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General Category => Altrincham FC First Team => Topic started by: andrewflynn on February 15, 2018, 06:16:46 PM
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N/T
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Its a bit of a slap in the face for the long standing supporters, where is our reward for supporting them home and away week in week out? I've stopped getting wound up by the decisions made by the board now though, focus entirely on the football, which has thankfully been very enjoyable this season.
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For the record, it’s a “yes but I understand” from me.
I think token gestures like the drinks on Non League Day help but there needs to be a bit more back if we’re planning on running with this offer more often. Softens the blow.
At the same time, we’ve had a few postponements and need the money. Plus they’re people that simple wouldn’t come unless it’s incentivised. So I can take it.
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Its a brilliant idea but should be for all .
And if your a season ticket holder for Alty you get a free drink instead
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Get more in I say.
Wayno has a good idea there. We could give others a book to stamp. Pay full in five games and get in for free, something like that.
It’s been said countless times, how many of us started on messenger tickets. What’s the current equivalent?
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I think it's a great idea to get the fans through the gate and hopefully get them interested in returning when Utd/City aren't playing at other times, at full price.
I don't know how many take up the offer but if we get 10-20 back for other games, it's another £100- £200, plus whatever they may spend whilst in the ground, in the coffers.
If it does become a regular thing, I agree that there has to be some kind of 'reward' for Alty season ticket holders.
If it becomes too regular, it will be along the lines of a DFS 'sale' and it'll just turn into the norm, which is not what those going week in week out, without the discounted entrance, will want to see.
Great as a promotion, not so great as a regular occurrence.
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Get more in I say.
Wayno has a good idea there. We could give others a book to stamp. Pay full in five games and get in for free, something like that.
It’s been said countless times, how many of us started on messenger tickets. What’s the current equivalent?
I’d guess the current equivalent would be the free tickets distributed to schools. I was hooked through free tickets at the leisure centre, too.
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I agree with it and support it as it may get some people hooked and it justifys itself. Regular fans get nothing, never have, as long as we don’t get derided in the press without foundation, that doesn’t bother me to be honest.
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Doesn't bother in the slightest.
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No its fine, season tickets still remain good value, and it promotes the club to others
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With United and City matches at 3pm on a Saturday seemingly reducing every season, its good that we're showing fans from those clubs an alternative. It is a bit annoying that some of us will be paying twice what some "floating" fans are but the world is full of offers for new customers so as long as it isn't too regular I'm ok with it.
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Last time it was on I was stuck behind a group. Two city fans two united fans, two full price and four kids. Bulk buying that might not have happened at full price.
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I fully get it, and see the gains we get from it. But it slightly pisses me off as an OAP to be paying 40% more to get in than these people pay.
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Do we know exactly how many supporters have taken advantage of the offer when we’ve run it in the past? It always surprises me that we never release the numbers after the game.
The reason I ask is because if only 40 odd were taking advantage of the £5 offer, and we were upsetting a fair number of regular fans then it would be fair to consider it more trouble than it was worth. However, if it was boosting home crowds by 400 odd United/City fans, then more supporters may consider the additional matchday revenue for the club a price worth paying.
For the record, when I did used to go home games (and had a season ticket for many years), it never bothered me in the slightest how much other people were paying to get in. Personally, I’d have the £5 offer on for every game, and extend it to all ST holders from other league clubs. And to students. And jobless. And armed forces. And NHS workers. Etc etc.
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I think there should be a data collection element. £5 in but we'd like to be able to invite you back again, please give us a email or phone number - obviously within GDPR terms.
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There must have been several hundred at the last offer
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Id like to see a match where everyone is a fiver.....so the loyal fans benefit and you don't restrict non utd and city floating voters....and see how that compares to non promotion days and the utd city season ticket holder days...
Doesn't bother me....lets get the floaters in!
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There are some very good points made. As Matt said, it would be interesting to know how many people take up the offer, but it also would be interesting to know, from research, although it would be difficult to prove, how many of those people would have come anyway, with the result that the club are depriving themselves of revenue. I can also appreciate why the club might want to keep this confidential.
I voted for the middle category that I understand the offer, while it does bother me. I do find it odd that, on a day to encourage diversity at football, certain categories of wealthy people who already attend football matches are given special favouritism.
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I think it should be run just twice a season, let them experience Alty and then it’s up to them to return at full price.
