Mysterious posters............

[Gordon T]

So waht is your definition of a proper team then?

[DarrenGNFC]

Meh, if Gillingham get relegated to League One, their attendances will drop a little bit more, and I can't see how they're going to fill a 25,000 seater against MK Dons.

[Guest]

Don’t know really. It’s a bit of a vague question.

 

Most people would consider a proper team to be a league club, with reasonable attendances, almost certainly professional, and well supporter within their locality and catchment area, who are able to sign players for transfer fees.

[Guest]

But at the end of the day a poor attendance for the Gills would be a bumper crowd by GNFC standards would it not?

[Harry J Allstars]

I think you'll find Gillingham fans don't want it. Neither do you average nutural fans up and down the country like to see one club move from one area to another just for financial gain.

 

As for average non footy fans in the area they wouldn't want it either, noise rubbish ect ect. However before I started going along to watch Gravesend permenantly I weighed things up and for some reason I liked the idea, can't think why. This is even when my cousin who is a Wimbledon fan was gutted that his team had been moved to Milton Keynes. Somehow, and I can't remember when I decided that it wasn't such a good idea after all.

 

I think your right mate we need to get together as a group define what it is we need as a club and how we can persuade the towns people that a Gillingham relocation isn't such a good idea at all.

[DarrenGNFC]

Most neutrals who think it's a good idea are the same people who support some big Premier League team they never go see and who like to say things like "Gravesend are crap, they play in the Conference." Gloryhunters, in other words.

[Harry J Allstars]

Quote:

Most neutrals who think it's a good idea are the same people who support some big Premier League team they never go see and who like to say things like "Gravesend are crap, they play in the Conference." Gloryhunters, in other words.

Agreed, but when I put myself in to the "wouldn't mind Gillingham moving into my town" catagory I would nto totally put myself in the glory hunting catagory.

[The Truth]

Quote:

IF they move to Gravesend, will they still be called Gillingham?

The only reason that the council would want Gillingham is to "put Gravesham on the football map", they can't do that if they are called Gillingham.

As MK Dons are the current example of franchise football ( and look what a resounding success that has been ) I suspect that if they were to move they would be renamed Gravesham Gills within 18 months if they hadn't already gone bankrupt.

Mr Anonymous makes the mistake of thinking that a move would be beneficial to Gillingham and detrimemtal to The Fleet whereas it would be the death of both clubs.

It takes years to build up a loyal fanbase and just putting a ground in an area where there isn't currently a league club does not mean that people in that area will instantly become lifelong fans.

[DarrenGNFC]

Hmm, another thing - Gillingham aren't really that good, are they? Sure, they're three leagues above us but they play some of the most unattractive football on show in this country. I've spoken to many fans of other Championship teams and they tend to say similar things. I just think that even if they moved to this town, their attendances wouldn't go up that much.

 

As most Gillingham fans say on their message board - "We should fill up our own stadium before building a new one."

 

They're constantly complaining about their poor attendances/lack of atmosphere. They should try tempting some of the Charlton fans to Priestfield by lowering prices, or making special offers.

[Guest]

Whilst I agree that generally speaking 99% of people are against football clubs relocating, and that it should not be allowed the fact remains that unfortunately it is legal and perhaps a handful of chairman up and down the country have considered the idea (relocating within a fairly local radius).

 

Perhaps there are non-Fleet fans residing in Gravesham who have reservations about Gillingham’s proposed plans, perhaps even for the reasons that you have stated although I think they are few and far between and a outlined development would be ‘out-of-town’s to speak and certainly not in the middle of an existing housing estate – so therefore the Gills could present this evidence as proof that negative effects on the local population would be minimal at worst, or even non-existent.

 

There’s no point looking at this situation through rose tinted glasses, in modern society very little stands in the way of big businesses.

 

The current protest votes would appear to some people to be a group of misfits campaigning against modernisation and local development (not my words – trust me).

 

I personally believe that the move will go ahead, but if GNFC play it right then it may not have a negative impact.

 

There needs to be more discussion within the club about a plan of action if the move gets s the green light (trust me this isn’t happening, certain people are adopting an approach of simply keeping their fingers crossed).

 

GNFC MUST make further inroads into the local community before any relocation takes place and it is essential that the clubs get local business on their side.

 

I think it goes without saying that ground sharing is not an option.

[chris blanc]

Quote:

There may only be between 500 and 1000 Gills fans currently in the town, but watch that number increase five or even ten fold when the inevitable relocation becomes reality.

Considering that Gillingham can only attract about 8000 fans on a good day I doubt they are gonna attract more than that by relocating away from their existing fan base

[Number 8]

Is that figure home support of 8000 or does it include away support also?..

[John@TheFleet]

Has anyone actually run this past the FA? If they say 'no' then nobody goes anywhere.

[Guest]

As I’ve said before, Gillingham have a hardcore support of about 8,000 in their present situation – that’s about 7,000 more than we manage to attract. If they we to retain only 6,000 of these after relocation then there support would still dwarf our following, and that’s not taking into account any extra support they may attract from witching Gravesham and Dartford. Initially for the first few matches they would probably attract about 17,000 for home games, if you take into account increased allocations for away supporters.

 

If you think the mathematics behind Gillingham relocating from Medway to Ebsfleet is a simple as ‘oh they have 8,000 then, they won’t be able to top that after they move’ then I admirer your naivety.

