Attendences

[friendlygas]

Can't see any way that there will be a 4000 crowd for the game against us. When did you last have 3200 turn out for a game? I say 3200 because with it being Boxing Day there is no way we will bring over 800 fans as there are no trains and no public transport in Bristol to get to pick up points. We have a big game against a team that some of yours rate better than Barnet - Gateshead before we play you so we have a very tough four games- Gateshead Home, Yourselves twice and Macclesfield at Home in between the games against you. With the two home games after our Boxing Day I think most people will turn up for the two home games to put money into our coffers and not go to Torquay particularly as we are unlikely to win both games where you play the same team two weeks running. This was shown against a very ordinary Welling side. I think had there been a bit longer between the games we would have beaten them yesterday.

[ROADRUNNER]

well said gas, we are struggling to get 2,000 home fans in at the moment so will be lucky to get 3,500 on boxing day at the moment unless the torquay public are all put under by paul mckenna and told to go to plainmoor on boxing day, hence why the club need to do something.

[Dave]

A massive risk ROADRUNNER, but never the less a good idea. The problem is, if the club makes it £10 for adults and kids free and the gate turns out to be 3200, the club have lost big style, also we have to understand that, and I'm sure, I'm right on this, conference rules state you can not charge away fans more than home fans for entrance into the same part of the ground, so it would have to be £10 and kids free for Rovers fans as well.

Certainly something for the club to consider, at this price Rovers despite no trains, planes or skateboards would fill our away end, and we could, with proper advertising, after all many families want some thing to do on boxing day fill the home end, or pretty close it, as well.

[A Realist]

Can't see any way that there will be a 4000 crowd for the game against us. When did you last have 3200 turn out for a game? I say 3200 because with it being Boxing Day there is no way we will bring over 800 fans as there are no trains and no public transport in Bristol to get to pick up points. We have a big game against a team that some of yours rate better than Barnet - Gateshead before we play you so we have a very tough four games- Gateshead Home, Yourselves twice and Macclesfield at Home in between the games against you. With the two home games after our Boxing Day I think most people will turn up for the two home games to put money into our coffers and not go to Torquay particularly as we are unlikely to win both games where you play the same team two weeks running. This was shown against a very ordinary Welling side. I think had there been a bit longer between the games we would have beaten them yesterday.

Bit surprised that you reckon you'll "only" bring around 800. Fair point about public transport but I would have though that some supporters clubs would be running more coaches than usual?

[ROADRUNNER]

why ? they didnt last year

[A Realist]

why ? they didnt last year

Both teams doing a bit better this season, albeit in a lower league. As its a Friday as well and more people will have a few days off together. Saying that though, there are a lots of games all close to each other so I guess I didn't factor that in. Can only hope its a big crowd though.

[tomogull]

Much will depend on the weather. If it's pi**ing down with rain, the 'fair weather' supporters will stay at home. If it's a nice day, many blokes will go to the match to escape the family 'festivities' and take the kids along as a good excuse for going.

[Glostergull]

Sorry to the supporter who suggested that we charge £10 for us and Rovers are all ticket at he original price. That is what is intimated by that comment. but if you look up the league rules you will see that we have to charge the same for all fans regardless of who they are. You are not allowed to discriminate.
To put it into perspective. If we charge £10 for all. then thats a gate take of £30,000 seeing as we have around 500 season ticket holders. Less if we have more. and that's assuming we have mostly adults paying through the gates. If around another 750 are reduced admission for being kids or seniors then you are reducing gate admission to around only £26,250.
Now work out how much we get from gates at the moment assuming we have 500 season ticket holders.
Rovers may bring say 750 fans at £18 a throw. thats £13,500 immediatly. add to that another 2500 fans. to give a gate of 3250. looking on the negative side. now take out our 500 season tickets and you get 2000 left. take out 750 who may get reduced admission. that leaves 1250 fans paying £18 quid. on average. thats then a balance of £22,500 so without the 750 reduced admision fans we have £36,000 in gate reciepts already as against your price reduction of £26,500. plus the reduced admissions which then brings up your gate reciepts to around £42,000. so in effect your are cutting out gate down to near 40% of takings. so you would have to add another 1550 fans to make it pay and with the best will in the world we are not going to get a gate of 4800. doesnt matter which way you do he maths it works out about the same or more. so we need to be a lot more inivotive if we are to bring in more fans. and us fans can do our part. too often there have been calls for the club to do more and then when the fans are asked they run. oh no it's not our job to enourage more fans in. well if you talking about being fans of a club well yes it is. You cannot alway sit by and say its someone elses job all the time. Surely there are some things that are down to the club. but encouraging more mates to come is one of our jobs we can do.
And it's not just anout how the boys play. It can also be about how much of an experience we make it for them too. If they see us constantly moan then they won't enjoy it and won't come again. same goes if they come anyway and are not connected with us. they just see us doing nothing more than moan. they wont want to be assocaited with moaning fans. any more then anyone would. But if we can all push the boat out and make it more than that. make it a good evening or afternoon out. Have a freindly drink before with away fans. watch the match. make sure you have interaction with fans around and make them all feel part of a special community. then a drink after the match. thats what makes a football club more than just a football club. at out level it's a community. it's almost family.
Do i ring any bells with anyone? will anyone even see this message. after all it seems to be snowing all around my words. maybe it will be covered in a snow drift by morning.

