a shot for a year at least.

I did see a coach load of american tourists getting dropped off to the St Mirren game., most of them of course wearing Barca, Madrid and Man U tops. Dont know how that came about but we would appear to have got something from the festival incommers!

Paisley Hibby
08-09-2011, 04:48 PM
Another angle would be for Easter Road to be made available as a venue for fringe shows. This would get tourists down to the shop and some may buy a ticket for a cat b game if we had one at the weekend.

What a great idea. Could make it a bit like The Plesance with different shows on in diifferent parts of the stadium, have a bar running etc to create a bit of critcial mass.

SunshineOnLeith
08-09-2011, 06:36 PM
Considering the potential of the Festival, ourselves and Hearts are woeful at cashing in on it.

Get homes games in August in the Fringe program, and promote them properly, players doing publicity stunts etc, tickets for sale through the Fringe's website. Could be done by allocating a section of the stadium to tourists so as to avoid interference with Ticketmaster etc's systems. And at least a temporary lift on how ridiculously difficult it is to buy tickets for a Hibs game if you're not on the database.

We don't need our own shop, rent a concession within Jenners/Harvey Nicks selling Hibs stuff throughout August. I'm sure the SRU used to/still do this for Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby stuff. Surely it would be workable as a joint venture with Hearts/the SRU, or at least worth a try?

The Festival Cup was a good idea, appallingly badly executed. It could have been done along the same format as the Amsterdam Tournament and similar. Invite an MLS team, and Chinese/Japanese team, and the biggest name we can get from Europe and play all the games at Murrayfield. 2 games a day, concession stalls in the grounds around the stadium within Murrayfield, beer tents etc, ambitious but again, why not give it a try?

In terms of the rest of the year, given the ethnic diversity of Leith I'm amazed Hibs don't (or at least don't prominently) advertise in Polish and other minority languages. The Eastern Europeans love their football, if we could enfranchise them and make them think of Hibs as 'their' team, that's an incredibly lucrative potential new fanbase. Might make the 12th Man a bit more colourful as well if some of those boys got involved :wink:

givescotlandfreedom
08-09-2011, 07:57 PM
On a side note, is there still a big polish community in leith?

Just thought we might've bought an old polish international, to encourage more fans down to Easter road

7640 :dead:

IberianHibernian
08-09-2011, 09:39 PM
Even if a shop is not viable, we should still be pushing the matches to the tourist market. We had home matches against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Berwick during the festival. How were any of the hundreds of thousands of tourists meant to know about this? Even if you are a big football fan visiting, your mindset is to look through the International Festival and Fringe brochures, not to be checking up on the Hibs website in case there's a match on.

If countless dire English student groups can get people through the doors for their pathetic productions by flyering on the Royal Mile, then I have no doubt at all that Hibs could. Especially with matches on Saturday at 3pm, when the peak of the festival isn't in full flow and tourists are looking not for shows but for attractions to visit, a football match would surely be an attractive proposition for a lot of people.

Some flyposters about the place advertising a Scottish Premier League match at Easter Road Stadium and a few guys on the Royal Mile trying to target getting some new fans through the door could work wonders. Tickets could be sold directly by the guys on the street so that they didn't have to trek down to Easter Road twice, and getting people to matches would also boost merchandise sales because they wouldn't come all the way down to ER without having a browse in the shop.

Fair enough if we tried this and it was concluded that it was not worthwhile as tourists simply aren't interested in Scottish football, but it's worth a shot for a year at least.I`ve said similar several times here in last few years. Not just during festival time but all year - weekends when there`s rugby especially when Ireland visit and away fans might be interested in seeing a team called Hibernian , the thousands of foreign students who visit Edinburgh every year ( I remember speaking to a group of Africans who had been given tickets for a match - they were football mad and their visit to ER was the highlight of 6 months in Edinburgh and will have created a lot of goodwill towards Hibs ) , English language students , fruitpickers , waiters ,.crew from ships ,... flyers and posters in hotels , guest houses and tourist attractions . And it`s not just to get fans to ER where we have the problem of database ticket sales for some matches but also East Mains ( do we rent out facilities to summer schools for example ? ) , ER ( stadium visits ) , merchandise ( of course there may not be many tourists prepared to pay 60 quid for an official shirt but some might pay 10 quid for something simpler but with our club`s name on it ) . And this isn`t just about visitors - with so many empty seats should we not be offering seats to groups - pensioners , sports clubs , schools , companies ,.... no doubt this already happens but is it happening enough ? I think problem is that folk think it`s all down to using computers or offering odd free ticket when in fact a bit of personal contact ( arranging party with food outside stadium or training ground would impress visitors more than reduced price ticket for example especially with lack of atmosphere in ER at present ) .

gogsy
08-09-2011, 11:13 PM
I agree to a point. in order to expand the hibs 'brand' (some may laugh) there should perhaps be an attempt to accumulate through a little speculation.

