I'd count myself as a hardcore supporter, in that I will attend every weekend home game, come rain wind or shine, regardless of kick-off time or a bad performance the previous week.
Whichever PL games are on TV are of no interest to me, the matchday experience at AP outweighs anything else.
But I don't go to away games, I don't like sitting behind the goals, or the way supporters are segregated at football grounds.
The debate is not about the nuances of what is a hardcore fan but whether those who already consider themselves to fall into that category would stop attending home games because there was a PL match on TV. I find it hard to imagine that a regular, committed Wycombe supporter would say ‘I’m not going to Adams Park today because I want to watch Fulham v Bournemouth.’
i do, however, take the point about the deterrent effect on fans of the future, but live games on TV have been around for a very long time without having any detrimental effect on attendances in the PL or EFL.
The debate should be about fans who "aren't" hardcore or committed and whether it helps us or hinders us in the aim of attracting them on a more regular basis by moving kicks offs around and playing when there are premier league games live in sky.
Don't worry about the hardcore fans, they will still be there.
Everyone in Wycombe supports another team, I'd suggest we are particularly vulnerable to losing occasional fans to games on the telly
I will certainly continue to buy a season ticket and much prefer the ‘at the match’ experience over watching on TV. I also go to a number of away games during a season and will continue to do so as long as I am fit and able.
I must admit though, that I am worried about the impact that the expansion of the number of games to be shown live on Sky will eventually have on WWFC. I suspect it may have an impact on the number of new supporters that may have come along to enjoy the match day experience at AP.
I also am unsure of the impact on WWFC TV and what that would mean for Phil and others.
Also, we probably all know that the ‘free to full subscribers’ new Sky Sports + offering, will not be a free offering sometime in the future.
Being able to access games on domestic tv will undoubtedly reduce the number of people attending, and I would also suggest the number of season tickets purchased.
My son plays football on Saturday mornings and that last game of the season was a nightmare. Even with an 0930 kick off away in Henley.
If I can now record the 1230 kick off and watch when I get home, it just encourages me to drop my season tickets. I was not able to record the game via Vipienne previously.
Our season tickets are exorbitant, circa £800 for the two of us in FA Upper, with roughly four “free” games a season. I’m not able to stand for long periods and my son is over 16. We don’t have other cheap options available to us.
I’m waiting to see what they do with prices and kick off times. There is a good chance we ditch our season tickets and prioritise away games going forwards.
I’ve been a STH since 2000/2001 when I returned to the area after University and normally do 35+ games a season.
As a “hardcore” fan, I’ve been seriously considering giving up my season tickets for a couple of seasons since the price rise, reduction in free tickets and international weekends. This may just be the tipping point and final nail in the coffin.
But in terms of the matter in hand it is really really difficult to see any path to the increase in televised coverage, corresponding increase in TV revenue and increase in hassle actually attending matches doing anything to increase crowds at football grounds at our level.
Football is at pretty much saturation level already for those who want to watch it endlessly on TV. If/when the bubble bursts and Sky/whoever see that the money they spend isn’t giving them the returns they want I’m pretty sure they will stop the endless streams of money leaving many many clubs deeply in dept.
Hope I’m wrong, but I would be surprised if this level of support below the top level carries on for any more than 3 or 4 years.
Would you agree, on that basis that Wycombe have about 4000 "hard core fans"?
The problem is we need to drive that up to 6000, not see it gradually eroded down to 3500. Personally I believe that's what will happen, but appreciate you may have a different opinion.
Currently our fans are getting older, quite literally by the day. Somehow we need to attract you get fans - if they can just turn in the TV and what whatever then they won't come to Adams Park.
Cheap family tickets, quid a kid, free tickets for schools etc etc.
Make it easy for the kids to ask to go and make it hard for the parents to have reasons to say no.
I understand that the Couhig’s didn’t want to be seen to devalue or discount their premium product, but that’s the wrong approach to lower league football. ‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply. We need to approach it more like a drug dealer, get them hooked cheaply and easily, then take their money for years to come!
I admit it I’m the hardcore fan, I’ve been watching since the black and white days don’t support any other club and am not giving up my season ticket imminently.
truth be told I’d rather watch the guy sweeping the car park than sky .
p.s I have a sneaking suspicion that I sit two rows behind another gasroomer.
As to how to improve attendances, discount rates for families, junior football teams and Scouts .
Oh Mikheil Reopen Mill Street School car park mate.
Completely agree. With streaming via VPN available I hardly go to any away games now (aside from FA Cup and other local ones).
400 mile round trip, to be treated like a potential criminal by stewards on the way in and once inside, to having to pay £25-30 to sit in an area with often the worst view in the ground. That’s before any debate about having to be in the same stand as our drummer friend.
