Attendance

[Alan W (GNFC)]

Tonights attendance was the lowest for the Conference so far this season.

[Ian_D]

Only because Leigh got relegated.

 

Anyway, in my opinion the conference are to blame for getting the match scheduling wrong, as said in another thread

[Hempstead Gaz]

Don't forget, our last 3 home fixtures have hardly been glamourous matches, and Halifax, Kiddies and FGR barely brought 100 fans between them.

When we get the likes of Grays, Hereford, Aldershot, Exeter at home, I reckon we will get the average up to 1400 again.

[JimGNFC]

Quote:

Chatham Gary said:
When we get the likes of Grays, Hereford, Aldershot, Exeter at home, I reckon we will get the average up to 1400 again.

Maybe True CG but only because of the Away following. Our Home Support is no more than 1000 at present and thats not likely to change much even with so called "Big Games". Its the Away following over the course of the season that bumps our average attendance up.

The football side is beginning to look very good so its a shame more people from Gravesend don't attend matches but this point has already been discussed in many forms before on this forum.

[Hempstead Gaz]

It is strange that we haven't increased our core support. There are no doubt many factors, increased prices, perception that Daishy is more dour and less eloquent than Fordy, "big" name players such as Essendoh have gone.

The truth is that this team is now 80% Daish's, and is probably the strongest squad ever assembled, with a spine of very experienced ex-league players.

It is these players who may well provide us the crowds we need and deserve as I can see us having a good cup run this year, providing we learn from the mistakes we made last year.

[Hempstead Gaz]

Don'yt forget, Jim, that the 'occasional' Fleet fan is more likely to come to see Hereford, Exeter or other 'big' club than FGR, especially on a Tuesday night.

[JimGNFC]

Fair point CG but take last night for example - there were 700 odd of us there. It was a midweek fixture against FGR, the Club knew the attendance was going to be small. So why not run a Kids Go Free Game -I believe Gillingham were letting kids in for £1 last night.

 

The Championship are considering a scheme where all U10's (I believe) are allowed in free for the whole season. This would encourage more families.

 

Lets face it if the Club knows the attendance is going to be small, what does it have to lose by letting in a certain age group for nothing? It would also work well with the local council, as rather than having kids hanging around on street corners because they are bored with nothing to do - the Club would be seen as keeping them "entertained" for the evening.

 

The issue of attendances is an emotive subject for me. if the club wants to improve its income streams in years to come, then let the kids in free now so you have a future generation of supporters. Its not rocket science is it?

 

News of the new stadium is great but Burton are a classic example of a Club with a wonderful stadium that would grace league football but in terms of support they are still a "non-league" club, with average crowds well under 1500 this season so far.

[Hempstead Gaz]

Kids for free has been mooted many times before, school passes have had moderate success, but the real problem with those is that a 21:35 finish time (even with an adult driving) results in a bed-time of no earlier than 22:15/30. Too late for most kids under 14 years old.

The club has lost the knack of marketing itself.

Walk through Dartford or Margate town centre and you will see posters and adverts everywhere.

The club could do worse than to have a stall in one of the shopping malls promoting the club, selling shirts, matchday tickets, advertising Fleet Leisure, selling memorablia, souvernirs etc.

Provided the ground rent and costs were covered it it feasable. Dover had a shop in their town centre for ages, and people seemed genuinely interested.

One factor is the remoteness of the club, facilites and shop to the town centre in Gravesend.

all these things need looking at if we are to progress to the next level in terms of crowds and club development.

[Alan W (GNFC)]

And dont forget Daggers on Boxing Day - I hope we're both in the top half of the table at least then, as it could be a really decent crowd (I see Daggers got over 2000 for the Grays game last night - so much for the complaints that live internet coverage reduces crowd size (our friends at Stevenage again))

[jc]

Quote:

Alan W (GNFC) said:
Tonights attendance was the lowest for the Conference so far this season.

And also our lowest home attendance during this three-and-a-bit-season stint in the Conference.

So many schemes to increase attendances have been mooted on here before, but as has been correctly pointed out time and again, a successful team near the top of the division is ultimately what increases gates - leading us back to the 'increase attendances to improve the squad and thus the league position, which increases attendances, etc. etc.' vicious circle scenario.

[Slartibartfast]

'Kids go free' and 'Ladies days' are never well enough publicised which tends to mean that the kids and ladies that where going anyway get in for nothing and we don't get any extra's.

Handing out free tickets in all of the local primary schools not only gets the Fleets name talked about amongst people who had no intention of attending but also gets the use of peer pressure and pester power on our side.

It doesn't work putting an advert in the Reporter because kids don't read it. I think you need the little s*ds to go home to Mum and Dad clutching a ticket that says admit one child free and for them to say "all my mates are going, will you take me"

Although better than nothing, if it was done as a one off it probably wouldn't do much good, if it was done for six home Saturday matches in a row I am sure we would improve our gates and hopefully pick up a few new fans.

[StuThompson]

On my way down to the ground last night walking down fron the G and D, a boy no older than ten shouted out to me f****** good team you support Gravesend are well good. So obviously he recognised Fleets existence, so it seems quite a few kids recognise the Fleet, we just need to encourage them to come along.

