lion city sailors

[Specials] The Deck – A Bold Initiative Aimed at Drawing New Fans

I know, I know. You are a little angry about the underwhelming kit launch, especially for the white kit. First thing I’ll say is there will be a video and article dealing with that in due course, but not yet, I need to talk about membership first because the club hasn’t announced full details yet, and I am hoping somehow that this article will give them some food for thought. Also – don’t buy the shirts yet, if you were planning to. Let’s wait and see if membership brings with it any other discounts. If you wanna buy a shirt and you can’t wait, may I suggest you just buy last season’s kit instead. It’s so similar – and it is a whole S$15 cheaper. Do the smart thing haha. The Deck Some weeks back, the club announced that they are doing away with season passes, and instead would be launching a whole new membership program. Four main features of the new membership program are that 1) it’s free to join, 2) the first match ticket for a home game is free, 3) tickets thereafter are permanently 50% off, and 4) you scale up the membership tiers as you attend more and more home games – in the process “unlocking a treasure trove of rewards“. There has been no release of details on what these rewards may be, or what other stuff this membership program entails. The club has said that come May, they will be revealing more details. Crucially, and back on the topic of jerseys – the kit launch has happened but we still do not know if there will be discounts on the shirts. Hopefully this is addressed quickly, but my advice is don’t buy first, adopt a wait-and-see approach. The Benefits of this Radical New Approach When I first heard of this new approach, I thought it was certainly a bold one. It does a few things – Allow me to elaborate. More People in the Stadium Last season, games cost S$16 including the Sistic charge for non-members, and S$13 for members. Assuming ticket prices do not go above S$22 (it is rumoured to be S$20), then we are looking at a saving for all members. Given that membership is free, it would be somewhat odd that you wouldn’t sign up for membership, so I think we can assume there will be a lot of “members” who are actually neutral, or even support other clubs. (Kinda like the time I signed up to be a Spurs member just so I could watch the Champions League game between FC Barcelona and Spurs, and witness first-hand Messi destroying the team I hate so much. All while sat in their stands pretending to be their fan. Oh, memories.) But therein lies a chance to convert these people. Assuming that the away fans are gonna prefer to sit on the away end, what we might end up having is neutrals curious to watch a game, especially with the first ticket being absolutely free. What is key now is thus the matchday experience for these fans. Is the club confident that these fans will like what they see? Not just on the pitch but off it as well? I hope the Crew can do its part to create an atmosphere that everyone can be proud of. If you are reading this and you’d like to be part of the Crew, roaring on our boys week in week out, do drop me a DM on Instagram or Twitter, and we’d love to have you on board! More Targetted Benefits and Perks Fans have said that they feel the Sailors can do more for their fans. If you haven’t read it yet, please read Chin Heng’s wishlist for this season, and he perfectly encapsulates the thoughts of some fans – basically better fan engagement, and more peripheral activities for fans. However, for this to happen, I agree with the way the club has done it – it needs an accurate way to identify who are the hardcore fans. It is easy to point to people like myself and Joseph as “hardcore fans”, because we are loud, we set up a fan media channel, and we are always front and centre – interviewing players, interviewing fans, shouting our lungs out week in week out. But that’s not all the hardcore fans. Some fans prefer to support the club in a more understated way. Currently, it is harder to identify people like that, because they might come every week, but they might be tucked away in the corners of the ground, sitting near the back. Unless they come forward and make friends with the Crew, or with club staff, they might feel a bit neglected when it comes to club-organised events. So with the new structure, there will be objective proof of how “hardcore” you are. If the club wants to organise an intimate BBQ party featuring some players and some fans, but they only have 50 slots, the club will then have a list on their hands, and sort out who may be most “deserving” of a slot in the party. This is not foolproof by the way. If it comes down to a drummer for the Crew who has attended 15 games that season, and drummed non-stop for 90min on each occasion, but missed some games due to work, and someone who quietly sits in a corner with his family but has attended 16 games that season, who is more deserving of a slot at the BBQ party? There is no correct answer here I guess. Other Cons of this New Approach As for the cons – I immediately thought of one when I first assessed this new initiative. I can be quite busy at work sometimes, and the last thing I want to worry about is whether or not I am assured a seat at the game. Last season, having a season pass meant that I never needed to worry about

[Specials] The Deck – A Bold Initiative Aimed at Drawing New Fans Read More »

[Player Profile] Bart-er Trade – Will Bart Fill the Diego-Shaped Hole in our Team?

