Today's Attendance

[Richard_Cadette]

Interesting to note the attendance today, only being 6,300 odd. Now whilst that would have been the attendance that dreams were made of a few years back, it has not taken that long, or that bad a run of results, for the attendance to drop off slightly.

Granted, Hereford brought little more than a coach load, but it should be a warning to everyong at the club how easy it COULD be to lose all the additional supporters we have managed to pick up along the way over the last few years.

Football fans are a fickle breed - none less than those who support Southend, and I would hate it if we were to go back to averaging around the 3-4,000 mark again - or even worse... Yes, I was there against Halifax that night!!

In all honesty, I was expecting a low crowd today, but should our season look like it's going nowhere quite early, then I would imagine the club could notice a significant drop in crowds and revenue.

 

[graysblue]

Interesting to note the attendance today, only being 6,300 odd. Now whilst that would have been the attendance that dreams were made of a few years back, it has not taken that long, or that bad a run of results, for the attendance to drop off slightly.

Granted, Hereford brought little more than a coach load, but it should be a warning to everyong at the club how easy it COULD be to lose all the additional supporters we have managed to pick up along the way over the last few years.

Football fans are a fickle breed - none less than those who support Southend, and I would hate it if we were to go back to averaging around the 3-4,000 mark again - or even worse... Yes, I was there against Halifax that night!!

In all honesty, I was expecting a low crowd today, but should our season look like it's going nowhere quite early, then I would imagine the club could notice a significant drop in crowds and revenue.

i've been saying this for ages. imagine 2day's attendance in a 22,000 seater stadium. just over a quarter full

 

[Beefy]

i've been saying this for ages. imagine 2day's attendance in a 22,000 seater stadium. just over a quarter full

Yeah it would look like Roots Hall has for most of the years that I've been going.

The attendance was poor today. I'm not sure what anyone wants to be done though. We're going through a sticky patch right now but anyone who loses interest when things aren't going rosey isn't wanted or needed, IMO. We're going to go through **** spells because we're Southend United and that's what we do. Chasing after the fairweather fans who expect us to win every match holds no interest to me.

 

[graysblue]

Yeah it would look like Roots Hall has for most of the years that I've been going.

The attendance was poor today. I'm not sure what anyone wants to be done though. We're going through a sticky patch right now but anyone who loses interest when things aren't going rosey isn't wanted or needed, IMO. We're going to go through **** spells because we're Southend United and that's what we do. Chasing after the fairweather fans who expect us to win every match holds no interest to me.

personally i think the blues need all the support we can get, but i agree with you, the fans who jump on the success bandwagon will soon jump off when results don't go our way.

 

[Beefy]

We do need all the support we can get, but anyone who comes to Roots Hall thinking that we're going to sweep everyone aside needs their head examined. If you're going to be a Southend fan then you need to expect us to lose more than we'll win. You don't have to like it but that's a different thing.

 

[Ron Manager]

To be fair though many of the 'new' fans are not neccesarily at the stage where they are turning up every week through thick and thin. Most of them will be going to some games but not all and so we will see some fluctuations in the crowds as our fortunes change. A number of new fans have become hardcore followers though and hopefully more will follow. When you think back to the darkest days in League Two our hardcore, week in week out support was a lot lower than we can rely on now.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

To be fair though many of the 'new' fans are not neccesarily at the stage where they are turning up every week through thick and thin. Most of them will be going to some games but not all and so we will see some fluctuations in the crowds as our fortunes change. A number of new fans have become hardcore followers though and hopefully more will follow. When you think back to the darkest days in League Two our hardcore, week in week out support was a lot lower than we can rely on now.

Yeah, it could be worse. Our fans could be ****ing off to Australia.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

I think todays crowd was the lowest league crowd since Bournemouth on 31st Dec 2005, some 58 games ago.

But if we think we have problems look at some of the other League 1 crowds today:-

Oldham going very well only got 5,530 v MK Wrongs
Huddersfield 12,128 v Tranmere (and they have 15,000 season ticket holders!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Orient 4,473 V Stockport (great result)
Scunthorpe v Carlisle 5,188
Crewe v Colchester 3,510 (another great result)
Yeovil v Brighton 4,451
Hartlepool v Cheltenham 3,637
Northampton V Peterborough 6,520

A couple of good crowds at Swindon and Leicester mind you.

 

[Ron Manager]

Yeah, it could be worse. Our fans could be ****ing off to Australia.

I've been a fan of 27 years through thick and thin and spent much of my hard earned cash on the club since I first had a paper-round to the present day.

