Pirates crowdfunding

cheshire exile wrote: corporalcarrot wrote: Neasham wrote: corporalcarrot wrote: front5 wrote: corporalcarrot wrote: *Stalwart wrote: corporalcarrot wrote: Surely the best way to support a rugby team financially is by paying a commercially sensible price for a season ticket. I paid £150 last year for a season ticket (11 league + 3 cup matches) and £30 for 3 pre-season games against premiership clubs. Average a tad over £10 a game. The solution to the financial problems in rugby should surely start with supporters paying more at the turnstile. Yes, but it's a delicate balance. Price too high and people simply won't pay it, and they'll find something else to do. I may be wrong, but I think this is what has happened at Exeter Chiefs - it's become unaffordable for many ordinary people struggling with the cost of living at the moment. I read recently that crowds are down 12% at Sandy park. You sum it up well mate but frankly its a sad reflection when the "going rate is a tad over £10 a match" for watching a team who ultimately won their league. Everyone wants someone else to pay for their entertainment but if they increase the rate to £20-£25 a match it would still be great value imo and raise a decent sum. What does it cost to watch a Championship soccer match? Most championship football match tickets can be obtained for free via sky VIP.  £25 for a ticket doesn’t leave many coppers for the 8 pints, pie and peas and the taxi home it makes the game almost a £100 before evening beers and late night takeaway. If the kids are about that would be 4 x beers and 4 x match fee! Teenagers!!!! How much is a Taylor's Pork Pie & a pint of Strongarm? Strongarm - now there’s a blast from a debauched past ! (For the rest of the country a Ruby red bitter brewed by Cameron’s  in Hartlepool. Don’t know whether it is still brewed). Groan the hand pulled Strongarm in the Buck at Sadberge was worth getting the bus home for. Back in the day Zisslers would give Taylors pies a run for their money - the lad in charge of the shop played for Darlington RFC. It’s Sedbergh. And Strongarm is still brewed, albeit under different ownership. I was marketing manager at Cameron’s in the early 90s.

Definitely the Buck Inn at Sadberge mate a couple of miles East of Darlington.

islander wrote: I remember Strongarm being available in a couple of pubs in York in the mid-late 1980s... It's still brewed: https://cameronsbrewery.com/heritage-new/ Wikipedia says Camerons is the 9th-largest brewery in UK

cheshire exile wrote: islander wrote: I remember Strongarm being available in a couple of pubs in York in the mid-late 1980s... It's still brewed: https://cameronsbrewery.com/heritage-new/ Wikipedia says Camerons is the 9th-largest brewery in UK Cameron’s bought John J. Hunt of York; they had a couple of dozen pubs in and around York when I was there, but our bitter was the core beer; Strongarm was a Teesside phenomenon.

My understanding was that Cameron's Best Bitter was a recipe inherited when they took over Russell's and Wrangham's of Malton, with quite a large pub estate south of the North York Moors.  It was rare to find Strongarm and Best Bitter in the same pub, they were marketed at distinct areas.  When the Lord Raglan opened in Middlesbrough in the early eighties with both on tap it was quite a novelty, albeit a welcome one for me at least.

billesleyexile wrote: cheshire exile wrote: Strongarm was a Teesside phenomenon. Except for that couple of decades(?) when Camerons was owned by Banks's - which saw 'Strongarm Taphouses' turning up all over the West Midlands. My local in Kidderminster at the time was one. You could have anything you wanted, as long as what you wanted was Strongarm, or Banks's Mild.  Cameron's is on the very very short list of breweries that Banks's bought then sold again - no one else has escaped the borg. Ruthless lot they are - when they bought Marstons they decided it was the better brand, so changed their own group name from Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries to Marstons...

Pedigree was half decent back in the day. Didn't Marstons do some deal with Carlsberg a couple of years ago?

Yes, they set up a Joint Venture. But we are now several hundred miles off topic.

Should any of the aforementioned breweries be interested in The Pirates Crowdfunding appeal I am sure we would welcome them with open arms.