Then focus on other groups with various offers including regular fans.
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With the recent home postponements any additional income to address the negative impact on cash flow has got to be welcomed. If it encourages some to come to future games who wouldn’t have otherwise more the better.
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To be honest, I would rather be stood amongst 1400 fans, rather than 600-800, nothing more to be said.
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There are some very good points made. As Matt said, it would be interesting to know how many people take up the offer, but it also would be interesting to know, from research, although it would be difficult to prove, how many of those people would have come anyway, with the result that the club are depriving themselves of revenue. I can also appreciate why the club might want to keep this confidential.
I voted for the middle category that I understand the offer, while it does bother me. I do find it odd that, on a day to encourage diversity at football, certain categories of wealthy people who already attend football matches are given special favouritism.
In fairness, they aren't given favouritism because of their wealth, they are getting a special offer because of having a season ticket elsewhere. I will stick my neck out and say the average United and City regular is by no means wealthy. They just choose to spend a lot more to watch their football.
I am all for offers like this, though I think more schemes to incentivise regulars should be looked at too.
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For me, this was a good occasional promotion. It fits with a branding of a cheeky upstart nipping at the heels of its thoroughbred neighbours. The chirpy Giantkiller Robins theme.
However, the branding now appears to be developing into a Club focussed on inclusivity, diversity and community. Whether that’s by design or because of the absence of anything else, I don’t know. The trouble with this is that, if you put out a poster, as the Club has, promoting inclusivity at our next match, and then only include information on entry prices for some other clubs’ season ticket holders, what is everyone else to make of it? But if you did include the entry prices for everyone else, you’d be saying to them that they have to pay double. Will the perception of this pricing be inclusive or discriminatory? Discuss.
All I’m saying is that pricing and promotion has to be coherent and consistent with the brand image you are aiming to project.
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The Warrington Game saw 125 MU/MC supporters use their ST or membership to get in, add to them any family or friends that came along with them and I’d say you’re looking at over 200 on a very rainy Saturday afternoon. Add to that the take on the bar, snacks and programmes. Seems reasonable.
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There are some very good points made. As Matt said, it would be interesting to know how many people take up the offer, but it also would be interesting to know, from research, although it would be difficult to prove, how many of those people would have come anyway, with the result that the club are depriving themselves of revenue. I can also appreciate why the club might want to keep this confidential.
I voted for the middle category that I understand the offer, while it does bother me. I do find it odd that, on a day to encourage diversity at football, certain categories of wealthy people who already attend football matches are given special favouritism.
In fairness, they aren't given favouritism because of their wealth, they are getting a special offer because of having a season ticket elsewhere. I will stick my neck out and say the average United and City regular is by no means wealthy. They just choose to spend a lot more to watch their football.
I am all for offers like this, though I think more schemes to incentivise regulars should be looked at too.
Perhaps I should have rephrased that as "categories of people who already spend a lot of money on football" but I do think it should be restricted to a limited number of games, and not when the club is running another promotion.
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For me, this was a good occasional promotion. It fits with a branding of a cheeky upstart nipping at the heels of its thoroughbred neighbours. The chirpy Giantkiller Robins theme.
However, the branding now appears to be developing into a Club focussed on inclusivity, diversity and community. Whether that’s by design or because of the absence of anything else, I don’t know. The trouble with this is that, if you put out a poster, as the Club has, promoting inclusivity at our next match, and then only include information on entry prices for some other clubs’ season ticket holders, what is everyone else to make of it? But if you did include the entry prices for everyone else, you’d be saying to them that they have to pay double. Will the perception of this pricing be inclusive or discriminatory? Discuss.
All I’m saying is that pricing and promotion has to be coherent and consistent with the brand image you are aiming to project.
I will discuss in an incredibly brief fashion. Comparing regular supporters with floating supporters is not akin to diversity and inclusivity along disability, sexuality and ethnicity lines. It's like comparing oranges with bandicoots.
For what it's worth, which in fairness is probably very little, I think such promotions (the fiver for the Old Traffetiheads, just to clarify) are a good idea if it's only 2 or 3 times a season. I think they do generate additional interest and expenditure that the club would otherwise miss out on. There is also the possibility of some of those floating voters coming back on a semi-regular basis. Any more than two or three times a season and it no longer really classifies as a promotion and is certain to alienate regular supporters
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We should make them give their email address at least so that we can build up a data base of floaters.
