Sasha's Opinion

[Alan ( GNFC )]

Sasha is being quoted on the BBC website regarding Fleet's attendances never getting far above 1000.

This is nothing new and despite the club attempting many marketing strategies it never increases to what the side deserve.

Whilst we took 7000 to Villa, at the next home game hardly any additional support turned up, and regulars have always been hard to find.

Having said that it was 430 for years but the missing 600 returned when we got back into the conference.

Are the club currently punching above their weight with any further promotion creating a Maidstone scenario. I hope not but after it took 20 years to recover from our last foray into the 'Conference' it would be interesting to hear what the regulars think.

Fleet have had a fantastic season but in the Conference, more than any other league in the pyramid structure, you seem to get what you pay for in players wages.

 

[Hempstead Gaz]

Whilst we are punching above our weight on the pitch, I do wonder whether we need to promote the club 1000% more from the boardroom.

We have a commercial/marketing manager. How many know his name, have heard him on the radio, seen adverts in newspapers, flysheets?

How many of the dozens of promotional ideas promulgated on here have been taken up? A couple.

I sometimes feel the team are leaving the board behind. We are now a top conference side (this year at least) pressing hard for a playoff spot to the Football league, whilst the "impression" one gets, (and this has been agreed by a least one person high up in the Trust) is that the board are in the comfort zone, and are living and running the club as in a bygone era.

I'm not for one moment advocating spending money we haven't got, but since the profligate days of Roger Easterby we have been a "cautious and prudent" club.

Nothing wrong with that, except things always happen too slowly, taking decades to get places the more adventurous clubs get to in a few years.

This is our best chance EVER to get into the football league, maybe our only chance for the next 5 years, yet we have little or no publicity outside of the Distorter, a paper with such limited circulation it is virtually impossible to obtain only 6 miles away here in Medway.

One wonders whether we will get the new ground before or after the 20,000 new houses on our doorstep are built.

If the new ground is in place and in use, residents will come.

If we are still at an undeveloped Stonebridge Road, people will simply not come to stand in the rain, get rust showers when the ball lands on stand roofs, and urinate in cess pits.

Rent a stall for the remainder of the season at Bluewater, employ some unemployed Fleet fans to operate it, selling shirts, pens gifts, whatever, but more importantly selling the Club!!!

[John Pearce]

Fully agree with your comments CG.

 

Whilst we would all like to see bigger attendances at Stonebridge Road and certainly performances this season are worthy of higher figures. I, like many, unfortunately cannot make every home game. Not that just me being at every match would make that much of a difference.

 

But if you look at the average attendance information on this very website it throws-up some very interesting details,

 

The top 5 average attendances are all at former league club grounds - Oxford, Exeter, York, Cambridge and Aldershot. Clubs that have clearly retained much of the support that they enjoyed as a Football League club. Unfortunately the 'Fleet does not have that heritage and as such subsequently struggles to attact attendances over the 1,200 mark, certainly on a regular basis.

 

But if you look at some of the other average attendances it could be argued that that the 'Fleets average of 1,192 (18th.) is perhaps not that bad, certainly when you compare it to say

Dagenham & Redbridge, run away leaders of the Conference, who are currently 14th. in the average attendance league table with an average attendance of 1,550. Just 358 more than G&N.

 

That leads on to another question, what does both G&N's Stonebridge Road ground and D&R's Victoria Road ground have in common?

 

Close proximity to London and the plethora of League Clubs that exist.

 

Perhaps therefore the answer to the low attendances can be found within a fact that the club has little control over???

[chilled out entertainer]

358 more people is a small number when you are talking about thousands but as a percentage, they have about 30 % highr gate than us

[KShep]

Talking of London clubs, if/when Charlton go down, what do people think will happen to our attendances? Will the Valley Express faithful reject the prospect of Scunthorpe at home for Stonebridge Road? Or will the relatively low CAFC prices and even lower transport costs retain all of the casuals? I've discussed this with alot of people...

Some think that without Henry, Ronaldo, Robben etc half of the casuals won't even turn up (I remember an advert in the Gravesend Messenger a couple of seasons back, advertising CAFC on the quality of their opposition...'Would you like to see Henry and Zola on your doorstep? Come to Charlton etc).