Or you can pay a tenner, with a perfect side on view (apart from ill-timed replays) and are able to do other things with your day.
Not sure we even have as many as 4,000 hard core fans and I agree that we need to be attracting a younger generation. I think Lloyd2084 and Morrisital2 are on the right track by suggesting that we need to target school age kids by making it cheaper for them to come to Adams Park. It’s been mentioned that Rob had a thing about reducing prices but in my opinion that is the only solution and I hope the new regime will recognise that and act accordingly. There have been countless surveys that show if you capture the interest of children aged under 10 they are likely to become long term fans.
I went to more away games last season than has previously been the case and the one thing that I found consistently notable about all those games, from Oxford to Derby to Carlisle was how thoroughly pleasant and welcoming the stewards were at every single one of them.
I hope our new owners have a more forward-thinking approach to attracting kids. As many have stated, it's probably do or die at this point, especially with the Sky deal.
I didn't find the stewards at Oxford pleasant or welcoming at all ! In fact out of all the away games I did they were by far the worse. The best I'd say were Charlton, now they were pleasant and welcoming.
Remember at Wimbledon the other season when they seemed to have hired some crack squad of outside security agents? It felt like being patrolled by paras.
The debate was whether an initiative from your employer could drop crowds, no need to limit anyone in their scope of right to reply.
I'm sure we are being compensated to some level but the issue with all that has always been clubs not being able to control themselves and spaffing it on more and more wages with the league unwilling or unable to do anything about it. With clubs spending outside their means an extra pound isn't worth much if your opponents all spend an extra two.
If any of us can figure out how to keep kids interested in something thats longer than 20 seconds and not on a screen we’ll be richer than Croesus never mind Mikhail Lomtadze.
Comments
I'd count myself as a hardcore supporter, in that I will attend every weekend home game, come rain wind or shine, regardless of kick-off time or a bad performance the previous week.
Whichever PL games are on TV are of no interest to me, the matchday experience at AP outweighs anything else.
But I don't go to away games, I don't like sitting behind the goals, or the way supporters are segregated at football grounds.
Sickening scenes.
The debate is not about the nuances of what is a hardcore fan but whether those who already consider themselves to fall into that category would stop attending home games because there was a PL match on TV. I find it hard to imagine that a regular, committed Wycombe supporter would say ‘I’m not going to Adams Park today because I want to watch Fulham v Bournemouth.’
i do, however, take the point about the deterrent effect on fans of the future, but live games on TV have been around for a very long time without having any detrimental effect on attendances in the PL or EFL.
The debate should be about fans who "aren't" hardcore or committed and whether it helps us or hinders us in the aim of attracting them on a more regular basis by moving kicks offs around and playing when there are premier league games live in sky.
Don't worry about the hardcore fans, they will still be there.
Everyone in Wycombe supports another team, I'd suggest we are particularly vulnerable to losing occasional fans to games on the telly
Hardcore gasroom poster at least.
I will certainly continue to buy a season ticket and much prefer the ‘at the match’ experience over watching on TV. I also go to a number of away games during a season and will continue to do so as long as I am fit and able.
I must admit though, that I am worried about the impact that the expansion of the number of games to be shown live on Sky will eventually have on WWFC. I suspect it may have an impact on the number of new supporters that may have come along to enjoy the match day experience at AP.
I also am unsure of the impact on WWFC TV and what that would mean for Phil and others.
Also, we probably all know that the ‘free to full subscribers’ new Sky Sports + offering, will not be a free offering sometime in the future.
I think we need some shirts with hard-core gasroom poster emblazoned thereon. Perhaps @drcongo can organise!
Being able to access games on domestic tv will undoubtedly reduce the number of people attending, and I would also suggest the number of season tickets purchased.
My son plays football on Saturday mornings and that last game of the season was a nightmare. Even with an 0930 kick off away in Henley.
If I can now record the 1230 kick off and watch when I get home, it just encourages me to drop my season tickets. I was not able to record the game via Vipienne previously.
Our season tickets are exorbitant, circa £800 for the two of us in FA Upper, with roughly four “free” games a season. I’m not able to stand for long periods and my son is over 16. We don’t have other cheap options available to us.
I’m waiting to see what they do with prices and kick off times. There is a good chance we ditch our season tickets and prioritise away games going forwards.
I’ve been a STH since 2000/2001 when I returned to the area after University and normally do 35+ games a season.
As a “hardcore” fan, I’ve been seriously considering giving up my season tickets for a couple of seasons since the price rise, reduction in free tickets and international weekends. This may just be the tipping point and final nail in the coffin.
@eric_plant
“….that stage we can all remember in our lives where he's becoming infatuated with football, and with Wycombe Wanderers.”