That way we can start to email them with news and updates.
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We should make them give their email address at least so that we can build up a data base of floaters.
That way we can start to email them with news and updates.
That's a good idea in principle, but I reckon most people would shy away from giving out a valid email address; I certainly know I would. Even for online sites where you have to supply a valid email address that can be verified, I supply a junk one that I use specifically for that purpose and nothing else. With the best will in the world, once you enter your email address into any site or provide it to any company, you are potentially opening yourself up to a world of spam (and you may forget Data Protection Laws because they're not worth the paper they are written on).
Right, that's quite enough exposure from me (oo err missus) for one day, I'm diving back down into the deep web.
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We should make them give their email address at least so that we can build up a data base of floaters.
That way we can start to email them with news and updates.
Our data capture is woeful but it needs to be as automated as possible. Asking turnstile volunteers to jot down hundreds of email address isn't feasible, nor is asking these fans to write it down on a piece of paper. Its a horrendous first impression of the club.
Luckily its been bookmarked as an area for improvement, hopefully we can work towards installing some methods of data sourcing in the close future. There are plenty of things we can implement, the easiest being the CSH wifi access. To my knowledge I don't think we're asking for any contact info from people at the moment.
Re that £5 offer, I'm very glad I brought it up as it has been insightful to read everyone's opinions on it (using the forum for its purpose, wow.) I think it accurately sums up a generally held opinion: it is an accepted and appreciated promotion, provided we don't take the piss then it appears that the vast majority are happy for the club to run with it. My personal view is that the club needs to continue to work on the lack of connection between the itself and its core support if it wishes to crack on with offers like this. Keep giving back. For every incentive or offer provided to an alternate group there needs to be a payoff for the regulars. Eager to see what we come up with.
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Too late now but we could have supplied a printable voucher which they could complete at home and bring to the game. They are saving 50% of the entrance fee. Not much to ask. After all we can't walk up to their turnstiles and pay on the day.
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It doesn't bother me at all. Regulars only pay £10, so it's not a huge difference. If we had to pay £20+ it might bother me, but at the moment, no.
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Too late now but we could have supplied a printable voucher which they could complete at home and bring to the game. They are saving 50% of the entrance fee. Not much to ask. After all we can't walk up to their turnstiles and pay on the day.
The beauty of the offer is that it is pay on the gate though, you add in a redeemable voucher or ticket and you're essentially adding a roadblock in the process. The whole selling point is its a fiver in cash on the gate, quick and easy. The only way I see turnstile data capture working would be if we had electronic gates. We're miles off that. What we can do is put measures place to capture data once people are inside the ground itself, through the wifi primarily.
If done correctly, you can have people connect to the wifi through Facebook and that opens up loads of insight into who's actually in the Sports Hall. Ages, genders etc. By default they would also have to like Altrincham FC's Facebook page, and maybe even check-in, which would drastically increase our visibility on a match day. That's where I see it going anyway.
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Now if I were to decide to have a season ticket next time up (not in my current planning), do you think we could set up a reciprocal arrangement where our season ticket holders could have reduced admission once a season at United or City ?
No, I rather thought not.......
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
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Good grief. People will be complaining next the club doesn't nothing to promote itself in the wider community. Let's just keep Altrincham FC a secret amongst those who already know its there.
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Like many it can be a bit annoying that floaters get a discount but i understand that we have too. We are on the doorstep of the 2 biggest clubs in the country. We would be daft not to try and take advantage.
On the data collection subject, we could offer free wifi in the bar but to sign into it you have to use a valid email address. A lot of clubs in the conference do it. No idea if it would be possible for us to do it though
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Happy clappy....you make many salient points but I have to take issue with you saying yesterday's attendance was "an appalling attendance considering"
How does our 905 attendance with 6 away fans compare with the following?...even if you include 200 floaters.....
