@dorking-eagle I know we've spoken about this privately but I'm fully with you. For me, it's way more than just a souvenir - it ensures there is a tangible record of every match, which when you're a club with such an incredible history is so important.

There's also the little things, such as looking up opposition players background, stats etc. No way would you bother doing this online during a game.

I believe there's an appetite for a quality, printed product - and that most would pay a decent price for this.

As an aside, there were many occasions in the past when I've been unable to buy a programme as they were 'sold out'. Which is not what I'm getting from the club, where I'm told we were not selling enough.

Anyway, feel free to move this to another thread - but I would love to get as many views as possible on this from you all...

Posted by: @adeb

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There's also the little things, such as looking up opposition players background, stats etc. No way would you bother doing this online during a game.

I look up opposition players online during games almost every game lol 🤣 

I am personally not someone who buys a programme so it doesn't bother me too much but I do agree they should at the very least be in a format online where people can print off at home themselves.

Maybe we will look to bring them back when we're back in the National League (Football League 😉) and playing more high profile sides?

Totally agree Ade.

I believe (last season at least) that Aveley do a 'small' programme, so I will be very interested to see that on Monday (assuming it hasn't changed format much) - small as in West Ham/Palace/60s programmes, so they fit inside a pocket.

Crawley (who don't do programmes - neither printed or digital) have just today announced a monthly (printed) magazine which looks decent, and still contains info on all the opponents that month (although cup games drawn at short notice might be an issue)

https://www.crawleytownfc.com/news/2024/august/30/club-to-launch-monthly-magazine/

The system I like, which I think has legs is that used at Ebbsfleet. Anyone can order a pre-programme for a game online, and it will be reserved foir them at the ground for collection.

So you pay your £3 (or whatever the price) on the ticketing system (either at the same time as buying all your tickets or on its own if you are a season ticket holder)

And the club get a better idea of how many to print (ie if they had 50 pre-orders, then print maybe 20 more for general sale on the day, plus whatever the club needs for hospitality, boardroom match sponsors etc)

Reduces waste massively and those who cherish a programme are sure to get one because the exact number pre ordered are kept separately in a pile for collection by only those who pre-ordered  

You could even sell a subscription for a programme for every game 

I thought Barkers were the printers anyway, and don't they have a pitchside perimiter board? Is there a deal to be done on this as they are our sponsors and supporters?

@adeb I don't usually buy a programme myself but totally get the point about having something tangible that helps you recall the game and have some info on the opposition.  I guess it is all about cutting costs where you can in NLS. I would be interested to find out how much of a loss the club incurred on the programmes last season, and what the sales were. Any ideas anyone?

I thought the claim was that some games last season less than 50 were sold. Must have been the ones where the visitors were the likes of Borehamwood or Gateshead I would have thought (tiny away support)

Last season though (or was it the one before?) for home cup games it was digital only, but those digital only's were just a pdf of the same programme effectively. So in the same programme format.

Our programme was never too complicated nor a vast amount of work - majority of pages were adverts, and the other bits / just slotted into a template, eg Marc's comments, the away team history was a copy and paste, teamsheet was just a copy and paste from the league's squadlist for that team etc

I'm not hoping for a masterpiece of carefully written articles and opinion pieces like Aldershot do, but a programme should have a results list and preferably a grid of team line ups with attendances (which is a simple spreadsheet)

In non league if you go on about a suggestion too much you tend to get volunteered to do it, which I can't with other commitments, but I promise I would support any improvement by buying copies etc!