Ok people let's take stock for a minute.

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

At a guess apart from the weather I'd say there were 260 shopworkers in attendance on Tuesday night

ARE there 260 shopworkers in Accy nowadays?

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

ARE there 260 shopworkers in Accy nowadays?

I can vouch for one if that's any help

[Wynonie Harris]

Just to serious for a moment, were the gates bigger in the conference? I certainly don't recall them being bigger. Apart from the first few weeks of the initial 2003/04 season and the final weeks of the 2005/06 season, I remember gates as being fairly mediocre with a lot of attendances around the 1,200 mark!

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

I can vouch for one if that's any help

Maybe the rest of the 260 on Tuesday were charity shop workers and Maundy helpers - otherwise occupied with good works on a Saturday!

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

Just to serious for a moment, were the gates bigger in the conference? I certainly don't recall them being bigger. Apart from the first few weeks of the initial 2003/04 season and the final weeks of the 2005/06 season, I remember gates as being fairly mediocre with a lot of attendances around the 1,200 mark!

Just looked at the 2005/06 season. Ironically the Exeter game at home was on the last Saturday in August, the attendance was 1312, and Exeter won. How's that for a pointer to the rest of the season

[Pendle Red]

I have no problem with on the pitch six points from a possible nine if I am honest is five more points than I thought we would have at this stage with the fixtures we have had, it was below par on Saturday but in the main if I see effort and commitment then that is enough for me.

Facilities are poor no doubt, in terms of when you are in the ground there is the 50/50 draw, programmes and beer where money goes directly to the Club do other Clubs do more?

Yes they have bookies, screens to watch build up to games, facilities for having a drink inside you could argue that encourages people to go earlier and provides a revenue stream we have some but it is bitty the Lounge is doing okay for hospitality which encourages that side of the business as it must, would another facility help?

You can argue we have the Crown and I must admit I have just started going back in prior to games and the feel of it is great with nice decor, a good pint and a chance to watch the game on tv and catch up with friends before the game.

For me I want a match day experience whenever I go to any game whether non league or Premier League.

We have a family stand area is it advertised?
Do we do deals for families on ticket prices?

I think in some cases it is not just football and maybe lethargy we are up against but for a family day out football in general is an expensive day out compered to perhaps going to the pictures and having something to eat it probably is more expensive?

From a players perspective I am sure they would prefer to be playing in front of bigger crowds making it more intimidating to come and play at.

Solutions as an experiment we play Morecambe next Tuesday priced reasonably at prices already suggested.

Where will it be advertised so people who don't go on Stanley will see it and be encouraged to attend with those prices?

How many of you will attend because you have to pay? (I don't mean to sound coarse with that but be interesting to see if people even at a Tenner will attend) as it is not a season ticket game.

Going back to an earlier comment regarding other nationalities Burnley play Plymouth tomorrow night priced at a Tenner and somebody at work has mentioned this to their work colleagues of other European Nationalities and now there are an additional ten people going, I will do the same and probably bring at least another two it dosn't sound a lot but if 500 of us did it we could put a thousand on the gate.

[smudgie]

Morecambe game should be a fiver next week to really get them in.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Morecambe game should be a fiver next week to really get them in.

Sounds about right to me, 1st round J.P., whats the odds if it is,there still will not be 1000?

[Mr T]

Haven't got any answers just a few facts.

On Tuesday night the Academy parents and players (old C of E) came to the game (and paid) putting 200+ on the gate.

Morecambe (JPT) prices will be £10/ £5 and £1 (or 2) can't exactly remember for accompanied U16's in all areas.

Whilst walks on my be expensive at £17, we had 581 from Port Vale and 143 from Exeter who all paid that price.

Within the price is 20% VAT, so IF you reduced it to £10 for adults, £2 would go directly to HMRC.

Match day expenses are on the up. As a FL club there are a whole host of "boxes to tick" BUT I'd rather be in the 92 than not. I'd also say thanks to our superb band of match day and non match day volunteers ASFC's cost to stage a game will be the lowest around.

I also think that talk of "massive" gates in non league weren't always exact facts. I remember playing Woking in September the year we went up with a sub 1k gate.

It's the holiday season, even all the season ticket that have been bought are not being used.

