Programmes are absolutely a tradition of football matches,
but the harsh reality is more fans ask us for a Wi-Fi code at Harmsworth Park
than they do a programme, nostalgia unfortunately isn't a reason to continue
with something. The main driver behind the decision was not about profit albeit
the figures quoted online by those not pleased at the decision do not show the
whole picture. Valued Sponsors and advertisers are keen to support the club in
different ways and a programme advert was seen as a convenient way to thank
them for their generosity, in truth the programme viability has been propped up
by figures that were attributed to programme advertising, when in reality the
financial donation had already been received by the Club. On a few occasions we had received our usual 70-80
programmes that had been printed only for the game to be called off on the
Saturday morning. On days matches went ahead, of the 70-80 printed, roughly only 40 were sold as the others went to
hospitality guests, visiting committee, officials and a few people who over the
years had earned a well-earned freebie! The bitter irony of the
decision being justified, it could be argued, is that the disquiet expressed
online by a few people about the demise of the paper programme, they only knew
about, because they read the news online, despite the information being printed
in the two previous programmes! When you add in that the other modern day reality
is that it's just about impossible to keep everyone up to date with everything
that's happening with a printed booklet, it was obvious that more time was
required on the way the vast majority of people both locally and globally
receive news about Wick Academy FC. Five or six programmes were sent to
expats/collectors each game, whereas we have over three thousand twitter
followers and over a million ‘hits' on the Club website.
However, as was always planned, we think we have come up
with an attractive compromise and will be rolling it out shortly. We will be
providing a colour double-sided match day team lines at both gates that will
allow fans to see both starting ‘elevens' and subs bench listings, of which
current team line sponsors are quite happy to support and on the reverse will
be the pen pics of our players and staff along with their sponsors details of
which we have secured fans and businesses who have never sponsored or
advertised with us before. This will enable us to give the most up to date information
to everyone whether connected to the World Wide Web or not. It also does away
with the periodic problem of do we print or not print, in the depths of winter
on a Friday afternoon while we struggle with plastic sheeting and scaffold
boards to try and get the next days game on! Basically if the games on we hit
the print button in the secretaries hut as soon as we get the line-ups from
both managers at 2.30pm and then dispatch the said paperwork to the gates! And
at the same time all the news fans need will be on the website for ever, for
anyone to access anytime, this year, next year or in ten years.
the decision is for the overall good and progress of the Club and while we know
we cannot please everyone, the only way we will know if a new concept works, is
if we try it, knocking something before it's trialled won't get anyone
anywhere. We would like to express our
sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to the programme over the years
thus far.
