Home Attendances

[Family Stand Terrier]

And you as a fan are reaping missing out on some of the best football at Vale Park in the last 20 years +.

 

I'm sure the chairman and club and fans that do attend will cope without you and I hope you cope without the club.

 

This is the attitude that annoys me. It shows such a lack of intelligence. We have a finite number of fans / customers. I'm not suggesting we beg fans to return, let's face it, there is no approach to encouraging fans back at the moment beyond hope. But this attitude goes even further away from encouraging fans, it's short sighted and basically incorrect. We shouldn't be happy to simply "cope" when we lose fans. If Smurf's agenda is to make a return on his investment by getting us to the Championship, then every single message that comes out of his mouth should be a positive one. What possible good can come from talking to potential customers in that way. If you don't agree with them, hate what they're saying to the point that it makes you angry, say nothing.

 

Truth is, football fans are fickle. Regardless of our home form, we went into Tuesday's match on the back of a defeat. Watching football is expensive for walk up supporters, and as Vale fans we've come to expect the bubble to burst soon. If we go on a consistent run of form, home and away, then we'll see an increase in attendances...it really is that simple. Until that happens though, no good will come from ridiculing those that choose not to attend, for whatever reason.

 

Me personally, I'm superstitious too. I just know that the day I go to watch us at home will be the first time we lose. So far this season we've won every home match when I've not had a cup of tea in my Vale mug on the day of the match, so I'm carrying that on, hopefully for a long time yet.

[jk77]

Or you could realise mistakes have been made, they been not only corrected but improved, grow up and get behind the team.

 

I'll say it now to everyone- if you don't attend because of your opinion of Smurf after the work he's done over the past 6 months, you're a ******* idiot and you're no Vale fan

 

Oh dear. Must be time of the month for you eh. Cheer up hun.

[The Wonder of You]

I think Smurf's policy of leaving player contacts to run out, players and the manager leaving and not extending the early bird season ticket offer has really had a detrimental impact on season ticket sales.

 

However, now the fans have a bit more confidence in the new manager and team, plus our amazing home form this and last season time to build the buzz!

 

Few ideas:

- Really push the ten match season ticket. Use social media and develop an email database (basic marketing that costs next to nothing).

- Introduce category A,B,C games to try and boost attendances for middle of the week winter games, where we are going to struggle hit 4,000. I personally don't mind paying a few quid more for a big Saturday home match e.g. Bolton and Sheff Utd.

- Special offer for a big Saturday game, like Burton in promotion season, to try and reignite passion in the missing fans. This Saturday's game with Coventry would have been a good one for this.

- I'd also like to see the Bycars End closed as it is embarrassing on TV and move family stand into the new Lorne Street section which is meant to be finished soon. Or how about moving Vale fans to Hamil and moving away fans to new Lorne Street section. This should help improve the atmosphere and reduce running costs.

 

Cannot understand the infatuation of closing the Bycars! Why not make it a couple of pound cheaper entry and re-create a home end. Solves problem of aggravation between fans and will sound so much better!

 

When its a low crowd the main bulk of atmosphere comes from there!

[Family Stand Terrier]

Cannot understand the infatuation of closing the Bycars! Why not make it a couple of pound cheaper entry and re-create a home end. Solves problem of aggravation between fans and will sound so much better!

 

When its a low crowd the main bulk of atmosphere comes from there!

 

The Bycars? Seriously?

 

I don't think it should be shut, I'd prefer us to have the Hamil End personally, but that's been talked about over and over for years. Unfortunately it's a non starter. That being the case, I agree with you that we should try to get the bycars back to it's former glory. I used to go there in the late 90's in the centre a few rows from the back. We used to create a brilliant atmosphere back then, singing all match. I know a few tried to recreate that back in 08 but it never took off. It needs more than just a few people on here, it needs the club to encourage it some way. Like you say, making that end slightly cheaper would help, and improving the facilities so that alcohol can be served away from sight of the pitch. I think an improved atmosphere would encourage a lot of people to return, back in those days we'd be singing most of the game win lose or draw and would have a great time regardless.

[Man From U.N.C.L.E.]

Cannot understand the infatuation of closing the Bycars! Why not make it a couple of pound cheaper entry and re-create a home end. Solves problem of aggravation between fans and will sound so much better!

 

When its a low crowd the main bulk of atmosphere comes from there!

 

From where I sit the 100 people sat sporadically in the Bycars make absolutely no atmosphere. Making it cheaper will probably just move a few people from another stand meaning the club makes less money, rather than attracting more fans. Think of the costs involved in stewards, turnstile operators and catering in Bycars and we're probably losing money on this stand each match.

