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Post by dibo (pron. "DIB-OH") on Apr 27, 2006 12:56:57 GMT 10
gb makes a good point about crowd antics etc - plus there's that many people wearing marinators shirts around the place that i don't reckon i've ever seen in bay 16 that if they got punchy on someone we'd cop the blame while as a group having had nothing to do with it. i think the t-shirt thing is maybe a bit emblematic of where we're going as a group. as a whole we marinators appear to have resolved that we're to be a non-exclusive, open entry, non-hierarchical supporters group - any and every fan that stands with us and sings is then by defninition a marinator. the t-shirt thing has two sides - the first, intended and very effective side is that it brands the marinators and makes us visible. the second, unintended and possibly detrimental effect is that it makes us appear exclusive and consequently a barrier to people just rocking up. it's certainly arguable that people weren't too worried about rocking up and joining in with us physically, in that they packed out bay 16 to the point of serious discomfort in the semi final home leg, but the vocal support thing fell away a bit. "capo's" with megaphones will address that somewhat this season. so - in a nutshell i think: - our merch should never take away from or have priority over club merch, and we should do our best to promote club merch too.
- we need to make sure that people realise that t-shirt or no t-shirt, being a marinator is about collective vocal support, through wins, draws or bitter bitter losses in the cold november (sorry, had to do it) rain.
- perhaps like was suggested above we should look at merch that has within it some sort of clear indication of what a marinator is meant to do - go nuts in support of the team
- perhaps the merch should be in some way complementary to the official merch in such a way that ensures people can get both ours and the club's merch and have it all work together - i.e: yellow scarves, some other bright yellow things.
maybe we should all just go and do up some banners to put up, or spend the money we might otherwise spend on a shirt on some sort of big banner that goes over the top of us like a big mariners logo (or even cooler, mariners on one side, marinators on the other) or mariners shirt? this has degenerated into a ramble, so i'm just going to post it and people can pick from it what they like or ignore it...
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wok
State League player
Posts: 255
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Post by wok on Apr 27, 2006 13:07:56 GMT 10
the thing i liked about the shirts was that we could have a name on the back so that you could identify people (not necessarily for negative reasons, but so you could put a name to a face), i see where the arguements against the issue of marinator shirts are coming from, i agree that we shouldnt be taking anything away from the club, and at the moment they need all the money they can get. but if enough people are interested maybe we could look into finding a suitable printer who can do something with the back of the official mariners jersey's/shirts. if enough people are prepared to spend the money on official gear we could then take the next step and get a name printed on the back along with something like "5 ways to become a marinator" and have 5 points such as 1. stand and sing for the mariners 2. wear yellow 3. always support the team, win/lose or draw. etc.
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Post by DJ on Apr 27, 2006 13:15:09 GMT 10
The way I see it is
Advantages
1. Great way to raise funds for us so we can create a better bay 16 enviroment, e.g. buy more flags, banners, balloons or whatever. 2. Should we manage to gain a major sponsor it will help identify us even more. 3. Some people see the shirts as a collectors item. 4. Good to wear supporters gear if we ever have media events (eg painting Ploddy etc) 5. Makes us recognised as a supporters group (or at least contributes)
Disadvantages
1. Taking some funds away from the club 2. Something thrown at game days and the person is identified wearing a Marinators shirt, could hurt our name
(Feel free to add any others)
With the taking funds away from the club we have spoken to them on a number of occaisions and they are happy for us to organise supporters gear, they just ask to be kept in the loop. Plus how many people brought a Marinators shirt last year, and at least 1 official Mariners piece of merchandise? I recon over 50% at least.
Scarfs are a possibility but quotes so far recieved are pretty expensive, so if anyone know any contacts please let us know. Bandana's were also done last year, not Marinator 1's I admit but I don't see them around too much any more.
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Post by DJ on Apr 27, 2006 13:23:50 GMT 10
maybe we should all just go and do up some banners to put up, or spend the money we might otherwise spend on a shirt on some sort of big banner that goes over the top of us like a big mariners logo (or even cooler, mariners on one side, marinators on the other). Dibo - If we could then I would agree BUT......money is an issue, have a guess how much the cheapest quote I have had for a 10m x 10m banner (weather proof ) is? about 3-4 times more than what we have in our account, so funds will need to be generated somehow.
