Peterborough United face Coventry City on Saturday and the Posh Trust have boosted the crowd by giving away close to 750 tickets to new supporters from the Stanground area.
John Henson from the Supporters Trust, explains the idea behind the concept. 'It is a campaign by the Posh Supporters' Trust, backed and assisted by the football club, to find many new long term POSH fans in Peterborough by introducing families and individuals to Peterborough United Football Club through special ticket offers. It is also an attempt to develop and improve the relationship between the football club and the wider community which is a core aim of the Trust.
'The Posh Supporters' Trust chooses an area of the city, which for ease of organisation, is a council ward - on this occasion (our third 'New Fans' day) the "Stanground East" ward of Peterborough - and offers free tickets to a Posh game. With the vital help of many supporters virtually every house and flat in the area was leafleted. We also had the valuable sponsorship of our leaflets from 'Charters' bar and 'Oakham Ales'.
'The football club agreed to supply us with 750 tickets to satisfy the demand that we expected. We invited applications to the Trust for up to five tickets per household, on a first come first served basis, and with a responsible adult as the head of the group. The tickets can only be applied for by a resident of that ward and are only sent to an address in that council ward. The seats have been allocated in a designated area of the Family Stand and Main Stand for the game against Coventry City.
'The leafleting of houses has been incredibly successful and there has been an overwhelming response to our campaign. In fact we were oversubscribed within just seven days of leafleting. We have also surveyed previous attendees of 'New Fans' games and found that many have returned to London Road again and again after their first introduction to Peterborough United. In fact, three 'first time' supporters who came to the last 'New Fans' game against Colchester United responded to our survey by saying that they would buy season tickets for the following season. In total, over 500 tickets to home games that season were sold to new fans who attended the match against Colchester.
'It is vitally important to attract and introduce new people to football at London Road and encourage them to return as fans by having a warm friendly welcome as well as having great football to watch. The 'New Posh Fans Initiative' aims to do exactly that.'
