City keep up effort to increase crowds (From Worcester News)

City keep up effort to increase crowds

1:00pm Saturday 30th June 2012 in Sport By Steve Carley - Midlands Sports Journalist of the Year 2013, @stevecarleyWN

WORCESTER City’s efforts to increase their fanbase from within the local community will continue apace for the 2012-13 campaign.

In the past two seasons, the amount of initiatives to get people through the gates has increased dramatically and made St George’s Lane a thriving hub of activity.

It will be no different during the new term, particularly as it will be the last Blue Square North campaign at City’s century-old stadium before it is demolished for housing.

City are already on track to sell a record number of season tickets and have introduced a category offering low rates for 16 to 21-year-olds.

In addition, they plan to revisit the scheme that saw season-ticket holders at West Brom, Aston Villa and Wolves given entry for £5.

To complement that, Worcester have joined forces with the Baggies ahead of their pre-season friendly at the Lane on Tuesday, July 17 (7.45pm).

Anyone attending the fixture will be offered a free pass to watch a West Brom training session at The Hawthorns during October half-term.

Although there is always the danger of City fans being tempted away to their bigger neighbours more regularly, director Rich Widdowson believes such deals can be of benefit.

He said: “We can’t compete with West Brom but if people want to watch their local team they will.

“We have got to get more fans and if they are only coming to one-off games it doesn’t matter.

“We are raising our profile and getting better as we go along.

“There is still a lot to do but we are trying to get more people aware of us being here.”

Youngsters will again get the chance to play matches on the pitch before home fixtures, while links have also been forged with junior clubs for their finals days, such as Leigh and Bransford Badgers.