Todays ATTENDANCE (merged threads)

[tedebear]

Yep - take a look at the comments on the attendence thread!

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

Thats why they need to get the bulldozers in at Falmer ASAP

 

[SeagullTim]

I only wasn't there because I cannot afford £15 a home game. Plus I am trying to save for a XBOX360, Forest and Swindon games.

 

[mona]

Yep - take a look at the comments on the attendence thread!

Sorry. How did I not see it?
Any chance of merging threads?
Don't want to bore people but this is the really big issue now.

 

[Icy Gull]

Worth repeating.. really shite and good reason to worry if not panic.

We are a third division club in terms of support now and will take years to win back the youth of tommorow. take a look around the North Stand, full of OLD fans who are not being replaced as they die.

Sky tv takes a lot of the responsibilty but what is on offer there for the parents £40.00 odd quid a month as opposed to Withdean at £23.00, can you really blame people for not being that interested, if all they want to is watch decent football?

That is before you even factor in the Archer Stanley legacy - ****s

 

[mona]

The worry is that if attendances continue to be so low, financing Falmer will surely be affected.

 

[clapham_gull]

It's simply too expensive for the product on offer.

In the past this was masked by the returning to Brighton factor, Zamora on fire, possibly "big name" managers.

.. the Withdean novelty has worn off.

It's also hard to attract fans to a place that has been essentially "ripped to pieces" by the club in the PR campaign for Falmer.

Not disagreeing with that, but you have to admit that trying to attract paying customers to a ground that get's descibed as "a dump" at every opportunity, is very difficult.

 

[mona]

take a look around the North Stand, full of OLD fans who are not being replaced as they die.

That explains why there is no atmosphere at Withdean.....too many dead supporters.

 

[SNOOBS]

Bournemouth 0-3 Oldham - 5261
Brighton 2-2 Carlisle - 5390
Gillingham 2-1 Hartlepool -5488
Huddersfield 0-1 Leyton Orient -9697
Luton Town 1-0 Southend -6820
Millwall 2-1 Yeovil Town -8105
Northampton 0-2 Walsall -5767
Nottm Forest 2-0 Crewe -16650
Port Vale 1-3 Doncaster -4581
Swindon Town 1-0 Bristol Rovers -9342
Tranmere 0-1 Swansea City -6149

Apart from the teams with big stadiums it seems pretty average to me

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

I went yesterday, and I cannot describe to you just how bad the atmosphere was. It was DIRE. When O'Callaghan got sent off, I thought it would lift the support, and it did..... for 2 minutes. Then it went silent again.

The singing section? More like the MOANING section. Most people in there would much rather moan about the stweards / say what dress size they are / what theyre drinking, moan about the away fans standing / the mascot standing, rather than concentrate on the game that theyve paid a stupid amount to watch.

This is what's bringing down the attendances, being at Withdean is becoming dull. You can't say it's because it's near christmas etc etc, because 5 years ago, we were filling the stadium no matter what time of year it was.

Rant well and truely over.

 

[tedebear]

Sorry. How did I not see it?
Any chance of merging threads?
Don't want to bore people but this is the really big issue now.

Just wanted to point out there are others agreeing with you tis all!!

 

[Clothes Peg]

I only wasn't there because I cannot afford £15 a home game. Plus I am trying to save for a XBOX360, Forest and Swindon games.

Forget the XBOX, go watch some real sport. So much better for your health. Fresh air, plus all that exercise walking from the station. Shame there isn't the healthy food to go with it.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The singing section? More like the MOANING section. Most people in there would much rather moan about the stweards / say what dress size they are / what theyre drinking, moan about the away fans standing / the mascot standing, rather than concentrate on the game that theyve paid a stupid amount to watch.

I agree with that.

And ANOTHER THING...

WHY OH WHY, when we scored, were there people in the Singing Section whose FIRST response was to chant "You're not singing anymore" at the Carlisle fans?

A fair enough chant in its own right, but not my first reaction. First thing I do is CELEBRATE OUR GOAL. Other stuff can wait at least a few seconds.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Forest v Crewe 16,650
Huddersfield v Orient 9,697
Swindon v Briston Rovers 9,342
Millwall v Yeovil 8,105
Luton v Southend 6,820
Tranmere v Swansea 6,149
Northampton v Walsall 5,767
Gillingham v Hartlepool 5,488
ALBION v CARLISLE 5,390
Bournemouth v Oldham 5,261
Port Vale v Doncaster 4,581

It's hardly fair comparing these attendances with a club who is playing in a stadium where it would even struggle to match non league standards.