 

 

If the club had done more to attract local people to games immediately after securing Conference football then we would be well equipped enough not to worry about threats from the Gills.

 

Again, were going back to the old ‘finger crossed’, and ‘let hope so’ method of defending our club. No plans in place for our own advancement, just hoping that the Gills fall flat on their faces.

[Harry J Allstars]

The guy has a point, it's too easy to sit here and talk about lets hope it doesn't happen and if we can get some bloke on our side. Well what if we don't? Or what if Scally comes up with something better?

 

If we think Scally is up to something then we need to think of a plan to counteract that and then we need to think like Scally to see what he would do to counteract that and then we need to think up another plan to counteract that. That way we'll always be one step ahead.

 

You talk sense mate and I think your the same person that wanted to start up a supporters group but why don't you just register?

[Guest]

We have to look at Gillingham proposed relocation from different perspectives.

 

The biggest threat from the proposal would be for our club to ‘get in over its head’, either as part of a ground share scheme with the Gills or in a race to upgrade our own facilities – this must not happen.

 

Scally’s most important advantage over us at the moment is our inability to attract new supporters to Stonebridge Road. We have a fan base of roughly 1,200 (I don’t know for certain, this is just a guess) But how would we feel about Scally’s idea if out fanbase we nudging 2,500 or more? This is a realistic target, and although we are not going to double our attendances overnight, we must strive to introduce new supporters to Stonebridge Road.

 

If this average could be raised to 1224 next month (again, only fictitious figures) – I know only an increase of 24, but if this 2.5% growth were maintained for 2 years our attendances would almost double. 24 new paying each month is a realistic target.

 

The club need more publicity, now what would be a reasonably cheap way of securing publicity locally before the start of next season? What even could we use for our own benefit, whilst highlighting the situation we are in to as many local people, media personalities and small businesses as possible? You never know, we may even keep save our deposit. Stranger things have happened.

[Wobbly Wayne rides again]

How much is the deposit ?

 

And the individual must be right or it could backfire...

[Slartibartfast]

Quote:

As I’ve said before, Gillingham have a hardcore support of about 8,000 in their present situation – that’s about 7,000 more than we manage to attract. If they we to retain only 6,000 of these after relocation then there support would still dwarf our following, and that’s not taking into account any extra support they may attract from witching Gravesham and Dartford. Initially for the first few matches they would probably attract about 17,000 for home games, if you take into account increased allocations for away supporters.

If you think the mathematics behind Gillingham relocating from Medway to Ebsfleet is a simple as ‘oh they have 8,000 then, they won’t be able to top that after they move’ then I admirer your naivety.

The Gills might attract 17,000 for the first few matches if they where playing Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United but since they are more likely to be playing MK Dons, Stockport and Port Vale that isn't going to happen.
Margate moved a similar distance and saw attendances plumet from 1,500 to 250. Gillingham would need to find at least 5,000 new fans just to keep the 8,000 gates they currently get.
Even if they could do that those 5,000 fans have no affinity with the club and would desert the club as soon as the novelty of a new stadium wore off. If they cant be arsed to travel 15 miles to Gillingham to watch a Championship match they are hardly going to be diehards through the clubs struggle to avoid dropping back to its natural level ( bottom half of division 2 )
I should think that AFC Gillingham will keep most of the current fans who will no doubt enjoy the meteoric rise through the lowest levels of non-league football a-la Wimbledon.

[Guest]

For the three games you have mentioned, Gillingham supporters along with Gravesend neutrals, Gravesend based United fans and travelling mancs the attendance would probably hit 25,000 at the very least. I don’t know many people football that would turn down the chance of seeing a Premiership side playing in Gravesend. Drifting from the point slightly though.

 

Slartibartfast, I’m not having a go or anything fella, but surely you have to appreciate that Margate moving to Dover isn’t really comparable to Gillingham moving to Gravesend.

 

For a start, Gillingham are only one division below the Premiership where as Margate were at the time a conference team – I’m sure you’ll be the first to appreciate Margate were hardly likely to capture the hearts and minds of the Dover locals.

 

No disrespect to the people of Dover, but Dover is hardly what I would describe as a boom area. Thames Gateway and in particularly Ebsfleet is. I’m sure people don’t need me to go into depth on the governments proposals for the area, but it is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, fairly high profile.

 

Once again, I think were getting back to that old chestnut of keeping our fingers crossed that Gillingham fail, whilst doing bugger all to enhance our clubs position. That approach may not be good enough alone.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly am not advocating getting ourselves into debt trying to match a far bigger club, but we do need to be doing more than we are doing.

 

WW, Not sure how much. I’m told about £500, perhaps someone else knows?

[Slartibartfast]

Quote:

Slartibartfast, I’m not having a go or anything fella, but surely you have to appreciate that Margate moving to Dover isn’t really comparable to Gillingham moving to Gravesend.

For a start, Gillingham are only one division below the Premiership where as Margate were at the time a conference team – I’m sure you’ll be the first to appreciate Margate were hardly likely to capture the hearts and minds of the Dover locals.

Agreed Gillingham are more likely to attract the casual fan to an occasional big game than Margate but the principle of their current fans not travelling for home games still applies...as it did with Wimbledon. Also the fact that the new fans have no history of following the club would mean that they would desert in droves...as they have at MK Dons.