Programme Ideas

[BattyTheDabber]

Hi all,

First time poster so excuse any mistakes!

I'm the media assistant at Nantwich Town FC and have always had a huge interest in football programmes. However, from the 'bigger' sides in English football, I have come away from their matchday magazines feeling lost for ideas.

Obviously, I have ideas of my own, but from people who have far more experience with programmes than I have (I'm only fifteen!), I'd like to hear it from others:

What makes a good football programme?

If anybody has any ideas, whether it be for a player feature or anything else, please let me know!

Thanks in advance, your help is much appreciated!

Ryan Batty,
@TheDabbers

[Dorking]

Hi Ryan
The pages I head to first when I get a programme are:

- Chairmans notes (if he/she is willing to do a page) as long as they are not too bland, these can provide a fascinating insight into the direction of the club and current issues behind the scenes

- tickets and travel - so I know the price of tickets/coach times etc for upcoming games, any special restrictions etc

- memorable game against the opposition (always nice to jog the memory banks)

- memorabilia page (if there are willing contributors) - club collectors like us lot on here might be willing to share an image of an old or rare programme or other item - even more interesting if it relates to the opposition of the day

- league table and fixtures of the day

[yachtsmun]

Hi Ryan.

Well done on taking on such an important role aged just fifteen. Nantwich are fortunate to have someone so committed and enthusiastic to help them out.

I took on a similar role (programme editor) at my local club, Cowes Sports F.C., when I was a similar age, wrote the programme for a few seasons, and have been collecting our programmes ever since.

Re. suggestions for the programme, here's a few ideas from me:

Firstly, whatever you write, if it's done with a real passion and love for the club, people will respond positively to it. Lots and lots of programmes are put together with no real care or passion and it really shows.

Second, you're already streets ahead in that you've bothered to ask what people want to read.

I'm a massive fan of stats where they're relevant (such as previous results against today's opposition) but I've seen countless programmes padded out with pages and pages of recent (and not so recent) fixtures and results from the same league, or other leagues, and suchlike. I would much rather read a four page programme packed with interesting stuff than a 40 page programme padded out with irrelevant stuff.

Dorking's suggestions below are all good. Also, if you can find someone at the club who can write a bit and do a weekly column (about the club, the league, football in general or even life in general) that can be a great help. It takes a bit of pressure off you and adds variety too.

One of the most important things (especially at our sort of level of football) is to try and get (and nurture) the community feel of your club onto the page (both the broader, local community and the specific people and feel within the club itself). Many people who watch football at all levels really love their club, but look at all the moaning (on this forum and elsewhere) that their club programme is soulless and doesn't speak to them personally. If you can become part of the glue that sticks all the people involved in your club together, you're doing a great service.

And don't be afraid to try something different. If it doesn't work, no worries, don't do it again. But sometimes the unexpected things work brilliantly. A few years ago I did a piece looking at the advertisers in our match programme. It turned out one local business had advertised in our programme every season since the mid-1960's, and another had missed only a couple of seasons since first advertising in the 1920's! People really responded to that one.

Good luck with it - I'll look out for your programmes - and good luck to The Dabbers for the season too.

Toby.
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Always looking for pre-1980 Cowes homes, pre-1987 Cowes aways, and any other bits and bobs relating to Cowes F.C. and I.W. football in general. Someone has to.

[Tynie Topics]

Remember we live in an age of Twitter and Facebook, when information is presented in short snapshots.

With that in mind, consider doing player interviews/profiles by asking them only 5 or 6 questions, try and make them different and something people will be interested in knowing rather than the standard "favourite player" etc, and rather than a long rambling interview.

You always see pen pics in programmes for the visiting team, but why not have that as a regular feature for the home team as well to help visiting fans and the more irregular home fans know who your players are?

I think you'll get a lot of advice on here to do history/memorabilia articles as we are all a bunch of anoraks, but I do think something like that needs to be covered.

Also, make sure you cover your reserves/reserves/ladies teams in some way as I find fans like to know what's going on in those areas.

Finally, consider articles relating to football in general, maybe on a current topic in the news.

Good luck!
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/footballprogrammes/albums

[yachtsmun]

One other thing. I'm guessing if you're media assistant that your remit extends beyond just the match programme. I'm also guessing that Nantwich put out posters for their matches in the local community, but if they don't, try and get it started.

They help bring people in through the turnstiles, but they really help raise the profile of the club in the community too. About five years ago we reintroduced match posters after around a fifteen year break. In those five years, our average home gate has gone up by over 50%. This can't all be attributed to the posters, but they've certainly helped.

Below is an example of the Cowes poster we're doing this season (eagle-eyed forum members might spot where the footballer image used was pinched from!)


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Always looking for pre-1980 Cowes homes, pre-1987 Cowes aways, and any other bits and bobs relating to Cowes F.C. and I.W. football in general. Someone has to.

