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ANYONE on social media, picking up a newspaper or walking by the Macron Stadium will have witnessed that Wanderers’ marketing arm has been in full swing this last few months.
Super Sevens, Final Fives, kit discounts, retro 1980s music nights – they have thrown the lot at us in the past few months.
It has, on occasion, been hard to keep up. But the encouraging news is that the Bolton public is responding in kind.
Since the takeover last March, the club’s retail sales were higher than any other month, aside from the Christmas-fuelled December.
But the ringing of tills is not the only sign that things are looking rosier on the business front for Wanderers.
An end-of-season awards night has been put back on the agenda for the first time since a forlorn gathering directly after relegation from the Premier League at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium in 2012.
Crowd numbers have stayed solid, especially compared with the last time Wanderers played in the third tier at Burnden Park.
And one look around the pitch at the Macron tells you that the gaps which had popped up in the last few years in advertising hoardings were suddenly filled with new names.
Two in particular – Digital Bank and Pigeon Barrels Finance – prompted some frantic online research in the last few days, uncovering little by way of what the Far East companies could offer financially in the future.
Word from within the club is that their input as sponsors of the academy will fund ongoing running costs associated with keeping Category Two status. Beyond that, there has been plenty of speculation about how deep their involvement could run but little proof.
Two appointments appear to have been key in the club’s commercial upturn.
Paul Aldridge, a well-known football face, and Paul Holliday, a lifelong fan who had been head of media at Lancashire Cricket Club until last summer, were both recruited last summer.
Allied to existing staff like John Ashley and Andrew Dean, who have pulled in their extensive contacts, and things appear to be heading in the right direction.
As Anderson put it himself this week: “If I had asked local businesses at the end of last season to sponsor awards at an end of season dinner, I’d have had no chance,” he said.
“The town’s businesses are getting behind the football club again.”
Of course, we know there is another side to the story. Though Wanderers have managed to re-build plenty of bridges with local businesses, the financial situation at the club remains tight.
Disputes with creditors like Heathcote & Co have hit the headlines, and though that situation has now been resolved, there are plenty of other such cases, large and small, to tackle.
For all the positive work going on, it is clear the purse-strings will not be relaxed any time soon.
Once again, the Lifeline Lottery has proved its worth by coming through with funding for the academy’s inflatable dome, which will be the cornerstone to the academy being granted Category Two status. The Bolton Wanderers Development Association ploughed more than £3million into Euxton to make that one of the Premier League’s finest training grounds. Their latest investment – worth some £340,000 – will hopefully be a step in the right direction for Lostock.
Bit by bit, the club are trying to claw their way back. But what other business is so beholden to the fortunes of fate as a football club?
Promotion to the Championship will be worth £6million in extra funding to Wanderers – and whether that puts extra pressure on the players or not, it could be the difference between whether they stay or leave the Macron in the summer.
The town of Bolton is doing its bit to get its’ football club back to where it belongs, whether it is by selling a Golden Gamble ticket, a replica shirt or another advertising board.
Down to you, Phil Parkinson and Co
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/15132354.INSIDE_WANDERERS__Why_the_tills_are_alive_with_sound_of_optimism/?ref=mr&lp=7
Super Sevens, Final Fives, kit discounts, retro 1980s music nights – they have thrown the lot at us in the past few months.
It has, on occasion, been hard to keep up. But the encouraging news is that the Bolton public is responding in kind.
Since the takeover last March, the club’s retail sales were higher than any other month, aside from the Christmas-fuelled December.
But the ringing of tills is not the only sign that things are looking rosier on the business front for Wanderers.
An end-of-season awards night has been put back on the agenda for the first time since a forlorn gathering directly after relegation from the Premier League at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium in 2012.
Crowd numbers have stayed solid, especially compared with the last time Wanderers played in the third tier at Burnden Park.
And one look around the pitch at the Macron tells you that the gaps which had popped up in the last few years in advertising hoardings were suddenly filled with new names.
Two in particular – Digital Bank and Pigeon Barrels Finance – prompted some frantic online research in the last few days, uncovering little by way of what the Far East companies could offer financially in the future.
Word from within the club is that their input as sponsors of the academy will fund ongoing running costs associated with keeping Category Two status. Beyond that, there has been plenty of speculation about how deep their involvement could run but little proof.
Two appointments appear to have been key in the club’s commercial upturn.
Paul Aldridge, a well-known football face, and Paul Holliday, a lifelong fan who had been head of media at Lancashire Cricket Club until last summer, were both recruited last summer.
Allied to existing staff like John Ashley and Andrew Dean, who have pulled in their extensive contacts, and things appear to be heading in the right direction.
As Anderson put it himself this week: “If I had asked local businesses at the end of last season to sponsor awards at an end of season dinner, I’d have had no chance,” he said.
“The town’s businesses are getting behind the football club again.”
Of course, we know there is another side to the story. Though Wanderers have managed to re-build plenty of bridges with local businesses, the financial situation at the club remains tight.
Disputes with creditors like Heathcote & Co have hit the headlines, and though that situation has now been resolved, there are plenty of other such cases, large and small, to tackle.
For all the positive work going on, it is clear the purse-strings will not be relaxed any time soon.
Once again, the Lifeline Lottery has proved its worth by coming through with funding for the academy’s inflatable dome, which will be the cornerstone to the academy being granted Category Two status. The Bolton Wanderers Development Association ploughed more than £3million into Euxton to make that one of the Premier League’s finest training grounds. Their latest investment – worth some £340,000 – will hopefully be a step in the right direction for Lostock.
Bit by bit, the club are trying to claw their way back. But what other business is so beholden to the fortunes of fate as a football club?
Promotion to the Championship will be worth £6million in extra funding to Wanderers – and whether that puts extra pressure on the players or not, it could be the difference between whether they stay or leave the Macron in the summer.
The town of Bolton is doing its bit to get its’ football club back to where it belongs, whether it is by selling a Golden Gamble ticket, a replica shirt or another advertising board.
Down to you, Phil Parkinson and Co
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/15132354.INSIDE_WANDERERS__Why_the_tills_are_alive_with_sound_of_optimism/?ref=mr&lp=7