@davecz said:
Not sure how we can get to the 8/10,000, the Couhigs think we can achieve. Despite the teams best efforts and the improving match day experience, Wycombe public still not responding in increasing numbers.
They actually talked of getting gates up to 7,000 - 8,000, I think. There will probably be a few games where we will achieve that level of support but hard to see it as an average.
In the Loakes Park days a glowing match report in Midweek/BFP or word of mouth would swell the crowd for the next game. However, I fear the floating fan is still somewhat put off by the fact Adams Park has a major access issue. If recent initiatives such as no parking/stopping on the access road alleviate this then they may be convinced to take the plunge once again. There were still plenty of vehicles waiting on the yellows down the left hand side as we drove away on Saturday.
Onlooker has highlighted one of the major issues we face in attracting bigger crowds. Whilst accepting that access and egress is a problem, I do feel that it can sometimes be exaggerated. I visit grounds up and down the country and believe me, almost every club faces the same problem in an age when everyone wants to drive their own car to the game.
I know that Mark Palmer is looking at ways of addressing this issue, but in the meantime we can only encourage more people to use the park and ride system.
In the past, I suggested making Hillbottom Road flexible, i.e. using both sides of the road to go in towards Adams Park between, say, 1.30-3pm and then both sides to go out between, say, 4.30-6pm. Unfortunately, this was ruled out by the police.
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe. I saw very little evidence that a league 1 team belongs to the town. I saw only 1 flag flying outside a pub in frogmore. To increase attendance there needs to be more visibility in and around the town. The cheerleaders could do their thing in the Eden centre the morning before a game. A pop up stall in the Eden during the week prior to big games. Flags at the station and any main road coming into the town. Wycombe should be proud of the Wanderers. Wow hasn’t the octagon changed. Anyone remember the group of punks that used to hang out in front Boots? And how dark and miserable it was.
I think @glasshalffull, you may have hit one of the problems of the modern day man. Few are prepared to walk by choice. A good reason why external/out of town shopping centres are so popular, (for example the retail park along the London Road), is that cars can be driven essentially to the shop door. For Adams Park, personally, I prefer to walk the last mile or two, not only for the exercise, but the aftermath of "running the gauntlet" by car through the exiting crowds. We are all guilty of trying to fit more in to 24 hours than we used to, however I believe there are times when a conscious decision has to be made to down tools and just enjoy the day & a match day for me is one. As such, when driving, I choose to to arrive around 1.5 - 2 hours before KO, park a distance away and amble to the ground, slowly build into the atmosphere with some F & B, I find the match day experience better. Not everyones option I know, but certain more could make a similar choice.
@braywanderer said:
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe. I saw very little evidence that a league 1 team belongs to the town. I saw only 1 flag flying outside a pub in frogmore. To increase attendance there needs to be more visibility in and around the town. The cheerleaders could do their thing in the Eden centre the morning before a game. A pop up stall in the Eden during the week prior to big games. Flags at the station and any main road coming into the town. Wycombe should be proud of the Wanderers. Wow hasn’t the octagon changed. Anyone remember the group of punks that used to hang out in front Boots? And how dark and miserable it was.
I couldn’t agree more. When I did the media job at Wycombe, I conducted an experiment one day. I parked my car at Handy Cross and walked into the town centre, visiting almost every public establishment on the way.
Hotels, cinemas, sports centre, pubs, shops, bus station, train station, schools, colleges etc. Not a single mention of WWFC anywhere!
We simply don’t have enough presence in and around the town, you wouldn’t even know there’s a football club based there. This is a relatively easy and cheap thing to put right and it’s something that I’ve mentioned to our new investors.
Posters advertising forthcoming fixtures, special deals on match tickets if you buy goods at participating shops etc.
There’s a lot more we could do to put the club’s name up in lights, so to speak.
@braywanderer said:
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe. I saw very little evidence that a league 1 team belongs to the town. I saw only 1 flag flying outside a pub in frogmore. To increase attendance there needs to be more visibility in and around the town. The cheerleaders could do their thing in the Eden centre the morning before a game. A pop up stall in the Eden during the week prior to big games. Flags at the station and any main road coming into the town. Wycombe should be proud of the Wanderers. Wow hasn’t the octagon changed. Anyone remember the group of punks that used to hang out in front Boots? And how dark and miserable it was.
