[Archived] Poll - Falling Attendances.

[FourLaneBlue]

I'm not sure how practical I think The drogs suggestion is, but even his most scathing critics must admit that the only two examples in recent times of a merger - Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Rushden & Diamonds - have been extremely successful. Both reached undreamt-of heights after mergers that were resisted by all four sets of fans.

Meanwhile, Dundee and Dundee United are nowhere.

348322[/snapback]

However, they didn't have the history and tradition of Blackburn Rovers. A merger could work but only if it could retain enough of the original fans. Preston and Burnley don't like us too much and it's unlikely many of their fans would support a combined side. Shaddy mentioned playing at different stadiums; this is impractical. A club side needs a home which would mean either using one of the existing stadiums (which would have to be Ewood as it is the biggest and most modern in facilities). Why would a Burnley fan or a Preston fan travel to see a team which plays in Blackburn at the detested home of their rivals?

Fair play to thenodrog for making the suggestion but is it feasible? Really, I don't see how.

[dave birch]

S S 9 and Kremmin have said most of what I'm thinking.

A salary cap is definitely the way to go.

If a club can't fit someone in under the cap, then that player has to go. It's a system that works well in the NRL and the AFL.With the NRL, those players that were priced out have gone overseas. The comp has been the closest in years with the bottom club scoring more points than any other team finishing bottom in the history of the game.

Imagine three or four rounds to go, with half a dozen teams still in with a chance of winning the premiership...........

Pity they couldn't fit in a "draft" system in there as well.....

[dave birch]

FLB, if the team is winning, the fans will turn up.

In the NRL, St George/ Illawarra Rugby League team plays at two stadiums on (generally) alternate home games. They finished 2nd after the home and away rounds with increased crowds on previous seasons.

[Ste B]

Just as you were getting totally disillusioned with the predictable nature of modern football, up pops Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala to cheer at least me up by scoring the winner against the mighty Spurs.

So its not all bad.

[cn174]

Dunno if this has been posted yet but John Williams is quoted on the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/e...rem/4264936.stm

I do think the actual footy teams are realising that this years attendances are going to be a probem. The Premierleague keeps trying to play it down saying 'it is too early to draw analysis' but sooner or later they're going to have to do something about it.

[jim mk2]

Dunno if this has been posted yet but John Williams is quoted on the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/e...rem/4264936.stm

I do think the actual footy teams are realising that this years attendances are going to be a probem. The Premierleague keeps trying to play it down saying 'it is too early to draw analysis' but sooner or later they're going to have to do something about it.

348367[/snapback]

Why should "they" do something about it ?

The "big" clubs with all the power - Arsenal, Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea, Newcastle - still sell out most weeks so they don't see a problem. It's only the "smaller" clubs such as Rovers that are crying for help. But when did we ever count .... ?

Williams's pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears.

[SAS]

jims right unfortunatly

the big teams can charge what they want

and with glazers ticket pricing plan we know man utds arent going to go down anytime in the next few years

[RevidgeBlue]

jims right unfortunatly

the big teams can charge what they want

and with glazers ticket pricing plan we know man utds arent going to go down anytime in the next few years

348370[/snapback]

Not strictly true even Chelsea struggled desperately to sell out West Brom at home.

Will Arsenal manage to sell out a 60k stadium if they're title alsorans?

The Premier League can also apparently pass a motion if 14 clubs are in favour.

So if things continue to deteriorate things might develop.

[John]

There are also bound to be wide open spaces in the stands tonight but Hughes said: "You have to be professional whatever the circumstances. You have to make sure you don't take your eye off the ball."

[thenodrog]

Why should "they" do something about it ?

The "big" clubs with all the power  - Arsenal, Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea, Newcastle - still sell out most weeks so they don't see a problem. It's only the "smaller" clubs such as Rovers that are crying for help. But when did we ever count .... ?

348368[/snapback]

As I said before (in particular regard to Chelsea away) simply dont travel away to those grounds then. Sure success was tilted to the monied clubs anyway which was anti fairplay and against the true principles of sport, but Abromovich and Kenyon have made the Prem a farce.

