Attendances | Vital Football

Attendances

jogills

jogills

Vital Football Hero
Some of the comments on the AFC Wimbledon thread together with discussion on facebook has got me thinking about attendances. I'm not concerened at the moment with potential, new incentives, new stadium prospects just how many people currently go through the turnstiles. A search reveals the follwing stats:

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2016/17

5,586 6,696 6,116 6,425 6,129

Season ticket sales:

2,950 3.002 3,229 2,827 2,773

Eddie Allcorn has suggested on facebook that season ticket sales slumped by 23% this season and were around 2,000. I have no proof of that figure but we know that after 10 home games we were averaging 5,214 through the gate.

The recent trend is worrying and there are certainly factors surrounding team performance and entertainment. I would argue they are not as decisive as some believe because our averages do not always follow those factors smoothly. The worrying slump is this season and there is at least a suspicion that our Seaon ticket offer has played a part.

I renewed this year without hesitation with a mild regret that some of the "benefits" had disappeared, friends for a fiver etc. I recall the boob over tickets for young fans and though the club did the right thing in the end the momentum may have been lost. Season ticket holders make up a good part of our attendance both directly and through offers so this is crucial. I am not claiming superior knowledge to the chairman, who will be well aware of what is going on. We have limited options but it is clear from the stats that those options matter and small decisions move numbers. The brute financial facts may well suggest that there is small, or no benefit in certain offers but strategically there is more going on. A fall in attendances, which brings virtually unchanged attendance and income may look cost free but an emptying stadium contributes to a sense of decline.
 
A return to winning ways at home plus the more attractive football they are playing might see some improvement in attendances. If we beat Carlisle a Sheffield Weds home tie should get 8,000 plus.
 
More than that Phil, I don't think it is just 'winning' which increases the attendance, but the style of play.
 
Spot on Phil. The second half of last season was so dire it has driven fans away - we served up shit and have largely done so under Pennock and Taylor this season with a hint of limited improvement under SL. Fans were very disappointed with the new signings before a ball was kicked this season coupled with the loss of Cody and Dack everyone could see we would struggle and some were simply pissed off with the situation. Then there was the daily fiasco at the start of this season where we had continuous bad press - the ludicrous nonsense of ST holders having to get a ticket for Bradford, rows with the charity, director accused of USA embezzlement, Centreplate etc, etc. The 2 year ST deal was as appealing as toothache. Scally alienated ST purchasers with the increased prices for kids (later retracted) but the friends for a 5 withdrawal was just penny pinching - surely it is better to have limited income than none at all. This club was in a real mess at the start of the season, it appears that some dust has settled but has too much damage been done especially if we get relegated again? The marketing at the club is simply dreadful - we will face a real uphill battle to get those lost fans back again. Time will tell.
 
"If we beat Carlisle a Sheffield Weds home tie should get 8,000 plus"

'Should' is irrelevant. We definitely should get much higher attendances. But I can't see us getting even more than 7000 against Sheff Weds. Unless they are known for their strong away support of course - Right down to the shit hole of gillingham straight after Xmas to sit in the gold stand - i doubt the away following will be that high anyway. But then the away following has got little to do with our own fans flooding back as per the point of the post.

I think our attendance has gone down because of the extremely uninspiring signings we made in the summer, as well as of course Pennock and Taylor's style of football, which followed a year of underachievement and lazy players under JED. We've been served up 2 years of this now, and it's wearing very thin. It's really testing fans at the moment. I think the Success under JED has also given some fans higher expectations, meaining they are even more depressed when we produce what we have done in the past 2 years.

I would though point out it barely rose when we were top of the league under JED. 15 years ago when we were top of the league under Pulis and then Taylor we were getting much larger attendances. Even in League 2 when we were top of the league we were getting higher attendances I think.
 
Effort to get more people into the Priestfield Stadium seems, from the outside, to be sadly lacking this season. Some of last season`s dreadfully negative performances on the pitch is a factor, especially in relation to ST`s, but I do think that Gills are missing a trick when it comes to marketing.

Notwithstanding a decent attempt to showcase the club at Bluewater, it seems we have not looked hard enough to fill seats through various marketing, whether it be complimentary entries or promotional discounting. At Plymouth last week there were several thousand youngsters and adults connected with local football clubs in attendance, apparently complimentary tkts. Have we done anything similar ?

These sort of promotions are worthwhile, especially during the "International Weekends" when regular attendees at Premier and Championship venues would be free to take their younger family members to watch a League One game. Provided ST holders are treated fairly, I`d have thought that "comps & discounts" has to be a positive means of promoting GFC`s growth.


Removing some benefits from ST holders has been a mistake. The club should be taking the exact opposite approach IMO. It is worrying that the number of ST holders seems to be in continued decline. I wouldn`t argue with those who feel ST holders are the life blood of our football club so perhaps GFC may need to have a re-think about its strategy.


Generally, the atmosphere at Gills home games this season has been pretty mild, sometimes library like. The team reacts to a good atmosphere, get a jog on Gills marketing....
 
