Derby lead the way (for once)
28/02/03 | by Alex Walker

Stone me to death for I am a blasphemer! But before you do that, allow me to tell you why I think Forest could learn a great deal from our sheepish neighbours over the M1...

No, I haven't gone completely barking mad. Obviously following Derby County's model for running a football team is bad news and I certainly do not think Forest should hire a crook as a manager, a few crooks on the board, and numerous crooked players for the team.

But the Reds would do well to take note of a few things the sheep have been doing off the pitch.

Most notable is the Rams' handling of ticket distribution for the derby match at the City Ground next month. When Forest were selling tickets to travelling supporters last October, they put the entire allocation on sale to season ticket holders on one morning. A few thousand people turned up and the queues stretched most of the way round West Bridgford. Obviously, many went home disappointed, and fans who do not live in the Nottingham area or who had to work that morning, were left unable to get tickets for the hottest match of the year.

However, when Derby put tickets on sale earlier this week they had much more sensible plan than the free-for-all chaos Forest created. Tickets were released first to season ticket holders who have attended 10 or more away games this season, then to those who have attended nine, and so on down a sliding scale before being put on general sale. Derby fans prove how many games they have been to by means of a sheet that gets stamped everry time they buy away tickets.

This is a much fairer system, rewarding those who have followed their team all season with the first pick of tickets, instead of allowing fairweather part-timers to jump in and get the tickets first as Forest did.

In fact, this is a system that Forest themselves used when in the Premiership. But since the drop into the Nationwide League, it seems good customer relations are no longer a priority at the club.

Of course, Forest's ticket office is renowned for being pisspoor. Poorly-trained staff who know very little about the job they are doing, a terrible switchboard system which is constantly jammed, even for the less glamorous ties, and all running at a pace that makes Gary Jones look like a blur.

Meanwhile, Derby's ticket office seems to have things sorted. The website is packed with useful information and everything is well-organised. Talking to Derby fans, they rarely have much to complain about regarding the ticket office, apart from the quality of matches they are paying to see.

This kind of organisation and thought runs throughout the club. As the sheep battle against their massive debts, instead of just relying on selling players to make money, Derby are raising funds through a sound and thorough marketing plan that includes extensive training of all their ticket office and club shop staff and prominent advertising in and around Derby itself.

As well as the impressive DCFC Megastore at Pride Park, the club have a decent-sized shop in Derby town centre and another at East Midlands Airport. What do Forest have? One, rather pathetic shop at the City Ground. I wonder how many people would buy more Forest merchandise if it was available in Nottingham city centre?

Derby's stock puts Forest to shame as well. All Forest fans are offered is the standard shirts and training kits, a few t-shirts and jumpers with the Forest logo on, and tacky mugs.

Go into Derby's club shop and you can buy specially-made t-shirts with the players on, DCFC bathrobes, DCFC golf clubs, watches, radios, DVDs, jewellry, badges, flags... the list goes on.

Considering our chairman is also the also the chairman of Umbro, you would think Forest would be able to offer their fans a better range of merchandise. After all, we are more deserving than those from Derbyshire, aren't we?

When he became chairman, Nigel Doughty promised that he would improve Forest's merchandising line, but so far he has failed to deliver.

Derby are full of useful ideas that he could borrow. During sales, staff take the stock inside the ground, allowing fans to buy a discounted shirt at the same time they buy their half-time pie or pre-match pint.

The club shop regularly entertains first team players who sign autographs and chat to shoppers. The club recently invited fans to pick the colour of next season's away kit. Eventually they picked a sickly blue colour, but that's not the point - this kind of good relationship with the fans is one of the reasons that Derby remain very succesful in making money off the field.

Forest desperately need to improve their relationship with the fans. The City Ground Open Days are a good step in the right direction, but more effort needs to be made to attract the local population to games and to allow them to buy quality merchandise. If we take our current club shop and ticket office into the Premiership, they will rightly be labled a joke. A club the size of Forest and a city the size of Nottingham deserves better services and products.