League 2
Barnet V Accy 1501
Morecambe V F Grn 1447
National League
Guiseley V Maidenhead 777
Solihull V Dover 679
Torquay V Dag & R 1931
National League North
FT Alfreton Town (1) 2 3 (3) Salford City 984
FT Blyth Spartans (0) 3 0 (2) Bradford (Park Avenue) 806
FT Boston United (0) 0 1 (0) Leamington 1,107
FT Brackley Town (1) 3 0 (0) Darlington 675
FT Chorley (0) 1 0 (0) Gainsborough Trinity 1,084
FT Curzon Ashton (3) 4 1 (0) York City 892
FT FC United of Manchester (0) 0 1 (1) Stockport County 3,084
FT Kidderminster Harriers (0) 0 2 (1) Harrogate Town 1,739
FT North Ferriby United (0) 0 3 (2) Southport
FT Spennymoor Town (0) 0 1 (1) Nuneaton Town 852
FT Tamworth (0) 2 2 (0) AFC Telford United 736
Our level;
•Att. 192 Barwell 1 - 1 Ashton United
•Att. 131 Coalville Town 1 - 4 Lancaster City
•Att. 246 Farsley Celtic 1 - 0 Stafford Rangers
•Att. 462 Marine 1 - 0 Halesowen Town
•Att. 421 Matlock Town 2 - 3 Witton Albion
•Att. 162 Rushall Olympic 1 - 0 Workington
•Att. 389 Stalybridge Celtic 2 - 2 Hednesford Town
•Att. 476 Stourbridge 2 - 1 Buxton
•Att. 283 Warrington Town 3 - 1 Mickleover Sports Sean Williams 24'
•Att. 301 Whitby Town 2 - 1 Nantwich Town
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We’re also topping the League’s Home attendances. With next to no away fans most games, this is a decent effort given we’re still missing a fair few regulars.
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/northern-premier-league-premier-division/attendances
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
Not sure, what you mean by "so much for diversity" but the Inclusion work is not about increasing attendances, in the short term anyway but about building our brand amongst the wider community both locally and nationally. We are gaining a lot friends in new areas and are receiving recognition and coverage on a national scale. When was the last time Altrincham FC was featured on Sky Sports website as a news headline story? We are also getting plaudits from organisations including The Football Supporters' Federation, Kick it Out and Football v Homophobia for being a showcase Club and punching vastly above our weight as a 7th tier Club. I would also add that it hasn't cost the Club a penny.
If you want to knock the club fine, butility don't forget there are a lot of positive things happening at the Club, in addition to being top of the league.
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Great win yesterday up the reds
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
What had they nicked you for ?
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
What had they nicked you for ?
Excessive Teasing Act, 2006.
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
I didn't realise that Kenny was there on Saturday.
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We’re also topping the League’s Home attendances. With next to no away fans most games, this is a decent effort given we’re still missing a fair few regulars.
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/northern-premier-league-premier-division/attendances
Was surprised to see Ashton have only averaged 165 at home this season. We should have more there than they do on Saturday in that case.
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
I didn't realise that Kenny was there on Saturday.
he was indeed wearing a very fetching gangster wolly hat
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On a serious note the amount of threads turning into squabbles is embarrasing
We need a separate squabble board
On a positve note my daughter had a fab day yesterday getting a pic in the police car and with the main man himself
Top day
What had they nicked you for ?
Excessive Teasing Act, 2006.
bravo . One shalt not tickle chins univited
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Shaw Lane average 202.......their owner must wonder why he bothers.....that's for a team that led the league for a long period and have since mostly had it in their own hands to win the league.....
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They are bottom of the league for away attendance so obviously have no real fans...pointless club just the plumber fella's ego trip.
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They are bottom of the league for away attendance so obviously have no real fans...pointless club just the plumber fella's ego trip.
Well we'd better make sure WE don't trip !
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They are bottom of the league for away attendance so obviously have no real fans...pointless club just the plumber fella's ego trip.
Well we'd better make sure WE don't trip !
It is a serious point though. It's one thing bankrolling a club through the leagues, but the inability to stage home games to achieve it because you rent someone else's pitch surely questions the whole point of the exercise doesn't it? Their landlords Athersley Rec successfully played at home on Saturday in the NCEL Prem Div.
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
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I think the 1400 against Warrington was a freak
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
I would be expecting to be getting 900 odd as a minimum without any crass or desperate offers on, so with all the publicity and offers and homophobia or diversity the crowd was appalling considering the football we're playing and top of the league. Parky and the lads deserve better
I guess the damage has been done and until Rowley goes many just won't return, and trying to replace those missing fans by pimping ourselves to United and City fans is just papering over the cracks and not sustainable
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
I would be expecting to be getting 900 odd as a minimum without any crass or desperate offers on, so with all the publicity and offers and homophobia or diversity the crowd was appalling considering the football we're playing and top of the league. Parky and the lads deserve better
I guess the damage has been done and until Rowley goes many just won't return, and trying to replace those missing fans by pimping ourselves to United and City fans is just papering over the cracks and not sustainable
Even at the lowest level of football this club has ever played at, and after the last 2 seasons which have been an unmitigated disaster?