Like with everything, globalisation will see larger organisations dominate. Smaller ones will struggle. Football doesn't fall outside of this phenomenon.

It would be interesting to see how other teams' attendances compare. Hopefully they will show the above to be incorrect and we'll find a magic formula to see our attendances rocket.
 
Crowds rose in the Pulis/Taylor era because we played mostly decent football in a newly rebuilt ground after many years of bumbling around the bottom of the league, plus the lure of and access to the Premier League wasn't quite what it is now.

Nowadays there's numerous diversions that seem infinitely preferable to freezing your tits off at an aging, somnolent Priestfield at 20 odd quid a pop watching some bang average players try their best but ultimately struggle.
 
Herr, my comparison to the Pulis and Taylor era was solely in comparison to when JED was doing well. Of course i'd never compare it what happened subsequently/now.

But the point is that JED achieved form of approximately 4th position over a full calendar year. After doing brilliantly after he joined us, after Taylor had bored us all, we then started the season brilliantly and ended up 1st. Even then we really still struggled with attendances. We still REALLY struggled in that season to increase the gate by much despite being top of the league and in playoffs for most of it.

This to me shows it's not really solely linked with performances.
 
Which was where I came in. I agree with the footballing stuff but our attendances appear to be in decline vis a vis our direct peers. That is concerning but it does at least suggest we might be able to do something about it. Good suggestions around promotions around international breaks and restoring ST benefits.

I have long been of the opinion that we need to get maximum draw from access to the club and its players. The big teams cannot compete in that area but it should be part of a long term strategy, which is not judged on immediate financial return. Raise the profile at every turn using small local events as well as the bigger stuff. Get out into the community relentlessly and link up with local sports participation at every level. I know we do some of this but nowhere near enough. If you want to read about this sort of thing in action then take a look at Keith Peacock's autobiography No Substitute.
 
HerrLjunga - 15/12/2017 13:55

Nowadays there's numerous diversions that seem infinitely preferable to freezing your tits off at an aging, somnolent Priestfield at 20 odd quid a pop watching some bang average players try their best but ultimately struggle.
Click to expand...

That's it in a nutshell - offer and acceptance. Gillingham FC are putting on an event for 2 and half hours on a Saturday costing 22, and 5,000 people are taking it up at that price. If they want to increase sales they'll either need to advertise, improve the product, or reduce prices as any other business would need to do. They may be restricted in how they can improve the product, but there's no indication that they are ever going to advertise their product or reduce the price.
 
Globalisation and the Gills in the same post! Who would have thought it?

Once we get the new stadium, progress to top 4 of the PL, win the Champions League and the Club World Cup and overtake Man U and Real as the biggest football brand in the world then "globalisation" and Gillingham will once again appear in the same thread.

I fancy a bet. What will come first? A colony on Mars or the Gills as the top club in the world?
 
On the subject of football and globalisation, or the new buzzword glocalisation, take a look at what Man City are up to and weep:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/15/manchester-city-football-group-ferran-soriano

 
Unfortunately it doesn't matter how many deals you offer, unless the "product" is something people want you won't get them to "buy" it.

And in football, how many want to continually see a losing team?

I'd say that first of all you need to get the team winning a good percentage of their matches. Once that starts happening the casual and new fans will notice and start wanting to be part of "it". Then get the football attractive to watch. Both of those actions will increase attendance.

After that's been achieved, you can start looking at other things to increase attendances further. But you've got to get the basics right first.
 
Skullduggery Pleasan - 15/12/2017 19:02

And in football, how many want to continually see a losing team?

.
Click to expand...

The 60s and 70s were not exactly our most successful spell, we didn't win many things - attendances were higher and the population was 20% lower and everyone had less money to spend on entertainment - local people supported the local team.

My first ever match was in 1961 against Colchester, something like 9000 turned up for that match, we did win 2-1 but we only came 20th in the league
 
Inflation goes up. Rent/mortgage goes up by inflation. Train tickets go up by inflation. Groceries go up by less than inflation, but up nethertheless. The main problem is salaries aren't going up at the rate of inflation. Therefore people moan at the price increases each year. If you take away all the 'goodwill' benefits other than the price you'll save per game then you honestly won't lose many more season ticket holders.

We cut our playing budget this year but come on, like the others have said, when has a half decent League 1 side and manager affected our attendances by too much?!

People want household names and Championship football and/or a new stadium that's the pride of Medway, otherwise we'll dangle around 5-5,500 or less if we're in a relegation battle.
 
DurhamGills - 15/12/2017 19:57
The 60s and 70s were not exactly our most successful spell, we didn't win many things - attendances were higher and the population was 20% lower and everyone had less money to spend on entertainment - local people supported the local team.
Click to expand...

And how many other things were competing for our attention at the time?
 
Exactly. No internet, three(?) TV channels if you were lucky enough to own a TV, the consumer shopping of today was yet to come into existence, the two eras are not remotely comparable. I'd go as far as to say that the pre-Scally era isn't comparable to the current market, and even that's a bit of a stretch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.