The great attendance debate.

[shorehamview]

It's an interesting one regarding the why and wherefore of attendance figures, and it's not always down to one or two easy answers. For example, I went to see the Steelers last night. They've won plenty, were league champions last season, and in their early days packed the arena. They regularly had crowds in the 8,000 bracket and held many attendance records until other teams started playing in other big arenas. I used to go because when I worked in various pubs Saturdays were all day at work, and so the Steelers were a good Sunday evening out.

Last night however the arena was barely half full, and why? The Steelers are a winning side, so it's not as if there are people waiting until they start winning again. It's down to a myriad of reasons, the main one of why just may be the economic reasons. That's also why a lot of people have given up, at least partly, on football, particularly in the lower divisions. How many clubs sell out these days? Not many, and I reckon the main reason is price. Football, hockey, gigs, even a simple night at the pub are all a lot more expensive than they used to be, and unless there's a drastic re-think then I think things will continue.

 

[S64 Blade]

I've been a 4 for the past couple of seasons due to university/not having the money available to go as regularly as I'd like. Hoping my job interview goes well tomorrow though and I can get back to being a 2, as Saturdays are pretty dull.

I think economic reasons are largley why attendances have dropped. Unemployment is the highest it has been for around seventeen years, and a large percentage of the young are now unemployed - with it being arguably a lot of the youth who started to go to games regularly, when we were playing well.

 

[Darren]

This table is interesting

http://www.footballeconomy.com/content/top-30-english-football-clubs-average-attendances-2010-11

It shows we were the 14th best supported club in the country in 08-09, 17th in 09-10, but had dropped to 27th in 10-11. No doubt, we will drop out of the top 30 this season.

On a tagential point, in 08-09 (a failed promotion season from the second tier), the teams with better averages than us were together with the last season they won a major trophy:

Man Utd 2011
Arsenal 2005
Newcastle 1969
Man City 2011
Liverpool 2006
Chelsea 2010
Sunderland 1973
Villa 1996
Everton 1995
Spurs 2008
West Ham 1980
Stoke 1972
Derby 1975.

We have to go back to 1925!

 

[super_pig]

the 'product' has been shite for years.. when bootwell was in charge the response was 'yeah but we're sixth place'.. and some of us luddites said that the long term outlook would be that people would find something else to do as they won't pay 20 quid to watch that shit win or lose.. the standard of entertainment has now improved but it will take a while for the attendances to recover as people cotton on to the fact that the football is now more watchable.. there will be cries of 'bandwagon jumper' as we will probably be higher in the league which is not a coincidence .. better football produces better results over the long run

 

[Darren]

the 'product' has been shite for years.. when bootwell was in charge the response was 'yeah but we're sixth place'.. and some of us luddites said that the long term outlook would be that people would find something else to do as they won't pay 20 quid to watch that shit win or lose.. the standard of entertainment has now improved but it will take a while for the attendances to recover as people cotton on to the fact that the football is now more watchable.. there will be cries of 'bandwagon jumper' as we will probably be higher in the league which is not a coincidence .. better football produces better results over the long run

See above. It's nothing to do with the style of play and everything to do with league position. Under "Bootwell" in 08-09 we were the 14th best supported team in the country. This season we won't even be in the top 30 despite the alleged better style of football.

 

[Railway Blade]

Im somewhere between a 1 and 2. Season ticket holder and go to somewhere between 60 and 70% of the away games.

 

[Muttley]

I'm a solid number 2 and have been for years.

really Brownie....you're not that bad!!! ;-)

 

[beechblade]

I'm a 2, but I can't to get to away games due to working every other saturday, plus I can't really afford them.

 

[Northyorksblade]

Was a 1 for many years, now a 2. Perhaps a thought for next season, why not a family ST? There must be many families who would love to go, but it's just too prohibitve for the whole family to attend. The cheap tickets for under 12s was a great idea. Our Jack is now hooked. Got to get em young!

 

[super_pig]

>Under "Bootwell" in 08-09 we were the 14th best supported team in the country. This season we won't even be in the top 30 despite the alleged better style of football.
heh.. i knew that one was coming.. err.. because as the momentum recedes and people gradually drop off there is a time lag?.. as the word gets round people will become hooked again.. mind you the ridiculous seating arrangements don't help as they don't cater for irregular attendees (as mentioned above).. 'stop pissin' abaht macguire and gerrit' dahn pitch'.. my heart sinks everytime i hear that shite

 

[Bladesway]

'stop pissin' abaht macguire and gerrit' dahn pitch'.. my heart sinks everytime i hear that shite

Should have been sat at the back of the Kop V Walsall. "None of that fancy bollocks, just gerrit int box". Hoof will not die will it

 

[grafikhaus]

It's nothing to do with the style of play and everything to do with league position. Under "Bootwell" in 08-09 we were the 14th best supported team in the country. This season we won't even be in the top 30 despite the alleged better style of football.

Not so simple. Somebody on here asked (can't find the post), when we last got crowds as low as Saturday.

Checking the OS, you'd have to go back to the 'Triple Assault' season (2002-3). On Tuesday 25th March we drew 2-2 with Gillingham in front of 15,799. True, it was a night match but United were 3rd in the Championship, had got into the FA Cup Semi a couple of weeks previously and we were approaching the climax of our best season in recent years.

