Attendances

[Tommy2holes]

Yesterday was the lowest attendance of the season at 6,600 odd .

It seems apparent the the general negativity of the club and the sale of key players is now starting to hurt Ron Martin in perhaps the only place that we as fans are able to, in people voting with there feet.

I have a feeling that after witnessing that yesterday the casual fan will not return. And if word of mouth is anything to go by then yesterday will damage the crowds even further.

Still we will HOPEFULLY have a nice new stadium to play and maybe we will retain 5000 of the fan base he has worked so tirelessly to build.

If we stay in this league the maybe 3000 will renew season cards if we drop to league 2 then we will be lucky to see 2000 renewals.

Still we did get a huge 200k for our best player so that will make up for it.

Mark my words. If yesterday was anything to go by then then we will see a sub 5000 crowd very soon.

 

[Mick]

If we lose an average of 1,000 adults per match between now and the end of the season, the income lost will be 10% more than the fee from Barnard's sale. Selling your best player is always liable to put off the floating fan.

 

[BrettieAngell]

Over the last couple of season we have dipped to about this kind of crowd a few times! And don't forget we have been in similar postions aswell, the crowds wont go near the 5,000 mark not this season.

 

[GBJ]

Totally agree Tommy.

Dissapointing to see really. Then again, i don't blame people for not turning up, especially on yesterdays performance.

 

[Tommy2holes]

the crowds wont go near the 5,000 mark not this season.

I wouldnt be so sure especially when we play the likes of stockport who will bring maybe 100 fans.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I think low 6K definitely! I can't remember too many occasions crowds have gone below 6.1/2K over the last few years Hereford last season maybe?

 

[McNasty]

It didn't help that Wycombe's support was poor.

 

[Beefy]

Yesterday was the lowest attendance of the season at 6,600 odd .

It seems apparent the the general negativity of the club and the sale of key players is now starting to hurt Ron Martin in perhaps the only place that we as fans are able to, in people voting with there feet.

I have a feeling that after witnessing that yesterday the casual fan will not return. And if word of mouth is anything to go by then yesterday will damage the crowds even further.

Still we will HOPEFULLY have a nice new stadium to play and maybe we will retain 5000 of the fan base he has worked so tirelessly to build.

If we stay in this league the maybe 3000 will renew season cards if we drop to league 2 then we will be lucky to see 2000 renewals.

Still we did get a huge 200k for our best player so that will make up for it.

Mark my words. If yesterday was anything to go by then then we will see a sub 5000 crowd very soon.

I may have missed this, but what exactly is your point? The Club is skint. They cant afford new signings, they had to cash in on their one remaining good player and this is having drastic consequences on the field. These are undeniable points.

I presume you didn't make this thread to state the bleeding obviously, so what exactly is your suggestion or solution?

 

[Tommy2holes]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy2holes
Yesterday was the lowest attendance of the season at 6,600 odd .

It seems apparent the the general negativity of the club and the sale of key players is now starting to hurt Ron Martin in perhaps the only place that we as fans are able to, in people voting with there feet.

I have a feeling that after witnessing that yesterday the casual fan will not return. And if word of mouth is anything to go by then yesterday will damage the crowds even further.

Still we will HOPEFULLY have a nice new stadium to play and maybe we will retain 5000 of the fan base he has worked so tirelessly to build.

If we stay in this league the maybe 3000 will renew season cards if we drop to league 2 then we will be lucky to see 2000 renewals.

Still we did get a huge 200k for our best player so that will make up for it.

Mark my words. If yesterday was anything to go by then then we will see a sub 5000 crowd very soon.

I may have missed this, but what exactly is your point? The Club is skint. They cant afford new signings, they had to cash in on their one remaining good player and this is having drastic consequences on the field. These are undeniable points.

I presume you didn't make this thread to state the bleeding obviously, so what exactly is your suggestion or solution?

I offer no suggestions or solutions other than pointing out the MR Martin is trying to save money so that he can build this wonderful new stadium (supposedly) that is going to alter the face of southend united.

We have lost Revell Betsy and Lee Barnard off the wage bill which must save a fair few quid. We also got 200k for Barney and are due to see some cash for the sale of JCR this week.

