Drive to attract young fans is gathering momentum

The Posh drive to bring young fans to the Weston Homes Stadium is gathering pace.

Club officials reckon they’ve already travelled over 1,500 miles to schools across Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire promoting the club and that total should increase to 5,000 miles by the end of the season, the equivalent of driving from Peterborough to Beijing!

As part of the initiative Posh members of staff, including mad mascot Peter Burrow, visit schools, take part in assembles, hand out free tickets and conduct coaching sessions. The initiative was credited with attracting 400 new season ticket holders for this season.

Schools initiative in numbers

53 schools visited so far •

Target of 150 schools by • end of season

•12,500 children have seen an assembly so far this season

Catchment area of 2,969 • km² across three counties.

•1500 miles travelled so far

•5,000 miles travelled by the end of the season.

Posh co-owner Dr Jason Neale said: “The schools initiative is the cornerstone of our fan engagement programme which helped us grow the season ticket base by more than 400 supporters last season.

“Last year we visited more than 75 schools where we participated in assemblies and provided free tickets.

“This year our goal is 150 school assemblies and 75 school coaching sessions.

“It’s part of our long-term ambition to grow the season ticket base to more than 10,000 and given that Portsmouth, a city of similar size to Peterborough, have more than 14,000 season ticket holders we believe it’s an obtainable ambition within 10 years.”

•The club contact for interested schools is phil.adlam@theposh.com

Posh mascot Peter Burrow on a school visit