Latics and England Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I have written a blog on the impact our lack of success over the past 24 years has had on the club as a whole and in particular attendances. There's some interesting (I think) stats in there comparing us to other clubs. It really brings home just how starved of success we are and actually makes me think that the fan base we maintain is remarkable. http://www.ernieflag.co.uk/site/index.php/bloggs/14-oldham-athletic/178-yearning-for-success Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nohairdontcare Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Great points, made very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_bro Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Good blog, but clubs you mention that have had intermittent success ie. promotion, also have relegation. Two come to mind in Rochdale and Crewe. There are no doubt many more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewBlue Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Excellent blog. What it illustrates most is that you can put prices down or have a novelty factor eg. the Ricoh for Coventry, but success is the only thing that will improve attendances. I'd be interested to see how attendances of clubs who have gone through a barren stretch then finally achieved something have fared. It genuinely feels unthinkable and unfathomable that BP will see an average crowd above 6000ish again, that's how bad it's been - when was the last time we got above 5000 home fans for a league game without a ticket offer? It must be going back to 2010. Although when you see Rotherham and Brentford you get a little bit of hope, then you see the stuff on the pitch and it turns to despair! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 It is a difficult situation. I think success can obviously have a positive impact on how many people go to watch the team but I also feel it is the merry-go-round of players and managers that makes it easy for people to walk away. We no longer have the time to build up affinity with those we go to support, especially when there are very few home grown players successfully making the grade. I still believe many people go to watch football because they enjoy watching football, not just to see success. However, when the players and managers change so frequently its harder to care about them, therefore success becomes more important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendman Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 My mates a Crewe fan....he said it's never dull at Crewe. He said they are usually fighting to go up or stay up, and he's been to more promotion celebrations and play off's than me in these last 18 years. He doesn't understand why we are relieved to slot in at no 16 come the end of the season, he says "you'd be better going down then you can look forward to a season where you can try and get up again" Calls us Groundhog Athletic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mighty_bosh Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 "You might imagine that the brief flirtation with the top six might have led to something of a feelgood factor but if anything it seems to have gone the other way. It seems that it has simply led to a growing realization as to just how difficult it will be for this club to achieve the promotion that the fans long for." Nail on the head for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddogs Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 My mates a Crewe fan....he said it's never dull at Crewe. He said they are usually fighting to go up or stay up, and he's been to more promotion celebrations and play off's than me in these last 18 years. He doesn't understand why we are relieved to slot in at no 16 come the end of the season, he says "you'd be better going down then you can look forward to a season where you can try and get up again" Calls us Groundhog Athletic! problem is if we went down we wouldn't come back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 problem is if we went down we wouldn't come back up. A similar club to Grimsby for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 True but Grimsby are now fighting for promotion back into the football league. And who knows if they do that they may fight for promotion back to League 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 True but Grimsby are now fighting for promotion back into the football league. And who knows if they do that they may fight for promotion back to League 1. They are by no means certain to go up, if not the struggle continues and they might finish up like Stockport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 They are by no means certain to go up, if not the struggle continues and they might finish up like Stockport. Maybe, but they then football is all about maybes. I wouldn't be surprised if Stockport were to make it back into the football league one day either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendman Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 The strange thing is if we went down i would renew my season ticket and get to more away grounds i haven't been to before, hoping we could put a team together on longer contracts that will sling shot us up and onwards towards the championship As it stands i won't be renewing if we stay up....the monotony has finally got to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh_latics Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 How anyone thinks going down is a good thing is beyond me. Ask Tranmere fans if they've enjoyed relegation, and their slow demise to non-league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latics and England Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) Excellent blog. What it illustrates most is that you can put prices down or have a novelty factor eg. the Ricoh for Coventry, but success is the only thing that will improve attendances. I'd be interested to see how attendances of clubs who have gone through a barren stretch then finally achieved something have fared. It genuinely feels unthinkable and unfathomable that BP will see an average crowd above 6000ish again, that's how bad it's been - when was the last time we got above 5000 home fans for a league game without a ticket offer? It must be going back to 2010. Although when you see Rotherham and Brentford you get a little bit of hope, then you see the stuff on the pitch and it turns to despair! Just for you NewBlue Dale show a real upward trend when they started doing well but then a huge drop in attendances when they got relegated againn and struggled in their first season down. It soon picked up again last season though when they were back at the top of League two. Using the same comparison I did in the blog using 1997 as a base, Dale have seen a 58% increase in crowds. Edited March 16, 2015 by Latics and England Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singe Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Good blog, but clubs you mention that have had intermittent success ie. promotion, also have relegation. Two come to mind in Rochdale and Crewe. There are no doubt many more. That wsa the point of the blog! How some success helps!