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How many people are still boycotting home games specifically until we have a new Chairman? Impossible to know exactly but an idea of numbers would be interesting. I respect their decision to stay away.
I thought it was a decent crowd on Saturday to be fair.
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A factor in the attendances is the away following, it could have been no more than 5 or 6 on sat so 900 home fans is decent, add the usual 200 away in the conf would have been 1100
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I’d guess we’ll end the season with an average of 850 or thereabouts which after 2.5 prior seasons of weekly defeats, minimal away support, little wider media exposure and the lowest level the club has played at in its modern history is fine by me. Any criticism of our crowd numbers this season is frankly bizarre.
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I’d guess we’ll end the season with an average of 850 or thereabouts which after 2.5 prior seasons of weekly defeats, minimal away support, little wider media exposure and the lowest level the club has played at in its modern history is fine by me. Any criticism of our crowd numbers this season is frankly bizarre.
Forum tinnitus.
Just about every thread has an entry in the bizarre complaint category. When you constantly bombard every topic with the same underlying message, regardless of relevance, that underlying message loses all potency and indeed the very pertinent message underlying it gets lost as people switch off (or indeed stop looking at the forum at all).
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
I would be expecting to be getting 900 odd as a minimum without any crass or desperate offers on, so with all the publicity and offers and homophobia or diversity the crowd was appalling considering the football we're playing and top of the league. Parky and the lads deserve better
I guess the damage has been done and until Rowley goes many just won't return, and trying to replace those missing fans by pimping ourselves to United and City fans is just papering over the cracks and not sustainable
I do agree about papering over the cracks. It seems we are trying to replace our absent core supporters (very noticeable on Saturday, it was silent at times) with new fans, rather than open up dialogue with them through a new supporter's group that seems to have fallen flat on its face.
Entirely disagree about the attendance being appalling though. Our average attendance when we won promotion from the National League North in 13/14 was 909.. Our 14/15 National League season saw 3 home games with an attendance below 905: 894 v Braintree, 850 v Welling United, 870 v Dover. Our 15/16 National League season saw 5 games with an attendance below 905: 677 v Eastleigh, 861 v Braintree, 869 v Kidderminster, 826 v Woking, 805 v Gateshead.
Some would have you believe that everything is alright because our attendances are doing okay and we're top of a league, but it still clearly isn't. If anything its kind of a shame we are doing alright without them because data wise the absence isn't that noticeable to be honest. In the ground on a match day however, we're still very far away from what we once were.
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
I would be expecting to be getting 900 odd as a minimum without any crass or desperate offers on, so with all the publicity and offers and homophobia or diversity the crowd was appalling considering the football we're playing and top of the league. Parky and the lads deserve better
I guess the damage has been done and until Rowley goes many just won't return, and trying to replace those missing fans by pimping ourselves to United and City fans is just papering over the cracks and not sustainable
I do agree about papering over the cracks. It seems we are trying to replace our absent core supporters (very noticeable on Saturday, it was silent at times) with new fans, rather than open up dialogue with them through a new supporter's group that seems to have fallen flat on its face.
Entirely disagree about the attendance being appalling though. Our average attendance when we won promotion from the National League North in 13/14 was 909.. Our 14/15 National League season saw 3 home games with an attendance below 905: 894 v Braintree, 850 v Welling United, 870 v Dover. Our 15/16 National League season saw 5 games with an attendance below 905: 677 v Eastleigh, 861 v Braintree, 869 v Kidderminster, 826 v Woking, 805 v Gateshead.
Some would have you believe that everything is alright because our attendances are doing okay and we're top of a league, but it still clearly isn't. If anything its kind of a shame we are doing alright without them because data wise the absence isn't that noticeable to be honest. In the ground on a match day however, we're still very far away from what we once were.
Very much so. The atmosphere is nowhere near what it was, which is a shame. With regards the dialogue between the chairman and supporters group, is there anything other than step down that GR could do that would entice the absent fans back? Or are they gone for good?
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It was good to see the flags at the back of the Golf Road stand again on Saturday.
