Football Programmes Centre

CarlisleUtdMem · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 359

The £1 20 page programme has been scraped and it will go back to a more normal £3 76 pager this coming season with reduced sized/priced for cup games.
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Regards,
Adam

pastpirate · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:02 am Post subject:

Great news for Carlisle fans that. Won't affect me this season unless we get you in the first round of one of the cups. I say first round, as though I have heard that there are second rounds, it's so long since we played in that round I have forgotten what it's like.
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I am not gas, I am a Pirate.

www.bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com The definitive list of Bristol Rovers programmes

chriscumbria · Joined: 02 Jan 2011 Posts: 3

I only saw the news on the official website today with the message asking for contributions:

http://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10361~2379131,00.html

I think it was an inevitable decision, as although I don't know the sales figures, from looking round the crowd I would have been surprised if more than a few casual fans, as opposed to collecters, were buying it.

I know it was described by Andy Hall as "retro" before the start of the season but going back to having a programme with one article, pen pictures and fixtures was taking the concept a bit too far! We hadn't had a programme with that level of content since 68/69, and even that included FLR so you have to go back to 66/67 for one with so little content for your money (I haven't a clue whether 2.5 pence (6 old pence) was more or less in real terms than the £1 price tag for last season!).

I said on the CUFC Memorabilia mailing list last summer that it was a brave decision that I didn't think would work and if anything my view grew stronger over the season having seen how thin the programme was.

To an extent I can understand that the race to have bigger and bigger programmes was getting unsustainable. However there is a happy medium and you have to look at having something that is big enough that you can have enough pages to fill with interesting reading material that will attract the casual buyer, while still concentrating on quality rather than shear quantity. We all have our personal favourites, but Exeter is one that I've always enjoyed and found an interesting read as an away supporter, even if not the weightiest of programmes.

By the sounds of the post on the official site today it seems that United Scene magazine is a casualty of the changes, and it's a shame it hasn't succeeded as it was an excellent publication, light years ahead of the lightweight ones the last time we attempted a magazine in the nineties. Lets just hope that some of the good ideas from that are transferred over to the new programmes. Incidently, I'm assuming there will be one last issue in time for the new season to fulfil the agreement with subscribers that they would receive six issues?

CarlisleUtdMem · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 359

I hope there will be another issue Chris as like you say many will have subscribed to 6 issues.

If not I'd guess they would give us 2 x programmes next season in return or something along those lines.
_________________
Regards,
Adam