Home Attendances
Firstly I have to say what a great day it was yesterday on the pitch. We absolutely dominated Charlton until the last 10 minutes.
You’ve got Pep Guardiola calling out City fans for not coming out to support the team in greater numbers. How long will it be before Rob/Pete do the same here?
On a superb afternoon in leafy Bucks only 4500 Chairboys and girls turned up to watch us go 5th.
I have to say with the improvements in the ground and the non pitch entertainment yesterday the Couhigs must be disappointed, as am I.
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I suspect a lot of fans got stuck in the plethora of traffic issues today and then just didn’t bother.
M4 closed, M40 massive accident North Bound.
No trains going out of London from Marylebone.
Party in the Park in Marlow causing mayhem through the back roads.
All in all I reckon that could have lost us 300-400 fans today.
Seemed pretty busy yesterday with a decent atmosphere. I'm not sure lots of people are ready to try something new at this stage in a global pandemic so I don't see the dissapointment after so long with no crowds at all.
Going out on a limb here but whilst fireworks and a sporadically working big screen are great I'm not sure a thousand new fans are going to see them as a tipping point.
There’s reasons why we dropped a few hundred people yesterday traffic, holidays etc but I think the Couhigs understand that we are at this moment this size of club and it’s going to be quite a task to grow attendances at the park .
However I can’t criticise Pete or Rob they’re doing an amazing job but to get numbers up to a regular 6k they’ve got to convince the casual fan that they could miss out on being a part of something special.
I do like however what they’re doing with the worldwide phenomenon thing I was a little sceptical at first but for very little investment it’s getting some traction. If you think of these huge clubs very few of their “fans” have actually been through the gate and why can’t we have a little of that action just on a smaller scale a bit like the craft brewery of football if you like .
I sacked it in because of traffic and train issues. It will be easy for me to get to Manchester on Tuesday from London than Wycombe was yesterday.
6-7,000 regular home supporters is a big ask. A 100% increase on the 3,500 we were getting 4-5 years ago.
I hope they can pull it off.
I can't see it ever being much more than it is at the moment unless we get back to the Championship. The experience is much better, there is no doubt about that. But its our close proximity to London that keeps our numbers down, to easy for supporters of the big clubs in London to get there.
In my mind this game was a 6500 plus attendance, though I understand the difficulties around travel that definitely limited the Charlton support and some Wycombe fans.
Charlton also have a derby game at Gillingham on Tuesday night and have sold out there 2700 allocation.
I’m still disappointed for the Couhigs because I think they are doing a wonderful job of improving the club and trying to listen to us fans.
Roll on City and 3000 Wycombe fans stuck in a corner.
This is probably quite simplistic, but I reckon the best things you can do to encourage people to come along are:
I think they're doing a pretty good job on the top two, but the fact remains that's it's not cheap, and a lot of people don't have much spare cash at the moment.
Personally, I think that a regular core of 4,500 home supporters is a decent number, and we've never really had more than that in the time I've been going.
And on a broader note, the town in general has always taken pride in its football team. You don't have to go to games for that to be the case
The word of mouth will be good after yesterday’s game. There are still people on holiday (two out of five from our group) and a people self-isolating. But I think that project is a long game.
From a conversation I had yesterday, I understand they sold more tickets than actual attendees, so perhaps they’ve stopped including no-shows in the numbers.
I'm not going as my partner is still unvaccinated due to health reasons. Once after October and she can have her first jab then I should be coming. It is probably the same for a few people.
Well at least we’ve been consistent with the home attendances. It’s been around 4,500 for each game. Interestingly there seemed to be a lot less in the terrace end yesterday and more in the family stand.
That isn’t a bad base figure (and I’d say about 500 more than our base at the start of two seasons ago) to be starting the season with and I think if we carry on playing like we did yesterday and are in and around the playoffs that will gradually increase.
It’s about habits and pushing people that little more into making Saturday a habit. I’ve managed to convert 2 recently and they love it. Completely brought into the club and everything I love. But it took a lot of work. Every week there’s something else to do, the parking, the ritual of getting there at 1pm, the getting out the car park at 5:30. It’s a commitment. Building on 4500 is doable but people need to see how great it is down there. I always worry when we do the traditional kid a quid incentive to try and build that’s a cue for the worst performance of the season. Last season would have been the season to build. It wasn’t to be.