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First home game this season I was unable to get too , I thought the same when saw the pictures good to see the flags back up. Makes the golf road feel more atmospheric, good work to whoever's got them up for the game. Agree atmosphere isnt what it was but to be expected with some off the main choir faces no longer attending. But do feel its back on the up a bit,bin few good atmospheres this season at times.
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I stuck the flags up, glad they were noticed.
They'll be going up regularly again now - home and away. I was holding out on someone taking ownership of it but I'll have to put Twitter down for five minutes... If anyone wants me to look after / put up a flag that they may have at home then give me a shout. Better than it being in the cupboard.
The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
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Think this United City £5 thing has been done enough now, 905 was an appalling attendance considering. Try doing something for the Altrincham fans for once, so much for diversity
How many did you think we should have been getting for the game Jamie? Whether or not you would describe it as “appalling” probably depends on how many you were expecting to come in the first place.
Personally I though 905 taken in isolation is a decent enough Saturday crowd for us at this level, all things considered. However, in the context of the anti-homophobia day, the prominent national/local media coverage, and the £5 ST offer, then I was definitely a little ‘underwhelmed’ by the crowd myself, rather than appalled.
That said, we only got 900-odd for NLD with big fanfare, so perhaps it’s fair to say that my own expectations for Saturday were a little on the high side too.
Does anyone know how many Utd/City STs we got through the gate in the end?
I would be expecting to be getting 900 odd as a minimum without any crass or desperate offers on, so with all the publicity and offers and homophobia or diversity the crowd was appalling considering the football we're playing and top of the league. Parky and the lads deserve better
I guess the damage has been done and until Rowley goes many just won't return, and trying to replace those missing fans by pimping ourselves to United and City fans is just papering over the cracks and not sustainable
On what basis though Jamie? The hardcore Tuesday night average is down in the 500s this season.
It would seem that the offers and publicity, that you consider “desperate”, are exactly what is bumping us past 900 for some Saturday games.
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Interesting point Matt, so your saying our hard core is down to 500? Is that where we're at as a club now? How many do you think are staying away
Also if 905 was thanks to letting United and City fans in for half price and diversity what do you think the turnout would have been otherwise? Would it have been healthy in your eyes?
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There's still a lot of frustration on here but the facts are that the doomsday scenario predicted by some of the posters last March has not come to pass. I don't think the offer to City/United fans is making a huge difference. In terms of gate receipts I bet there's only a marginal effect
How many people turn up if the ticket price goes up by 50% over the summer might be another matter.
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Interesting point Matt, so your saying our hard core is down to 500? Is that where we're at as a club now? How many do you think are staying away
Also if 905 was thanks to letting United and City fans in for half price and diversity what do you think the turnout would have been otherwise? Would it have been healthy in your eyes?
What did you expect the attendance to be to categorise the 905 as appalling?
Not "we shouldn't be at this level".
Not "people are staying away until Rowley goes".
To be classed as "appalling" I'd say the attendance would be around 50% of what you expected. So is around 1,800 nearer to what you actually expected, given the current situation?
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The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
Macc Town scum
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The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
Macc Town scum
Probably retribution for posing outside their ground with it on the way to Leek a few years ago. Them guys ain't got no sensayuma.
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The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
Macc Town scum
Probably retribution for posing outside their ground with it on the way to Leek a few years ago. Them guys ain't got no sensayuma.
It was on the way back from Leek with all of us slightly worse for drink. Great pic taken by quality minibus driver Omar.
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The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
Macc Town scum
Probably retribution for posing outside their ground with it on the way to Leek a few years ago. Them guys ain't got no sensayuma.
It was on the way back from Leek with all of us slightly worse for drink. Great pic taken by quality minibus driver Omar.
if that was retribution for that why did they smash up the mini bus then ... ps ill never gp back there ever . Hate the place 🤔
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If i had the eye of an eagle
.. if i had the arse of a crow
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The huge one was ripped by Macclesfield fans and we'll be looking at repairing that in April.
Macc Town scum
Probably retribution for posing outside their ground with it on the way to Leek a few years ago. Them guys ain't got no sensayuma.