 

[Brovion]

Two principal reasons for low attendances

1. Shit ground, shit facilities - and many people have been and know it.
2. Expensive to get in.

There isn't much we can now do about point 1 (that would be a false economy), but I would urge the club to really go hammer and tongs about point 2. We'll say what happens for the Gillingham game.

With regards to previous attendances over the years here, we pretty much filled up to capacity. However, there are STILL people out there who think it's nigh-impossible to get tickets for Withdean - and I'm not talking about the haphazard way the Ticket Office is run.

Absolutely spot on, especially the 'hammer and tongs' bit. It is simply not enough to say (as I'm sure some would like to) "well we reduced prices for the FA Cup tie and no one came so that doesn't work." The club have got to ADVERTISE. The Gillingham game should be advertised in the Argus, in the Leader (and other free Sussex papers), on Southern FM, on billboards, with flyers, etc etc. Some of my mates (fellow part-time fans who don't read NSC) didn't even know prices had been reduced for Cheltenham!

As well as advertising the ticketing system must be improved. There were loads of complaints on here, and a story in the Argus, about the difficulty getting through to the ticket office to get tickets for both the JPT and FA Cup games against Cheltenham. The reason given was 'excessive demand' - and yet the COMBINED attendance for those two games was less than 8000! Simply reducing prices is not enough, the club have got to be far more imaginative and pro-active in enticing the missing thousands back to Withdean. I don't think the commercial management is up to the task.

 

[Kukev31]

I went yesterday, and I cannot describe to you just how bad the atmosphere was. It was DIRE. When O'Callaghan got sent off, I thought it would lift the support, and it did..... for 2 minutes. Then it went silent again.

The singing section? More like the MOANING section. Most people in there would much rather moan about the stweards / say what dress size they are / what theyre drinking, moan about the away fans standing / the mascot standing, rather than concentrate on the game that theyve paid a stupid amount to watch.

This is what's bringing down the attendances, being at Withdean is becoming dull. You can't say it's because it's near christmas etc etc, because 5 years ago, we were filling the stadium no matter what time of year it was.

Rant well and truely over.

I went yesterday, for the first time in a while, and I have to agree, the atmosphere was very disappointing. There are some people in the singing section that just don't sing, why go in there? The stewards don't help though, I know people will say the club have to do what they have to do, but many grounds up and down the country let fans stand, with no problem at all.

Compare that with the atmosphere at Orient a week ago. What a difference! It can't have been the same set of fans, a lot of people must do what I do and not go to Withdean and just do aways?

 

[GAFFERKNOWSBEST]

its far to expensive although i pay it should be a £10 per fan and then we would fill the ground

 

[mona]

I went yesterday, and I cannot describe to you just how bad the atmosphere was. It was DIRE. When O'Callaghan got sent off, I thought it would lift the support, and it did..... for 2 minutes. Then it went silent again.

The singing section? More like the MOANING section. Most people in there would much rather moan about the stweards / say what dress size they are / what theyre drinking, moan about the away fans standing / the mascot standing, rather than concentrate on the game that theyve paid a stupid amount to watch.

This is what's bringing down the attendances, being at Withdean is becoming dull. You can't say it's because it's near christmas etc etc, because 5 years ago, we were filling the stadium no matter what time of year it was.

Rant well and truely over.

Sorry but this isn't really accurate. Brighton home games have always lacked atmosphere. I had a big argument with a mate over the quietness of the crowd in the late 70s when we were packing 25000 into the Goldstone. His argument was that the silent majority were at least contributing money into the club. Albion fans have ALWAYS been noisier away. There has always been an element of dullness about home games.

Yes football is far too expensive but that is true of Crawley, Reading, Pompey, Palace, Grays Athletic, Fulham and clubs all over the land.

The big drop in support is very serious and WILL impact on the team and the financing of Falmer. We used to take 3000 to Gillingham ; we struggle to get 5000 to Withdean.

 

[mona]

its far to expensive although i pay it should be a £10 per fan and then we would fill the ground

Yeah and the club should supply wacky baccy so that we can all go home happy whatever the result.

 

[Yorkie]

its far to expensive although i pay it should be a £10 per fan and then we would fill the ground

We'll see if that's true at the Gillingham game.