A poor away following at Chelsea will show us up as a small club in decline and open to ridicule and criticism whereas NO AWAY following at all will show us to be a small club with strong and unified support and earn us respect. We would be famous for sticking up for ordinary football fans everywhere!

And if we could manage it I've a feeling that other clubs supporters would organise similar.

Prob too late now but a similar action at OT by ourselves and other clubs would stick 2 fingers up the noses of the Glazers and their like too.

Just what is there to lose?

[cloggyjimmybrfc]

me and my 3year old lad have travelled quite a few miles in the last 18months (as i live in venlo-south holland),its not easy ejther,a 2 and a half hour trip up to schiphol,then the "simple hour" flight over to speke,mate picks us up and that is for the home games,believe it or not the away games are the easiest specially london,thats is a half hour train journey to eindhoven then the hour flight to any of the london airpirts with ryan air of course!,does get a bit pricey though to get to the said ground of the day but all in all very expensive year in year out,now dont get me wrong guys if i didnt have a good job in holland i wouldnt be able to do half the travellin that me and my lad do,so this is no way a knock at anybody whatsoever,and if any of you read my article in the let about the rip off semi final youll know what i mean,BUT to be honest ive already missed three of the 6games this season,which is not known usually,im absolutely fed up with the garbage seved up currently and when i watched the toon game(on canal+)it was unbelievable we played a 4-5-1 against a very very poor toon side who as one of the worst defences in the prem,if id have been at that game i would have been very ###### off on my way back to speke airport!just as i was after the bolton game.i will not pay rakes of money out on flights week in week out to be subjected to toture like we are dishin out at the moment.so thats my moan over with take this post how you want to take it,at the end of the day anyone who travels 60000miles a season as a right to an opinion,p.s.im not the only one who comes over from other european destinations,they all feel the same bout this trash bein served up

[Ozz]

As I posted in the Huddersfield thread, there are no guarantees in paying to watch professional sport. One week it might be a pile of crapola, the next week, the same team play like world beaters.

The difference now of course is that the stakes are much higher.

As a lad I used to pay £2 or whatever it was to get into the BBE and if they were shoite, which they invariably were, then WTF? £2 wasted.

As Jimmy Cloggy says, to see a shoite game of footy and spend hundreds of pounds in the process is another thing all together.

I think it`s Paul who was praising Lancashire Cricket for the entertainment at the 20twenty games-Pound for pound entertainment that plsses all over Premiership football these days.

Football used to be unique in so far as people would turn up regardless of the dross served up-the emotional bond to your club would pervade over the lack of quality. But with millionaire dead eye players infecting our clubs like Dutch Elm disease, the emotional bond is loosening and that, tied in with the crappy negative dont-lose-at-all-costs tactics and £30 admission prices PLUS wall to wall TV coverage, which for me by the way doesn`t work as I would as likely not watch a game on TV `cos its boring as I wouldn`t watch a game live, means....attendances will dwindle till any or all of the above factors are dealt with.

Football in this country is the peoples game, the workers game not the plaything of the Prawn Sandwich types. The sooner it is given back to them, the better.

[bob fleming]

Two great posts above. Well said chaps.

[Jim J]

Football used to be unique in so far as people would turn up regardless of the dross served up-the emotional bond to your club would pervade over the lack of quality. But with millionaire dead eye players infecting our clubs like Dutch Elm disease, the emotional bond is loosening and that, tied in with the crappy negative dont-lose-at-all-costs tactics and £30 admission prices PLUS wall to wall TV coverage, which for me by the way doesn`t work as I would as likely not watch a game on TV `cos its boring as I wouldn`t watch a game live, means....attendances will dwindle till any or all of the above factors are dealt with.

348413[/snapback]

That one paragraph just about sums it all up.

[Ozz]

Well, something about footall keeps some people happy, IE How many Huddersfield fans came over last night? 5~6,000? The price was obviously right for them and the chance of turning over a bigger team, a prem team provided enough incentive for them to make the effort.

To be honest, I was quite jealous of them, loads of passionate singing, good atmosphere in the away end and they were in the game for most of the match. Not been like that following Rovers for a while, maybe since Sheff Wed in Semi away at Hillsbrough?

[cloggyjimmybrfc]

Well, something about footall keeps some people happy, IE How many Huddersfield fans came over last night? 5~6,000? The price was obviously right for them and the chance of turning over a bigger team, a prem team provided enough incentive for them to make the effort.

