I do believe the excuse of Man Utd and City does not hold to much water.
Why?
Well have the attendences ever gone through the roof when City play away on Saturday and United play on a Sunday live on Sky
I think the answer would probably be no, but I dont have any stats to prove my arguement. So it is purely an observation.
So I stand by my comment that United and City can not be blamed for poor attendance.
I don't think that really proves your point at all.
I'm not suggesting that we're missing out on all those that attend matches at United or City; otherwise as you say when either of them isn’t playing at home on a Saturday afternoon we would get much larger attendances.
The whole point is that even those that don't go to the matches still feel that they support either City or United, and as such they simply aren't arsed about Alty. As Ecky says even in local schools, children
from Altrincham take the piss and this is because we are right in the centre of United or City support, Altrincham doesn't even cross their minds as in that tired old phrase it just isn't 'proper' football.
Moss Lane and Altrincham is so far removed from the Premiership idea that some people believe encompasses what football actually is, that many of those people that profess to support City or United simply don't recognise it as somewhere they want to go, it just doesn't fit in with their concept of what football is about. As such because they support City or United the chances of them suddenly deciding to come and watch Alty is far diminished.
I realise that all smaller clubs have to compete with the Premiership, however much fewer clubs are in our position where (being in South Manchester) we are slap bang in the middle of, in the main, United territory with a fair proportion of City thrown in. Grays have a comparable problem, they have a similar population but are in the shadow of West Ham and as such, even though they play excellent football only attract crowds in the region of 1200.
Being part of Greater Manchester any town loses some of its identity as it is consumed by the wider conurbation, and just in the way that urban sprawl occurs so too does the football side of things, with allegiances also easily consumed. I have no doubt that if Altrincham was fifteen rather than five miles away from the centre of Manchester the effect of the Premiership clubs would not be as great, as a more solid identity would be formed concerning the town and its football team.
If United and City didn't exist or Altrincham was much further away from where it is now, would the crowds increase? I myself can see no argument to suggest they would not.