What is Mr Martin going to give Tilly out of this money? Absoloutely nothing.

My point is this. He is trying to save money , but if crowds go from an average of 8k to an average of 6k for the remainder of the season then the club will lose money. More than they have saved in sales and wages.

So its a very fine line he is walking and has been for some time. He has always had our great backing from the terraces in numbers to keep the finances atleast ticking along. Once the crowds start to dwindle lets see what happens. Whos thought will it be ?

Martins and nobody elses.

 

[bilbyboy]

I may have missed this, but what exactly is your point? The Club is skint. They cant afford new signings, they had to cash in on their one remaining good player and this is having drastic consequences on the field. These are undeniable points.

I presume you didn't make this thread to state the bleeding obviously, so what exactly is your suggestion or solution?

I think yesterdays dismal performance had little to do with the departure of Barney, i think it is a culmination of the many problems the club and the team have experienced this season, maybe the Barney departure is 'the straw that broke the camels back'. A father and his 2 kids who sit behind me are an example of how poor games can affect attendances, the 2 kids love their football, yesterday at half time one lad asked his dad "can we go to mcdonalds instead" this was at half time, 5 minutes into the 2nd half and they were gone, they are season ticket holders, i wonder if 'dad' will bother to renew if the kids are losing interest? We still have the cruxt of a good team, ok so we lost Barney, but Barney has not taken the passion to play away with him, yesterday i saw at least 7 players who just looked as if they were not interested, maybe some of them didn't want to risk getting injured just in case thay have the chance to move on. Blame who you will for a poor team and a poor performance, but ultimately it will be us that suffers as supporters. UTB.

 

[BaileytheQuitter]

As bad as the game sounds, I would have liked to have been at the match yesterday.

Being at uni it's hard to support the team. I still listen to all the matches and when I'm home I always go.

Would hate to see us go back to the Division 3 days of 2002-2003 etc but right now it's starting to feel a bit like that!

 

[Tinks]

When calculating the attendance do they automatically included the 5000+ season card holders in the final total whether they attend or not?

 

[Firestorm]

When calculating the attendance do they automatically included the 5000+ season card holders in the final total whether they attend or not?

I think its attendance as opposed to tickets sold.

A number of those not turning up may well be season ticket holders and thier non attendance would not have as greater impact on the income, especially as catering etc has been franchised.

Home games two saturdays running may well have had an impact on the attendance too, although TBH I can see us breaking 7k next saturday either

 

[BrettieAngell]

Home games two saturdays running may well have had an impact on the attendance too, although TBH I can see us breaking 7k next saturday either

We haven't played at home for nearly a month though!

I can see Swindon bringing around a thousand next week, so would expect a crowd of around 7K.

 

[The Big Shrimp]

Yesterday was the lowest attendance of the season at 6,600 odd .

It seems apparent the the general negativity of the club and the sale of key players is now starting to hurt Ron Martin in perhaps the only place that we as fans are able to, in people voting with there feet.

I have a feeling that after witnessing that yesterday the casual fan will not return. And if word of mouth is anything to go by then yesterday will damage the crowds even further.

Still we will HOPEFULLY have a nice new stadium to play and maybe we will retain 5000 of the fan base he has worked so tirelessly to build.

If we stay in this league the maybe 3000 will renew season cards if we drop to league 2 then we will be lucky to see 2000 renewals.

Still we did get a huge 200k for our best player so that will make up for it.

Mark my words. If yesterday was anything to go by then then we will see a sub 5000 crowd very soon.

I believe thy said a similar thing at Darlington! They recently had less than 1700 against Morecambe & have only had more than 2000 in the League three times this season! Nice new ground for the Conference!!

 

[Andyhsufc]

Im expecting a lower crowd for the Swindon game. A lot of people won't come back again after watching yesterdays drivel. Sub 6000 wouldn't be a surprise. Still we have got the stadium to look forward to...

 

[Beefy]

I offer no suggestions or solutions other than pointing out the MR Martin is trying to save money so that he can build this wonderful new stadium (supposedly) that is going to alter the face of southend united.