If you haven’t read our piece on Diego yet, and seen how highly we regard him, do yourself a favour, click here and read it please. Bart Ramselaar comes with a similar price tag to Diego, but with arguably the bigger reputation. He will be expected to deliver right from the get-go as it very much feels like one-in, one-out. In this article, we will take a look at how his journey through football has led us here, and also what kind of player we can expect when we finally get to see him in action. Excellent Social Media Buzz Prior to the signing of Toni Datković, our beloved Sailors had been pretty quiet on the social media front, with limited content due to the fact that players were still on their holidays. We had some content when Hariss Harun and Lionel Tan went down to do giveaways of merch to fans, and also when the club opened its doors to some ardent fans who won a matchball in some other giveaways. But none of that really compared to the buzz when the club announced its new signings. The signings alone would probably have generated buzz, but the masterful way in which the club did it really set the pulses racing. Serious posts were mixed in together with the informal posts. You had your formal interviews with the pair of new signings where they outlined their ambitions for the club in the season ahead, but you also had Toni trying to figure out Singlish phrases, while I probably watched the amazing Bart Simpson v Bart Ramselaar video a few too many times. Those with fantastic eyesight would also have caught that in a teaser video hinting at a signing announcement in the afternoon, Bart Ramselaar’s face actually appeared for a split second. Go see it for yourself here and see if you can pause it right at the moment where you can see Bart’s face there, hiding in plain sight. And if all that content on Instagram was not enough, you get long-form content on Youtube where you can really hear at length from our signings. And if you’re more of a reading guy, the excellent articles on the official site give more depth to the person behind the footballer. Overall, just outstanding effort from the Sailors, and this is the excellence that we fans have come to expect from the club on all fronts. First Dutch International to Play in Singapore If I am wrong, someone please correct me, but I think Bart may be the first full Dutch international to play in our domestic league. Richairo Zivkovic has registered multiple appearances for the Dutch international youth teams, just as Bart does, but Bart has gone one step further and made 3 appearances for the senior national team. He has played with the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Virgil van Dijk. He has trained under the likes of Mark van Bommel, Philip Cocu, and Erik Ten Hag. He was well-loved at FC Utrecht, and had won the Eredivisie with PSV. I’ll address the big question everyone has – so why is he here? Why is Bart Here? Bart’s answer when asked in various interviews was that he had spent 10 years in the Eredivisie and it was time for an adventure to explore a different league. I am sure that this is part of the truth – but I would hazard a guess that he would have been able to seek adventures in other leagues of far greater quality. This is all speculation from this point on – but I think his big injury suffered in April 2022 had a huge part to play in how he ended up here. He was having a stellar season in 2021/2022, scoring 9 goals in 26 games and earning rave reviews for his performances. He was flying, starting every game and was an integral part of the team. However, he then suffered a knee injury which kept him out for 10 months, and when he came back in the 2022/2023 season, he was no longer a first-team regular. The situation continued into the 2023/2024 season, where he probably did not get as much game-time as he wanted. It is pretty heartening that he did start 4 games spanning December 2023 and January 2024, which suggests that he is fit and ready to contribute to the Sailors this season. In an interview with former Dutch international Andy van der Meyde, he revealed that one of the toughest times of his career was when found himself on the bench at PSV, so it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that perhaps his lack of game-time also contributed to his decision to come to the Sailors. Nothing wrong with that – we should acknowledge our status also as a team participating in a league that is nowhere near as glamorous as the top European or even Asian leagues. Top players who come here from Europe are usually unhappy in some way with their situation. In this case, the fact that Rankovic has previously worked with him before in FC Utrecht probably didn’t hurt! Let’s just sit back and enjoy the talents of someone like Bart, whatever the circumstances may be that led him here! What Kind of Player is Bart? It is interesting that for someone who operates in midfield, Bart has more goals than assists in his career. 37 goals and 21 assists in 212 league and cup games in the Netherlands. In fact, in his stellar 2021/2022 season where he performed outstandingly well and was being talked about as potentially being able to make a big move at the end of the season, he registered 9 goals and 0 assists in the league. When you watch his highlights on Youtube, you begin to see why. He clearly has a knack for arriving late in the box to finish off team moves, and is a very sharp finisher. The

[Player Profile] Bart-er Trade – Will Bart Fill the Diego-Shaped Hole in our Team? Read More »