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Altrincham FC First Team / Re: Alty Travelling Support
« on: January 13, 2020, 08:49:23 PM »Every season throws up one of two outlier attendances either way - whether its the 3400 plus against Stockport on Boxing day or 600 against Blyth on a Tuesday night in January when the Manchester Derby is going on 5 miles down the road and is live on telly.
Disappointing though the attendance was, it is indicative of anything other than a set of factors which cumulatively dragged the attendance right down.
The attendance at Guiseley yesterday - 1243 - is a much more reliable indicator, and, with maybe 100 Guiseley fans attending at most, it was a great crowd.
When we were in Conference North 2011 to 2014, our average attendance was generally 850 to 900. Our first season in Conference North 2004/05 saw an average of 665, and our 4 years in the Unibond saw average attendances drop to barely 600.
Last season we averaged 1244, with the Stockport game, and 1137 without. This season sees out average home gate thus far this season at 1028. If we stay in or around the play offs for the rest of the season, it seems likely that average will increase - our lower average this season is almost certainly due to a lacklustre first couple of months.
So, the clear evidence here is that home attendances have significantly increased in the short, medium and longer term - 25% up on last time we were in Conference North, and double what they were 15 to 20 years ago. Our core support has increased markedly, despite or perhaps because of our dreadful successive relegations, followed by our resurgence under Phil P and co. What we are seeing at Alty is unprecedented since the 1970s - we have caught the imagination of the town again, the good times are coming back, and we can look realistically at a future which could sustain league football if attendances keep pushing up as they have been. We just have to keep on getting it right on the pitch, and professionalise more off the pitch
I think the Saturday crowds are very healthy. The club has done an impressive job over the past couple of seasons in cashing in on the growing popularity of non-league football, with a number of successful match day initiatives and awareness drives. And I thought Saturday’s turnout was excellent.
It’s more the Saturday to Tuesday home fan conversion that I don’t think has kept pace. The past 7 days being a prime example.
And if you honestly believe Saturday is a “more reliable indicator” of the current core support level than last Tuesday was, then fair enough, but I think we’ll have to accept we each have very different understandings of the words ‘core support’.
Fair point Matt re the definition of 'core' - I am being deliberately over optimistic I guess.
However, a lot of people who consider themselves to be 'core' supporters struggle to get to mid-week matches - myself for example from Leeds - we have a high proportion of exiles who travel from all over the place for the Saturday matches, but for whom midweek matches are difficult. The core support is probably about half way between the 600 home fans against Blyth and the 1140 against Guiseley - so maybe 870. It still represents a big jump, and the fact is we are regularly getting over 1000, so the core is growing - except on Tuesdays in January perhaps!
Perhaps we need to start thinking about initiatives that get people to the night matches - focused more on the local community - how about reducing prices as a one off experiment. I think the prices are pretty good - but the £11 concession price is a bit steep and may be putting off pensioners, students, unemployed (I guess that is what concessions covers).
