Attendance

[Jimmy]

Wasn't addressed to you but to the serial doom monger WVN.

 

Relegated by Xmas etc etc.

[John Pearce]

Quote:

Jimmy said:
Obviously the say so of one person accurately reflects the whole area.

Any chance of you ever posting anything positive? Is Daish still going to get sacked by Xmas?

So everything is rosy in the garden is it???

The fact that less than 800 turned-up on Tuesday evening, the fact that the two highest attendance at home so far this season were as a result of quite a large contingency of away supporters is all okay is it?

There is a problem, whether you like it or not, the perception of many people in Gravesham is that they do not, for whatever reason, take the Fleet seriously. Me being positive or negative has bugger-all to do with it.

What does matter is people like you getting rid of the rose tinted glasses that you are wearing and starting to contribute to what is a very important debate about the future of the club.

The fact is that whatever the club say, no football club can maintain professional status for any length of time on the attendances the club are getting at present.

[Ronnie]

Comments like 'I wouldn't pay £12 to watch non league football' belong in the dark ages. It lumps all non league football together which clearly is not the case. Week in week out this is probably the best standard of football ever seen at Stonebridge Road and is worth paying to watch. Slashing prices and giving better deals to supporters of other clubs isn't the answer. The club has to get the message across that Conference football is a good product and 12 quid is value for money.

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

Riverview Supporter said:
How about a football double header. Two games. One a local sunday league cup final , and one the Conf game.

Do the local leagues have cup finals every week then? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Jimmy]

I never said everything is rosy but continually moaning about it but not actually talking to anyone from the club about it does nothing to help.

 

It's all very well posting missives on an Internet forum, why not ring the club up or write in outlining your concerns and provide them with any ideas you have? Chatham Gary often has different views to people on here but at least he contacted the Chairman with his ticket book idea and got it sorted out.

 

The attendance on Tuesday was poor, that is clearly obvious but unfortunately factors like no away fans, Champ League, Gills at home that day conspired to effect it.

 

The club are only too aware that the attendances are down and are trying to come up with initiatives to improve them but kids for a quid etc are not the answer - the club lose out financially (as Dave has indicated elsewhere). There should be a stopgap answer somewhere which the Club need to find. We could get an attendance of 9000 every week if we made it £1 to get in - this isn't the answer.

 

What annoys me and many others is people continually putting the club and it's associated employees/volunteers down on a daily basis.

 

The team can do no more, they are playing well and getting results when we wouldn't have a season or so ago. Any casual fan looking on here a month or so ago would have seen a load of morons wanting the manager sacked and slagging the team off - a great advert to attract someone down.

 

The club is caught in a Catch 22 situation - they need to attract new support/part timers but cannot risk alienating existing fans - offering incentives such as cheap entry is laudible and to be encouraged but if it merely annoys the faithful 500 or so season ticket holders then it gets them nowhere.

 

The impact of the Plough End being out of service is a key reason as to why more people my age don't come any more - they get sick of having to put up with people moaning all the time - at least with the Plough open it was a bit more boisterous with the drum and chanting - now you have to put up with people slaughtering players for no apparent reason other than them being new or having the surname Surey.

 

The prices in the bar are prohibitive to a lot of fans who would rather drink cheaper in town, the club lose out on bar takings regularly because of this.

 

Brian and his directors are doing their best, they just need help every now and then - if anyone has any ideas however stupid/off the wall they may seem then just write in and tell them rather than muttering about it on an Internet forum.

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

White Van Nistelrooy said:
It is just that, whether we like it or not, Gravesend is the generic name that virtually all of this area is known by, Gravesham is the name of the local authority.

Doesn't Gravesend & Northfleet cover most of the borough anyway? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

zafonic said:
In your opinion do you think that the club is viewed in the right context by local people? I live fairly locally and am disappointed to say that I socialise and work with people who view the club as fairly Mickey Mouse or a tin pot out fit – I’m not saying everyone feels like this but a significant proportion do.

Blame Sky and the Premiership for that!

[Coffin Ender]

I'm a Margate fan who works in East London. I was interested in some of the comments about trying to attract Asian fans to matches. West Ham do a great deal of work in the local community yet their crowds are overwhelmingly white. Attracting Asians to football is a very difficult task for a variety of reasons. I doubt if a Conference club will have the resources, manpower and time to successfully tap into this community.

This will sound defeatist, but with Charlton to the west and the Gills to the east it is always going to be tough for you to get consistently big crowds. Even Charlton can't fill their ground and they are flying high in the Premiership! The best option for you, I suspect, is to develop other revenue streams which you seem to be looking at already (country club).

[Guest]

But it can also work in our favour. People are getting fed up with Sky and the Premiership.