I think its vital we have a presence in the town again, with the amount of empty shops laying vacant, i'm pretty sure favourable terms could be agreed. The facility to sell tickets and merchandise and promote the club and its new ideas, needs to be in a prominent position, and not at the end of an industrial estate.
The Punks and 'Wycombe Skins' in the Octagon were often followers or members of controversial local punk band The Xtraverts.
They have reformed again, and will be supporting the UK Subs in November at the Phoenix Bar (Roundabout).
It may be worth the club 'benchmarking' with Lincoln City, to look at the approaches they've taken to build their fanbase in recent seasons. I know football fortune and investment have played a part, but they have gone from a nondescript lower table Conference side with historically poor attendances, to week-in, week-out sellouts, with an excited and committed community fully behind their 'journey'.
Alternatively, Rob Couhig may just have a dream one night when a ghost visits him to say: "build an access road and they will come..."
I noticed the Xtraverts are coming over to Oxford next month. I was a bit too young for punk but my elder sister was a fan, so might go and fly the Wycombe flag at the Oxford show. Figuratively rather than literally.
Gillingham were also a good example in the early 90's they were averaging little over 3000, but they then undertook a big promotion via radio and press to be 'Kent's club'.
I was working in Kent a fair bit during this period, and all the towns such as Chatham, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Faversham, Whitstable were ect were targeted. Their average gates more than doubled during this period.
Were a similar sized club, and we should be in every village and town in Buckinghamshire promoting Wanderers as the 'Bucks club'.
I'm sure the parking/access does have an effect, I can proudly say I dont cause any parking issues though, as I almost always somehow persuade the good Mrs Holmer to drop me off and pick up again.. just for the purely selfish reason I can have more than one drink !
It's true that you might not have had the same community outpouring that we've seen from bury and Bolton if we were in danger. We should also target Aylesbury in my opinion but yes a presence in the town is vital!
@Wendoverman said:
From the jam are great...and I'm old enough to have seen The Jam!
Agreed, saw The Jam plenty back in the day. Great to see Bruce Foxton still ultra cool on bass, even though he now looks more like Paul Whitehouse - ‘brilllliant!’
I've seen From the Jam a few times and agree they are excellent, strangely i've seen Bruce Foxton far more times on bass with Stiff Little Fingers than with the Jam or their reincarnations.
@braywanderer said:
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe.
Did you find it an intensely depressing experience? I had a couple of hours to kill before the game on a sunny lunchtime towards the end of last season and ended up having a good walk round trying to find a pub with a decent pint. The High Street always used to be vibrant but wondering round there was a sad feel to it all (I didn’t venture into Eden). Such a shame but it’s probably not unique in that respect.
The only positive I could think was that it was better than Stevenage (that really is depressing) where I’d ended up after bailing out of a train trying (and giving up) to get to the Sunderland home game.
But I agree with many other posters. There was no presence of WWFC hardly anywhere that I saw. Very few (if any) evidence of Wycombe supporters around and nothing to let people know that there was a football match not that far away happening that afternoon and changing that may be a start.
Plymouth for example is a much bigger city and a much bigger fanbase than High Wycombe. Due to its relative geographical isolation it arguably has a higher sense of identity/loyalty to the town/city than a London dormitory town like HW.
Plymouth has no formal presence in the city itself and even on matchday, apart from a few people in shirts wandering around, you would have no idea there was a game going on just up the road.
I suspect its much the same story across most of the Lg1/2 clubs home towns.
Great idea somewhere in town but posters, council publications, press, appearances, schools visits, stalls and sponsoring events might be the way to go, permanent lease of property and staff could eat up more £ than it brings in.
I wonder if SportsCress sports shop would be interested in some sort of partnership, whereby they flog WWFC replica kits and merchandise and possibly matchday tickets in return for some advertising space at Adams Park.
Plymouth for example is a much bigger city and a much bigger fanbase than High Wycombe. Due to its relative geographical isolation it arguably has a higher sense of identity/loyalty to the town/city than a London dormitory town like HW.
Plymouth has no formal presence in the city itself and even on matchday, apart from a few people in shirts wandering around, you would have no idea there was a game going on just up the road.
I suspect its much the same story across most of the Lg1/2 clubs home towns.
@braywanderer said:
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe.
