Attendances
 

I know there is a 17 page spread covering this topic but just wondered what peoples view was on this regarding the price to gain entrance etc. Accrington is hardly fluroshing with employment and industry and we were recently named and shamed as one of the most unemployed areas of uk only missing out on the throne to tower hamlets in london and canning town in london i think. Do you think this is a big contributing issue rather than no-one caring about ASFC? I know we are the cheapest in League 2 apart from Bradford but £13 out of £30-£40 a week is hell of alot and unfortunately we are not like the geordies or glaswegians who would starve to go to football. Concluding I wonder what you think the price would have to be to attract more fans.

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Does the whole of Accrington/Hyndburn all know under12s get on for FREE? I dont think they do for a start.

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i think it does need to be addressed.

the amount of people i speak to and ask why they dont come down any more is that its simply 2 expensive.

To me £10 for adults 5 for Kids/ OAP's would bring in so many more supporters i just hope the club might try it?? why not theres nothing to lose??

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very few people in Accrington know the kids get in for nowt - we hardly ever seem sure of the current situation!

as for price driopping it doesn't matter, Eric has said we can't afford to drop it. Personally I'd like the next cup game to be made a big effort of and charge only a fiver

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Its been publicised 'shame on the non-attenders' in the media but once again there is a much bigger picture. UNEMPLOYMENT is a major factor i think.

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i think a big factor sadly is 62-68, when accrington had NO team, i and many other kids of that era,had to go elsewhere and naturally as we grew n got wed etc,took our kids,and so it goes on, football is tribal and very few fans ever change alleigance that is a fact. stanley therefore unfortunatly have the hardest task of ANY club to attract fans, to me the best way is for them to Concentrate harder on making it attractive to kids, cos once you got em,you got em for life,the fact that people think many dont even know under 12s are free is not a good reflection on the Google Page Ranking people i think.i'm not being nasty cos ive always had a soft spot for my first love,but i think its a professional football team,run by well meaning amatuers. something at that level has to change. good luck for the rest of the season.

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Was yesterdays attendance the lowest we have had in the football league?
I would like to think we could pull 10% out of 30 odd thousand residents in Accrington.
We would be like Wigan I think, top of the championship with 6,000 (including 3,000 away fans) then Premier league another 12,000 would turn up saying theyve always been a red.(IF WE GOT A CASH INJECTION THAT IS)
But if we are lowest paid, fewest jobs area of ENGLAND then surely this has to be taken into effect when deciding prices for admission. I know Eric cant drop the prices but it looks like the town cant afford 13/15 pounds.

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The more people are labelled by the club as shameful for not attending the more people will stay away. Thats how human nature works I'm afraid.

As cashy said there have been generations lost and it will take years to overcome that. However I do find it strange that one group of people seem not be favoured, that of the mid teens ie 12-16 yrs.

While the match day price is similar to the other 2 local clubs the season ticket price is slightly more than double the price at Burnley and I suspect Rovers have a similar low price.

Does a 13 yr old have more income than a 12 yr old ? Is this not a generation that should be targeted for future growth, after all within a few short years these are the kids who themselves will start having kids of their own.

Why is the ST price for this age group so expensive ?

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NO. Two night matches last year were lower, makes the switch to Friday nights in October look a bit odd, but we shall see. :confused:

3 home games in 8 days must be a factor, also we're not the only ones suffering a dip (see Hereford). Let's hope the results bring people back and keep them coming, fingers crossed.

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Agree with that under 16s perhaps could have another reduction. Then under 21s , you dont even get minimum wage until your 22 in factories etc if the company wishes. Loyalty cards could be an option (4 games 5th free) but that might be a bit too futuristic for a club that cant even produce a paper stubb/receipt in return for your admission fee. i think 18-25 age group is missing aswell when i look around the stands apart from the ultras.

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Not sure anyone goes to an under 21 group.

Stanley already have the best free entry option ( under 12 ) . I think the nearest one to that is under 7's free at Preston. At Burnley there is no free admission group and I'm sure somebody could enlighten us with what the others do.

I think concessions for most clubs stop at 16 with possibly a student rate for those above 16 but still at college/university.

Perhaps they could try all under 16's free as long as it's bought with an adult ticket ?

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A few away grounds had under 21s last season. Bury did.

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There is if you're one of the 118 season ticket holders this year. Season ticket holders were treated poorly last year, so if we ended up out of pocket this year, nobody would be buying one next year.

You can't go reducing prices mid-way through a season. They did it with the under-12s and alienated sections of the fanbase.

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the population late 50s early60s was very similar to now, then stanley were only getting around 3000 gates,there was full employment and a couple of 100 immigrants,those being polish,italian,ukraine,etc those countries are football based, what we have now is a similar population BUT 1000s of immigrants mainly from asia NOT football based countries, so whilst their is substance in the lowpay,unemployment theory there is many things that contribute to stanleys problem.are the club doing anything to attract these potential new fans? i think not,on the basis that the match i went to last season i did not see 1. theres an avenue there for the club to investigate surely. its a very difficult task attracting new people,so to me every possibility the club needs to explore. cos although the population is pretty constant,the Balance has changed.;)

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I saw an Asian bloke on the match yesterday. At the Clayton End too.

