Game Saturday

[CMcBride]

1pm ko Saturday against catholic United  £5 entry, kids free, bar open 12 noon

[MikeMike]

Was good to watch the game with a crowd (albeit quieter than usual).

I reckon about 120-130 and felt comfortable. 
But with the guidelines recommending no standing and only 1 in 3 seats available we'd need 900 seats for the 15% and 1800 for the 30% and I doubt any club in the league has that many seats.

So, assuming sensible standing will be allowed to maintain distancing and looking at our average attendance that indicates business pretty much as usual.
But, I was thinking about away games.
I'd say we take about 30-50 away so probably no issues at clubs like Wingate or Bowers that have lowish attendances but what about Bognor and more pertinently Worthing?
WIll we be allowed in if we're not there two hours before kick-off?
Will clubs give priority to season ticket holders meaning not even worth travelling?
Will it be tickets only with an away allocation?

[andydick]

Just on the percentages ....

The FA guidelines were a little ambiguous when quoting the 15% and 30% figures.  The attendances allowed are 15% and 30% of the minimum capacity required at the step that you play (not 15% of your own ground capacity).  For us, at step 3, the minimum capacity for a stadium is 1950, so the allowable crowd is 15% of that (292) which the FA has rounded up to 300.  This is up to 31st August.  From 1st September this rises to 30% i.e. 600.

For step 4 sides it is 200 / 400;  Step 5 and step 6 is 150 / 300.

So, unless guidelines change, our capacity for the Ebbsfleet game (1st Sep) and Dagenham game (5th Sep) will be 600.

The Isthmian League has already stated that they don't want to start the season without crowds and they put forward a whole host of different scenarios - how would the season pan out if we started 19th September, or 3rd October etc etc.

As an example they may well decide to start on 19th September with the 30% cap (600) in place.  For some clubs 600 is well above average attendance so anyone who wants to attend may well be allowed to.  But other clubs, e.g. Worthing, Horsham who average 800-1000 will have different rules for away supporters since they could fill their capacity with their home support.

My own personal view is that we scrap season tickets because we have no idea how this season will develop or what new outbreaks are on the horizon and we just pay on a match per match basis - my concern here is if the club has to refund or part-refund season ticket money received.  Given our likely crowds and a 600 cap this should still ensure all home supporters can attend and therefore we could just make this pay on the gate.  We'd obviously need to be mindful of some form of attendance increase if say Premiership grounds ban away supporters so we end up attracting a few West Ham when they are playing away or if the Vanarama rules affect us.  I doubt there will be a one size fits all directive from the Isthmian League so I suspect they'll leave it up to each club to work out how it manages its own ticketing.

As a club though (again my point of view) we should have some form of online ticketing option (most clubs use Kaizen) just in case the rules change and we have to cap attendances at say 200 so pay on the gate becomes unworkable.  We need some form of online ticketing in place for the Dagenham game anyway as I suspect we'd easily surpass 600 if we allowed folk to pay at the gate.