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Will Wembley help improve attendances

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shrimperjon

shrimperjon

President
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
6,513
With our average gate this season again dropping and without figures im guessing around 4700-4800, do you think that the day out at Wembley might intice a few supporters back to Roots Hall or even start coming having never been before?

Also do you think whether we win will also affect this? I know there will be some on here who say how crap the football is at the moment etc and they have a point, however, ive been supporting the Blues for 34 years and most of that has been played in the lower leagues and not a great standard of football. But its my team and i go regardless. Im guessing whether we win or lose on April 7th of course is important, but more important is how we play and also the atmosphere and behaviour of our fans is important.

Terry Alderton joked the other night that we had sold 27000 tickets for Wembley yet only 4800 turned up on Tuesday. there will be many first timers to a Southend match and i know the club are working on an iniative to encourage them Roots Hall, therefore April 7th is a very important day for the club all round.
 
The only way to improve attendances is by winning football matches.

Since we've got to Wembley and the town has woken up and realised we have a football club, have we seen an increase in gates? Not really. People of Southend have always been fickle towards this team, and won't go to watch an upper mid-table League Two side, which is what we are.
 
Unfortunatly not, I think that the day tripper/glory hunters are just that, the same folk who turn out for the big cup games and play off matches. I like seeing our 'potential' but unless we ever get that new stadium, we will never fulfill it.

No, I don't think winning the JPT will affect us whatsoever. There is no huge financial reward for winning the final, no European place etc so for me, the greatest acheivement was making the final in the first place. It meant the money spinning final, a long awaited trip to Wembley with the Blues and of course beating Orient.
 
We only have 2 home games after the final. The Fleetwood crowd might be a bit higher because its £1 for kids and for the last home game of the season even when we are playing for nothing is also usually above average.

Come the start of next season it will be long forgotten and crowds could actually start lower than we are getting now.
 
Unfortunately not no.

Take our first LDV final appearance at the Mil Stad for example. We had what 21,000 there?

Next home game we had 4,976 in attendance and were going nowhere in League 2 at the time. Similar to this season you could argue.

The towns football fans will not come flooding back for League 2 football. If we had of got promoted this season on the back of a Wembley final win, that could of boosted the numbers for next season quite nicely. But bar a miracle, that wont be the case.

We need to get back into the Championship, or at least challenging at the top in League One and have the new stadium coming along. Before we start to see the crowds we need and used to have. But all that is a long long way away at the moment.

I would suggest regardless of the result at Wembley. Our crowds next season will actually be down on this season. We will need a very successful campaign next, to get those gates back up.

Average attendances at RH in last 6 seasons:

8,165 (07-08)
7,861 (08-09)
7,718 (09-10)
5,274 (10-11)
6,017 (11-12)
5,051 (Current)

You can see, bar the uplift last season, partly boosted by some cheap ticket days. The big downward trend continues. Obviously the main impact is dropping from League 1 to League 2. But that is my point. No Wembley final will boost our numbers. It is all down to what league we are in and how we are doing in that league.

That is why failure to go up this season is a real disaster. Unless we have a stormer next season, I wouldn't be surprised if the average attendance is sub 5,000, perhaps even 4,500 if we have a total shocker. And for a club that needs what 7-8k average gates to break even, that is worrying.
 
What will improve the crowds?? I always would have said winning football matches but last season this just was not the case, we were top of the league for a long time and crowds certainly did not improve much (if at all) The people of southend will get down to the hall in numbers but it seems they want it all, higher divisions, attractive football, value for money maybe. I know plenty of peeps who used to go a lot that are resurfacing for wembley but have no intention of returning to the hall. Real tricky one.
 
I actually think our crowds would be higher if we were up the top of League Two, which we were not too far away from had injuries not hit when they did, than if we were bang mid-table in League One. A winning team is the main thing. Away attendances would be boosted in a higher division of course.
 
If we play well and win, then it might convince some day trippers to come to the next home game. That is a massive if and wouldn't improve it that much either IMO.
 
kingSHRIMPER said:
I think it may have done if we still had something to play for but not now
Click to expand...

Yeah definately, if we were still close to the play-offs or in the playu-offs and we won JPT then I reckon it might get us any extra 1-2k but sadly with then posistion we're in and very unlucky to get in the play-offs I cannot see anything changing.
 
leeblue said:
What will improve the crowds?? I always would have said winning football matches but last season this just was not the case, we were top of the league for a long time and crowds certainly did not improve much (if at all) The people of southend will get down to the hall in numbers but it seems they want it all, higher divisions, attractive football, value for money maybe. I know plenty of peeps who used to go a lot that are resurfacing for wembley but have no intention of returning to the hall. Real tricky one.
Click to expand...

As Smiffy just illustrated, promotion will bring in the crowds. Simple as that.
 
Sadly no. The only thing that will get a few more punters through the turnstiles is if we go into League 1. The way our home form is at the moment I would suspect the gates to actually drop however, gates are always higher on the first and last games of the season. Also, going to RH is hardly a pleasant experience - even washing your hands in the sink in the toilets you have to use cold water and the environment etc has not been maintained over the years
 
I hope if we win at Wembley we may well get a boost .. but I doubt it I have posted on the Wembley forum about trying to get the 30k expected at the JPT at Roots Hall . Also have a quick look at the SUFC Facebook page someone dared to call the so called Wembley fans daytrippers along the lines of what Terry Alderton said and got either dogs abuse or the most feeble list of excuses known for non attendance at league games which leads me to conclude that the only thing that brings more punters in is winning football matches in an attractive style ... oh and no false dawns broken promises or spin from the board etc ...
 
We need to be in league one, and we need a marketing campaign . Last year we had the great unbeaten run, and low crowds- even the play off semi was low IMO, as it was the second leg, and we had a real chance of winning--- and people still didn't come. Lots of people will not watch league 2 football at a club covered in negativity , at a stadium that is far from an appealing place to be
 
No unfortunately, the 19-20000 tourists who will be there on that day will only regularly come if were playing in the prem with a 50k state of the art stadium. Pathetic but true. We've had a hardcore of about 4000 for the last 20 years. Cant see this ever changing.
 
Don't get all the negativity to the day trippers. I've barely missed a home game for 15 years but would rather we had a decent number of support at Wembley than 4000.

How many less people would watch current premier league sides if they were in league 2 playing cr*p football?
 
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