Realistically it won't make much difference to sales - a supporter will buy a shirt on 1st July or 31st July, and won't buy more just because they are available earlier. It's really frustrating for us fans but not the commercial disaster being presented.
An ESTABLISHED supporter will buy a shirt regardless, they will also repeat their season ticket and turn up to each game following their usual routine.
They are the lifeblood of the club and I'd never knock them. BUT marketing and promotional work shouldn't just be focused on those who already attend, but the thousands who do not.
I don't want this to sound like I'm the expert, I'm far from it. But a post that started on NYD was made to get fans to take responsibility for improved attendance and atmosphere. Off the back of that, and thanks in no small part to our incredible dot counters, we saw an increase in attendance like we've not seem in a very long time. Of course, many of those fixtures were the big names, but there was a buzz with fans talking to friends, families and colleagues to get people up to games.
We averaged pretty much 10,000 per home game in 2022, thousands of these fans were not season ticket holders, many were attending games for the first time, bringing their kids and becoming part of the Oxford United family.
It is these fans that may not buy a shirt, may not buy a season ticket and may not come to games as regularly without the club reaching out to them and making them feel special. And that IS a commercial disaster.
We are two weeks away from our first home preseason game. IF the shirts were available for retail then we could have promoted this game as a real family game. Players in the club shop before the game. Bring back some of the legends who played with Joey as we continue to support his family. Look at family based activities before the game with Olly to Ox etc. It might be a watered down version of a family day, but it would have been something and it may have just made a difference to building and developing our future fan base AND our commercial profile.
The club very clearly see my posts as ideas and initiatives that I talk about (by me and others) are often taken on after they've been posted. But no one has ever looked to reach out to me, or the forum in general to look at collaborative ways that we can succeed together.
Sadly if the club and our Supporters Panel are unable to see that this is a problem (and I of all people can!) then are we ever really going to see any improvements?