Well the initiative certainly brought plenty of the Mansfield public along to Field Mill.
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/mansfield_town/8502204.stmHopefully when all the pennies are counted it will have proved to have been a success, both financially & in generating enough interest for some of the new visitors to return for future games.
A week or so ago I noticed that Bristol City entered into an initiative with the local newspaper to provide free matchday programmes (& a free copy of the newspaper the following day)
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"Bristol City plan to give away more than 10,000 free matchday programmes at tomorrow night's home Coca-Cola Championship game with Cardiff City.
And the club has teamed up with the Bristol Evening Post to launch what Robins chairman Steve Lansdown describes as a one-off groundbreaking trial.
Any fan taking a programme, which normally costs £3, will automatically receive a free copy of tomorrow's Evening Post.
Lansdown explained: "This is a one-off initiative for now, but we'll certainly be gauging the response of our fans and also our sponsors to see if this is something that works and could be expanded in the future.
"As a club, it will be interesting to see what the fans' reaction will be to being given a match programme for free, instead of having to pay on top of all the usual matchday costs."
The club would like to thank Clarke Willmott solicitors, Capita Symonds consultancy company and Stephens & George Print Group for helping to make the free programme deal possible.
The Evening Post will be handling the distribution on the night.
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It's good to see Clubs going out on a limb & trying some ideas.
A financial gamble for someone, whether it be Mansfield , Bristol City or their local paper, let's hope they are pleased with the results.
It can't work.