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thats good,but they need to attract the kids.;) that was only 1 in 1300 or so. once footballs in yer blood its a very hard habit to break.

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Instead of the crossbar challenge why don't they get a penalty competetion for local schools or kids football teams. Generates interest for quite a while and parents who are daft like me will pay to get on the match just to see their little darlings take part. :)

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thats a good idea to me dave, and going back to my last post,once footballs in yer blood its a very hard habit to break.that was proved to me when i lived in spain, went too a few Malaga matches n was amazed to see a couple of 100 brits at the matches and we were the" Asians" there. they even had a british Malaga supporters branch in benalmadena and ran a coach to the matches.

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Nah that was me dressed up for a fancy dress party I was going to after the game.:rolleyes::D;)

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Some very sincere comments to what are and will remain convoluted issues for Accrington and the, club, personally I don’t mind the price of the gate, and it doubles that when I factor in petrol, a programme, a pint and a doggy burger. I have missed the last three games because of unemployment. However, I can understand why people might feel that it’s still expensive. It may be worth Eric doing a trial period of having an across the board gate price of a Tenner just to test the waters. It may cost the club 5 grand on the current gate but if the figure increases by 1600 then the club would be quid’s in.

But what if he doesn’t, can we still survive and move forward?

Will people turn up in significant numbers if he does?

Now for my personal opinion……..

We’re stuck in the past, we need to move on from the tat and promote the Stanley of today and the future and stop trading on our glorious past.

What I don’t see is up beat advertising of what you can get from seeing Stanley at our best, playing first class football. No posters in town, no shirts on the backs of our target group of what I would suspect would be 12 to 35. All we see on here or in the press is grumbling and ball licking about how bad we are or how bad the gate is. Make it a good decent day out for everyone.

Gate £10 across the ground.

Put some decent entertainment on pre Match and Half time.

Get some decent food options on the menu - Bacon Barn with proper HP.

Above all some positive, good news advertising across the east Lancs area every week.

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There's one option that wouldn't cost the club anything!
Get Fraser the Eagle down town giving under 12's tickets, they already have these but might need to order a few more, If they just target the kids, likes been said earlier the parents will go with them, It's alright saying its free to under 12's but you have to get them there, the kids probably don't know as they probably don't read the papers, parents probably don't tell them either, give them a ticket and the parents will take them or the kids will play holy hell if they don't :)

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thats a good valid point Tin Monkey, blackburn did similar a couple of seasons ago and DID alienate sections of the fan base.mid-season is not the time to play with prices.i go back to the clubs Google Page Ranking if they got any, they NEED to target KIDS, as dave said kids soon become dads in a few years.;)

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Why not give them out at schools, thats what our lot do including ones in Accrington.

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Yeah, either way, as long as the kids get them I'm sure they'll give their parent hell till they get to use them :D

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they will be doing. At the Barrowford show the Football in the Community programme ran a penalty shoot out. The kids who got 8 out of 10 or more were given prizes and their details taken. At some point this season they will be invited back to take part in a proper penalty shoot out.

they will be doing. Again the FITC team are actively working with the schools from here on in. It's something we've never had before, so it has got to be given time. BUt they are now doing these things. Apparently as well, there is some kind of code of conduct between clubs that they will not encroach on each others territory without prior permission., Burnley will now have to scale things down in this area (so too Blackburn) and that should allow us to set our stall out properly.


As nobody knows about these things because it's not on the website, it's no wonder that they are commented on, but the main thing is that work is now being done to encourage the future.

I would go a step further than the under 12's free and make it anybody under 16 with their parents gets in for free. At the JPT game there were a few groups of chavs knocking about here and there who had obviously only come ' for the warmth' as they were blatantly not watching the football, but they may get the bug. At that game under 16's were free.

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Macca mate thats good to hear. the Kids gotta be the starting point in my opinion.:)

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no worries Cashman, I believe in communication :p

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http://www.earlydoors.info/general/i...tall_thumb.jpgI believe, that children are the future
Teach them well, and let them lead the way






(Sorry, bit of an "Early Doors" addict)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by lancsdave (Post 469385) Not sure anyone goes to an under 21 group. Stanley already have the best free entry option ( under 12 ) . I think the nearest one to that is under 7's free at Preston. At Burnley there is no free admission group and I'm sure somebody could enlighten us with what the others do. I think concessions for most clubs stop at 16 with possibly a student rate for those above 16 but still at college/university. Perhaps they could try all under 16's free as long as it's bought with an adult ticket ?

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If the club started meddling about with prices now in the scale that some are suggesting, eg: admitting under 16's free I for one would not be happy unless I was going to get my money back that I've already paid for my 13 years olds season ticket - these things have to be done before the start of the season. I was caught out last season when, after I'd paid for his ticket, all under 12's were then let in for free - I didn't moan about that one because as previous season ticket holders we had got them at conference prices & so I'd only paid 40 quid for it and by the time the change came in I reckoned he'd had his moneys worth.
The same goes if they decided they could reduce the adult admission price - what about the people who have already paid up-front.
How exactly would either of these changes help the club when they'd be upsetting a large section of their fanbase?