 

A great stand in the past but time to move on and focus on the rest of the ground.

[Yukon]

Oh dear. Must be time of the month for you eh. Cheer up hun.

 

Aren't you quite the comedian- 10/10, well done you

[barny61]

Why don't we all take a blow up doll and double the crowd, in fact take two and triple it.

[JAMO-IN-MEXICO]

In 96/97 season it could be considered to be the high watermark of our 11 out of 12 seasons in the championship. We finished 4 pts off the playoffs and within a whisker of the quarter finals of the FACup. We had only one league gate over 10k and that was the Sjoke game. Closest to that was 9,900 odd when we beat brum 3-0 and they brought 4k.

Many could blame WTB for not doing more to sell the club when the product was maybe the best ever but perhaps it could be different if we get up again. Who knows but history is against us always. Such a damned shame. I took a stoke mate to the millwall game. He really enjoyed his night and said it was a crime that less than 4k were there for the entertainment he feels he got.

[Rampant Zebra]

There seems to be a lack of willingness to accept the customers point of view if it is inconvenient to the club. I will get accused of being behind the times for mentioning cash turnstiles again for example but it makes it simple for the customer, no need to queue up twice, hand over cash and you are in. Some people don't have credit or debit cards, does that make them somehow less valid as fans?

[SuperValiant1876]

There seems to be a lack of willingness to accept the customers point of view if it is inconvenient to the club. I will get accused of being behind the times for mentioning cash turnstiles again for example but it makes it simple for the customer, no need to queue up twice, hand over cash and you are in. Some people don't have credit or debit cards, does that make them somehow less valid as fans?

 

What percentage of the adults in the crowd doesn't have a debit card? I don't know one person without a bank account, do you? I do one guy who still likes to write the odd cheque, shall we have a cheque only turnstile for him?

[SuperValiant1876]

In 96/97 season it could be considered to be the high watermark of our 11 out of 12 seasons in the championship. We finished 4 pts off the playoffs and within a whisker of the quarter finals of the FACup. We had only one league gate over 10k and that was the Sjoke game. Closest to that was 9,900 odd when we beat brum 3-0 and they brought 4k.

Many could blame WTB for not doing more to sell the club when the product was maybe the best ever but perhaps it could be different if we get up again. Who knows but history is against us always. Such a damned shame. I took a stoke mate to the millwall game. He really enjoyed his night and said it was a crime that less than 4k were there for the entertainment he feels he got.

 

 

Do you believe any of the gates during that period were factually correct?

[SuperValiant1876]

In 96/97 season it could be considered to be the high watermark of our 11 out of 12 seasons in the championship. We finished 4 pts off the playoffs and within a whisker of the quarter finals of the FACup. We had only one league gate over 10k and that was the Sjoke game. Closest to that was 9,900 odd when we beat brum 3-0 and they brought 4k.

Many could blame WTB for not doing more to sell the club when the product was maybe the best ever but perhaps it could be different if we get up again. Who knows but history is against us always. Such a damned shame. I took a stoke mate to the millwall game. He really enjoyed his night and said it was a crime that less than 4k were there for the entertainment he feels he got.

 

 

Do you believe any of the gates during that period were factually correct?

[Rampant Zebra]

What percentage of the adults in the crowd doesn't have a debit card? I don't know one person without a bank account, do you? I do one guy who still likes to write the odd cheque, shall we have a cheque only turnstile for him?

 

See that is exactly the "like it or lump it" attitude that turns people off. I have never asked anyone if they have a card or not but some people have reasons for not having cards or accounts, bankruptcy, CCJs etc.

[For Us All]

Steady stream of fans in the ticket office at lunchtime.

[TheSage]

The problem we're trying to rectify is the loss of 500+ season ticket holders. We've played some poorly supported away teams who have only brought 200-300 fans. This will improve a little when we play the likes of Walsall, Shrewsbury & SU.

But we are not going to get the lost season ticket holders back unless we offer them an incentive or two. Once they've missed the deadline that's that and we were silly not to extend the offer and try harder to entice them back once NS had apologised for his statements last year and we appointed Bruno. For a long time we were in limbo with no manager and few players so how on earth did the Club expect fans to sign up for tickets? We missed a trick and are still paying for it now.

 

Let's hope that we can maintain our position and then hopefully gates will slowly increase but once you've lost them it is very very hard to win them back and we're not being proactive enough in my view to entice them back.