It was on the way back from Leek with all of us slightly worse for drink. Great pic taken by quality minibus driver Omar.
what an awful event that turned very sour with the leek animals
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Interesting point Matt, so your saying our hard core is down to 500? Is that where we're at as a club now? How many do you think are staying away
It’s reasonable to assume we might get a few less through the door on a Tuesday than on a Saturday. But the conversion this season from those being enticed to the Saturday games (by the promotions to bump the crowds), to those who would turn out to a midweek game, seems disappointing.
There are many still going to the home games, in spite of the ongoing off-field issues, which is fair enough. But it’s clear that enough regular fans are staying away (or only attending away games) to make a difference to the home crowds when some of them have been as low as they have this season.
Also if 905 was thanks to letting United and City fans in for half price and diversity what do you think the turnout would have been otherwise? Would it have been healthy in your eyes?
I’m still not sure how many Utd/City turned up on Saturday, and so don’t know how much difference it made in the end. I thought 905 for a ‘normal’ Saturday was healthy enough to be honest, and around where I would expect us to be at the moment.
I just thought we’d get more through the gate last Saturday with us being top of the league, Utd/City not playing at 3pm, the £5 offer, advertising Utd game in the bar, the diversity promotion, and the prominent media coverage during the week.
But we’ve never played a this level of the pyramid before so it’s hard to say what we we should or shouldn’t be getting.
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There aren't that many going to away matches that don't turn up to home matches. Probably 100 or so. No disrespect to the people involved. Just trying to quantify it.
The rest presumably have given up on home and away support.
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There aren't that many going to away matches that don't turn up to home matches. Probably 100 or so. No disrespect to the people involved. Just trying to quantify it.
The rest presumably have given up on home and away support.
If we have 100 people going to away games who, perfectly understandably, refuse to go to home games, that is a fair percentage of our core support.
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There aren't that many going to away matches that don't turn up to home matches. Probably 100 or so. No disrespect to the people involved. Just trying to quantify it.
The rest presumably have given up on home and away support.
If we have 100 people going to away games who, perfectly understandably, refuse to go to home games, that is a fair percentage of our core support.
Agreed. I’d also estimate about 50-100 have packed it in all together.
Just to show my working, I saw a photo a few weeks back from the Lincoln FA Cup match of about 40 Alty fans. Of those 40 only 4 still go regularly, 3 of which are match day club volunteers, and about 5 only do away games.
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To be quite honest, I'm too old now be militant. Twenty years ago I'd have washed my hands of the whole shooting match (I had a full season's personal boycott a few years ago) but now I just want to watch half-decent football that I can engage with for my declining years.
I've learned to tolerate the things I cannot change, but there's a lot I'm still unhappy about.
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To be quite honest, I'm too old now be militant. Twenty years ago I'd have washed my hands of the whole shooting match (I had a full season's personal boycott a few years ago) but now I just want to watch half-decent football that I can engage with for my declining years.
I've learned to tolerate the things I cannot change, but there's a lot I'm still unhappy about.
Well said that man.
It would be interesting to see, if it were somehow put to a vote, how many of our support base are happy with the current regime. I suspect it would not exactly be a ringing endorsement (and that's putting it mildly).
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I think a significant proportion are unaware of any issue, and quite a few more are aware but are happy or at least happy enough not to seek change.
Whilst things aren't perfect I think they could be far worse so I'm inclined to stick with the current scenario.
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Not sure how they could be worse, we were playing away at Bristol rovers 36 months ago this week. There’s many people staying away, hopefully they will return once we have a new chairman but it is very easy for people’s habits to change. It’s ruined my Saturdays if I’m honest. A winning team will paper over the cracks, these aren’t spectators that are missing, these are supporters, people who have stood in the terraces at Torquay and Dover on a Tuesday night. See the bar after every home game these days, empty. Whichever way it gets dressed up, and whatever people’s opinions, until we have a new figurehead the place will remain fractured. It’s hurting a lot of these people to stay away.
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I thought 905 was pretty decent but did think we might hit 1k
I had a fantastic day at the game saturday and so did my daughter
One thing that did strike me was the lack of any atmosphere in the watmore lounge at full time
Nothing
Oh for the days of fast service in the noel white suite and fans singing
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I think a significant proportion are unaware of any issue, and quite a few more are aware but are happy or at least happy enough not to seek change.
Whilst things aren't perfect I think they could be far worse so I'm inclined to stick with the current scenario.