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singe Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Going off your excellent blog L&E, the solution is simple. Get a good manager who is going to get us promoted and a bit of success. Bradford would be a good example too. The solution is easy isnlt it!!!! Achieving it might be the problematic bit !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 The strange thing is if we went down i would renew my season ticket and get to more away grounds i haven't been to before, hoping we could put a team together on longer contracts that will sling shot us up and onwards towards the championship I've always thought going down could be a blessing in disguise for us but, you can't take that chance..... As grim as it's been, if you were to measure success by attributing points to finishing league position for the last several years, we'd appear more succcessful than Rochdale who've enjoyed two promotions. Which set of fans "feel" more successful and have enjoyed themselves more during that time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I have written a blog on the impact our lack of success over the past 24 years has had on the club as a whole and in particular attendances. There's some interesting (I think) stats in there comparing us to other clubs. It really brings home just how starved of success we are and actually makes me think that the fan base we maintain is remarkable. http://www.ernieflag.co.uk/site/index.php/bloggs/14-oldham-athletic/178-yearning-for-success I think we differ slightly from similar "sized" clubs in that we have a tradition of large numbers (predominantly pissheads) going away regularly which, indirectly, keeps many interested enough to come to home games when they might otherwise not do. Will the children of these functioning alcoholics keep that tradition alive though? That's where it could get really bad..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewBlue Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) Just for you NewBlue Dale show a real upward trend when they started doing well but then a huge drop in attendances when they got relegated againn and struggled in their first season down. It soon picked up again last season though when they were back at the top of League two. Thanks L&E. Think that says a lot, obviously you have to account for away fans but then again promotion from L2 to L1 is far less 'glamourous' than to the Championship, given some of the historic clubs in that league. If a fanbase as stagnant as Dale's can raise so dramatically - almost doubling between positions 5 and 20 - you've got to believe pattern of stats will occur for Latics. It's now just a long wait for anything worthwhile! Edited March 16, 2015 by NewBlue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergie Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Anyone who thinks getting relegated is a good thing needs their bloody head looked at, just ask Tranmere, Grimsby, Brizzle Rovers and to a worse extent Stockport fans. I bet these fans would love to be back in league one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeslover Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I think Crewe are a bit of a special case with long long term set up they had under Gradi. It seems to help them view getting into a higher division as a plus rather than a stepping stone to European glory. Perhaps their fans have really bought into the idea of using your own players and living in their means. Let's be honest, we all preach it but get giddy if we see the top half or if we look at risk with 15 games to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlossopLatic Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I think the issue appears to be generating momentum. When a good player turns up they tend to leave all too quickly as we have to cash in before they leave on a bosman. Lee Johnson showed potential as a manager but before realising that potential he was off. If you put together a squad of the last 5 years based on the best 24-25 players they would easily be able to sustain a top 6 challenge. However keeping the better ones on appears to be a real problem. I think most of us even if we didn't agree with Johnsons actions accepted that Barnsley are a bigger club and therefore have better potential to get out of this division right now. However I think we would also agree that Barnsley are not Real Madrid and are a club that if you look at the size of their town and the clubs history, are a club that we should be competing against evenly and should not be losing our better players and manager too. The stand will help as it will generate Revenue which will lessen the need to sell our best players at the first option. But I don't anticipate a big impact on attendances and alone it won’t be the salvation to all our problems. We are going to need something else whether that maybe more redevelopment of Boundary Park which I don't anticipate too quickly or more likely new investment from a new board of directors. I think the club will be much easier to sell for Corney and co once the new stand is in operation and with that in mind I think that is what he will be aiming for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlossopLatic Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) admin please delete duplicate Edited March 16, 2015 by GlossopLatic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlossopLatic Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) triplicate Edited March 16, 2015 by GlossopLatic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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