To be honest, I was quite jealous of them, loads of passionate singing, good atmosphere in the away end and they were in the game for most of the match. Not been like that following Rovers for a while, maybe since Sheff Wed in Semi away at Hillsbrough?

348613[/snapback]

hahahahaha,

some folk make me laugh at times,we get absolutely slaughtered for our "crap" fans and our away following is absymal sorry to use that word but its the one word what justifies it,and we have a comment like "i was quite jealous of them"its easy mate in my eyes...lets get off our arses then and fill our allocation for our away games??or am i wrong?if udders can pay 30squid a ticket and bring 5-6000 why cant we do that?or is huddersfield a place where wages are astronoical massive i dont know..or is it really the performances we are seeing with too many average championship players in the squad putting us off travelling??

[stuwilky]

if udders can pay 30squid a ticket and bring 5-6000

They paid a tenner.

[Lee]

Huddersfield brought just under 5000 fans of which 2500 tickets were sold on the night!

Edited September 22, 2005 by Lee

[Sparky Marky]

No, Huddersfield have a decent away support traditionally. The extras probably came in the beleif they were seeing a top class side, with top class players, stadium etc.....I remember when we used to be int he old 2nd div and if we played a top flight club, we'd make an extra effort. It was quite a surreal game for me when we played Liverpool at home in the 80's, and Southampton in the FA Cup, Utd (when mick rathbone stood on the ball)...Strachan lobbed the keeper....

I'd like to think that these Huddersfield fans were excited at the prospect of a possible upset against players they only usually see on the telly.

And I wonder what they thought when nobody bothered to turn up. Absolutely dismal showing by rovers fans.....BBE did its best and I enjoyed it.

[Ozz]

hahahahaha,

some folk make me laugh at times,we get absolutely slaughtered for our "crap" fans and our away following is absymal sorry to use that word but its the one word what justifies it,and we have a comment like "i was quite jealous of them"its easy mate in my eyes...lets get off our arses then and fill our allocation for our away games??or am i wrong?if udders can pay 30squid a ticket and bring 5-6000 why cant we do that?or is huddersfield a place where wages are astronoical massive i dont know..or is it really the performances we are seeing with too many average championship players in the squad putting us off travelling??

348631[/snapback]

I wasn`t saying our away following is absymal, which in fairness it is(Goodison last season) (which I went to BTW), I was merely saying I wish every away game following we had was like that of Huddersfields last night. I can only speak for myself, and for that matter control the games I go to and the amount of songs I sing, and beleive me Jimmy although I don`t travel from the Netherlands I really do my share of away games.

I can remember a time not too long ago where we would have sold out 3,000 tickets for the match in Manchester this Saturday but now we cant sell our allocation of 1800 or so. But we are going round in circles now so I will shut me pie-hole.

[John]

Good article!!

[Dan Furness]

Well after all the talk of this Premier League meeting, some people think things will change, like what?

TV Coverage - Without it we'd fold, simple as

Kick-Off Times - See above, SKY run the show now

Lower Ticket Prices - probably wont even happen

[krislu]

Good article, but when a man like Arsene Wenger comes out saying that clubs have to entertain it's really provokeing. Of course its easy to say that, when you have a world class team with players like Reyes, Ljungberg, Henry, Van Persie, Pires and so on, but how the hell are you going to entertain when you have a poor bunch of players who have nothing fansy to offer except giving 100%?!

Also, God forbid, if one of the smaller clubs gets hold of a real star player who can entertain the crowd (Duff, Wright-Phillips, Rooney) what happends then?! Next season he playes for either ManU, Arsenal or Chelsea!!

Edited September 22, 2005 by krislu

[Ozz]

I note that our cheapest CAT B matches are the lowest priced in the whole Premiership at £15.

[Claytons Left Boot]

Huddersfield brought just under 5000 fans of which 2500 tickets were sold on the night!

348633[/snapback]

I'd say there were more than that Lee. Apart from the first two or three rows of the Darwen End Lower, they filled every seat. Add to that one half of the upper tier (not completely sold out, but quite close to being) and there must have ben 6,000.