Despite moving to Australia (done for the benefit of my family, one of the few things more important to me than Southend United) I will still continue to invest in the club through my subscription to Blues World and various shirts and merchandise purchased.

My conscious is perfectly clear on that front, don't worry.

 

[OldBlueLady]

To be fair, those "on the bandwagon" fans were hardly going to find a match against Hereford as the biggest attraction. Also the weather was good, and it's Leigh Regatta weekend so that might have drawn a few. There were actually more than I expected there.

 

[DTS]

Is the bigger issue not really the credit crunch.

Spoke to a few people yesterday that I would have put money on the be going to Crewe next week and none of them are due to expense.

 

[RobM]

I disagree here. For some people, finding £20 for a game of football is not an option. Many of us here are fortunate in that we are sheltered - we still have to pay more for everything but we can afford to. Some people cannot.
For me, cost isn't an issue.

 

[steveo]

but anyone who loses interest when things aren't going rosey isn't wanted or needed, IMO.

Dont agree Beefy. Southend need every fan who can walk through the turnstile. Its great taking the aloof attitude of we dont need them but that doesnt help pay the bills. Hard core, fairweathers or one offs, we need to encourage them all, although as Dave says, the credit crunch is obviously playing a factor and I would assume will become worse before it gets better.

Of course this wont only affect us, I would imagine some of the Premier teams who are charging 40 and 50 quid will suffer badly.

 

[Hotman]

Dont agree Beefy. Southend need every fan who can walk through the turnstile. Its great taking the aloof attitude of we dont need them but that doesnt help pay the bills. Hard core, fairweathers or one offs, we need to encourage them all, although as Dave says, the credit crunch is obviously playing a factor and I would assume will become worse before it gets better.

Of course this wont only affect us, I would imagine some of the Premier teams who are charging 40 and 50 quid will suffer badly.

Very true Steveo, the club needs anyone who will pay, and Beefy (who's feelings I can completely understand) will only get more ****ed off in the new ground when people come along , more interested in the other facilities.

 

[Beefy]

Having seen how low other gates were across the country I tend to think that cost is actually the bigger issue than people jumping off of the bandwagon. It's just the unrealistic expectations that some people have of a Club as small as ours which irks with me.

 

[maninasuitcase]

Yeah it would look like Roots Hall has for most of the years that I've been going.

The attendance was poor today. I'm not sure what anyone wants to be done though. We're going through a sticky patch right now but anyone who loses interest when things aren't going rosey isn't wanted or needed, IMO. We're going to go through **** spells because we're Southend United and that's what we do. Chasing after the fairweather fans who expect us to win every match holds no interest to me.

You are talking complete rubbish. Every club in the lower leagues would love an extra thousand paying supporters through the turnstiles and they don't care whether they're fair weather supporters or not. It's all well and good saying they're not wanted or needed, but are you going to make up the financial difference?

I thought not.

 

[Beefy]

Would you care to read the rest of the thread?

I thought not. I wish you'd bore off back to 606.

 

[toellandback]

I think todays crowd was the lowest league crowd since Bournemouth on 31st Dec 2005, some 58 games ago.

But if we think we have problems look at some of the other League 1 crowds today:-

Oldham going very well only got 5,530 v MK Wrongs
Huddersfield 12,128 v Tranmere (and they have 15,000 season ticket holders!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Orient 4,473 V Stockport (great result)
Scunthorpe v Carlisle 5,188
Crewe v Colchester 3,510 (another great result)
Yeovil v Brighton 4,451
Hartlepool v Cheltenham 3,637
Northampton V Peterborough 6,520

A couple of good crowds at Swindon and Leicester mind you.

You can discount this aswell really becasue the rest of there attendances have been around 7-8k. From somewhere they found an extra 5k today.

 

[adam3811]

I'm sure they'll pick right up with the bigger games and once we start winning.

When they do all come in, we must give them an experience that they'll want to come back to have again..

yesterday was pretty god awful boring at times, but we did still try to create a song or too.

congrats must go to the west end of south upper, they always get a barmy army of two going amidst the silence :)

 

[Kenny]

Is the bigger issue not really the credit crunch.

Spoke to a few people yesterday that I would have put money on the be going to Crewe next week and none of them are due to expense.

Yep ,the downturn of crowds in general must surely be a side effect of the Credit Crunch. As everyone starts to tighten belts leisure activities such as going out are usually first to be cut back.

Some of my Wet Sham supporting mates are forking out £47 a ticket to see them play Newcastle!