Lee Power, budgets and finances

[Peter Venkman]

We do not even get those gates last time we were in the championship

9,500 to 10,500 is more realistic IMO with a few sell outs of 14,500 for the big fish games.

[reeves4england]

I think people are forgetting how much averages over the season are affected by a handful of big games. After City our average will be between 7300 and 7800 and everybody will be wondering what we were moaning about

Admittedly there are very few teams who will bring more than 500 this season, but chuck in a few bigger crowds towards the end of the season if we're still challenging and the average will be 7500-8000 no problem.

[kerry red]

You're right.

An extra 4000 for the wurzel game spread over our first 8 home games will give us an average of exactly 7500.

Those shaggers have got yet another thread about us - honestly, they're more obsessed than the original scum

[4D]

Don't forget our medway derby 

[kerry red]

'3 wheels on my wagon'

[horlock07]

I think people are forgetting how much averages over the season are affected by a handful of big games. After City our average will be between 7300 and 7800 and everybody will be wondering what we were moaning about

Admittedly there are very few teams who will bring more than 500 this season, but chuck in a few bigger crowds towards the end of the season if we're still challenging and the average will be 7500-8000 no problem.

Have you got Lee Powers email address - drop him a line and reassure him. I suppose the problem with the above is one of cash flow, the end of season attendances may help push the average up but won't help to pay the milk bill this month.

[4D]

As far as I'm aware don't they count season tickets in the attendance figure whether they attend or not? If that's the case how do we know that the actual number attending isn't the same as in previous years? If season tickets are down 1200 on last year along with our average,  then it suggests walk ups are the same.

[Ticker45]

This season has been a bit strange in how the fixtures have fallen as well which may affect the non season ticket holders. Both our recent Tuesday games have clashed with Champions League fixtures on TV and as we all know the local Liverpool/Arsenal/Chelsea/Man. City fans would rather sit at home than support their local side.

I still do not understand how the Football League can see fit to schedule games when they well know that the Champions League is being played at the same time, but then again those at the top are so far removed from paying spectators that they do not give a toss!

[Posh Red]

I must avoid looking at otib 

Our crowds are down on what we are used to,  but in this division I would assume we are in the top half?

Yep, we are 8th behind Sheff Utd, Bradford, Shitty, Preston, Coverntry, Barnsley & the Franchise.

Last Season we were 8th behind much the same teams with Wolves & Rotherham replacing Coventry & Barnsley

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

All of which have tradionally had bigger crowds anyway bar the franchise. So I'd say in that respect we do quite well.

It was the summer that killed the crowds. People are fed up of all the off the field crap and it was a case of "same old Swindon". Also after last season a lot of people said they were bored at the football and wouldn't renew their ST. I spoke to a few with this view. We have been a lot better than last season though but the ploblem then is that the next excuse will always be the prices. I bet we wouldn't get many more if the price was reduced by a fiver. Too many people expect something for nothing these days although I do appreciate some simply can't afford it.

[Summerof69]

I still do not understand how the Football League can see fit to schedule games when they well know that the Champions League is being played at the same time, but then again those at the top are so far removed from paying spectators that they do not give a toss!

It's practically not possible. With all the League Cup/FA Cup/JPT games to fit in, plus all the rearranged postponed games, like last night, which was a rearranged game which the clubs decided. UEFA already hold back millions from the British clubs because they don't want any senior football matches to be played the same time the CL are on...and affect their viewing figures for their sponsors.

[leftside]

I'd love to see a 'pay what you can afford' experiment for one match, just to see whether a fan base is really out there during these times of financial hardship.

[Ardiles]

The fan base is certainly out there, but momentum takes time to build.  That’s why I’m fairly confident that, so long as our early season good form doesn’t evaporate like it did last year, crowds will start to build again during the second half of the season.

Have to remember that, as a club, we’ve had 15 years outside the top two divisions and not a great deal to shout about in all of that time - a couple of promotions from Division 4 and a some cup upsets under a lunatic Italian being the highlights.  Most other clubs have had a shot in the arm during that time: a new ground, a spell in the upper divisions.  Yeovil, Blackpool, Wigan, Reading, Brentford, Bournemouth…just a few of the names that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to in the late 1990s.  But they have all had more to shout about than we have in recent years.

Talk of top flight football, Jan Aage Fjortoft, Hoddle…it’s as distant to our young fans these days as Don Rogers & 1969 was when I started going.  Ancient history.  Deliver a little success, do something substantial with the ground (which has to be one of the least changed stadia anywhere in the country in the last 20 years) - then you’ll see a step change in our supporter base.  All considered, a 7,500 average at the moment is fairly decent at the moment, in my view.

[wiggy]

Me and the boys haven't been this season as I have been completely skint.

We will be back in the new year for a couple of games a month.

[kerry red]

So that's every game then!

Good man