Did you find it an intensely depressing experience? I had a couple of hours to kill before the game on a sunny lunchtime towards the end of last season and ended up having a good walk round trying to find a pub with a decent pint. The High Street always used to be vibrant but wondering round there was a sad feel to it all (I didn’t venture into Eden). Such a shame but it’s probably not unique in that respect.
The only positive I could think was that it was better than Stevenage (that really is depressing) where I’d ended up after bailing out of a train trying (and giving up) to get to the Sunderland home game.
But I agree with many other posters. There was no presence of WWFC hardly anywhere that I saw. Very few (if any) evidence of Wycombe supporters around and nothing to let people know that there was a football match not that far away happening that afternoon and changing that may be a start.
The Eden is much less depressing, and simultaneously far more depressing at the same time.
Comments
They actually talked of getting gates up to 7,000 - 8,000, I think. There will probably be a few games where we will achieve that level of support but hard to see it as an average.
In the Loakes Park days a glowing match report in Midweek/BFP or word of mouth would swell the crowd for the next game. However, I fear the floating fan is still somewhat put off by the fact Adams Park has a major access issue. If recent initiatives such as no parking/stopping on the access road alleviate this then they may be convinced to take the plunge once again. There were still plenty of vehicles waiting on the yellows down the left hand side as we drove away on Saturday.
Have to admit @Onlooker those cars parked on the double yellows, part on the pavement, narrowing the access for pedestrians does irk me!
Onlooker has highlighted one of the major issues we face in attracting bigger crowds. Whilst accepting that access and egress is a problem, I do feel that it can sometimes be exaggerated. I visit grounds up and down the country and believe me, almost every club faces the same problem in an age when everyone wants to drive their own car to the game.
I know that Mark Palmer is looking at ways of addressing this issue, but in the meantime we can only encourage more people to use the park and ride system.
In the past, I suggested making Hillbottom Road flexible, i.e. using both sides of the road to go in towards Adams Park between, say, 1.30-3pm and then both sides to go out between, say, 4.30-6pm. Unfortunately, this was ruled out by the police.
I had a walk around the town centre on Sunday the first time in a number of years as I don’t live in Wycombe. I saw very little evidence that a league 1 team belongs to the town. I saw only 1 flag flying outside a pub in frogmore. To increase attendance there needs to be more visibility in and around the town. The cheerleaders could do their thing in the Eden centre the morning before a game. A pop up stall in the Eden during the week prior to big games. Flags at the station and any main road coming into the town. Wycombe should be proud of the Wanderers. Wow hasn’t the octagon changed. Anyone remember the group of punks that used to hang out in front Boots? And how dark and miserable it was.
I think @glasshalffull, you may have hit one of the problems of the modern day man. Few are prepared to walk by choice. A good reason why external/out of town shopping centres are so popular, (for example the retail park along the London Road), is that cars can be driven essentially to the shop door. For Adams Park, personally, I prefer to walk the last mile or two, not only for the exercise, but the aftermath of "running the gauntlet" by car through the exiting crowds. We are all guilty of trying to fit more in to 24 hours than we used to, however I believe there are times when a conscious decision has to be made to down tools and just enjoy the day & a match day for me is one. As such, when driving, I choose to to arrive around 1.5 - 2 hours before KO, park a distance away and amble to the ground, slowly build into the atmosphere with some F & B, I find the match day experience better. Not everyones option I know, but certain more could make a similar choice.
I couldn’t agree more. When I did the media job at Wycombe, I conducted an experiment one day. I parked my car at Handy Cross and walked into the town centre, visiting almost every public establishment on the way.
Hotels, cinemas, sports centre, pubs, shops, bus station, train station, schools, colleges etc. Not a single mention of WWFC anywhere!
We simply don’t have enough presence in and around the town, you wouldn’t even know there’s a football club based there. This is a relatively easy and cheap thing to put right and it’s something that I’ve mentioned to our new investors.
Posters advertising forthcoming fixtures, special deals on match tickets if you buy goods at participating shops etc.
There’s a lot more we could do to put the club’s name up in lights, so to speak.
I think its vital we have a presence in the town again, with the amount of empty shops laying vacant, i'm pretty sure favourable terms could be agreed. The facility to sell tickets and merchandise and promote the club and its new ideas, needs to be in a prominent position, and not at the end of an industrial estate.
The Punks and 'Wycombe Skins' in the Octagon were often followers or members of controversial local punk band The Xtraverts.