We have lost Revell Betsy and Lee Barnard off the wage bill which must save a fair few quid. We also got 200k for Barney and are due to see some cash for the sale of JCR this week.

What is Mr Martin going to give Tilly out of this money? Absoloutely nothing.

My point is this. He is trying to save money , but if crowds go from an average of 8k to an average of 6k for the remainder of the season then the club will lose money. More than they have saved in sales and wages.
.

But you're assuming that we're spending money to fund the stadium instead of spending it on the team, but I don't see any evidence of that. There's nothing in the last set of accounts, including the detailed breakdown of the administrative expenses quoted on the finance board recently, which suggests that SUFC Ltd are spending money on the stadium at Fossetts Farm.

Our problem is cashflow. That's why we're allegedly having problems paying bills (including wages). That's why we're selling season tickets early. That's why we're borrowing money from the Trust. We've been running with massive operating losses for years but those losses have been funded through loans from the Directors and Parent Company. With the economic downturn and the collapse of the housing markets (which has had disastrous consequences for a highly leveraged property developer like the one running our Club) those loans are no longer available so the Club is having to cover it's own bills and we can all see the consequences of that.

The stadium is a factor in so far as were it not on the agenda in the first place we wouldn't have had Directors and Parent Companies to throw money at covering substantial operating losses and would have had to cut our cloth accordingly. But here and now I don't think it has any direct involvement in our plight

 

[Tommy2holes]

Our problem is cashflow. That's why we're allegedly having problems paying bills (including wages). That's why we're selling season tickets early. That's why we're borrowing money from the Trust. We've been running with massive operating losses for years but those losses have been funded through loans from the Directors and Parent Company. With the economic downturn and the collapse of the housing markets (which has had disastrous consequences for a highly leveraged property developer like the one running our Club) those loans are no longer available so the Club is having to cover it's own bills and we can all see the consequences of that.

Ok so answer me this. If the money we have been recouping on high eaners leaving and the sales of Barnard JCR etc are going on the bank, then why is it that with a 8k average attendance , advanced sales for next season and possibly the smallest squad in the entire football league. How the **** can we be in a position where we havent purchased a single player in 18 months +?

Yeah i reckon your right the ground has nothing to do with it whatsoever..

 

[Beefy]

It's not going to the Bank. We don't run an overdraft, that point has been made clear on several occasions. The money is being used to pay bills. Pay tax (occasionally...), pay wages, pay outstanding monies on transfer fees. Paying interest on loans which were made to cover our previous losses.

Plenty of people get pay rises or better jobs without having a significant increase in their standard of living because it gets eaten up in paying their finance on their car, or paying off the credit card (or even just meeting the minimum payment), or paying any other one of the dozens of bills that we have to pay for. What makes you think football clubs aren't any different? The accounts show the huge losses. The accounts show that those losses were not caused by the stadium. Where does the money to cover those losses come from?

 

[weststander]

Ok so answer me this. If the money we have been recouping on high eaners leaving and the sales of Barnard JCR etc are going on the bank, then why is it that with a 8k average attendance , advanced sales for next season and possibly the smallest squad in the entire football league. How the **** can we be in a position where we havent purchased a single player in 18 months +?

Yeah i reckon your right the ground has nothing to do with it whatsoever..

Last year the club lost £2million. The year before was another substantial loss and this year a similar loss is projected. RM or his companies have been underwriting this loss until now, when i would imagine that the money used for said losses are being channelled to the stadium project. As the money is not there WE CANT SPEND IT !
We have to reduce our losses to make them as small as possible, as we have seen we have little or no saleable assetts and £200k and a player was damn good business for Barney.
If the last few months are anything to go by we have seen the kinds of money it takes to run a football club of our size, VAT £2.1 million for 3 years which equates to £700k per year. PAYE at £100k per month thats £1.2 million per year so we should be paying £2million per year just on taxes ! And that is before wages !!
Until the FF project is underway we cannot expect much in the way of help from RM and his companies so we just have to do what everyone else does when things get tough..... tighten our belts and only spend what we have to spend.
Free transfers and players willing to accept small wages are all we can hope/expect until we sort this out.