What would make you attend the vale?

[bookworm]

What are you doing on a Vale message board when you clearly have no interest in the club??

 

because he's a tewell and a wum all rolled into one, allegedly of course.

[For Us All]

What are you doing on a Vale message board when you clearly have no interest in the club??

 

He's a wum and a poor one at that.

[Yukon]

Most of the current squad are of that standard and you mugs are prepared to pat top dollar to watch them i put my gate fee on sat day on a bet that vale would be beaten by Swindon and guess what I made money far more satisfying than watching c r a p

 

Don't call yourself a Vale fan then

[geosname]

You cant make people attend... you can try to entice them and hope they will return but that takes a combination of things,,, decent/exciting football.... price.... whole day experience.... results.

I dont know if there would be any/much cost involved if Vale offered free tickets to schools and parents of kids attending... kids of today are tomorrows gate... select a range of schools close to the ground and do one a week.. or two if it can be managed... give them a day to remember

[Valiant Richie]

Reasonable on the day gate prices. £25 is a ****ing joke for a library atmosphere home game. I was a season ticket holder for 15 years since my dad first took me at 6 years old. I moved location to Manchester in 2008 and just can't justify £25 plus fuel, plus all the other things that come with the day. If it was £15 as daft as it sounds I would have probably attended 80% of the home games this season - as it is I will continue to go to away games where the atmosphere is much better and the whole day is more enjoyable.

[Rampant Zebra]

I have had a season ticket for over 10 years but I am seriously wondering if I will get one next year. I used to go to the football for an enjoyable day out and to watch the mighty Vale win. The last few years with administration and all the protests have killed a lot of the atmosphere and the prospect of seeing all our better players leave at the end of the season to be replaced by cheap kids is not really encouraging me to keep going.

[blackdog]

I have had a season ticket for over 10 years but I am seriously wondering if I will get one next year. I used to go to the football for an enjoyable day out and to watch the mighty Vale win. The last few years with administration and all the protests have killed a lot of the atmosphere and the prospect of seeing all our better players leave at the end of the season to be replaced by cheap kids is not really encouraging me to keep going.

 

Saw what you did there........ have a cheeky dig at the protests,good job we did protest you wouldnt have enjoyed a promotion,its your sour lemon sucking attitude that is ruining the atmosphere

[carpetman123]

Is this some self help group!!! My names Tom and I used to be a vale fan!!!

[Guppy 4 England]

I have had a season ticket for over 10 years but I am seriously wondering if I will get one next year. I used to go to the football for an enjoyable day out and to watch the mighty Vale win. The last few years with administration and all the protests have killed a lot of the atmosphere and the prospect of seeing all our better players leave at the end of the season to be replaced by cheap kids is not really encouraging me to keep going.

Good riddance , the protests got rid of the scum at least. If you are disappointed at that, we don't want you attending

[Rampant Zebra]

Trouble with the protests is that some people find it difficult to differentiate between protest for the greater good and hooligan behavior at matches, hence the increased Police bills. Once the act of protesting has become acceptable it is difficult to turn off.

[Guppy 4 England]

Trouble with the protests is that some people find it difficult to differentiate between protest for the greater good and hooligan behavior at matches, hence the increased Police bills. Once the act of protesting has become acceptable it is difficult to turn off.

 

I take it we have seen protests every week since Vscum left then?

[upthevale]

A simple question to those who aren't turning up. What is that defining factor of why you dont come anymore and what would make you return.

 

Look, the answer to this is simple. Football is an entertainment visit, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Why supporters should just be thought of as lemmings and follow whatever is beyond me. A successful team will always attract increases in attendance. Take Stoke as an example, averaged around 10k in league 1, 12k in Championship and now 27k in the premier, its obvious why the follow is because they are being entertained.

 

This weeks, "new player stunt" is surely a joke! Could you ask people to turn up at the cinema and watch adverts and if the cinema is full enough we will put on the main film next week! No, it ain't gonna happen!

 

Simple then, the club needs to show some major ambition, stop moaning at fans, get a serious promotion push on and fans will turn up.

 

By the way, I am not saying I expect this, I am personally very thankful to Norman for what he has done in recent years and recusing our club from the Bratt mess, but come on we all need to be realistic.

[Nottingham Valiant]

The away gate for Coventry was greater than yesterdays gate ex ST work than one out

 

Unfortunately Smurf, I think it's just a link between the cost of football generally and the standard of football on offer.

 

Apparently you can pay £18 to watch premier league football at Stoke, or you can pay £22 to watch lower league football at Vale. There just isn't the money in people's pockets to pay that much every week and that is why the bulk of the attendences are made up by season ticket holders, or the hard core. At the same time, you could reduce admissions and if the football on offer was still the same middle table fare then I doubt you would get a significant increase in gates, and probably not enough to cover the reduced admisison.

 

Additionaly, you'd have to say the match day experience is pretty poor and at times, depressing. 5000 people inside Vale Park does not a good atmosphere make. The long term and currently unrealistic solution is to redvelop the railway stand into a much smaller, modern, compact stand and bring it closer to the pitch which would bring massive benefits. In the absence of this, my suggestion would be to promote the Bycars as the proper 'home' end like it used to be in the fantastic '90's - our crowds then were not always significantly bigger than now but the atmoshphere was incomparable. You need to charge a £3-4 reduced price to get into the Bycars before the start of a season, promote it as the 'home' end and hopefully people would gravitate there again.

 

Therefore it's catch 22 Norm - the fact is, the vast majority of all football league clubs are in exactly the same boat. If you compare current attendences to historical ones, then they're probably pretty much in-line. You've done a fantastic job Norman and I for one, am extremely grateful for the work you are doing. unfortunately though, all of the football league is looking for the same magic answer....

[kevin_struggles]

I personally think Smurf is doing all the right things.

 

He's improving the stadium, bringing new players in to keep it fresh and interesting, looking to the future by identifying young players with potential. Offering cut price ticket deals from time to time, encouraging people to buy season tickets, promising future investment if people turn up in enough numbers to enable him to do that etc etc.

 

He is getting the finances under control, all he needs is a few more regular supporters to help him to fund further development.

 

The only problem, as I see it, is the timescale. People have got out of the habit of attending and after two spells in administration some are fed up with false dawns. Regaining trust and changing peoples habits will take a bit longer than one season.

 

I am confident that if Smurf continues doing the right things and Page continues the improvement on the pitch our chairman will eventually get the response he wants.

 

I recall that under Rudge things didnt take off until we had the cup run and knocked spurs out. After that the team and the support gained momentum and the eventual result was promotion to the second tier.

 

Perhaps a similar event could give us momentum again, over to you Page.

[windsorvale4ever]

We need to have every vale fans details on a data base we need to target the stay away fans massively we showed in the promotion season we have a great fan base but 50% don't go regular. I'm a season ticket holder with my lad and it wouldn't bother my at all if every home game we contacted certain amount of fans and give them offers to come. I'd make half the bycars stand a family area and make it dirt cheap for families. The close season we need an open day and ask every vale fan to turn up and put their details on the club computers. Someone told me a while back we should have one game free to get in and see how many turn up you could put donation buckets at every turnstile for the fans to put whatever they feel into it to come in