Cherries: Sly targets South End for increased revenue

DIRECTOR Steve Sly insists Cherries are keen to break down the barriers that put people off attending matches after coming up with a scheme aimed at boost¬ing attendances. Despite a strong start to life back in League One, Cherries have had disappointing crowd fig¬ures during the early part of the season. The last match at Dean Court saw a crowd of just 5,501 turn out for Cherries' 3-0 victory over Dagenham and Redbridge, a drop on the attendance when Eddie Howe's men thumped Peterborough United 5-1. With the club wanting to bring in more punters, they last week announced a new initiative aimed at key workers and members of the Armed Forces. The promotion, open to NHS staff, firefighters, ambulance ser¬vices, coast guards, RNLI, police and Armed Forces personnel, will start when Cherries host Carlisle today and continue for the home clash against Exeter on Tuesday. Key workers will be able to attend for £10 in the club's new Seward South Stand, while they can also bring a guest for the same price, and up to two chil¬dren at £2 each. By showing iden¬tification, the key workers can gain admittance by paying on the gate. Sly, who came up with the latest scheme, told the Echo: "I think the targets have got to be in the South Stand. Unfortunately, it's uncovered, but that's why it's cheap. "There are a lot of key workers out there, they haven't got a lot of time to book things in advance and they don't know what their day is going to bring. "A lot of them are on call, so we want to make it easy and user-friendly for them to turn up at 2.55pm, pay a tenner and walk in the gate. "Where football has advanced so much with the ticketing, market¬ing and data capture, it seems to have missed a trick on actually helping people get through the gate." For further information on tick¬ets, contact the Dean Court club shop or ticket office on 01202 726338 or visit afcb.co.uk.

Source: Bournemouth_Echo