CEO Brian Caldwell pleased by initiatives to bring in more fans
Shrewsbury Town CEO, Brian Caldwell, admits that he is pleased with the improving attendances at the Montgomery Waters Meadow, but still wants more.
Over 8,000 attended the game against Blackburn Rovers last month and even on Tuesday night, more than 5,000 home fans were in attendance.
“It’s great to see the team doing so well and Tuesday night was a fantastic first-half from the team”, Caldwell told ShrewsWeb.
“I was quite pleased with the crowd on Tuesday night - we had over 5,000 of our own supporters here. I know we can get more, but people are still coming out in better numbers than they were this time last year.
“Obviously, we are still trying to encourage more people to come and we need our supporters to speak to lapsed supporters and try and encourage them back to the Montgomery Waters Meadow and see the brand of football that we are playing.”
One of the big improvements over the last year has been the introduction of the County Group Stand Ticket Office and Brian hopes that initiatives like that are making things easier for fans.
“I think it’s helped massively”, Brian said.
“They actually ran out of tickets on Tuesday night, which is a positive, but obviously we’ve got to make sure we’ve got enough to cope with demand for the West Stand.
“But, if there are 150 or 200 people buying tickets at the West Stand Ticket Office then that’s 200 less people queuing at the main ticket office for their tickets, so it actually makes things a lot easier.
“Initially we started as cash only, but we’ve now got card, so we are trying to make things easier and, with the Fan Card too, it is hopefully making things easier and takes away the excuses for some people.”
Another popular initiative in recent months has been the creation of the Fan Zone and Brian was delighted to announce that that will now continue until the New Year.
“We’ve been speaking to the Supporters’ Parliament about this and by all accounts it’s done really well”, Caldwell said.
“We’ve had good numbers at all the games and the weather’s been kind to us. We have had the marquee for the last couple of games and we have now extended that to have that facility until the 1st January for the Oldham game.
“So, for every Saturday game, plus the New Year’s Day game we will have a marquee that we can use and actually have the Fan Zone, because I think it’s important we continue what we’ve built up.”