The shame of our attendances

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><font face="Arial" size="2">On Saturday, a crowd of 13,083 watched the Reds take top of the table West Brom well and truly apart with a fine display of football. That performance dumped The Baggies off the top spot and put the Reds closer to the playoffs than to the relegation zone. Twenty miles down the road around 3,000 protesters besieged the car park at Bramall Lane demanding a better deal for their23,000 regular home supporters, while a couple of hundred miles away the laughable fowls were renewing their membership of the relegation zone.</font></p><font face="Arial" size="2">Now, I&rsquo;m not saying that our home support should be anywhere on a par with either of the massive underachievers of Deedar City, far from it.</font><font face="Arial"><font size="2"> </font></font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">

<font face="Arial" size="2">On the face of it, a crowd of 13k would seem fairly ok, except when you realise that around 4k of those were supporting the visitors, leaving around just 9k or so who had come to support the home team. This is not unusual in itself. There are several large away followings during the season, but, with the exception of the blue side of Sheffield, it&rsquo;s unlikely that anyone else will exceed the fine showing from the Baggies at the weekend.</font></p></font></font><font face="Arial" size="2">Saturday&rsquo;s game was the 16^th home fixture of our 23 this season, and the extra gate swelled the home average to 10,589.</font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">

<font face="Arial" size="2">I&rsquo;ll just repeat that &ndash; 10,589.</font></p></font></font><font face="Arial" size="2">Last season, by game 16, the same stage of the current home fixtures, the average home gate was running at 11,744. We had just completed our game against Colchester United, a side with a traditionally low following. The gate at that game had been 11,192.</font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">

<font face="Arial" size="2">When you start to apply the maths, just on those figures alone, it doesn&rsquo;t take long to realise that, despite surviving a difficult first year back in the Championship, despite getting the club onto a more financially sound footing and despite the efforts to bring in a few crowd pleasing players (not cheaply either) who have ultimately led towards a much better season all round, we are probably struggling for supporters more than we have for a long time.</font></p></font></font><font face="Arial" size="2">There&rsquo;s been a lot of criticism of the club following the sale of tickets for the Liverpool cup tie. In the wake of the outcry the club has dutifully responded and gone some way towards repairing the damage by taking suggestions on board for future events &ndash; even agreed to getting a big screen in to facilitate a live match to as many supporters as possible. According to some, the method of sales meant that there is somewhere around 3000 ticket holders for that game who either don&rsquo;t hold STs, or don&rsquo;t normally come to games to support the team. I&rsquo;ve no idea whether or not that is true, but one thing is certain, there were precious few of them at Saturday&rsquo;s game against West Brom.</font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">

<font face="Arial" size="2">For some reason, despite a 23,000 following in Cardiff all wanting to see the Reds do well, then despite holding on last season and despite coming close to being the best performing football side in Yorkshire this season, we seem to be suffering a noticeable downturn in home support, to a point that surely cannot be sustained, certainly not at competitive Championship level. </font></p></font></font><font face="Arial" size="2">We all moan about players and performances and the determination and aspirations of the club, how badly fans are treated because we don&rsquo;t get the service we expect, and then bang on about what we want for the future. The current supporters, those who go, are not to blame, but unless we can get back the up front, paying support we need, then we will eventually have to settle for second best or worse.</font><font face="Arial"><font size="2">

<font face="Arial" size="2">With such comparitively poor support &ndash; and however you want to argue, it is poor local support &ndash; I&rsquo;m only glad that I&rsquo;m not the one who lays my head on the pillow at night having to juggle the financial, crowd pleasing and aspirational demands bestowed on my football club.</font></p></font></font><font size="3"><font face="Arial">

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Excellent Post

The crowds don't justify how we have improved since last season or the amount of backing our manager as had from the board.

 

To be honest i get to the games i can do due to work commitments on a weekend and would have been a 'glory hunter' next weekend but unlike some as and when i can get i go and that has (and hopefully never will again) included LDV van gams away at shitholes in chesire.

 

Dreamboy

i had a maxis other night and it gave me the shitts i would'nt be going there from now on :-|

 

Our crowds hold up well compared to other similar sized towns

and some bigger - Rotherham, Doncaster, Scnuthorpe, Colchester, Southend, Blackpool, Oldham, etc etc

 

RE: Dreamboy

I had a Team Bo Chinese last night and had the same. It's part of the fun lol. Not had a Maxis for a while now. I think one is long overdue. I always get their menu mixed up with Belle Dales. Especially the mixed kebabs.

 

I've been at Oakwell with 3,000 people in for a league game

13,000 isn't bad. We were only averaging 7,000 during the 90's. I find it frustrating when 25,000 people go to Cardiff , 33,000 + go to Wembley. To be fair it it's the same at other clubs - people always come out for the big game. Take the Waterloo came the other week - average attendance 600 and they take 6,000 away. </p>

Football is incredibly expensive now - if you have kids then you are looking at a &pound;100 + for a day out and not everbody can afford it. </p>

 

team bo seems so tacky and crap, with the ' we only accept cash' bit on the menu, although the chicken balls are quality

 

Usually have the Cantonese sweet and sour chicken, with chips. Not bad at all for 4.30 and you get a bag of crackers thrown in. Had a king prawn curry with chips instead last night. The prawn toast is really nice as well.

 

what pub are we at these days??, Im a white hart person now, dalesman is full of 10 year olds,

 

barnsley fc are not the best at marketing our fixtures. sheff utd have run at least 6 family days / reduced ticket days this season ie adult £10 or £15, kids £5. for each of these games they have had 25k plus against the lower level teams ie colchester etc.

Barnsley fc have had one kid for a quid day.

 

Usually one of the following.............

Sovereign Inn - Shepley.
Aspley Mariner - St Andrews Road.
Fenay Bridge - In Fenay Bridge lol.
Lloyds/Warehouse/Varsity - Town Centre.
Ring O Bells - Silkstone.
Cubley Hall - Penistone.
Fountain Inn - Ingbirchworth.

Depends where i'm at and who with. Starr at Cumberworth is a little belter as well (Y) (Y) (Y)

 

seems like we need to provide incentives four match tkt stubs - discount of 50% on next ticket.with only 14 games left it shouldn't disadvantage season ticket holders or a family tkt 2 adults 2 kids for fifty pounds!

 

Thas never been to Cheshire (givinfinger)

 

RE: The shame of our marketing and customer relations

There are demonstrably more peole who would come to Oakwell if encouraged to. In recent years the club seems to have gone out of its way to put people off. The latest debacle only underlines the problem.

I know of at least four young adults (ex- junior season ticket holders) who go to as many games as they can afford to. None were at West Brom but two are going to Plymouth (got a lift down there so transport costs not a factor). It costs them £22 at Oakwell and £13 at Home Park because of Plymouth's young adult scheme (only £6 under 18). What's the advert over the West Stand? - Barnsley University Centre.

A bit of effort needs to be put in by someone hwo knows how to.

 

Students are scum according to BFC. Most other clubs have schemes helping people aged 18-21 or NUS Holders.

 

Thing is

if we'd only took 9,000 to Wembley or the Millenium stadium it would look a bit sad!

Not doubt if that were the case some supporters would be grumbling along the lines of 'why can't people of Barnsley make an effort for just one day of their lives to support the team in what s one of their biggest games'.

 

Fantastic post Red Rag...........pity about the W@nkers that replied to it

Fantastic post Red Rag...........pity about the W@nkers that replied to it
Unfortunately we have people on here with less than 2 brain cells to rub together

Its a very serious post
And the only thing that has soured my time watching the club this season is the support
It is very concerning the level of support that we are getting at the moment
All I can put it down to is this – we have been in the 1st division for a few years and when we did manage to struggle to get up we had the Ritchie period of not investing in the side.
Subsequently we had the panic management during the latter parts of last season.
This has turned many many people away from the club.
There is a general feeling among past supporters that the club is going nowhere.

The only remedy to this is a period of reasonable success.
Then and only then will the fans start to drift back.
*********It is easy to lose fans.....................its difficult to get them back *********
Supporting a football team is a habit, once you lose the habit it is difficult to get back into it.
The club should realise this and create incentives for supporter to come back to the WELL
Remember there were 20,000 at the last game of the season last year.
Why? because there were incentives at that match
If only we had someone at the club that was able to initiate these incentives. Why isnt anybody there to do this ???

Another consideration is the ...........chicken and egg
What comes first............ a good team ............or............a well supported team
You can’t have a good team without good support to bring money in to pay wages
You can’t have a well supported team without a good succesful team to watch

In saying this, the board of directors have come a long long way in priming the pump by bringing in money players
But it is still an issue that needs to be addressed - and for me, the club should be providing more incentives for people to come to the WELL on match days

 

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I agree. I'm 16 and had a season ticket since the prem season, so i can't remember what it was like to have 18,000 every home game.
However i clearly remember the years when we used to get like 14,000 on normal matches. Imagine that. that's everyone who was at the west brom game - except all Barnsley fans and with a few hundred - thousand away fans.
i wish these days were back.
Another thing is that since the years have gone by, and we have got considerably worse - the passion off the supporters seems to have dissapeared. They are fantastic at times - and sometimes we all hide away.
For example - i went to Portsmouth and we beat them 3-1, and i reckon there were easily 1,000+ there.
We played Coventry this saturday and got 742 - which isn't too bad for the prices now, but you'd expect a bit more.

And i'm not saying it's a good thing - but i remember seeing our fans so passionate about our club they'd over celebrate by running on the pitch and jumping over the boundary.

Dunno if i have made my point really... just thought i'd try.