Funny how the mind plays tricks as it looked like a full terrace and a larger than usual population in the FA stand to me. Then again sheets of flame and rickets going off in frontof me may have addled my senses!? @eric_plant is right though casual fans over here need a consistently successful - and publicised as such - team to part with their readies.
I think you have a combination of things. People's lives may have changed over the past year. For me, I now have a young baby so have only been able to come to one game this year so far despite retaining my season ticket. We also sadly will have lost some people to covid and other things in the past year. Factor in some people still being less comfortable in large crowds for personal or family reasons and I think 4500 for (let's be honest) a smallish third division club is relatively good.
Yesterday was my first game back since NYD 2020. I've seen the Couhig 'project' develop and even remarked to a friend/fellow supporter of 20+ years how the matchday experience has improved over that time. Of course, a sunny afternoon, plentiful Rebellion, bratwurst and a genuinely likeable (and talented!) team helps lift the mood. Personally, I feel glass half-full about the attendances - transport and traffic issues probably did deter a few hundred floaters. And try as the club might with park and ride schemes etc, until the fundamental issue of access gets sorted it's always going to put off some casuals. It isn't a ground you can easily rock up to last minute. You have to allocate a good chunk of your day and that isn't feasible for everyone. A core support of 4.5k isn't too bad considering access/prices/Covid etc and we're still early on in the season. I think back to the early 10s and the doldrums of League 2 when a core base of 3k was the norm, and I feel content with the current figures and their trajectory.
I can confirm that I was, (we were) ones of many yesterday that couldn't download their tickets. Chatting amongst some "seniors" without exception, they are finding the "digital" system is too erratic and hanker for the "days of old" for a more simple solution. When I say seniors I mean people of 60+. I am married to a former computer programmer/consultant and even Her Highness struggles like mad with it saying it's not logical, difficult and certainly not "user friendly". I also have a client that is an ex player who is mates with three other ex players and they have given up coming as they feel the club are making it too difficult to "buy tickets, park, (they are all in their 70s now), parking at the ground is important for them.
Issues like these I wouldn't mind betting contribute to the disappointing attendances? I know I shall be asking the club for three season tickets in the form of plastic/paper for the remainder of the season, as my stress levels as I walk up Hillbottom Road wondering which of us won't be able to access our season tickets, are making the "match day experience" more traumatic each week!
Congratulations on the baby, @OnOurWay!!!
They offered a plastic season ticket for a fiver. I'm a tightwad, yet didn't even pause about getting one, as it's just easier isn't it.
I get the "sustainability" thing, which is important, but you can't tell me issuing small credit card sized plastic cards that are used for a whole year is that big a deal.
Not when this week Missy Couhig posted on fb offering...plastic credit card sized cards for kids to have allowances loaded on them for them to run off to the food stalls, without losing the family card.
And certainly not when people are swilling loads of grog from plastic cups every game, every week, all season.
The ticket system needs serious work in terms of messaging and how a user navigates it. But these ‘off the shelf’ systems tend to be rather clunky and it often costs a lot to get changes (if you can get them at all).
I’m glad I’ve got my plastic card but I have managed to get a SMS link that always sparks up my tickets.
The season ticket system seems to have improved a lot of late.
I've also managed to get a SMS link onto my phone.. its a lot easier and certainly quicker to open at the gate
My first home game of the season and I had all sorts of problems accessing my and my daughter's season tickets. Think I might need to go for one of the plastic tickets, which I'd ideally like to have avoided.
What happens with the clectronic season ticket?
Do you not just download a "pass wallet" or something, and have it handy in there every game?
I just took a screenshot of the tickets from the Accrington match and they’ve got me in both matches since.
The app/website is pretty bad, but once you log in and bookmark the link, it's a breeze. Also much harder to forget your phone than a physical season ticket, although I agree they should still offer the option for those who'd rather have one.
Yes and once you have done that it updates for each upcoming event (home game).
Sustainability wise, you’ll notice that the ST doesn’t say season 2021/22, so I suspect it might be an ongoing thing that you just renew. Of course, if you’re on the subscription plan, it’ll just continue until you die!
Even better if we can just use this card for future years too.
I would imagine that the ecological impact of a plastic card that may only need replacing every 5 years or so has already trumped the ecological impact of endlessly checking to see whether the online version works on a phone
Probably ruined alone by @EwanHoosaami constantly driving down to the club to sort it out