Attendances...?

[Londonboy]

Wondering how we attract back the floating fans we seem to have lost?

Seems like we are at about a core of 5.5k home fans for home games, bar shitty weather on a Tuesday night when it drops by a few hundred.

I recon we have lost 700-800 over the past 18 months and even with better football and home form, and challenging this season they don't seem to be coming back. The core support is pretty much as it was for the opening home game.

Equates to around £20k per game lost plus other matchday revenues or £10k/12k per week over the season.

Maybe it's impacting who we can sign this window?? With an extra £20k per game maybe we could/would have competed more for Stones or for other targets to cover for Conlan etc??

Not sure what the answer is???

 

[deyres42]

Well it won't be by charging 25 quid to get in, that's for sure.

[yarddog73]

Takeover saw many return, unfortunately the Unsworth project really damaged us and the timing of the bad run at the back end of last season didn’t help.

 

I still think our crowds are pretty decent all things considered.

[trickyrickyholden]

One of the first things I'd be doing is reducing the uplift for pay on the days. Can't believe that is making commercial sense at all.

[League one forever]

1 hour ago, Londonboy said:

Wondering how we attract back the floating fans we seem to have lost?

Seems like we are at about a core of 5.5k home fans for home games, bar shitty weather on a Tuesday night when it drops by a few hundred.

I recon we have lost 700-800 over the past 18 months and even with better football and home form, and challenging this season they don't seem to be coming back. The core support is pretty much as it was for the opening home game.

Equates to around £20k per game lost plus other matchday revenues or £10k/12k per week over the season.

Maybe it's impacting who we can sign this window?? With an extra £20k per game maybe we could/would have competed more for Stones or for other targets to cover for Conlan etc??

Not sure what the answer is???

 

Don’t forget average attendances are massively affected in non league by 12 away fans turning up. Yes, we’ve lost some after the initial joy of the takeover and high POTD prices don’t help, but neither does no away fans. 

[daniel]

I think it’s a mixture of all the things mentioned. The £25 POTD doesn’t help, and the concessionary price is also pretty steep at £19 POTD. Bringing those back down to the £20 and £15 it is before game day won’t bring back the lost fans though, it may bring back a few who decide on the day it’s still affordable but thats not the reason we’ve lost circa 1k. I think the biggest reason was the monumental fuck up hiring DU was and still is. We’ll be clear of that mess in the summer thankfully. 
I did think crowds would start picking up because we’ve been doing well, and i’m sure eventually they will if we continue. I know winning our games in hand puts in and around top 3 spots, but it just seems that we’ve been in and around that 5th spot for a while now and I think if we can somehow get up in to those top 2 positions for a sustainrd period the crowds will really start coming back. 

[spanishfly]

2 hours ago, Londonboy said:

Wondering how we attract back the floating fans we seem to have lost?

Seems like we are at about a core of 5.5k home fans for home games, bar shitty weather on a Tuesday night when it drops by a few hundred.

I recon we have lost 700-800 over the past 18 months and even with better football and home form, and challenging this season they don't seem to be coming back. The core support is pretty much as it was for the opening home game.

Equates to around £20k per game lost plus other matchday revenues or £10k/12k per week over the season.

Maybe it's impacting who we can sign this window?? With an extra £20k per game maybe we could/would have competed more for Stones or for other targets to cover for Conlan etc??

Not sure what the answer is???

It's a good point you raise, Londonboy and is of concern at board level.

 

Looking at league games only, since we've been in non-league the average attendances at BP are :

 

22/23 - 6,827

23/24 - 6,924

24/25 - 5,679 (so far)

 

So (even taking into account the loss of the followings that Wrexham and Chesterfield would bring to BP previously) we've "lost" over 1,000 regular home supporters this season. Not a figure to be taken lightly and will have an impact on budgets once the owner is no longer prepared to constantly dip into his own pocket. Incidentally, our average the last season we were in the football league was 4,976, so Frank's take over certainly re-ignited a lot of people's interest. 

