The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Bit bored waiting for the new season, so I've been thinking about one of the ideas raised at the fans forum, and I want to bounce the idea around on here, to see if anyone thinks we could make this viable and worth exploring. There are obviously some issues, but there may be ways around them, that someone on here might think of.

Basically the idea was to resurrect the coach (or coaches) that used to pick up along the way in Wellingborough and Rushden and take people to Nene Park to games.If we were able to implement it, it could bring a few more to the games.

The issue with it would be cost and getting interest, making it cheap enough to cause people to take up the idea, but enough to cover costs. According to someone I know who works in a school, it costs them around £350 to hire a 52 seater coach, so on a Saturday would present a problem cost wise. This is especially true, if it is not used enough.

One way I thought of to get around it could be to offer a bus/coach company a discount on advertisement hoardings to offset the cost of hiring, but there is still the problem of getting enough interest.

My thinking is if we were able to get a service in place, it might encourage a few new faces to the games, and if we were able to negotiate a decent deal with a bus company, it could bring cash into the club.

Any thoughts?

Surely there has been a service from Rushden to Nene Park for many years, but, despite being subsidised by the Trust, the numbers have waned so much it went down from two coaches to one, and then down to a mini-bus last season. Given it only cost £3 I can't see how anything better could be offered for Rushden / Higham residents. I don't know what the demand from W'boro would be, but I assume there are a lot fewer Diamonds fans there than in Rushden / Higham.

http://www.thediamondsfc.com/page/Trave ... 84,00.html

Formic wrote:Surely there has been a service from Rushden to Nene Park for many years, but, despite being subsidised by the Trust, the numbers have waned so much it went down from two coaches to one, and then down to a mini-bus last season. Given it only cost £3 I can't see how anything better could be offered for Rushden / Higham residents. I don't know what the demand from W'boro would be, but I assume there are a lot fewer Diamonds fans there than in Rushden / Higham.

http://www.thediamondsfc.com/page/Trave ... 84,00.html

That's who I'm more leaning this idea towards. If this idea was to actually be realistic, Wellingborough with its 75,000 people is where it would have to take off. There is potential, but I'm thinking if it could be used to attract a few new faces as well, although they would have to be aware of it.

Maybe there's a small business that does a transport service, like a Rushden Rider (a Wellingborough firm obviously), or a mini-bus/ taxi firm that could be approached?