 

Alright lots of youngsters don’t know what football is like other than having the likes of Shearer and Henry beamed into their living rooms, but there are still a fair few out their living locally who see supporting a football club as a sort of participation hobby – more than just pushing a few buttons on their sky remote and sitting in comfy arms chair. Lots’ of people myself included need to be at the match, look forward to meeting my mates and going football all week, the hard part is just persuading people that Stonebridge Road is the place to watch football.

 

I’m not for one minute knocking the work Brian has done and am confident that he knows what he’s doing – fair play to the fella he’s brought the club on leaps and bounds in his time here, but I’m just giving a few ideas that’s all.

[John Pearce]

Quote:

Jimmy said:
The club are only too aware that the attendances are down and are trying to come up with initiatives to improve them but kids for a quid etc are not the answer - the club lose out financially (as Dave has indicated elsewhere). .

Short term pain for long term gain!

Far better for the players to play in front of 1,500 - 2,000 than 700 or so surely.

[Jimmy]

It's Catch 22 as I said.

 

Dave's thread elsewhere on here explains it in greater detail.

[John Pearce]

Quote:

Jimmy said:
Changing the club's name has to rank up there as one of the more ridiculous posts I've seen.

Why is it so ridiculous? It wasn't that long ago that the name Northfleet was going to disappear. certainly from the political map.

Without doubt, like it or not, there are many people that live in the Borough of Gravesham or live outside of the area that do not and will not take the club seriously and certainly one of the reasons, amongst others, expressed is the name.

I have followed the Fleet for 40 odd years, I would have no issue whatsoever if ther club changed its name. Certainly if any change contributed to non-supporters taking the club more seriously.

[FleetFanatic]

Despite repeating that a name change could be the answer, you haven't explained WHY these people supposedly express the name as a reason.

 

I don't understand the logic - surely it's 'on the pitch' that matters.

[Ronnie]

Quote:

White Van Nistelrooy said:
[


Far better for the players to play in front of 1,500 - 2,000 than 700 or so surely.

Can't argue with that. Just the way we get them in

[Guest]

Never given the name a second’s consideration to the clubs name to be honest. I suppose if I stopped to think about it, it does sound a bit amateurish in comparison to League clubs but does it really matter? I know AFC Bournemouth changed their name from Bournemouth and Boscome Athletic, but I don’t think people would necessarily stay away because of the name. Most people I know don’t use the full name anyway, “you going Northfleet (or Gravesend) Saturday?”

 

With regard to on the pitch being the only thing that matters, I agree to an extent – it’s certainly the most important thing but there are other factors involved as well I reckon. Facilities, atmosphere, reputation of the club locally and so on do play a part.

 

Facilities are very poor; locally we are regarded unfortunately as not a proper team by some locals and due to the Plough situation people aren’t standing where they would prefer and it seems to disrupt what was a decent atmosphere.

 

Like I say I know football supporters who dismiss going to the Fleet out of hand because they probably view us as second rate. Maybe this will change with a new stadium and good facilities.

[John Pearce]

Quote:

FleetFanatic said:
Despite repeating that a name change could be the answer, you haven't explained WHY these people supposedly express the name as a reason.

I don't understand the logic - surely it's 'on the pitch' that matters.

As I said earlier, I don't have the answers. I wish I did.

However, there are many potential supporters out there who clearly feel that they cannot take the club seriously. One of the reasons that has been quoted to me, not just by one person but by many, is the clubs name. There are others.

It doesn't matter if only a few have that view, if that is stopping them going to Stonebridge Road along with the other problems that I raised in my earlier post, then surely it needs consideration. The fact that it is being seen as a hinderance, for whatever reason, should mean that it is included in the overall debate.

I don't know perhaps the name Gravesend & Northfleet brings back the image of a little struggling non-league club, always fighting against relegation and debt and generally going nowhere etc. The fact is the club are now going in the right direction, the club needs to invest time and effort to improve the perception of the people of North Kent, to get the message across that it is a club worth supporting. One-way to get rid of that old image, along with moving into a new ground just may be a name change as well.

[Vera]

Please tell me you can't be serious that quote "not just by one person but by many, is the clubs name" is one of the reasons for low attendances. Most of the people I know refer to the club as the 'Fleet'

and seem perfectly happy to do so. Maybe someone doesn't like the Chairman's name or the manager's so we might lose a few there!!! Unlikely.

[FleetFanatic]

AFC Olympique Real Gravesendio del Northfleeto [****&#33;&#33;****]as.

 

Now there's a team name.

[Slartibartfast]

Quote:

FleetFanatic said:
AFC Olympique Real Gravesendio del Northfleeto [****&#33;&#33;****]as.

Now there's a team name.

One of the biggest names in football.

[John Pearce]

The last few posts just about sums up many of the prats that post on this site.

 

Raise what is a very serious issue and attempt to find answers to that issue and what do you get........nothing but ridicule.

 

As I stated I am just trying to kick start what is a very important issue that need debating. The possibility of a name change is only a small part of that debate.

 

In future I won't bother.....You just keep your heads buried in the sand.