The K's In Point
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World Cup
Views: 1840
I’m sure I seen a picture of Reece and Lauren James (the Lionesses scorer today) playing together in K’s colours.
Am I mistaken?
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1321
Nice piece on Lauren James on the BBC Sport page featuring our Under-18 manager, Nigel.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66385871
The rest of the sporting world thinks this is a big deal even if K's don't. Keep 'er lit, Lauren!
Edited by irishk at 21:23:43 on 2nd August 2023
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5 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1510
You’d think that we would, you know, maybe do something about this as a football club, wouldn’t you?
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1460
It's not just the appalling decisions that our Directors make. It's their total abdication of duty to do anything to promote the Club.
Just imagine the media coverage this would have achieved under KBH's leadership.
Edited by reximus at 11:01:07 on 29th July 2023
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9 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1573
But any attempt at marketing the club gets denigrated on this forum. The ‘kids for free’ scheme is a case in point where it was implied on here that any attempt to incentivise residents from RBK to attend K’s games is essentially pointless.
Edited by Nick Garland at 11:25:48 on 29th July 2023
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3 people 6 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1381
Aren’t you a bit of a div, Nick?
I pushed so hard for the kids for free scheme to be originally introduced more than 10 years ago. The idea was received in a very hostile way….in spite of West Ham Utd doing regular “Kids for a quid” promotions for, wait for it, Premier League football!
I paid something like £1,500 (very rough estimate) to compensate Ks for the loss of earnings from kids paying on the turnstiles per season and to produce thousands of groovy plastic season ticket cards. I offered to pay to mail hundreds of them to all the schools on Kingston but the offer to mail them was rejected because K’s had “the schools in hand with a friend in the system”…apparently,
Be aware that I didn’t even promote my company on the season tickets - I paid for it personally and wanted Ks to be front and centre on the tickets without corporate sponsorship.
I distributed lots myself, aided by some of the PKK lads but hundreds and hundreds of the tickets were thrown in the trash because the club didn’t distribute them…neither did whoever they thought could distribute them to schools instead of me.
Kids for free for those youngsters resident in Kingston is an utter waste of time…and my legacy as a Ks fan (which is a what I consider the Kids for Free thing), is a joke until we’re back in Kingston.
I dont know what the current board are up to but historically, they seem to repel anyone who offers to chip in and help.
I remember a meeting at training, in the Kingston Uni pavilion, where Dowse, Martin Tyler, John Fenwick, asked several other people to put their hand in their pockets to help fund a push for promotion (the season that we lost the play off semi final at home to (I can’t remember who) because other directors wouldn’t invest in the promotion push. I declined because I’d already pumped in thousands, with nothing in return (I expected nothing) other than enjoyment, and decided that giving any more would make me an absolute mug. It was very weird. Anything anyone put into the club in the way of sponsorship seemed to reduce the amount the directors paid in rather than be added to the squad budget:
I’m one of maybe a dozen people (quite aside from the KBH chaps) who have been repelled by the way the club is run.
What an utter shambles the club has become. Awful, sad, and toxic as a result of those supporting a shambles of a board. Enough already!
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1213
A HUGE thank you to Johnny, the man behind the kids for free scheme, for the numerous times I managed to get my kids into games without paying for them. I genuinely didn’t realise this scheme’s roots are down to the selfless actions of one person.
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6 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1282
This is a great post JD. Great insight to those sponsors and investors who have tried to make positive moves for the club they love.
It’s telling that former sponsors, patrons, club secretary, supporters, players, volunteers and managers have given us insight into this shambles of a board either in person, off the record or on various platforms including here. Imagine if many of these people still game to support the club, we might be in a better place. Instead we have a board that keeps the inner circle close, with many having to walk away for similar reasons The majority of people who care about the club can see how close to the dinosaurs(extinction) we nearly are.
I will respect the board now if they come out and re-engage, do what they should do and work with the fans.
The worse it gets, the more hostile fans will become. It’s a fact of life when something you care about is gradually being taken away, anyone with a backbone will be angry about it!
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1250
It maybe a move in the right direction if there were three respected people available for the board to approach with a view of moving forward from the current impasse. For example if John Bangs, Ali and Jamie G ,all of whom would be ideal for this role, were known to the board that they can approach then maybe there is an opening. If we got to that stage then I am sure I and others can forward ideas to that group..
It’s one idea that some may see flaws but trying to be proactive.
