CROWDS IN NON LEAGUE!!!!!!

[Smudge]

Why are they falling like they are,there are some exceptions of cause.Interesting that the game the other night at Camberley attracted 400 spectators,for a FUND RAISER.Wonder if many returned Saturday to watch a 1st Team game.Was it because entry was by donation,and to many that means FREE.Have you any ideas how crowds could be increased again,there are spin offs to free entry,like more Food and Bar taking receipts.

 

 

[Chris Clapham]

Camberley's crowd v RPV was 90.

I think a combination of the recession, some live football on tv and the weather are the main cause for any falling attendances although gates are well up at CWUFC on average this season.

[Krooner]

I think there is a lot that can be done but I am not sure clubs have the inclination, time or manpower to implement them.

 

To be fair to Camberley and I would expect this to be similar across a number of CCL clubs they give free entry to Youth players with an accompanying adult and 2 Coaches from each team also get a free entry. Do many of them go ? Not that I know of.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Smudge

[Smudge]

Camberley's crowd v RPV was 90.

I think a combination of the recession, some live football on tv and the weather are the main cause for any falling attendances although gates are well up at CWUFC on average this season.

 

Probably because of all your advertising on here Chris,you use it well,good on you.

Thats what it is here for.

[Farnborough fc manager]

We had 136 in on Sat when we are going well but only 82 of those actually paid, free kids, officials from Banstead and League passes covered the rest. Due to a good FA Vase run last year I think we averaged 144 at home but we can slip to 75 in total if the team is struggling for a mid week game. The point is that when we played Whitley Bay we had 700+ so the crowds are there, its just getting them regularly the problem. We try and promote as much as possible but there are so many games these days in the local area plus the pull of SKY that always have some quality sport on. At Chertsey our support, like many of the older clubs, is ageing and we need to attract a new breed of crowd to help replicate the past but it is very difficult. We havent had a major shirt sponsor now for years despite being on the door step of some perfect potential candidates. Personally with the deteriation of grounds and new criterea from the FA I see a number of clubs merging in order to keep going. As any type of business you cannot survive on 50 people paying every couple of weeks and the odd sponsor, running these clubs costs a fortune and I should know!

 

Having said all that our supporters have been fantastic recently and have really got behind the team to try and get us back in the title mix. You can also never forget all the free time that supporters put into all the non league clubs, without them we would all be stuffed

 

 

[Regan]

We have an interesting problem in Guildford where a decent proportion of our regulars are students at the local university. That's fine in October, November and early December before they go home for Christmas. After that they're only around for January, February and March before they all disappear again!

 

Spencer makes some sensible points above. There is always an issue of finding volunteers to help out as I'm sure anyone involved in a club will know.

[Jurg78]

Smudge, I've noticed that you seem to be editing a lot of people's replies atm....any particular reason?

[Smudge]

Spelling only reason.

 

 

[duncs]

well to me it is a complete mystery how some clubs have even come this far ,some have hardly any fan base (and never will do) they don't have a proper bar or a social club and most of all they don't have a person who is willing to fund them,we go on about whether players should be payed at this level well I can also tell you that the biggest single payout for most of us is the officials,teams like us are really struggling finacially at the moment and with the weather as well it makes you wonder where it is all gonna end up.

[SPIRIT OF NICE GUY]

citys fanbase is steadily growing ,with great support at most away games and with some of our forum posts read over 200 times it makes you wonder why they cant get of their butts to come and watch i think the ccl premier is great value for £6 !

[Terrence Collina]

just goes to show. 16 years ago I could go and stand on the terrace at elm park and get a programme. £6 is good, but more people would rather watch al jazeers in the pub than real football

[YHWhitby]

Two main reasons for low crowds based on my very tiny amount of experience and knowledge.

 

1) Prices to see games... £5 is a lot is it not? Never any deals on offer like a free day (I know Guildford did do this last year) or something like that.

 

2) Again only speaking from my very tiny experience and that is that clubs arent part of their community. People from Cobham don't come and watch Cobham. When I went round Cobham high street before our FA Cup game nobody knew where Cobham FC actually was or anything about them!

 

 

[Medic]

Two main reasons for low crowds based on my very tiny amount of experience and knowledge.

 

1) Prices to see games... £5 is a lot is it not? Never any deals on offer like a free day (I know Guildford did do this last year) or something like that.

 

2) Again only speaking from my very tiny experience and that is that clubs arent part of their community. People from Cobham don't come and watch Cobham. When I went round Cobham high street before our FA Cup game nobody knew where Cobham FC actually was or anything about them!

 

 

At Cove, to get more supporters, I did a letter to my son's Junior School for our home game against Camberley. Kids got in for free with an accompanied adult paying just £2. The game however was called off, so we are looking to do this again on one of our home matches. It's a good way to drum up support for the club, what you may lose on the gate you gain on burgers and drinks, it's not too much work, and the schools are usually Ok with this sort of thing, it maybe worth other clubs trying this?

 

[shoutyman]

We had 136 in on Sat when we are going well but only 82 of those actually paid, free kids, officials from Banstead and League passes covered the rest. Due to a good FA Vase run last year I think we averaged 144 at home but we can slip to 75 in total if the team is struggling for a mid week game. The point is that when we played Whitley Bay we had 700+ so the crowds are there, its just getting them regularly the problem. We try and promote as much as possible but there are so many games these days in the local area plus the pull of SKY that always have some quality sport on. At Chertsey our support, like many of the older clubs, is ageing and we need to attract a new breed of crowd to help replicate the past but it is very difficult. We havent had a major shirt sponsor now for years despite being on the door step of some perfect potential candidates. Personally with the deteriation of grounds and new criterea from the FA I see a number of clubs merging in order to keep going. As any type of business you cannot survive on 50 people paying every couple of weeks and the odd sponsor, running these clubs costs a fortune and I should know!