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Post by brett on Apr 27, 2006 15:04:07 GMT 10
where was this conversation a month ago?
for the record i dont think we should have marinators shirts either, but since i was seemingly the only one who thought so i was happy to go along with what the others thought, and my posts in this thread were from a "if we have to have them may as well have good ones" point of view.
Dj and Fish know i think the shirts are an exclusive device that could discourage people rocking up and 'being' marinators. if we eventually have 1000 marinators, are we going to print that many shirts? what season do we draw the line? why does somehow have to be or not be a marinator, why should it be defined in any way other than actions (ie the whole ground cheering as one aganst newcastle made everyone a 'marinator' if momentarily, shirt or no shirt)? DJ says they make us recognised as a supporters group, i'd rather just be seen as mariners supporters first and as marinators second.
anyway everyone is just throwing points into the mixer, all valid points for both sides, so if anyone has an idea as to how to come to a perfect solution please express it.
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Post by Bearinator on Apr 27, 2006 15:08:01 GMT 10
We all just get naked.
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Post by Melsy on Apr 27, 2006 15:18:16 GMT 10
I'm happy to go with whatever,But part of the reason i was happy about the idea was because we were getting some womens style shirts they look and feel so much better then the blokes shirts on us females so thats the only point i have towards them.
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Post by Auburn Mariner on Apr 27, 2006 15:27:14 GMT 10
I would disagree with you there, dearest Melsy.
Many females look sensational in blokes shirts, especially those who are, um, let us say, of a fuller figure!! And you only have to look at Bear's avatar to prove my point!!
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Post by DJ on Apr 27, 2006 15:34:58 GMT 10
Not everyone has a carpet on their chest and back like you Bear! DJ says they make us recognised as a supporters group, i'd rather just be seen as mariners supporters first and as marinators second. anyway everyone is just throwing points into the mixer, all valid points for both sides, so if anyone has an idea as to how to come to a perfect solution please express it. I agree with there Brett, I would rather be seen as a Mariners fan before anything else, but fact is TV, radio and newspapers refer to us as 'The Central Coast Mariners vocal supporters group - The Marinators', I don't like it much either! Solution - To keep as many as possible happy, I think we should get 100-150 shirts this year personally, those who want 1 can buy 1. From Fish and my point of view I want to make sure that if we go to the trouble of organising shirts, a sponsor and then the distribution of them it won't be a waste of time.
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Post by Perm on Apr 27, 2006 15:35:42 GMT 10
mines on my head.
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Post by dibo (pron. "DIB-OH") on Apr 27, 2006 15:49:53 GMT 10
i really liked the scarf idea that floated up a while ago - scarves in yellow! as you can see in my avatar, our club scarves are exactly the wrong colour. yellow scarves that say 'marinators' or similar would be pretty cool.
we could even get a kinda lightweight material as has been discussed on the sfc forum (though i can't find it now!). might cost a bit though!
i think making a habit of getting scarves up is a good idea, as it looks brilliant, along with banners and what have you. everyone getting funky yellow scarves might help?
also scarves are likely to be a lower margin sale for the club than jerseys, so they're not going to miss scarf sales as much as jersey sales.
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Post by alicia on Apr 27, 2006 16:05:34 GMT 10
I think there is a need for womens style "marinator" shirts. Women have front bumps where men don't so it would be nice to support our team, in team colours at the match. That's my opinion anyway.
I don't think we would be taking money off the club as those who want offical team gear will get it anyway. Plus selling our own shirts to raise money for items such has banners / signs etc helps us, help the club. Come game time when the players look up, they'll not only see a "sea of yellow" but they would see fantastic looking signs.
Having the funds to buy these items will also help our team at away games, when not everyone can come along.