What we do need is a collective effort of a cross section of fans and officials to work on projects to increase crowds.

Finally the great Lancashire weather; why o why does the rain come around 90 minutes befor KO??

[SamF]

Just another thing to throw out there - the atmosphere has definitely suffered since Jase was banned.

I don't know the ins and outs of it. I don't even know the bloke but I know I started coming to the Stanley as a teenager 10 years ago and if it weren't for the atmosphere created behind the goals at Stanley I'd be going to Anfield 3 or 4 times a season rather than being a Stanley season ticket holder (even if I am in the mainstand these days) .

[maccawozzagod]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

Just to serious for a moment, were the gates bigger in the conference? I certainly don't recall them being bigger. Apart from the first few weeks of the initial 2003/04 season and the final weeks of the 2005/06 season, I remember gates as being fairly mediocre with a lot of attendances around the 1,200 mark!

go on then I'll bite at this one.

2003/04 = 1792
2004/05 = 1537
2005/06 = 1894
Conference average = 1741

2006/07 = 2261
2007/08 = 1633
2008/09 = 1424
2009/10 = 1976 (play-offs til 8 games to go but includes all the begging bowl games)
2010/11 = 1859 (play-off season)
2011/12 = 1784 (1611 up to coley leaving and we were 1 point from play-offs)
League average 1822


so the title winning season of the Conference was worth only 102 more fans than season 1 in the Conf. Football League results are a bit all over the place to be honest. The skewed figures of season 1 include all the gawping away fans coming for their first view of us and also include the figure from the free game against Torquay (which would only make the difference of about 80 on the 'true' figure).
Was the 2008-09 figure affected much by the fall out from the betting scandal? The "wouldn't pay 'em with washers documentary? 2009/10 was the season that the tax fiasco story broke, so we gained a whole bunch of fans that maybe we shouldn't have done but possibly lost a heap following the saving of the club due to O'Neil/Whalley still being at the helm, who knows?

Looking at the figures in a nutshell a winning team does produce higher gates (and nobody really would dispute that would they), but the Football League has produced an average of only 81 more fans, and we have to assume the likelihood that away followings are greater in the FL.

AND, how many people were of the opinion back in the day that crowds were actually way higher than we were told, the notorious 'Eric factor'? AND how many times did we rumour whether we actually adding numbers to crowds in the FL to avoid the disparagment of sub-1000 crowds?

[Pendle Red]

Good point on Tuesday Mr. T there was plenty of Academy kids with Adults knocking about as well as the youngsters who led the team out and presumably Adults with them and Saturday there usually seems to be a couple of kids teams on the pitch at half time with supporting Adults but I did not see any on Saturday?

I think tickets given to Schools, social groups etc are a brilliant idea and I know it is something the Club actively pursue and maybe needs following up perhaps after to gauge feedback as to if people will come back, what they enjoyed and what would encourage them to keep coming back

[maccawozzagod]

incidentally, out of just over 200 home games (league only) in the last 9 years, Exeter, Barnet and Dagenham all feature twice in the bottom 10% (20 games) of attendances.

Barnet and Dagenham should both be games where we do everything possible to drag them in. The problem in the past with all games where we have done £5 entry is that the club has done very little to promote it. It gets mentioned in the Observer write up the day before, it gets mentioned once or twice on the website the week leading up. Far more could/should be done whilst remembering that they are 'loss leader' games

[Mr T]

Top posts Rob and Neil.

What we have to harness (and I know we are doing background work) is knowing to whom we've given the freebies so we can "market" them to come again.

Work in progress??

Also the Conference gates were without the roof and segregation!

[maccawozzagod]

Originally Posted by Mr T

What we have to harness (and I know we are doing background work) is knowing to whom we've given the freebies so we can "market" them to come again.

is any analysis done of various figures Mark? average fan figures for each season versus average home fan, season ticket growth/degrowth, number of gratis tickets issued versus redemption rates etc etc

Originally Posted by Mr T

Also the Conference gates were without the roof and segregation!

lol, another negative to the figure and another positive to the figure!!! The opinion was always that the roof went up two/three years too late to capitalise on the various gains we made on walk-ons during the winning years