 

Others think that CAFC will lower prices, bringing in the same amount of fans. Even though Rosicky, Gerrard etc won't be down there, it is still the highest standard of football that's locally avaliable.

 

Thoughts on the matter?

[1 F in Fleet]

Same opinions as mine , Shep ... it wasn't that long ago when the Dons were in the premiership , with crap crowds . Used to go to watch the quality opposition myself - low crowds virtually guaranteed you a seat , no matter who the oppo were . On Charlton's looming drop , don't forget they have been there before , and away from the Valley ... they do have a lot of experience of keeping their hardcore fanbase .

[Stu M]

Originally Posted By: KShep

Will the Valley Express faithful reject the prospect of Scunthorpe at home for Stonebridge Road? Or will the relatively low CAFC prices and even lower transport costs retain all of the casuals?

I reckon that anyone casual/lazy enough to drop a Premiership club the minute they're relegated probably wouldn't be bothered dropping in to watch their local non-league side either.

[John Pearce]

Originally Posted By: chilled out entertainer

358 more people is a small number when you are talking about thousands but as a percentage, they have about 30 % highr gate than us

You are missing my point.

Dagenham & Redbridge have enjoyed almost continual success, whether it be in the FA Cup or high league positions, this season they are likely to be promoted into the league and win the Conference by some distance, yet their attendances are not that much better than ours. Okay, I accept 30% higher, but 30% of a small amount.

The problem I believe is the close proximity of Gravesend to London, a problem that affects us and D&R. This is not however the whole problem.

Whilst I understand Sacha's comments, he needs to perhaps re-direct his comments towards the club itself who do very little to encourage new support or market the club in the area.

The facts are that the club, certainly in recent seasons, has attracted similar attendances to this season, maybe a small percentage up or down, it really is down to the club itself to pull-in the additional support that everyone would like to see at matches.

This season you cannot argue that the entertainment on the pitch is worthy of the higher attendances, therefore the problem quite simply has to lie elsewhere, my view is that a major part of the problem lies with the poor old Stonebridge Road ground itself (those problems are more than well documented elsewhere on other threads). However in terms of match marketing alone....

Still no visible use of match day posters. The club still appears to be relying on a few supporters to create match posters themselves, therefore creation and circulation is adhoc and not co-ordinated.

The recent 'kids for a quid' a good idea, but it was so poorly advertised it was untrue. All I saw was a single line on the back page of the Distorter (a paper who's circulation has probably dropped dramatically in recent years) hidden away amongst the other 'Fleet news' surely the paper should have been encouraged to put it on the front page?

I don't know the answer, I wish I did. But the club could do a whole lot more themselves to reduce the problem.

[Jeff]

More media coverage would help.

 

Caught a bit of the SE news on BBC last night.

 

Gills drew at the weekend as did Brighton and Charlton.

They all got a mention.

 

We won and maintained our playoff spot and nothing was said. In fact, we could win the league outright and I doubt anything would be said :-(

 

OK, so this maybe BBC bias but if the Marketing/Advertising people (whatever you want to call them) badger the media for improved coverage, then something may happen.

 

It works for these so called 'celebrities' at any rate.

 

Looking forward to the match tonight!

[jc]

Originally Posted By: Jeff

More media coverage would help.

Caught a bit of the SE news on BBC last night.

Gills drew at the weekend as did Brighton and Charlton.
They all got a mention.

We won and maintained our playoff spot and nothing was said.

It's been mentioned before and it'll be mentioned again: the fact that different parts of Gravesham pick up reception from different TV masts is probably a key factor in why BBC South East is reluctant to cover us all that often.

[Jeff]

That is true.

Only get South East news through Sky.

[Hirsty]

I think that, geographically anyway, GNFC deserve more coverage that Charlton on SE news as Charlton is, like it or not, in SE7 & therefore should be covered by London news. South East news ( BBC ) states it is for Kent & Sussex which, in my opinion, is not London !!

 

Cheers,

[Harry J Allstars]

Originally Posted By: Hirsty

I think that, geographically anyway, GNFC deserve more coverage that Charlton on SE news as Charlton is, like it or not, in SE7 & therefore should be covered by London news. South East news ( BBC ) states it is for Kent & Sussex which, in my opinion, is not London !!