 

Had the York game gone ahead and we would have beaten them comfortably, I think there would have been a couple of hundred more come along again and we could have built from there. That's why 2 wins against Eastleigh for me are crucial i.e. to show people there is life "post Stones" (there always was life pre-Stones, of course, but he has almost become some mythical being without whom we cannot compete properly in some people's eyes).

 

Don't get me wrong, I`m gutted he's gone to York and it's crucial we have an incoming transfer or two of proper intent soonest.

 

Edited January 5 by spanishfly

[deyres42]

7 minutes ago, daniel said:

I think it’s a mixture of all the things mentioned. The £25 POTD doesn’t help, and the concessionary price is also pretty steep at £19 POTD. Bringing those back down to the £20 and £15 it is before game day won’t bring back the lost fans though, it may bring back a few who decide on the day it’s still affordable but thats not the reason we’ve lost circa 1k. I think the biggest reason was the monumental fuck up hiring DU was and still is. We’ll be clear of that mess in the summer thankfully. 
I did think crowds would start picking up because we’ve been doing well, and i’m sure eventually they will if we continue. I know winning our games in hand puts in and around top 3 spots, but it just seems that we’ve been in and around that 5th spot for a while now and I think if we can somehow get up in to those top 2 positions for a sustainrd period the crowds will really start coming back. 

Unsworth ultimately wasn't up to it but he was hardly a disaster either. The idea was fine even if the execution was lacking.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Haven’t the club introduced initiatives such as the mini ticket passes? I think they’ve actively tried things to improve the attraction.

 

I think a sustained period at the top will bring a few back, especially if we start moving from 5th to 2nd or 3rd as the season wears on. All kinds of factors go into crowd boosts such as the weather, A thumping away win the previous match or some significant local interest.

 

 On the face of it, ti the passing fan who takes a back seat interest, we’re not that much different in actual league placing than we were this time last season. Yes, we’ve 10/12 pts up on what we had and a team that’s broadly more united and functional but these are factors that simply don’t register with the passing fan who keeps an eye on us from afar. They start taking notice when you’re right on the cusp of something great. 
 

A strong January I would expect to start seeing some increase and uptake. We have to start climbing the table a little more this month.

[yarddog73]

6 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Unsworth ultimately wasn't up to it but he was hardly a disaster either. The idea was fine even if the execution was lacking.

We are still paying handsomely for the mess he left and won't really be clear of it till the summer.

[daniel]

7 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Unsworth ultimately wasn't up to it but he was hardly a disaster either. The idea was fine even if the execution was lacking.

Nah, for me DU was a complete disaster, and within that the likes of Thompson who worked with him on recruitment takes flak too. He had zero gameplan or style of play. Loaded us up with strikers and no right back for 2 years and then said Will Sutton was a RB when he’s clearly not. Super Negative tactics. No affiliation with the fans at any point of his tenure. We’ve pissed away half a million quid on Nuttall alone who was his number 1 choice who we chased for months. I appreciate all managers won’t get 100% success with signings, but he had no success with other signings also. 

[deyres42]

1 minute ago, daniel said:

Nah, for me DU was a complete disaster, and within that the likes of Thompson who worked with him on recruitment takes flak too. He had zero gameplan or style of play. Loaded us up with strikers and no right back for 2 years and then said Will Sutton was a RB when he’s clearly not. Super Negative tactics. No affiliation with the fans at any point of his tenure. We’ve pissed away half a million quid on Nuttall alone who was his number 1 choice who we chased for months. I appreciate all managers won’t get 100% success with signings, but he had no success with other signings also. 

First year we were always behind the eight ball with the takeover etc.

 

He might not have got the best out of them but plenty of his signings are key components of the current side.

[PlayItLivo]

Have the club announced how many half season tickets or flexi passes have been sold? 
 

I reckon a fair few would have been picked up over Christmas given how well we’re doing. We’ve not had a home game since then so I reckon they’ll be an up lift for the Eastleigh game.

Edited January 5 by PlayItLivo

[yarddog73]

1 minute ago, PlayItLivo said:

Have the club announced how many half season tickets or flexi passes have been sold? 
 

I reckon a fair few would have been picked up over Christmas given how well we’re doing. We’ve not had a home game since then so I reckon they’ll be an up list for Eastleigh game.

Sure I read somewhere about 300.