 

Having said all that our supporters have been fantastic recently and have really got behind the team to try and get us back in the title mix. You can also never forget all the free time that supporters put into all the non league clubs, without them we would all be stuffed

 

 

 

You make a very good point 'Chertseytown' - anyone who is a volunteer behind the scenes knows that gates these days are a problem and to cover the costs involved with putting on a game, income has to come from away from the match too.

 

As a regular at my local club I know how hard it is to get people to give live football a go - when you think about it how many people do you know who actually go to Premiership matched at £45 a time? Sitting on their bums in front of the tv does it for some people - it used to for me but not anymore. I could go on for hours about the pleasure of shouting my footballing wisdom to people who can actually hear it, discussing the descisions with friends (and strangers!), cheering, groaning, singing, laughing, joking, complaining, eating burgers, drinking tea, getting frozen and looking forward to doing it all again next week!

 

On a slightly more serious note though -whilst I applaud Chertsey for their generally friendly, enthusiastic supporters, on a recent visit there I was quite put off a return after a group of about 12 or so teenagers and younger were sent down by 'fans' from one end of the ground to the other to verbally abuse the visiting supporters who, to their credit refused to be drawn. It was some of the most foul mouthed abuse I've heard in a long time, clearly heard all around the ground, aimed at a good natured visiting group comprising of men, women and a couple of kids who had all paid your club to attend,. Shame.

[Non League Nigel]

Our problem is simple - we play opposite Woking.

 

To be fair though our crowds are one of the better in the division and i think with the new ground and if we were to return to the premier eventually which i'm sure we will we'd be up pushing the 100 mark

 

Chertseytown - interesting you count all spectators that enter the ground. We only count paying customers as the gate

[Medic]

Our problem is simple - we play opposite Woking.

 

To be fair though our crowds are one of the better in the division and i think with the new ground and if we were to return to the premier eventually which i'm sure we will we'd be up pushing the 100 mark

 

Chertseytown - interesting you count all spectators that enter the ground. We only count paying customers as the gate

 

 

Good point NLN, however are your home games on the same Saturday's as Woking, if not why not try to tempt "their" fan base over to you on your home games, also try to contact the Schools in Westfield, as we did in Cove?

[Farnborough fc manager]

Your point about a very small group of our fans is valid and I will defend them to a point, they must not go overboard even though I do believe it is friendly banter. I will send out an email as the last thing we want is to put of anyone attending. What I can say is that our fans hve been totally brilliant in our recent run and having chanting and singing is a massive change to the usual silence and it really lifts the players!

 

 

As for gate count, that seems to be the way CTFC have always done it. We declare the full attendance but obviously not all of those pay and I am aware that most clubs I know do the same but each to their own

 

 

[johnnojudo]

Your point about a very small group of our fans is valid and I will defend them to a point, they must not go overboard even though I do believe it is friendly banter. I will send out an email as the last thing we want is to put of anyone attending. What I can say is that our fans hve been totally brilliant in our recent run and having chanting and singing is a massive change to the usual silence and it really lifts the players!

 

 

As for gate count, that seems to be the way CTFC have always done it. We declare the full attendance but obviously not all of those pay and I am aware that most clubs I know do the same but each to their own

 

 

 

I have seen the good and bad support at Chertsey a few times. The last time I was there was to watch them against Guildford and the support they had was very vocal, generally friendly, lots of kids and families which is great to see. Lots of cheering, songs, and plenty of spectators in the stand. There was a small crowd of teenagers that went a little over the top by giving the Guildford players some abuse/stick but then it is much less than what you see and sometimes hear at Premiership matches. The only time I have witnessed bad support was against Chertsey last season when their youth players at the final whistle strolled onto the pitch to give abuse to our players and mostly our keeper. I'm sure this would have been a one off and i would suggest to Chertsey that if they could monitor the youngsters and control it better, Chertsey would certainly be the best supported in the league!

 

On the numbers side........ I'm sure that attendance watching the match is the only figure that is important - not who pays and who doesnt. The only person interested in how many pay is the tax man! A few seasons ago i was seeing on the CCL website that Chessington & Hook were claiming over 120 in attendance at every home game. When I was at Ash Utd we played there but there cant have been more than 60 but a week later it said on the website that there was 110. NO WAY !!

 

I'd say that inflating your attendance is more likely to draw better players, better sponsors, and probably even more crowds! BUT NOT ALWAYS!!!

[Farnborough fc manager]

Johno,

 

Chessington inflating their attendances? No way! That's an outrageous statement!!!!.

 

Next you'll be accusing them of calling off perfectly playable matches to save their pitch and to play when it suits their board!

 

The good news is that wth the planning permission Chessington have asked for there will be room for 3,000 not 120 so at least everyone will get a seat! They obviously have a fan base that we don't know of.......

 

Not me accusing the players though, I love them after they did us a big favour last week!

 

 

[johnnojudo]

they did do you a big favour and now all you need is one more from someone else!

 

Guildford have Molesey, Epsom and Egham coming up so a big few weeks for them! Will they throw it away on the home stretch??

 

Chertsey have Camberley, Egham and of course Cove to hurdle. Love it when the league goes down to the wire!