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People say they would go to watch Stanley if the prices were reduced, but would they? Last season against Torquay -Free admission -Official attendance 4005. I know there were the usual Stanley cock-ups which meant some people (including some season ticket holders) couldn't get in. I know some people were highly sceptical about the reported gate, but similar things happen most weeks.

That's a 100% reduction in ticket prices generating a 77% increase on last years average gate of 2260 (ANDYS STATS.CO.UK - Attendance stats). I suspect that, of those 77%, the vast majority wouldn't have gone had it been a tenner (a 30% reduction). Without wishing to flaunt my economics 'A' level, that points to an inelastic demand. Put simply, the extra punters generated don't make up for the loss in revenue from the existing ones. It's the mirror image of the reason governments can screw smokers and drinkers every budget, not enough give up, or reduce their intake, to cancel out the tax hike.

Eric has a little bit of scope around the margins, to let in groups who wouldn't normally be seen dead at Stanley games, in the hope they'll catch the bug or, at least, spend a few bob in the bar, but he has no chance of increasing total gate receipts by offering "across the board" reductions. Apart from everything else it would cause a riot among those of us who have forked out for season tickets if he to cut match day prices in mid season.

In the short term Coley has to produce in a winning team, playing good football and Eric will see a modest increase in attendances.

In the long term the club has to concentrate on getting the kids into the habit of going. Swamp the schools with free tickets, get the players involved coaching in local schools, stop having meetings about meetings about involving the community in the club and actually do something for a change!

That way, in ten or twenty years time we might, just might, have a generation of adults paying to watch Accrington Stanley rather than going to watch Rovers, Burnley, Man Utd, etc., etc.

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in a nutshell

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I dont understand how they cant afford it. Sureley they would rather have a ground full of people who have paid say a fiver or tenner rather than an empty one!!! I am a Burnley fan but it seems everytime Burnley dont have a game on a Saturday they put the price up on the tickets at the Stanley doesnt make any sense to me!

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They haven't put the league prices up at stanley certainly on the adult gate price since our entry to league 2:confused:

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And neither do we change the admission price according to which 'category' of team we're playing as some other teams do, so no idea where you're coming from????

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Sounds like a statement from some who doesn't quite know what they are talking about.


In all honesty, you aren't going to boost gates in the short term. I live in Darwen and if Darwen FC were to go on a promotion run over the next few years and rise to the Conference or Football League, I still wouldn't go and watch them. I'm a Stanley fan and will always watch the team I support. I wouldn't even be tempted to support Darwen as a second team, as I have little interest in them.

The same can be said for all those football fans who turned to Burnley, Blackburn, Manchester Utd, etc when Stanley had no team, or a team playing at a very amateur level. They aren't suddenly going to say, "I see Stanley are back in the League and as I live in Accrington I'm going to switch my support. It isn't going to happen. There are also a couple of generations of children who have grown up in households where Stanley isn't the family team, so we've missed all those too.

If Stanley are going to boost their crowds it has to be a long-term project. Statrt off with the kids and maybe we'll see bigger gates in the future. Of course, it all depends on how long we have got for it to happen, and if the club has enough initiative to make it happen.

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well said TM, its what ive been saying, as one of those you mention, it can happen,it must happen, but only the "club" can MAKE it happen. i would be the happiest bloke in the world if they got off the "pot" and acheived it.;)

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There are few things in this life that are as lasting as the choice and commitment given to your first club. Stanley for us is one of them. Unfortunately as you have pointed out before those that made their choice 40 odd years are unlikely to change either, we need to new blood and life of Accrington and District to fill the voids, irrespective of their colour, creed, religion. If we can get them and keep them then their colour will be Red, there creed will be Accrington and their religion will be Stanley.


OK, which way was the door……………….

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This is going to be the life blood of the club and they need to be encouraged any way possible. It may mean spending a few bob and giving away t shirts or getting players involved with individual schools but we must speculate to accumulate.

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You might want to get somebody to wipe out all the Sky dishes and dig up all the cable. Thats a far bigger problem than any history or feeling of local belonging to a football team these days.

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I like many i suspect agree with this, we all know the adverse affact that televised games have had on gate numbers, even the dinner time KO`s have done harm to, how many people do you know have said "oh i`ll come down Accy with you on Saturday" only to go out for the lunchtime game, have a few jars and then decide to spend the rest of the afternoon in the pub, its not just Accrington that are suffering from this as this will happen across the board, other factors i think that also contribute are computers, games consoles and Saturday afternoon shopping, how many kids do you know that would rather spend all their time sat infront of a virtual world of friends rather than get out and see the real one ?.
Bring back the all games are played on a Saturday at 3pm with no highlights shown until Match Of The Day, the golden age of football died when Sky got their hands on it.
Ok i`m off to meet my virtual girlfriend now, she wants to go shopping :)

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Even worse this weekend with sky sports being free !! :D

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I really think taking all suggestions and opinions into consideration on this topic it is as simple as the alphabet. STANLEY rise to top of table gates rise. Simple as. I really dont think there is another solution.