I see no reason that an 'Edinburgh Sports'(you heard ot here first) shop offering hibs, hearts, even livingston football, scotland, edinburgh rugby, speedway, ice hockey, basketball, and any others, would not be a success. The shop could be designed with a hibs n hearts halfs to highlight the edinburgh rivalry. If run in conjunction with hearts, the club could play a part in the running/ownership which could result in another source of income??

I pesonally dont have the finances or ability to pull this off, but for a long time have thought this idea would work, as we are a year round destination.

There is such a shop in central Stockholm, called the 'Derby' shop, just off Sergels Torg. It sells merchandise from all three Stockholm clubs - AIK, Djurgarden and Hammarby. Don't know how much each of the clubs is involved, but if it works there why not in Edinburgh?

calamitus
08-09-2011, 11:18 PM
Not sure about this - my cousin was over from Canada a few years back and wanted a jacket, so went into JJB and bought a huns padded jacket, because he liked the colours. He new next to nothing about the Huns and didn't understand when he got told to take it off before he could get into the boozer. The bottom line is, he was a tourist, wanted a jacket that had a Scottish connection and bought it because he liked the colour. His Jambo dad wasn't that impressed when he got back home either:greengrin

cocopops1875
09-09-2011, 05:26 AM
Not sure about this - my cousin was over from Canada a few years back and wanted a jacket, so went into JJB and bought a huns padded jacket, because he liked the colours. He new next to nothing about the Huns and didn't understand when he got told to take it off before he could get into the boozer. The bottom line is, he was a tourist, wanted a jacket that had a Scottish connection and bought it because he liked the colour. His Jambo dad wasn't that impressed when he got back home either:greengrin

Does this not in part prove the point ? There is a market but Hibs and hearts have no presence on the high street so an innocent tourist had no choice but to label himself a vile hun :-)

Jack
09-09-2011, 06:32 AM
The trouble with being a Fringe event is the programme for that is printed before the fixtures are finalized. It's the same issue for using the stadium as a show venue - half the stadium rented out to shows then the fixtures come out, or are changed for telly, and we're double booked.

Mibbes Aye
09-09-2011, 12:03 PM
The trouble with being a Fringe event is the programme for that is printed before the fixtures are finalized. It's the same issue for using the stadium as a show venue - half the stadium rented out to shows then the fixtures come out, or are changed for telly, and we're double booked.

Obvious solution is to build a second stadium. Additional infrastructure might mean the playing budget is restricted for a few years, but you're blinkered if you don't think about the long-term benefits :agree:

Bristolhibby
09-09-2011, 12:33 PM
I`ve said similar several times here in last few years. Not just during festival time but all year - weekends when there`s rugby especially when Ireland visit and away fans might be interested in seeing a team called Hibernian , the thousands of foreign students who visit Edinburgh every year ( I remember speaking to a group of Africans who had been given tickets for a match - they were football mad and their visit to ER was the highlight of 6 months in Edinburgh and will have created a lot of goodwill towards Hibs ) , English language students , fruitpickers , waiters ,.crew from ships ,... flyers and posters in hotels , guest houses and tourist attractions . And it`s not just to get fans to ER where we have the problem of database ticket sales for some matches but also East Mains ( do we rent out facilities to summer schools for example ? ) , ER ( stadium visits ) , merchandise ( of course there may not be many tourists prepared to pay 60 quid for an official shirt but some might pay 10 quid for something simpler but with our club`s name on it ) . And this isn`t just about visitors - with so many empty seats should we not be offering seats to groups - pensioners , sports clubs , schools , companies ,.... no doubt this already happens but is it happening enough ? I think problem is that folk think it`s all down to using computers or offering odd free ticket when in fact a bit of personal contact ( arranging party with food outside stadium or training ground would impress visitors more than reduced price ticket for example especially with lack of atmosphere in ER at present ) .

Makes sooo much sense.

I for one try to go to footie games when I go abroad. Was over in Rome last year for the six nations, after the Scotland game, headed up to the Stadio Olympico for Lazio v Fiorentina.

Next year Scotland are in Rome again, I intend to go to the Roma v Genoa game.

Bought a Lazio shirt last time I was over. With the Scotland game being at the Olympico next year, they should be selling tickets for Sundays game on the Saturday. (However this being Italy, dont hold your breath).

That all said, how many times have we heard about forigners trying to by tickets for games against the Huns, Tims or Hearts and them not being sold because they are not on the database?

I think I read a thread where this happened against Celtic earlier this season.

A wasted opportunity, blighted by a lack of common sense.

J

HibbingtonHibs
11-09-2011, 12:20 AM
Tourists come to edinburgh to be entertained. Hibs have nothing to offer them. :)

connerg
11-09-2011, 01:43 AM
What a great idea. Could make it a bit like The Plesance with different shows on in diifferent parts of the stadium, have a bar running etc to create a bit of critcial mass.

Are you taking the p... or have you been living in weegie land too long, deluded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!