[ROADRUNNER]

cant argue with that gloster, im just trying to get the club to look at ways of boosting the crowds and getting people up here who wouldnt normally come to watch, just maybe they will come back after watching a live game, i did suggest that they give the schools a load of tickets and fill the family stand for a couple of games but nothing came of that. i suppose we now live in the armchair supporters world and premiership football, sad really that people cant support there local football team. and feel that there money has to go into the alrady bulging pockets of wayne rooney and the likes.

[PlainmoorRoar]

I see Eastleigh recently made a game free!
They got 1700 in, nothing that great!

[Glostergull]

I see Eastleigh recently made a game free!
They got 1700 in, nothing that great!

Well against their official average attendance of 1550 that means all they actually attracted was 150 fans then.
I managed to find a web site that had attendance figures for all clubs both league and non league. Attendances were down all over the country. nothing surprising there. But some have attendances down by as much as 56%. which makes me thankfull that we don't have that magnitude of drop.
Interestingly. Darlington are now averagibg 969 for their games. Wonder how long before they climb back up to our level

Hey. anybody have trouble with this snow falling. I had to dig out 4ft to write all this. at this rate the forum will be postponed as snow stops play.

[friendlygas]

This is a very difficult one for the League to do right for clubs. The close games like us against you are set up to be played over the holiday period so it involves teams in less travelling but in fact it probably works against us on this occasion because without doubt looking at our current figures if the game was played on a normal Saturday afternoon we would sell out our allocation and have plenty trying to get home tickets (which otherwise would go unsold) so you could be talking 1800 visiting fans and I am sure with you doing well and the history between our clubs that at a different time you could draw in excess of 2500 home supporters so you could be talking a crowd over 4000 and you wouldn't need any concessions.
Unfortunately you have what you have and a fixture that will be lucky to get much over 2500 but even that IMO would be foolish to offer concessions. Concessions are for the games which are unlikely to be well supported.
I don't know what the current position is on sales of tickets at our end but I haven't heard that we have requested any extra as of yet above our initial 770 therefore i don't think my 800 will be far off. If we can beat Gateshead then that will probably get a few extra latecomers wanting to go but travelling away is not something that a lot of people want to do on Boxing Day.

In many ways it might be good for both clubs if the weather causes a postponement!!!

[withawhy]

We all know that the fixtures are decided by a complete and utter imbecile - but I always thought that clubs received a provisional draft and could comment and attempt to arrange changes before the final version.
It would seem to make sense to play the few "big" fixtures that we have on a normal weekend - but sense does not come into the equation in this league.
It will indeed be difficult for Bristol Rovers fans to get to Torquay on Boxing Day, but I also do not fancy the M5 on the 1st January!
A postponement really would not help - a wet and windy Tuesday tends not to attract too many!

[friendlygas]

Just seen on our site that we have sold over 700 to date which to be honest is more than I thought at this stage although you could say that most of the "regulars" would have got their tickets by now. That said there is still a long time to go until the game so I would now say that if we beat Gateshead then we could end up with about 1200 which would be fantastic in the circumstances.

[Southampton Gull]

I see Eastleigh recently made a game free!
They got 1700 in, nothing that great!

In the grand scheme of things I think that figure is immense. Not that long ago I used to play there in front of less than 100. Remarkable progress over the last 15 years. I know you weren't taking a serious dig at them but allied to Saints resurgence that figure will steadilly increase until they overtake us.