[MargateFan]

I don't know if its any help to you guys, but we at Margate have been distributing posters, made by one of our fans, and printed by another, that people can put in their windows. These are made available in the club house and folks just pick them up and take them away with them, or you can print one from the website. I could not say how effective they have been, but we have been having rather good gates, and having only just got home again any publicity helps in raising awareness, I think.

[Harry J Allstars]

Quote:

Chatham Gary said:
Kids for free has been mooted many times before, school passes have had moderate success, but the real problem with those is that a 21:35 finish time (even with an adult driving) results in a bed-time of no earlier than 22:15/30. Too late for most kids under 14 years old.

Theres not a war on any more Gary, walk through Gravesend at 10:30 tonight and tell me how many kids you see.

Quote:

Chatham Gary said:souvernirs

How much "thought" went into the spelling of that word?

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

MargateFan said:
I don't know if its any help to you guys, but we at Margate have been distributing posters, made by one of our fans, and printed by another, that people can put in their windows. These are made available in the club house and folks just pick them up and take them away with them, or you can print one from the website. I could not say how effective they have been, but we have been having rather good gates, and having only just got home again any publicity helps in raising awareness, I think.

We have an A4 one in this thread which is on display in at least one location in the town already (the market cafe!)

[Wobbly Wayne rides again]

Quote:

Tonights attendance was the lowest for the Conference so far this season

 

If that doesn't wake the club up from its complacency about increasing the fan base I don't know what will. ( Except the budget deficit at the year end)

 

With the exception of a couple of months at the start of last season ( season ticket discount for new members, kids in cheap etc) the club do not seem at all bothered in getting more to the games. We seem to just sit around waiting for us the win the conference, and then hope that the fellow residents of Gravesham will see the errors of their way and come and join us.

 

When the tough question came up about full time , the easy decision was taken to increase admission prices by 20% rather than the longer haul of increasing the number of punters. This is back firing as people are staying away, and there is now less income coming thru the turnstiles / being spent in the bar.

 

The club can't just rely on a few helpers to print off their home made fixture lists and badger pubs / cafes to put them up. ( Although this helps and should be encouraged)

It is a must that someone is appointed with the explicit goal of increasing our crowds, and their pay / bonuses should reflect their achievements.

Despite the great performance on the pitch, last nights attendance was a shocker, but not totally unexpected. I was just glad teh few from Forest Green made the trip otherwise we ould have been below 700 !

 

wake up smell the coffee, no increase in crowds , no further progession.

 

like others this is an emotive subject for me, and we are failing badly. And this alone will seriously jepardise all the other improvements we have made.

 

 

Up the Fleet..

[Hempstead Gaz]

Quote:

Harry J Allstars said:

Quote:

Chatham Gary said:
Kids for free has been mooted many times before, school passes have had moderate success, but the real problem with those is that a 21:35 finish time (even with an adult driving) results in a bed-time of no earlier than 22:15/30. Too late for most kids under 14 years old.

Theres not a war on any more Gary, walk through Gravesend at 10:30 tonight and tell me how many kids you see.

Quote:

Chatham Gary said:souvernirs

How much "thought" went into the spelling of that word?

Harry's off again. Lost the plot completely.
Does he really think we want the oiks who hang around Gravesend town centre at ten o'oclock on a Tuesday evenening coming to Fleet. I rather think not.
More likely I was referring to the sensible children of intelligent and responsible parents who like to know where their childen are in the evenings.
I thought the mods had specically told posters NOT to keep piciking up on the odd spelling error.
Unfortunately, Harry seems to fly in the face of common sense these days and is being so hyper critical of spelling that he is making himself a figure of ridicule.
Take another "stress" timeout, Harry, and come back when you can add something worthwhile on here.
Jeez, he is nearly as irritating as Longshanks!!! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

[JimGNFC]

Quote:

Wobbly Wayne rides again said:
wake up smell the coffee, no increase in crowds , no further progession.

Exactly WW! I've got a "gut" feeling that because its the Club's 100th Centenary Year, a lot of money is being thrown by a few individuals into the Club to achieve a Play-off spot, by financing full-time football out of their own pocket. This may or may not be the case.

The problem with this approach is that we are always going to be up against ex-League Clubs such as Hereford, Aldershot, Exeter etc, whose fanbase will always allow them to finance a bigger and generally better full-time squad. To compete, we need to double our gates at least.

Club officials read this forum - so with the greatest respect, I'd like to ask the following question:

"What is the Club doing to increase the fanbase?"

If a reply is considered inappropriate here then how about a page in the Club Programme addressing this issue.

Lets see of we get a reply!

[Slartibartfast]

Obviously we would all like to see bigger attendances but I think that Brian has said a few times that the move to full-time was not dependant on or being financed by increased gates.

Still, a decent cup run probably wouldn't do any harm to the budget.

[Hempstead Gaz]

And I have a gut instict this year, given the experience of Football League and FA Cup in this team, that we could be a surprise package.

Who knows, 3rd Round : Man Utd v Fleet = £600,000. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />