Something this ticket mess has made me realise

We can’t be that far off 25,000. It was 20,000 the other night before 4 extra blocks were released that have nearly all sold out.

I suppose you cant blame people. Every week there’s big queues for the food bank round the corner from me, it’s a lot of money for many people on 9 days notice. Times are harder than they were in 2016.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence either that in 2016 we took more fans to the JPT where fans had a couple of months to save up than the play off final when they had 7-10 days to come up with the money.

I think 23,000 is pretty good going for a town our size especially when half the town support Man Utd, Liverpool, Leeds, Wednesday etc.

Of course we’d all like to have more fans there but got to be realistic.

 

You could tell they’d dropped off properly when there was no update from the club regarding tickets sold yesterday.

I’d like to think come payday Friday there’d be a little surge to take us around 27.5k? I think that would be great.

 

I remember when we took 35k/36k to Wembley in 2008 in the f.a Cup semis people had watched the Chelsea game on BBC people I knew who had never been to a barnsley game in their lives were jumping on the bandwagon. The league one play offs aren't anywhere near as big event and the ticketing fiasco rules them out. I said in another post sheffield United v Huddersfield in 2012 exact same fixture got a 52k attendance so if we take 25k that's about right.

 

I honestly don't think the opening of blocks has had that big an impact. There have been some vocal on here about it, but I'd be surprised if the overall impact was anything more than low hundreds, maybe dozens.

I think it's more an indicator of demand, given the cost. Ultimately, the club still have work to do to win back people that have gotten out of the habit of going, and attracting a new generation of fans. Years of 'moneyball' has meant that the club rarely spends much time away from square one, and has stunted the growth of the club.

 

Which is where we will be again no doubt if not promoted, Duff will be poached by a Championship club, players like Andersen, Connell etc will attract clubs. A real statement of intent & a huge turning point for the club going forward would be doing all we can to keep Duff, & the core of our squad, which will give us a fantastic chance of Automatic promotion next season.

Of course we might win on Monday, in which case we carry on this journey, doubtful though in my mind anyway.

 

Completely agree. The club need to do everything they can to keep the current coaching and background setup, unlike last time we made the play offs under Ismael.

I'm sure there will be some players sold if we don't win on Monday. But the board need to be speaking to Duff about where the value is. So, at what point would a fee become more valuable than keeping Andersen for another year. Who would replace him (not a novice) etc... Same for Connell.

There have been some promising signs since last summer. Norwood would never have been signed under Conway. Cadden and Connell were excellent free transfers to replace outgoing players. When Edwards was injured, we went out and got Thomas. We brought a striker in in January, who had a decent record at this level when playing in a front two (he's not done as well as most would've hoped, but can't expect them to have a crystal ball). Hopefully this coming summer is even more encouraging, whatever league we're in.

 

Connell signed a 4 year deal if he goes in the summer we need some decent money coming in. Anderson will go if we don't go up I'm sure, Styles hopefully did enough to get his championship move. But I think whatever happens we can do well next season if we keep duff.

 

You were doubtful we'd get into the play offs. You were doubtful we'd get past Bolton and now you're doubtful we'll win again on Monday. When did supporters stop believing and supporting the team?

You baffle me.

 

Yep (though Connell signed a 3 year deal, so two years left). If we can get a fee for Styles, and sell Collins and sign Isted, that would be a decent transfer profit without losing a first team player. Adequately replacing Andersen and keeping Duff and Connell are critical if we don't go up.

 

I don't see us selling 4.5k in the next 2 days unfortunately.

 

Ah 3 year still get a decent fee if he goes in the summer.
Wouldn't be surprised if that's the thing with collins and he's already sorted a move for the summer he proved he's championship quality last season. Or I could be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 45.

 

No one knows how many have been sold after the 20k was announced

 

Shhhhhhh, so far it’s working

 

I think we're avoiding publicising how may we haven't sold to avoid the inevitable demand from the massives for us to give them up.

 

Do you think we'll win? Genuine question.

I don't know, although I'm not what I would call doubtful about it. I'm not confident about a victory, but neither am I fearing defeat. I think we can win and are capable of doing it convincingly, but so are Wednesday. I guess I'd say I hope we win and believe we're capable.

I was very doubtful we would make the play-offs before the season started. Actually, doubtful is the wrong word. I just didn't think we would. That remained the case for the first couple of months but had changed completely by Christmas. We lost three in a row around the new year and I didn't think it mattered at all, I knew we'd recover and win plenty of games. I never once thought we'd get automatic, but success from where we started was the play-offs so that didn't concern me.

I think we have a good manager and a very professional team and I think we can win. We have a good chance but you never know what will happen in football. Going into a game with a good chance is a great position to be in I reckon and although I don't feel I could predict a victory, I certainly don't feel doubtful, I don't think anyone should. The team have worked too hard for doubting thoughts to be entertained.

 

Think the restrictions on having a booking history might have made it more difficult to attract those people who haven’t been to many Oakwell games etc.