Any idea how long that stage in our lives goes on for? I keeping hoping mine will end…
But in terms of the matter in hand it is really really difficult to see any path to the increase in televised coverage, corresponding increase in TV revenue and increase in hassle actually attending matches doing anything to increase crowds at football grounds at our level.
Football is at pretty much saturation level already for those who want to watch it endlessly on TV. If/when the bubble bursts and Sky/whoever see that the money they spend isn’t giving them the returns they want I’m pretty sure they will stop the endless streams of money leaving many many clubs deeply in dept.
Hope I’m wrong, but I would be surprised if this level of support below the top level carries on for any more than 3 or 4 years.
I think this is a lot of people tbh
Would you agree, on that basis that Wycombe have about 4000 "hard core fans"?
The problem is we need to drive that up to 6000, not see it gradually eroded down to 3500. Personally I believe that's what will happen, but appreciate you may have a different opinion.
Currently our fans are getting older, quite literally by the day. Somehow we need to attract you get fans - if they can just turn in the TV and what whatever then they won't come to Adams Park.
Cheap family tickets, quid a kid, free tickets for schools etc etc.
Make it easy for the kids to ask to go and make it hard for the parents to have reasons to say no.
I understand that the Couhig’s didn’t want to be seen to devalue or discount their premium product, but that’s the wrong approach to lower league football. ‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply. We need to approach it more like a drug dealer, get them hooked cheaply and easily, then take their money for years to come!
i feel like a ramble
I admit it I’m the hardcore fan, I’ve been watching since the black and white days don’t support any other club and am not giving up my season ticket imminently.
truth be told I’d rather watch the guy sweeping the car park than sky .
p.s I have a sneaking suspicion that I sit two rows behind another gasroomer.
As to how to improve attendances, discount rates for families, junior football teams and Scouts .
Oh Mikheil Reopen Mill Street School car park mate.
Completely agree. With streaming via VPN available I hardly go to any away games now (aside from FA Cup and other local ones).
400 mile round trip, to be treated like a potential criminal by stewards on the way in and once inside, to having to pay £25-30 to sit in an area with often the worst view in the ground. That’s before any debate about having to be in the same stand as our drummer friend.
Or you can pay a tenner, with a perfect side on view (apart from ill-timed replays) and are able to do other things with your day.
It’s a 5 year deal, so hopefully the support will last at least that long unless they do an ITV Digital.
Not sure we even have as many as 4,000 hard core fans and I agree that we need to be attracting a younger generation. I think Lloyd2084 and Morrisital2 are on the right track by suggesting that we need to target school age kids by making it cheaper for them to come to Adams Park. It’s been mentioned that Rob had a thing about reducing prices but in my opinion that is the only solution and I hope the new regime will recognise that and act accordingly. There have been countless surveys that show if you capture the interest of children aged under 10 they are likely to become long term fans.
Agree completely. Having the option for watching aways is brilliant and I still half can't believe its available.
Fair play for those who still go to all the aways though, it wouldn't work if we all didn't go!
I went to more away games last season than has previously been the case and the one thing that I found consistently notable about all those games, from Oxford to Derby to Carlisle was how thoroughly pleasant and welcoming the stewards were at every single one of them.
I hope our new owners have a more forward-thinking approach to attracting kids. As many have stated, it's probably do or die at this point, especially with the Sky deal.
I didn't find the stewards at Oxford pleasant or welcoming at all ! In fact out of all the away games I did they were by far the worse. The best I'd say were Charlton, now they were pleasant and welcoming.
I found the ones at Charlton nauseating
Orient's were pretty good weren't they?
Seemed to understand that most fans had been on a bit of an afternoon bender and let us stand where we wanted to with our mates
The ones at Bolton were excellent, and very helpful. Bradford also very friendly and wished us well at Wembley.
Remember at Wimbledon the other season when they seemed to have hired some crack squad of outside security agents? It felt like being patrolled by paras.
Yeah I remember that, they really thought they were an elite SAS wearing ridiculous gear and generally being extremely aggressive.
Don't Oxford share the same stewarding company as us? Always found them alright.
Yeah, they do. That's why we're never at home on the same day as Oxford.
The debate was whether an initiative from your employer could drop crowds, no need to limit anyone in their scope of right to reply.
I'm sure we are being compensated to some level but the issue with all that has always been clubs not being able to control themselves and spaffing it on more and more wages with the league unwilling or unable to do anything about it. With clubs spending outside their means an extra pound isn't worth much if your opponents all spend an extra two.
If any of us can figure out how to keep kids interested in something thats longer than 20 seconds and not on a screen we’ll be richer than Croesus never mind Mikhail Lomtadze.
Sorry, what? I got distracted.