[Only Blue]

First year people rallied round as we had avoided certain disaster.

 

Second year everyone assumed promotion year and then were bored stiff and only saw 6 wins at home. I assume one of the lowest ever.

 

Third year coupled with poor home form last year and increased POTD prices, some people settled back into their armchair with novelty of new teams well and truly worn off.

 

I genuinely believe if we had played and hammered York the attendances would have started to inch back towards that 6k plus mark.

 

As it stands they will stay as they are, which is still really good at this level.

[disjointed]

13 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Sure I read somewhere about 300.

Wasn't that the number of half season tickets? I could be wrong though. 

[yarddog73]

17 minutes ago, disjointed said:

Wasn't that the number of half season tickets? I could be wrong though. 

Yes probably, maybe four or five hundred then?

[spanishfly]

2 hours ago, PlayItLivo said:

Have the club announced how many half season tickets or flexi passes have been sold? 
 

I reckon a fair few would have been picked up over Christmas given how well we’re doing. We’ve not had a home game since then so I reckon they’ll be an up lift for the Eastleigh game.

Suppose it all depends how many genuinely floating supporters were tempted? For example, someone kindly bought me a Christmas prezzie 5 game Flexi ticket for £80 from memory. I always POTD anyway, so the club has actually lost out on £45 of my money over the 5 games! I won't count as another 1 on the attendance as I go anyway. Let's hope a couple of hundred lapsed fans will actually have been tempted back.

 

There has to be an uplift for Eastleigh surely, simply because we've been starved of football.

[disjointed]

1 minute ago, spanishfly said:

Suppose it all depends how many genuinely floating supporters were tempted? For example, someone kindly bought me a Christmas prezzie 5 game Flexi ticket for £80 from memory. I always POTD anyway, so the club has actually lost out on £45 of my money over the 5 games! I won't count as another 1 on the attendance as I go anyway. Let's hope a couple of hundred lapsed fans will actually have been tempted back.

 

There has to be an uplift for Eastleigh surely, simply because we've been starved of football.

That's money in the bank for the club. You may not have attended 5 games from now to the end of the season (I sincerely hope you do). 

[spanishfly]

33 minutes ago, disjointed said:

That's money in the bank for the club. You may not have attended 5 games from now to the end of the season (I sincerely hope you do). 

I attend every game disjointed (excepting illness etc). That's what I mean - a flexi ticket scheme only benefits the club if it genuinely attracts "new" regulars (if that makes sense?).

[disjointed]

10 minutes ago, spanishfly said:

I attend every game disjointed (excepting illness etc). That's what I mean - a flexi ticket scheme only benefits the club if it genuinely attracts "new" regulars (if that makes sense?).

Or rewards those that attend regular who can't afford a ST. 

[b0ndl1ne]

5 hours ago, trickyrickyholden said:

One of the first things I'd be doing is reducing the uplift for pay on the days. Can't believe that is making commercial sense at all.

Knowing what 95% of the attendance equates to in advance would help with catering, security, ground staff I would have thought

[spanishfly]

25 minutes ago, disjointed said:

Or rewards those that attend regular who can't afford a ST. 

Yes of course and very laudable. I think the point that the OP was making though was how to attract back those fans that have fallen by the wayside.

[TheBigDog]

9 hours ago, Londonboy said:

Wondering how we attract back the floating fans we seem to have lost?

Seems like we are at about a core of 5.5k home fans for home games, bar shitty weather on a Tuesday night when it drops by a few hundred.

I recon we have lost 700-800 over the past 18 months and even with better football and home form, and challenging this season they don't seem to be coming back. The core support is pretty much as it was for the opening home game.

Equates to around £20k per game lost plus other matchday revenues or £10k/12k per week over the season.

Maybe it's impacting who we can sign this window?? With an extra £20k per game maybe we could/would have competed more for Stones or for other targets to cover for Conlan etc??

Not sure what the answer is???

 

Drop prices - win games - move up table - sorted

[Dave_Og]

I think there's a massive myth that there is a reservoir of lapsed support available to be drawn back in. Some yes, but we are getting bigger crowds now than for a lot of our time in the second tier.