Livingston boss David Martindale admits they may need to stay in the top flight for 10 years in order to attract a new generation of fans.
The Lions handed out over 4300 free tickets for their Premiership clash with Ross County at the weekend, having ran the initiative three times last season.
That, in part, brought about a 25 per cent increase in season ticket sales this term and while the boss was full of praise for everyone at the club for the response, he says it needs to be part of a ‘10-year evolution’ if the Lions are to significantly increase their fan base.
He commented: “I think it’s a 10-year evolution. If we can be fortunate enough to take the club into Europe, I think we’d see a huge increase in our fanbase because you need a utopian moment to change.
“The ticket giveaway helps that and we’ve gained 2000 on that over the year before. It’s difficult but I think the longer we’re in the Premiership the more chance you have of growing the club.
“If you’re in the Premiership, you’ve got kids going into school talking about it. The club’s on the TV, the club’s on Sportscene. If you drop down a league I think you’ll lose that quickly.
“We want to be picking up fans at eight, nine years old and staying in the Premiership until they’re 16, 17 and keeping them as fans.
“If you do that then I think you keep them, but it’s a 10-year cycle.”
The whole of West Lothian cheered the Lions on four years ago as they dramatically sealed a return to the top flight. yet even that didn’t lead to an increase in sales as he admits there’s a fine line between offering cheap tickets to attract new fans and running a business.
He added: “In the play-offs we were sitting with 4000-5000 fans but that was folk who had Livi as their second team or never came to football but wanted to support their local team in a big game.
“We didn’t get the knock-on effect of that in season tickets.
“We want to be a family club. Our under-16 tickets are £50 to go and watch Premiership football but it’s getting mums and dads to buy into that.
“It’s a good way to get your kid out watching football but there’s the added cost of the parent coming and maybe that takes it away if they don’t have disposable income. We need to just keep getting the message across to kids.
“The longer we stay in this league, the better chance we have of keeping them and gaining more.
“If we drop out the league, they’ll be relating to things that they’re seeing - Rangers, Celtic, Hibs, Hearts.”
He added: “It’s the longevity of staying in the Premiership while trying to make it as affordable as possible for families - that’s the big one.
“It’s for families. But how do you do that? Our rent is going up, electricity is going up, everything is. The cost of keeping Livingston in the Premiership is going up so it’s hard to give away free or cheap tickets when you’re trying to drive your income up.
“There was an operational cost of the ticket giveaway of around £1200-1500.
“Added stewards, ambulance, cleaners, doctors, opening more gates. There’s a cost but fair play to everyone for allowing it to happen.”
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