Hmmm, I beg to differ, well actually I'm not begging at all, my view differs considerably from yours. There is already a significant percentage of supporters staying either away all together or away from home games. I would put an estimate of around 10% on this (and that may well be a very conservative estimate). There are also a lot more, like 'One Foot in the Grave' above who are far from happy with the way things are, but do not wish to stop going to games.
Whatever way you look at it we are talking 100's who are not happy with the current regime and whilst there may be others who are unaware of what has been going on, the ones who are aware and unhappy are a significant percentage.
This is NOT a happy situation where the status quo is acceptable and a winning team (at our lowest ever level in recent times) can paper over the cracks.
This is NOT a team issue, PP and the team deserve all the plaudits for the way we are operating at this level.
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Top of the league (don't ask which one)
Guaranteed (well very nearly) a home win ever home game
Tenner to get in
Attractive football (mostly)
Yet our crowd size is underwhelming to say the least and there is no atmosphere at all.
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This is NOT a team issue, PP and the team deserve all the plaudits for the way we are operating at this level.
Surely the board deserve at least some of the plaudits for this, backing the manager with a decent sized budget, the resource made available via the statszone in Rob Esteva amongst other things.
Yet our crowd size is underwhelming to say the least and there is no atmosphere at all.
Looking back 2 seasons ago when we were still in the conf national ( I think the highest level we've ever operated at ! ), there were Sat crowds of 861 vs Braintree, 869 vs Kidderminster, so lower than we got last Saturday.
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This is NOT a team issue, PP and the team deserve all the plaudits for the way we are operating at this level.
Surely the board deserve at least some of the plaudits for this, backing the manager with a decent sized budget, thme resource made available via the statszone in Rob Esteva amongst other things.
Yet our crowd size is underwhelming to say the least and there is no atmosphere at all.
Looking back 2 seasons ago when we were still in the conf national ( I think the highest level we've ever operated at ! ), there were Sat crowds of 861 vs Braintree, 869 vs Kidderminster, so lower than we got last Saturday.
The board could/should of put money in when we were in the national lge when Sinnott was here and insisted he improved the team. As for appointing a good manager in PP. Yes they finally did but by Christ we had some sh*t ones ones beforehand.
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This is NOT a team issue, PP and the team deserve all the plaudits for the way we are operating at this level.
Surely the board deserve at least some of the plaudits for this, backing the manager with a decent sized budget, the resource made available via the statszone in Rob Esteva amongst other things.
Do they? In the first place, there has to be some acceptance of responsibility for being in this position we are currently in.
Secondly, and without going over the same old ground again, there is much more to this than 'on-the-field' matters as I am sure you are aware.
Yet our crowd size is underwhelming to say the least and there is no atmosphere at all.
Looking back 2 seasons ago when we were still in the conf national ( I think the highest level we've ever operated at ! ), there were Sat crowds of 861 vs Braintree, 869 vs Kidderminster, so lower than we got last Saturday.
Yep, but the fact is that there were two promotions on last Saturday and plenty of media exposure. You are not comparing like with like on a whole host of levels. I actually don't think 905 was that bad for last Saturday, but it could have been so much more and many of those who create the matchday atmosphere are not present.
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This is NOT a team issue, PP and the team deserve all the plaudits for the way we are operating at this level.
Surely the board deserve at least some of the plaudits for this, backing the manager with a decent sized budget, the resource made available via the statszone in Rob Esteva amongst other things.
I thought rob came to the public meeting and offered to help afterwards.And without wanting to sound churlish, if we couldn’t put a decent budget together in this league, we might as well close. All this could have been avoided if the right decisions were made when Lee Sinnott left, the knock on and all that came afterwards was a disaster. From people announcing themselves as manager on the radio to people announcing themselves as assistant manager on twitter the day we learnt Sinnott has gone. PP is doing and fantastic job and we are playing good football and it will be a superb achievement to get a side thrown together in the summer promoted. People were badly scarred by what went on and probably won’t have any closure on the matter until we have a new chairman. Sorry if that is unpalatable, but that’s just the way I read it.
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As there's no sign of anyone buying the available shares I can't see much change at boardroom level.
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As there's no sign of anyone buying the available shares I can't see much change at boardroom level.
There has been very little work from board room level to sell the shares. I wonder why that might be.
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As there's no sign of anyone buying the available shares I can't see much change at boardroom level.
There has been very little work from board room level to sell the shares. I wonder why that might be.
How very cynical of you. Although I'm forced to agree.