Stater kit for new players?

One of the biggest obstacles in promotion is the lack of TF/Subbuteo in stores. Thus, we have had plans in Finland to
1) Buy materials to our association so that we could more easily to sell materials to new players
2) Arrage deals with stores to sell TF materials.

Ok, now to the open question. What, in your opinion, is the best starter kit (including playing pitch, goals etc.) that should be offered to new players? What are the best bases (price and playing quality taken into notice) for new players? How does new players start the game in other countries? I understand that it is easier to start if you have a club house, where you can play with loaned teams and with club tables. However, we have also new towns where there are no old players, and thus new players start from the scratch.

Thanks in advance for the advices!

Sureshots or advantage are nice bases to start with. Polished or varnished they become really good.
On mine I changed also the discs (superfootys instead). I ordered them at WTS , nice price.
Astrobase has them also ( rookies i think) more expensive but they come in a useless box
Got my goals from Flickmaster (good quality), they have also startersets.

have fun shopping
d.

Zeugo is fine for beginners, far better than Total Soccer and far cheaper than all others...

we were using zeugo as well, fine bases/figures and easy to handle

wer recommend new players to visit us in our club room without buying equipment first and if they like playing and want to start to play more often we offer them zeugo or other figures

The only problem with Zeugo is that the figures break very easily, but the quality in general is very good.
We use Zeugo teams for promotion normally, but we need a lot of figures for 3 days, because of the problem mentioned above.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. However, I would like to get more specific answers about the starter kits. I think the main investments are the playing pitch and goals. Bases are often "updated" anyway. Also, what kind of keeper you recommend to new players? I assume Zeugo etc. include old Subbuteo keeper.

We sell the Zeugo starter kit as it is.
So the people play with the old subbuteo keeper at the beginning and with the plastic goals.
If people ask for metal keepers we recommend also metal goals, because the plastic goals will be destroyed the first time when they try to save a shoot.
The pitches in the Zeugo starter kit are very good, so people don't need to spend 50 EUR for a new astropitch or something simular.
I think it is very important to have starter kits of good quality, otherwise people won't be interested to see "more".
The only thing which is not included is a polishing cloth, we explain to people how to make such a polishing cloth or we sell them directly.
We also offer them to built their table.
You need to tell them nearly everything, because the descriptions in the starter kits could be improved on that level.

I hope those are the specific answers you wanted.

Heinz

zinga wrote:Thanks for the suggestions so far. However, I would like to get more specific answers about the starter kits. I think the main investments are the playing pitch and goals. Bases are often "updated" anyway. Also, what kind of keeper you recommend to new players? I assume Zeugo etc. include old Subbuteo keeper.

Thanks Heinz! That was exactly the information that I wanted. Any other kits than Zeugo? Is it worth to build our own started kits (such as combining SureShots figures with metal keepers, metal goals and Astropitch)? Too expensive?

We have a sample of Total Soccer ordered too, I prefer the figures from that starter kit because they are elastic and don't break easily, which is important in my opinion.
Another advantage is that you have real madrid and barcelona, if you buy zeugo you have 1 red and 1 blue team. the zeugo pitch zeugo is better than the total soccer pitch (I don't know the actual quality of total soccer, i saw the the last actual starter kit 1 year ago).
about the quality of balls (which is a general problem) I can't say much honestly.

When people enjoy playing with items of the starter kit, they contact us again to ask for metal goals and keepers or other items. In that situation we invite them to come to our club. if they live far away from our club we order things for them and send it to them by post, if they don't want to order it on their own.
Of course you can try and offer it, but I think you will only have success when people already have the starter kit. People who start from the scratch won't pay about 200 or 250 EUR for better bases, a better pitch and some metal goals.

zinga wrote:Thanks Heinz! That was exactly the information that I wanted. Any other kits than Zeugo? Is it worth to build our own started kits (such as combining SureShots figures with metal keepers, metal goals and Astropitch)? Too expensive?

Take a look at the startersets of Fickmaster, they start at 75€ I think ( metal goals and goalkeepers, original balls ...included).

Get in contact with some producers and ask them what they can offer if you buy ten to twenty startersets.

A record!!!!!

In one day this many answers and some discussion!

In one month not a single ansewr to the same question in the Subbuteonews forum. Clear evidence on who (SdF) don't care for the smaller countries and the development of the grassroots game in more difficult areas. Anyone who doesn't agree must explain the lack of answers there.

dromer wrote:Take a look at the startersets of Fickmaster, they start at 75€ I think ( metal goals and goalkeepers, original balls ...included).

Get in contact with some producers and ask them what they can offer if you buy ten to twenty startersets.

It could be a good but only first solution. Even if you get a discount to a bottom price of 50€ it will be even hard to convince a starter to pay this amount ... and it is like "a drop in the ocean" if a club or an association buys 10,20 or 30 starter kits.

We should think in larger scales. A vision for every country could be to sell hundreds or thousands by stores or chains. This is where I would like to see support from FISTF. Or from Piero's "Totalsoccer": sit down together with the associations in order to find the right marketing strategy for every country. Or even the best way: find a sponsor with time and money to push our hobby by pre-financing kits and an advertising campaign .... what a wonderful tablesoccer world it could be ....