Other low crowds from 2002/3:

16,343 at home to Preston on Saturday 21st December, 2002 (5th in table), 15,884 v. Ipswich Sat. 9th November, and 15,163 on Wednesday 23rd October v. Stoke (!), Tuesday 17th September v. Grimsby - 14,208, Tues. 27th August v. Millwall - 13,024 and Saturday 17th August v. Walsall - 14,011

And at home to Wendy, Friday 17th January - 28,179 (3rd in table and just beaten Liverpool in 1st Leg League Cup semi). The crowd at The Wembley of the North v. The S6 Masseev, Sun. 1st September - 27,075

...and we had our best manager in recent years

I'd say it's as much to do with the away following.

 

[Rattly Noise]

So the facts actually prove we're not doing that bad crowd wise. Oh well.

 

[Tuns]

Facts show we've lost nearly half our season ticket holders in just over a year.

We shouldn't be comparing our attendances to 9 years ago. The club has moved on since those days and has or at least had a bigger fanbase.

McCabe did the hard bit and built the crowds up with some decent initiatives and good communication and got the fans' trust back in the club.

In a very short space of time we are losing thousands of fans who will be very hard to get back and all the good work is being thrown away.

What the likes of Derby, Norwich, Bradford etc do is not rocket science.

It's strange the club accepts loss of fans so easily. suppose we could compare to some of the crowds I stood in in the 80s and not start panicking till we get down to 9,000.

In my business I would fight like hell to keep my customers and at the very least do some work to find out what I could do to keep them etc.

United have given up. I had a ST for 30 odd years and am a shareholder yet the club doesn't contact me at all with offers etc and there's thousands of false Blades like me.

I think McCabe said there 40,000 plus Blades on the database - so a lot of the hard work is done - it's not too late for the club to change it's policy even this season.

Why not start with the pig game by throwing in another match for an extra fiver for adults and a quid for kids? Try and fill the ground for the Boxing Day match with good deals.

Get the ex STs back into it before xmas when we can flog half price STs at great deals (not the waste of time offers we did last year)

STs are the future of the club. But I know - dead horse and flogging.

 

[oldblade]

Other low crowds from 2002/3:

16,343 at home to Preston on Saturday 21st December, 2002 (5th in table), 15,884 v. Ipswich Sat. 9th November, and 15,163 on Wednesday 23rd October v. Stoke (!), Tuesday 17th September v. Grimsby - 14,208, Tues. 27th August v. Millwall - 13,024 and Saturday 17th August v. Walsall - 14,011

And at home to Wendy, Friday 17th January - 28,179 (3rd in table and just beaten Liverpool in 1st Leg League Cup semi). The crowd at The Wembley of the North v. The S6 Masseev, Sun. 1st September - 27,075

...and we had our best manager in recent years

I'd say it's as much to do with the away following.

The match against Ipswich came just 4 days after the dramatic win over Leeds in the League cup, and the one aginst Preston was only 4 days after knocking Crystal Palace out of the same competition and reaching the semi final for the first time in our history. Also, we'd been playing some fantastic football for several months, but the league attendances still remained stubbornly low.

 

[grafikhaus]

Suppose it proves that it takes quite a few years (and a good manager) to gradually build up your fan base, and even less years (and several crap managers) to undo all the hard work.

 

[shorehamview]

Facts show we've lost nearly half our season ticket holders in just over a year.....

Which facts? This isn't a wind up, I'd genuinely like to see the proof as I must have missed it. Have the club released figures to back this up?

 

[Bladesway]

So the facts actually prove we're not doing that bad crowd wise. Oh well.

Ah but its not like the good ol days when we used to make a wall of noise for 90 minutes now is it. Or is that my memory playing tricks with me

 

[Fiery Blade]

The attendance reflects the level of football they play! Fairly obvious to me!
The reason people have not renewed season tickets is partly down to level of opposition!
Walsall, Colchester, Yeovil, Wycombe, Exeter or West Ham, Leeds, Birmingham, Ipswich, Leicester - not much of a choice really is it???
£31-00 to watch Sheffield United v Huddersfield Town - doesn't equate to good value
It doesn't matter what season ticket holders we had last year, the year before - this season we are in the Third Division and probably 'attract' double the crowd of every other side in the league apart from Wednesday - be thankful for small mercies!!!

 

[Pedro Verde]

Which facts? This isn't a wind up, I'd genuinely like to see the proof as I must have missed it. Have the club released figures to back this up?

We have sold between 10/11k this season and as far as I know around 15/16k last season so that does not equate to half of our ST holders

 

[shorehamview]

We have sold between 10/11k this season and as far as I know around 15/16k last season so that does not equate to half of our ST holders

That's what I'm on about. Where is the proof of the numbers?

 

[Darren]

The match against Ipswich came just 4 days after the dramatic win over Leeds in the League cup, and the one aginst Preston was only 4 days after knocking Crystal Palace out of the same competition and reaching the semi final for the first time in our history. Also, we'd been playing some fantastic football for several months, but the league attendances still remained stubbornly low.

If I remember rightly there was a big leap in attendances in 03-04. I think the explanation is a simple one. For quite a while now most clubs' attendances have been made up of season ticket holders. After the success of 02-03, far more people bought ST's in summer 03, hence the leap in attendances the following season, even though that season was less successful.

 

[Revolution]

If I remember rightly there was a big leap in attendances in 03-04. I think the explanation is a simple one. For quite a while now most clubs' attendances have been made up of season ticket holders. After the success of 02-03, far more people bought ST's in summer 03, hence the leap in attendances the following season, even though that season was less successful.

I think that was also the year United started releasing attendances on the basis of tickets sold rather than people actually present, which bumps gates up a bit.