As Filipe says there needs to be re engagement. I agree
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1226
Peter I like your posts and debate on this forum but I think it’s clear we are all pissing in the wind.
I and others have spelt out how this board really don’t give a fuck about what fans think.
JD’s post above sums it up for a sponsor/patron to be treated like that what chance do you think the fans have got????
Oh and I’ve known JD a long time, there’s a lot more he’s told me about the ideas that were either rejected by the board or not even acknowledged. All great ideas to try and move the club forward.
They need to go, all of them!
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1209
Fair enough. I am not local and perhaps only attend maybe 10 times a year so there are a lot of people I don’t know but am sure your appraisal of them is accurate.There are many past and present who put in (or have done) a lot of time and resources to the benefit of the club and deserve our thanks If your view becomes a reality it will be interesting to see what the new look will be. It is this unknown which, for me, is a concern.or more to the point there may not be a new composition.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1205
Bob Dylan's prophetic message to the Board of Kingstonian, written nearly 60 years ago:
"Your old road is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand"
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1423
“But any attempt at marketing the club gets denigrated on this forum. The ‘kids for free’ scheme is a case in point where it was implied on here that any attempt to incentivise residents from RBK to attend K’s games is essentially pointless.“
It’s pointless…without being part of an overall strategy.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1435
It's also pointless when the advertising of the scheme is non-existent, we don't play in the Kingston area and the number of fans that have been put off attending and therefore won't be bringing their kids has grown year on year. Apart from that it's a fantastic initiative by our marketing guru.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1468
There are different forms of marketing.
Advertising a kids-for-free scheme is a sales promotion (short-term, tactical marketing) and probably worthless while we're playing so far from Kingston.
Exploiting the link between Reece & Lauren James and Kingstonian, with her current high profile and an absolute gimme like that picture of the two of them as kids in Hoops, would be more akin to brand awareness. It's important to appreciate just how *essential* this is while we're nomadic.
The Club's silence on this is utterly appalling.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1351
Let’s not forget that it’s not just , the highly topical, Lauren James and Reece James, their father is Ks Under 18s head coach. The club could be using this viral photo, sent from Reece James himself, to be promoting the club and our our youth team through an old photo of the past linked to the club’s present and, hopefully future.
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7 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1396
Totally spot on.
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1 person
Re: World Cup
Views: 1432
Yes, telling kids in Kingston to travel to Mitcham, even for free tickets, is... pointless. How many kingston-resident teens did you see at home games last season? Compare it to KGF and even Leatherhead. Don't you think it might have something to do with time and cost of travel?
I note you have nothing to say about the Board's failure to promote the Chelsea game or - the subject of this thread- the products of Kingstonian youth attracting national attention.
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6 people 1 person
Re: World Cup
Views: 1442
It just strikes me as somewhat ironic that the board are being criticised for not making more of the Chelsea game and the James’ as youngsters in Kingstonian kits in the national press whilst continually saying at every opportunity what a terrible state the club is in.
You are criticising the board market for not marketing something which I think it’s fair to say have no belief in personally and probably wouldn’t recommend yourself to anyone?
Edited by Nick Garland at 12:27:20 on 29th July 2023
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1317
That's not ironic... the lack of marketing (& criticism of it) is part of the terrible state.
It's like me saying it's ironic that my car won't start when it's on fire & one of my wheels is a mile down the road.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1341
It is ironic that there are complaints about not marketing something which is as you say ‘in a terrible state’. Is there also not a case of be careful what you wish for? If there was a successful marketing campaign that boosted the average attendance a bit, would it not also weaken the case that Imperial Fields is a ‘disaster’ and increase the likelihood of staying there?
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1311
I disagree with the basis that marketing something that currently has zero visibility & a less than impressive current reputation with a sizeable number of it's core custmer base is ever in any way going to be a bad thing or produce results that are worse than the status-quo.
If the marketing executive is of the persuasion that he shouldn't market the club because some of the existing fans are pissed off with how the club is being run (with one of the long pre-existing points being the lack of marketing) then I don't think he's the right guy for the job to be honest with you.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1299
You've totally missed the point about different forms of marketing.
A short-term, tactical marketing, sales promotion would be worthless while we're playing so far from Kingston.
A brand awareness campaign is just about *essential* while we're nomadic.
The Club's silence on this is utterly appalling.
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4 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1404
Acknowledging the achievements of former players on the world stage is hardly ‘marketing’.