They have reformed again, and will be supporting the UK Subs in November at the Phoenix Bar (Roundabout).
There we go Chas, I knew we’d agree on something one day!
Never had you down as Xtraverts fan !! Nigel Martin will be delighted of a celeb following !!
It may be worth the club 'benchmarking' with Lincoln City, to look at the approaches they've taken to build their fanbase in recent seasons. I know football fortune and investment have played a part, but they have gone from a nondescript lower table Conference side with historically poor attendances, to week-in, week-out sellouts, with an excited and committed community fully behind their 'journey'.
Alternatively, Rob Couhig may just have a dream one night when a ghost visits him to say: "build an access road and they will come..."
Obviously should have specified the town centre bit.
Xtraverts and Frankie Boyle would be some double bill though!
I noticed the Xtraverts are coming over to Oxford next month. I was a bit too young for punk but my elder sister was a fan, so might go and fly the Wycombe flag at the Oxford show. Figuratively rather than literally.
Gillingham were also a good example in the early 90's they were averaging little over 3000, but they then undertook a big promotion via radio and press to be 'Kent's club'.
I was working in Kent a fair bit during this period, and all the towns such as Chatham, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Faversham, Whitstable were ect were targeted. Their average gates more than doubled during this period.
Were a similar sized club, and we should be in every village and town in Buckinghamshire promoting Wanderers as the 'Bucks club'.
I'm sure the parking/access does have an effect, I can proudly say I dont cause any parking issues though, as I almost always somehow persuade the good Mrs Holmer to drop me off and pick up again.. just for the purely selfish reason I can have more than one drink !
From the jam are great...and I'm old enough to have seen The Jam!
We could put a swear box on every row, and buy a quality keeper with the proceeds !!
It's true that you might not have had the same community outpouring that we've seen from bury and Bolton if we were in danger. We should also target Aylesbury in my opinion but yes a presence in the town is vital!
We’d be able to afford Lionel Messi!
Agreed, saw The Jam plenty back in the day. Great to see Bruce Foxton still ultra cool on bass, even though he now looks more like Paul Whitehouse - ‘brilllliant!’
Suffice to say when I saw them recently there was more hair on the stage than on the heads of the moshers below @perfidious_albion
I've seen From the Jam a few times and agree they are excellent, strangely i've seen Bruce Foxton far more times on bass with Stiff Little Fingers than with the Jam or their reincarnations.
In the immortal words of Henning Wehn, "Buckinghamshire's only legitimate football league club". Get it up in letters 10 feet high.
Did you find it an intensely depressing experience? I had a couple of hours to kill before the game on a sunny lunchtime towards the end of last season and ended up having a good walk round trying to find a pub with a decent pint. The High Street always used to be vibrant but wondering round there was a sad feel to it all (I didn’t venture into Eden). Such a shame but it’s probably not unique in that respect.
The only positive I could think was that it was better than Stevenage (that really is depressing) where I’d ended up after bailing out of a train trying (and giving up) to get to the Sunderland home game.
But I agree with many other posters. There was no presence of WWFC hardly anywhere that I saw. Very few (if any) evidence of Wycombe supporters around and nothing to let people know that there was a football match not that far away happening that afternoon and changing that may be a start.
Just to put this into context.
Plymouth for example is a much bigger city and a much bigger fanbase than High Wycombe. Due to its relative geographical isolation it arguably has a higher sense of identity/loyalty to the town/city than a London dormitory town like HW.
Plymouth has no formal presence in the city itself and even on matchday, apart from a few people in shirts wandering around, you would have no idea there was a game going on just up the road.
I suspect its much the same story across most of the Lg1/2 clubs home towns.
Great idea somewhere in town but posters, council publications, press, appearances, schools visits, stalls and sponsoring events might be the way to go, permanent lease of property and staff could eat up more £ than it brings in.
I wonder if SportsCress sports shop would be interested in some sort of partnership, whereby they flog WWFC replica kits and merchandise and possibly matchday tickets in return for some advertising space at Adams Park.
No point us doing anything then if Plymouth don't
'We're just a London domitory town. A London domitory town......'
Also wondering for a friend if being England's longest town has an effect on fan numbers.
As Rob Couhig (or maybe Kevin Costner) said..
'If you build it they will come'
The Eden is much less depressing, and simultaneously far more depressing at the same time.