Home attendances
Following on from the debate in the Crawley Town match thread about attendances, I thought I would geek out and collate the hard numbers.
These are the numbers for home fans only.
2012/13 (L2): Average: 3,160 High: 4,465 Low: 2,265
2013/14 (L2): Average: 3,118 High: 4,879 Low: 2,140
2014/15 (L2): Average: 3,467 High: 5,321 Low: 2,556
2015/16 (L2): Average: 3,450 High: 4,787 Low: 2,700
2016/17 (L2): Average: 3,541 High: 4,961 Low: 2,380
2017/18 (L2): Average: 4,264 High: 8,562 Low: 3,183
2018/19 (L1): Average: 4,460 High: 6,002 Low: 3,735
2019/20 (L1): Average: 4,657 High: 6,723 Low: 3,225 * 18 matches
2021/22 (L1): Average: 4,807 High: 7,164 Low: 3,330
2022/23 (L1): Average: 4,788 High: 6,465 Low: 3,460
2023/24 (L1): Average: 4,185 High: 5,224 Low: 3,244
2024/25 (L1): Average: 3,982 High: 4,376 Low: 3,720 * 4 matches
Comments
Interesting! Still above most of the L2 years, but a severe drop-off since 22/23 and lowest since 16/17.
Many thanks @glasshalfempty for setting out those interesting stats. What’s the betting that we don’t get close to an average gate of 4,750 by the end of this season? A baby step in the right direction.
Part of the reason for the drop last season was due to big games on international weekend being moved to midweek.
It’s too early to consider this season’s numbers.
Without looking into the specifics, did ifollow start showing more games around the time of the decline? I suspect if there was a comparable ‘visitors to Vipienne’ dataset, it might show a trend in the opposite direction.
We need to be honest with ourselves that the football served up for the first half of last season was appalling. Thankfully we dramatically turned things around but it will take time and sustained marketing to entice people back.
At this point in the season, I think its expected attendances will be lower than total average? The early season games are always underwhelming with everyone still on summer holidays.
My gut feeling is exactly this. Attendances at AP started declining from the point the club started actively promoting the option to pay £10 to watch from the comfort of home.
The key question for me is whether combined revenue from ticket sales/online streaming has declined or stayed the same. I pay for a season ticket but on days I can't get to a game (reducing the attendance) I pay an additional £10 to watch it online (increasing the revenue).
@Raisin_De_Barr Don't think that reduces the published attendance though, because all season ticket holders/subscribers are counted whether or not they physically attend.
Or are they counted now?
Perhaps the club have changed it so that only those who are physically in the ground are counted, which would probably account for the recent drop.
Does anyone know the definitive answer to this? After all, the club never seem to show any concern at the lower numbers.
I don't think that's disastrous to be honest. I've always said we've got between 4,000 and 4,500 home supporters that will come most weeks and it's always been very difficult for us to break through that ceiling.
Those figures seem to bear that out.
I would predict that if we continue to play as we are playing this season then we should see a gradual increase over time. But it doesn't happen overnight.
Not sure how easy it is to source these figures. As a comparitor would be interesting to see comparitive trend figures for similar clubs - say Exeter, Northampton and Stevenage
Important omission there, @DevC . Similar sized clubs, please. None of those three clubs can possibly compare with the mighty Wanderers. Ours is a very special club.
When I was on the terrace on Saturday I saw a young man wearing a cap with what I initially thought was "Vipienne" emblazoned on it. Just as my mind was trying to fathom why a Vipienne ultra would actually turn up to a game, I realised that it said "Vivienne" instead.
Gain promotion to The Championship, with our ground capacity of approx 8,500 ish then we would / will sell out most weeks. As things stand the stadium is just too big for the level we historically play at given our fan base.
I wasn’t around at the time but the scale of construction of The Frank Adams has always struck me as overly ambitious. As a comparison the Northampton ground will still hold less than ours should they ever bother to finish construction of the side stand.
Originally it was only 6,000 then in 1996 the Woodlands Stand (now the Frank Adams) was built, increasing the capacity to 10,000.
Probably seemed a good idea at the time.
IIRC, we took advantage of a very generous grant from the Football Trust (nothing to do with our Trust), to be able to build the stand.
Do they have a ‘sinking fund’ to help with mending the roof?
We were properly on the way up back then and had one eye on the championship with the all seater within 3 years rule.
Although MON had famously said give him the money instead and he'd have seen us up.