Have we delusions of grandeur

[coventrygull]

That's not true though, Football league attendances were up for the fifth season running last year reaching a 50-year high. And that's not the Prem, that's talking football league only.

Football League attendances boom 5th year running

Ok I accept that but Coventry have only increased their crowd by about three thousand since moving from Highfield Road. Is the increase in crowds only for certain clubs? Or is that across the board

 

[Uter]

Is our support bad though? I mean we rarely get below 5000 in the league and this has been the case for 10 years. How many third division clubs would still get gates like ours in our circumstance, the club have made the most of Withdean but it is an absolute hole that despite it's limitations still has a decent core base of fans.

Not meaning to pick on Swindon but how many Swindon fans would turn up to watch their team at a Withdean style 'Stadium'? I suspect not bloody many, the fact that we still have average support in this division shows our potential imo.

I agree to an extent. For the past few years Withdean has clearly not exactly been a selling point, yet the same old 5000 loyally turn up time and again. I meant our support has been nothing to write home about, apart from the late 70s, throughout our history, when our facilities were comparable to other clubs, not light years away as they are now.

 

[burrish-gull]

Knob

Build the bloody stadium and they will come, I'm tired of telling people about the potential of this club. I've been going since 1975 so I think I can speak from experience, the club was practically ripped apart in the late 80's and early 90's and thats why the crowds never came.

I meet people locally every day who used to support the club but got out of the 'habit' when we left Brighton and then came back to Withdean. I'll tell you now there are thousands of people all over Sussex who feel the same.

 

[DIFFBROOK]

I think our catchment area is a bit of a red herring. Mainly becuase its so easy to get to London. Therefore, although the Brighton area may be big, its very fickle. At the end of the day its all about the product. Which league we are, the ground, style of play etc. At the moment we play in an athletics stadium, in the 3rd division and playing poorly

There are kids out there that want to see good football, but currently are being taken to see London sides. If we can win matches, move into the Championship with Falmer then yes we can easily get crowds of around 15,000.

If we are in this league and playing poorly, then even with Falmer I think we are only talking about crowds of say 6-9000.

The trick is to get into the Championship and stay there

 

[Notters]

I meet people locally every day who used to support the club but got out of the 'habit' when we left Brighton and then came back to Withdean. I'll tell you now there are thousands of people all over Sussex who feel the same.

I hear this from loads of people too, but they are LIARS! The crowds in the last few seasons at the Goldstone were comparable to the crowds now. If all the people who say they used to go regularly before we went Gillingham actually did, we'd have been averaging 50,000!

 

[shoreham moonraker]

The trick is to convert the maybes, Brighton seemingly has quite a transient population and alot of people move here from elsewhere (me!) Its very similar to the commuter belt along the M4. The majority of people who moved to Reading and Swindon were originally from London and supporting their local team was not in the family make up. My fathers family was from west London and were QPR. I only started supporting Swindon following a schools initative. With the building of Falmer the work really begins, the club needs to get out and about sussex and flog themselves, with falmer there is the potential to grow.

As mentioned earlier I take my hat off to you for going week in week out to withdean, you do what you have to do but it must have been a f***ing chore on occassions.

 

[Touristic_denizen]

we do have delusions of grandeur, but so what.... isnt it better to dream of the championship than to have never dreamed at all ?

 

[footychick]

Doesn't everyone?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

This comparison with gates in the 1980s or whenever is completely irrelevant, as crowds all around the league were lower then. Man Utd used to get 35,000, Arsenal 25,000. You can say we averaged only 7,000 in the old Division 2 but teams like Palace didn't get much more.

Football now is a completely different animal and the Sky effect combined with decent stadiums & a higher profile for the game has seen crowds rise at most levels. With Falmer built then, it's easily feasible to imagine the Albion's gates being similar to someone like Reading

 

[Insel affe]

With Falmer built then, it's easily feasible to imagine the Albion's gates being similar to someone like Reading

I think it’s safe to say we’re in a different league now, on all aspects concerning Reading