Cheers,

Agree with every word of that Hirsty but this still sounds like sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. The media will only cover what they think people are interested in, obviously I know you all know this. Quite a lot of the time the BBC reports on the news of David Beckham despite him playing for Real Madrid, they sometimes report if he has played or scored or got sent off. It has no interest to anyone over here other than the fact that it's David Beckham and therefore a celebrity footballer.

Now imagine if you were a leader in your field of a minority sport like Basketball and you had done something outstanding like scored the most amount of points for any player in any season, you'd just broken a record. Wouldn't you be pretty pissed off to hear the BEEB reporting on David Beckham scoring for LA Galaxy, Charlton getting thrashed by Yeovil or ourselves drawing with York to maintain a play off push? All this, to us, seems like far more important news as more people are interested in it but to the local Basketball player that sort of thing happens every week but when he/she does something phenomenal it doesn't get mentioned because it would reach a very small percentage of the audience.

If that player was to moan about it nobody would listen just like nobody will listen to us if we harp on about our goals not being shown on TV.

Basically if we build it they will come.

[WhiteBucket]

Originally Posted By: Harry J Allstars

Basically if we build it they will come.

I've just used that quote for this week's Reporter column! Not sure I attributed it to you though Harry!

[Hirsty]

'kin hell......hurry up with that pitch inspection...I need a beer after reading that.....very profound H !

 

Just to clarify my position ( so to speak !), I am not sitting here feeling sorry for myself, I am waiting for confirmation that the game is on so that the pre match ritual may commence !

 

It would be nice if regional TV would cover items in that region, not outside it !! Kaddy is the only item worth watching !!

 

Cheers,

[John Pearce]

Originally Posted By: Hirsty

I think that, geographically anyway, GNFC deserve more coverage that Charlton on SE news as Charlton is, like it or not, in SE7 & therefore should be covered by London news. South East news ( BBC ) states it is for Kent & Sussex which, in my opinion, is not London !!

Cheers,

You only have to watch the BBC London news on TV to see how they can extend their area if they so wish. From time to time and if it suits them Southend United, Wycombe Wanderas and occasionally even Gillingham results appear as though they are London clubs!

Even Radio Kent stretch the imagination and jump on the band wagon, from time to time and include Charlton Pathetic as a Kent club giving them preference on match reports and even commentaries over 'real' Kent clubs just so they can claim to carry match reports etc. from a Premiership club.

I can't wait to see what happens when Charlton get relegated, perhaps Radio Kent will start to include match reports from Fulham, Chelsea or god knows who!

[Harry J Allstars]

Originally Posted By: Hirsty

Just to clarify my position ( so to speak !), I am not sitting here feeling sorry for myself, I am waiting for confirmation that the game is on so that the pre match ritual may commence !

Sorry Hirsty I didn't mean it to sound like you were feeling sorry for yourself, I feel the same but we do talk about the same things over and over again.

[Harry J Allstars]

Originally Posted By: WhiteBucket

Originally Posted By: Harry J Allstars

Basically if we build it they will come.

I've just used that quote for this week's Reporter column! Not sure I attributed it to you though Harry!

Just make the cheque payable to Mr HJ allstars...

[chris blanc]

Originally Posted By: Harry J Allstars

Originally Posted By: WhiteBucket

Originally Posted By: Harry J Allstars

Basically if we build it they will come.

I've just used that quote for this week's Reporter column! Not sure I attributed it to you though Harry!

Just make the cheque payable to Mr HJ allstars...

Or William Kinsella

[eufckev]

Originally Posted By: jc

Originally Posted By: Jeff

More media coverage would help.

Caught a bit of the SE news on BBC last night.

Gills drew at the weekend as did Brighton and Charlton.
They all got a mention.

We won and maintained our playoff spot and nothing was said.

It's been mentioned before and it'll be mentioned again: the fact that different parts of Gravesham pick up reception from different TV masts is probably a key factor in why BBC South East is reluctant to cover us all that often.

Yeh but BBC South East also cover news from Dartford, nearer to London.