It’s common courtesy.
Our silence on this (and everything) speaks volumes of the state we’re in.
Only Simon Grier’s excellent guides are filling the void.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1374
Why do you think the Board didn't market it?
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2 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1478
I’m afraid I don’t know the answer.
It’s not that this isn’t a good point but my question would be if more was made of it, to what end from your perspective given your expressed views about the current state of the club?
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2 people 2 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1355
So what you’re saying is that the lack of marketing is actually a well thought out plan to intentionally keep attendances low to make it even less fun at Mitcham so that it’s easier to return to Kingston in the long run?
I take it all back. Yiorg is a genius.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1483
the products of Kingstonian youth
Which of course is now Colliers Wood youth. Yet another way our club has been hollowed out over the last few years.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1435
True. Although tbf that's one debacle we can't blame the board for (i think).
Fenwick at the time and more recently said there's no point restarting anything like a youth and women's programme until we have a ground. That's debatable.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1300
Fenwick is definitely wrong about restarting the youth set up. How can we put a case for grants if we don't have a community arm? This should be an urgent priority for the club. Say by some miracle we find a site, we are going to need at least 3 or 4 million to buy and develop that. Youth football (particularly girls football) is really high on the priority list for handing out grants, so it seems very counter intuitive not to restart something, even if it is a lot of work.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1212
He Is wrong about a lot of things
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1402
If he said that it's highly debatable, particularly regarding a women's team which is only one team not 20+ teams; and would be a real positive to persuade the Council etc when it comes to us getting a ground.
Setting up a whole youth system from scratch is of course really hard, which is why it's a tragedy that we lost the one we had. That was on the board's watch and was at the time we brought Nigel James in, so presumably related to they handled that.
We don't know exactly what happened but it's another key relationship that fell apart on their watch. Like Casuals. And like the three best managers we've had in their era.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1377
This came up during KBH negotiations actually. Board were adamant they'd provided a lot of practical and financial support to that youth set-up (even though it was nominally independent) and the guy involved had been looking for an excuse to move it all across to colliers - who then used the "nigel james commercialisation" argument as a figleaf. I actually believed Fenwick on that BUT it may be better relationships would have helped. Hard to say.
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1 person
Re: World Cup
Views: 1427
Sure, it's hard to know for certain and there's two sides to all these stories. But it's about proactively maintaining key partnerships. For years it had felt like the youth section was becoming more distant from the club so clearly whatever we were doing wasn't enough. If it was properly embedded within the club it couldn't have just upped and moved because one guy wanted to.
There's a real pattern that a lot of relationships that were really important to the club haven't been maintained. The board might not have done anything terrible in any of those instances but clearly they also didn't do enough to make those people/organisations feel valued and want to stay. Add Banquet Records to the list, add FWP, add the women's team we used to have, add numerous volunteers we've lost, etc
Edited by SDG (Ks) at 13:36:38 on 29th July 2023
Edited by SDG (Ks) at 13:52:48 on 29th July 2023
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1338
To be fair, the first team have used more youth players since it’s been attached to Nigel James Elite Academy than it did for many years before.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1409
That's true and it's not to knock Nigel James, whose team is one of very few parts of the club that's going well right now. Albeit the first team is rather easier to break into than it used to be.
But perhaps it could have been handled better so we could have had both, or if not maybe it wasn't worth the sacrifice.
I'm not sure I'd swap the wider benefit of having girls and boys of all ages across the borough playing in the red and white hoops, just for a better U18 team. It's a massive lost link between the club and hundreds of kids and parents in Kingston. Another loss of our brand in the borough. Another thing we can no longer point to when trying to persuade the Council that we're a community club that's worth their support, rather than just a senior men's team trying to cling on at step 3.
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Re: World Cup
Views: 1302
thing is… we’re not a community club
meanwhile there’s currently a club in the borough which is perceived to be that
any persuasion of the council needs to be business-case-led. what’s in it for council. what benefits can the council get from the £600k or so on a shared facility.
very few of the councillors know what k’s is. fewer care
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5 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1432
While I agree with SDG that starting from scratching is a big task the idea that we can’t have youth / women’s teams until we’re back in Kingston is complete madness.
It’s our opportunity to have tangible links to Kingston without anywhere near the infrastructure that the first team would require.
We’re losing a generation and making no effort to connect.
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3 people
Re: World Cup
Views: 1583
Lovely pic thanks.
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