[holtie96]

Welcome to the forum.
I have noticed that you have a very healthy level of following on Twitter so a vast amount of help and knowledge out there for you.
My local club Woking produces an excellent programme and one of my favourite features is the Cardinal Tales a section dedicated to the history of the club. Mark Doyle @cardinal_tales is a nice guy who will be more than happy to give you some tips or advice.
Also there’s an up and coming Twitter site gaining a huge amount of support called non league programmes @nonlgeprogs and I am sure questions through the site or surveys about content of programmes will get sone response also @nonleaguecrowd
Keep the passion keep interest
Tony Inzenco from Talk Sport @tonyinzenco is doing a campaign to keep programmes available at matches.
Good luck and keep us posted with your endeavours
Holtie

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Some great answers above and I hope you make it a success. And you are doing well on Twitter too.

One or two very simple comments from me:-

Make sure the date, kick-off time & opposition are clearly on the front page. That may sound simplistic but if you check Crystal Palace programmes from 1957/9 to 1968/9 you'll see what I mean.

I might be biased but stick a few photos into your articles. They make a full page less daunting to read.

Very best of luck.

[Fishy]

Welcome Ryan!

What a great undertaking for you at your age - I wish you every success.

I can't add anything to the ideas above and am not on Twitter so I'm not much use to you except to give you moral support.

Ian
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Millwall league AWAYS wanted
45/6 Newport; Swansea; Leicester.
47/8 Coventry.
48/9 Newport.
49/0 Walsall; Exeter.
50/1 Port Vale.
51/2 Port Vale 1/5.
52/3 Swindon.

[Five and In]

Welcome to the forum Ryan.

You've had some really good suggestions from the other guys already which will hopefully add some food for thought for you.

Personally, I have always liked the idea of an interview with a long standing fan of the club. Depending on space, probably as a small Q&A.
Simple things like first game, most memorable, all time favourite player, expectations for the season etc.

Good luck and hopefully you will keep us updated with how it goes.

Paul

[Flaming Pie]

Good luck Ryan, here’s one for you. Burnley star, Ashley Westwood, was born in Nantwich. He played for your club during the 2008 season. There are probably photos of him in Nantwich colours. He may well let you have copies of some of his own early football pics. If you contact Burnley, tell them what you are attempting to do ( tell them your age as well) and request an interview with Ashley for the Nantwich programme. Burnley are a good club and l think that they would pass on your request to him. Ask him about his experiences playing for his hometown club. If this doesn’t come off, you have lost nothing. I have a hunch that you would be successful. Just to add, if successful, tell Burnley that they would have full permission to print the interview in their own club programme.

[Jamesy1926]

Can only echo what’s been said previously. I help out with the Cardiff Met programme and would be happy to exchange ideas. Feel free to PM me for a chat.

[BattyTheDabber]

Hi all,

Lack of updates, though we've certainly been busy!

The club are up to second in the league, and I believe the programme has certainly improved from last season.

We've recently expanded from 32 pages to 36, which is always a challenge when there's only the two of us who contribute.

I attempted to get an interview with Ashley Westwood, but unfortunately, he declined. However, we did get the chance to speak to Walsall forward Josh Gordon, who spent time with Leicester after leaving the Weaver Stadium.

Additionally, this past week, the club compiled perhaps the best edition of the season, for our derby with Warrington Town.

I have attempted to attach a PDF of the programme - please let me know your thoughts!

https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/44704590_172739840336902_4358554974012047360_n.pdf/vWarrington1.pdf?_nc_cat=104&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=6976f233717a47e172d0f723314f740a&oe=5BDCB355&dl=1&fbclid=IwAR1PTKXvEEBUjqFsJivsq8l-vraPU0R8Peb0uxW9AYEB1bfYpfNG8bKvL5g

If it doesn't work, don't worry, but thank you all for your suggestions and ideas - you've all been huge helps!

Regards,

Ryan

[Mr. St4]

I've done a few of these over the years and i've gone with different angles with different teams. This season i've invested in the statistics side of the game and have one of the parents keeping a tally of shots, shots on target and assists. These are all collected through the game and then i work out accuracy, conversion rates and goal involvement for the game which gets added to bottom of the match report. Over the course of the season, the stats from each game are added to a totals table and shows the stats for the whole season. This has been a huge success and the parents love it.

I produce an 8 page booklet every week and from the start of the season i have profiled each player asking them simple and comical questions to fill their player profile. They have been asked to provide a random fact about themselves, what they aspire to be, who they support, who their favourite players are and then questions that need a squad player as an answer. The picture attached to the profile is sent over by a parent and has to be embarrassing (baby picture, fancy dress) Every one of our parents have jumped on board and its created a togetherness across the squad. We charge £1 and all the proceeds go back to the kids, we've just bought christmas presents for them all.

A new idea I'm currently trialling is the soccer am team mate Q&A feature. I've compiled 14 questions where the lads need to nominate who would fit that bill. Questions like best dancer, worst haircut, least likely to pull, likely to have a tantrum. We are also going to record the Q&A with a team mate (2 of them) and produce a DVD of all the lads available for the parents to purchase at the end of the season. We're going to call it "Wingmen" and make it as fun as we can. Us coaches are also going to join in too as we did with the profiles.

If anyone would like templates and what i currently use feel free to email me and ill send them over to you.

[email protected]