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Post by Melsy on Apr 27, 2006 16:05:35 GMT 10
I would disagree with you there, dearest Melsy. Many females look sensational in blokes shirts, especially those who are, um, let us say, of a fuller figure!! And you only have to look at Bear's avatar to prove my point!! Fair enough maybe i ment to say "I feel more comfortable with a shirt that does not come up to my neck like the jersy" thats why i wear my blue polo but since that is now ruined i was happy for a marinators shirt to replace it. But i really don't care i will just buy a new polo
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Post by Jimmydinho on Apr 27, 2006 18:01:36 GMT 10
i would really love the marinators shirt * for the name on the back. to get to know people * for the collecters point. * my mariners jersy is lookin a bit 2nd hand. * i want something else yellow and mariners to wear to westfield for when my jersy is dirty. (im always talking to randoms trying to get them to games)(and it works, others should try this too) * that we are identified from the trollops in bay 16 GB the people that we want to be indentified from wont get these shirts unless they sing.
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Post by brett on Apr 28, 2006 0:32:24 GMT 10
...that we are identified from the trollops in bay 16 GB the people that we want to be indentified from wont get these shirts unless they sing. as i said to DJ and Fish, are we going to perform background checks on everyone we sell a shirt to? what's the bigger deal: if we have no shirts, and some guy near our bay does something wrong, it's not really going to get placed on us any more than if we did have shirts BUT if we DO have shirts, and some random person we've sold one to does something wrong, the shirt has become tainted just saying that there's two sides to that coin.
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Post by Jimmydinho on Apr 28, 2006 17:22:07 GMT 10
"and some random person we've sold one to does something wrong"
that random person wont be a random person after they come and see us and prove that they can stand and sing all game before gettin one of these shirts.
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Post by brett on Apr 28, 2006 17:33:58 GMT 10
"and some random person we've sold one to does something wrong" that random person wont be a random person after they come and see us and prove that they can stand and sing all game before gettin one of these shirts. so how does someone singing and standing for one match prove that they aren't going to do something stupid in the right (or should i say wrong) circumstances in future? like i said, are we gonna run screening tests on everyone who buys a shirt? have some kind initiation they have to pass? some kind of monitoring system, or a 'buddy' system where a 'current' marinator declares a noob worthy of a shirt? we want every person who comes to matches, whether it's every week, away trips, or just now and again, or just finals time, to join in the singing. we're either denying people a marinators shirt because they somehow aren't as 'diehard' as others and therefore being exclusive in a way that totally defeats our purpose, or we're opening the door for every tom, dick and sideshow bob to have a shirt and either sit elsewhere in it, sit in it, be silent in it, wear it around purely to be 'cool', or taint it by doing something illegal in it.
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Post by Jimmydinho on Apr 28, 2006 17:40:52 GMT 10
"or a 'buddy' system where a 'current' marinator declares a noob worthy of a shirt?"
i do like that idea. i agree we want everyone to come and sing, i agree. but, i dont want marinators shirts fkying out the window like they did last time.
"we're either denying people a marinators shirt because they somehow aren't as 'diehard'" isnt all the criteria we need to be a marinator to stand and sing? if they dont do that, then theyre not really a marinator. every person i have talked to that has come to bay 16 and sung, has never gone anywhere else.. they stay with us.
i am trying by the way, to make it easier for people to walk into bay 16 or the kendall and know everyone straight away. im sure like me, that no one could remember everyones name first go.
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Post by brett on Apr 28, 2006 17:44:40 GMT 10
but, i dont want marinators shirts fkying out the window like they did last time. well thats the point of this thread: no shirts would mean that there is absolutely no exclusivity so everyone is more than welcome to join, and we achieve this without the problem of giving out shirts willy nilly.
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Post by Jimmydinho on Apr 28, 2006 17:52:00 GMT 10
but, we wouldnt be giving the shirts out willy nilly. i cant see it making people less welcome if they dont have one. how about the already established people get them. the people outside of bay 16 comming in, wont think "oh, they have a shirt that i dont, i cant join them" they will think "damn, i wish i had joined earlier so i could of got a personalised shirt" we dont have to get rid of every shirt right away. if newbies do join in we can offer them one after 2 games or so, and then they can go put theyre own nickname on the back of the shirt at their own will and cost.
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