I know it was the week before Christmas, but considering how we'll we are doing, the attendances at Oakwell have been poor. For example compare our own to Bolton who got over 20,000 yet are below us in the league.
Bolton has a population more than twice that of Barnsley. Naturally, they'll have a higher attendance. I don't think you've made a fair comparison. Of teams in our league, our population is similar to that of Lincoln, so comparing our attendances to theirs could give a more accurate indicator. I think our average of around 9,500 home fans every week is a fair reflection of our league 1 status, and shambolic season last year.
Sub-zero temperatures all week, a week before christmas, 95% of the population of the town are absolutely skint. Both covid and a nasty cold/flu virus going round. Was never going to sell many. The ST holders were mainly there you’d think. Few comps, and some kids in the family area on a birthday party. (And bloody annoying they were too, one of the delights was chucking sweets at my head at one point). Barely any Burton fans. (I do think 170 people to an away game at this level is quite poor when it’s only 60 ish miles and an hour ish trip). Not much other than that. No surprise there. Those that were there were quite quiet too, even by our standards. Just reflected the weather I reckon. The team did ok if unspectacularly so even with two good goals there want too much to get an atmosphere going. The opposition were poor and looked like they came to try and not lose by too many most of the game. How big Vic has got ten for them I don’t know. I’m amazed they’ve created enough chances for him on that showing.
We're doing really well but not to the extent that the casual supporters believe a promotion is on the cards and get them on the bandwagon. That only tends to happen later in any promotion season. That along with high one off match fees and a recession and Christmas on the doorstep make bigger attendances unlikely. Unless we get into contention for automatic I doubt attendances will rise much and only then much later in the season.
It’s not so much the lack of numbers that surprises me, more how dead Oakwell is these days for atmosphere. We’re on a great winning run, closing in on the top 3 but the place is like a library. Duff must wonder what they have to do to stir folk up a bit.
Good post. We'll make the playoffs IMO, which wasa pipe dream early season. Top two, no chance. I was DJing last night in Leeds, so watched the game on official stream. Allows me to watch & give the club some money on a game I could not possibly have attended. Revenue & support are not all about match day crowds. If they were why would Derby, Wednesday, Pompy, etc be in this division?
I was going to go yesterday, but didn't. 1. Uncertain weather forecast. Didn't want to be stuck 50 miles away. 2. Wife said why don't you watch it on your dodgy stream, I did and it was crap, so my fault there, no complaints. 3. The crowd figure included me anyway. 4. From what I could see on my dodgy stream there certainly didn't look to be 9.5k in the ground. So a good number of s/t holders didn't go and there were probably very few pay on the day customers. 5. Even Matt the commentator said how poor the "atmosphere" was, like a library, his words. This has been the norm for years and is quite unlikely to change.
Allowing UK people to buy a match for a tenner on iFollow has started a new breed of armchair fans. You know the type we've had a go at for decades for supporting teams like Man United but never going to Old Trafford. We've got the type now. You can't beat actually being there in person. The ability to do that should be knocked on its head as it's killing crowds. More should be done to get illegal streams shut down too. We should be getting 10,000 home fans regardless of opponent with how well the team are doing.
I live just outside Burton, it's 75 miles and takes an hour and a half. Substantially longer if there's trouble on the M1. I've made the journey via Ashbourne, Tideswell and Stocksbridge on many occasions to avoid the M1, that route takes about 2 and a half hours.
Not like the Science Bock Library at Wath Grammar where we used to play cards in "private study" periods
Not too bad given our season last year, population and opposition. https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-one/attendances
What's happened to the young uns at the top left of the ponty I know at some points they could be a pain in the backside but least they created a atmosphere have they been split up or just not renewed. We have too many older/middle aged men and I'm one myself to create an atmosphere we need young blood to get things going and the rest will join in, not sure how and what the club can do this definitely something they need to think about.
There's a heck of a lot of people who pay a tenner to watch because they physically CAN'T get to the game. If I couldn't watch live or, via ifollow the following day my connection to the club would probably disappear.
I’ve no problems with iFollow it is good for people who can’t get.......I was talking about the dodgy streaming which doesn’t benefit the club one bit