Average home gates

[Trentham Lakes Valiant]

I know of loads of ex Vale fans who now go down stoke and after what we we have had to endure over the years who can blame them. I thinks some are starting to slowly treacle back but it will take time.

 

In fairness, treacle is very viscous so of course it will take a long time for them to come back

[IanW]

So long as we stay in the top 3 I would expect crowds start to creep up between now and the end of the season.

[cpade]

Correct.

 

No more needs to be said.

 

Have a look at our attendances the time we got out of this division

[BIRCHES HEAD WHITES]

Fortunately I know of no one personally who used to follow vale but now the lard . It is purely the floating fans who do this IMO . Die hards do not chuck in the towel and follow some one else because their team falls on hard times. Our attendances are not a million miles off what I expect , we are now establishing ourselves as real contenders and the weather will soon start to improve . Smurf and wildes have backed Micky , now we need a bit of consistency at home and you can start adding 2k to home gates . Remember we have only just come out if admin , have only just brought in reinforcements , have not been promoted for 17 seasons and had only 1 season in that period where we looked as though we may reach the play offs . You do not suddenly double your gate after 3/5ths of a decent season ! It takes time . If we start winning more home games more will start to return ! It will happen :) UTV.

[saintvaliant]

Being over 5,000 is decent for us in this league. Get down to the last dozen or so games in the race and the gates will hopefully pick up a bit more.

[Spunk Trumpet]

The thing is though' date=' we are top of the league, and therefore we shouldn't be happy with 4500/5000 home fans. I worry how many fans we would be getting if we were mid table or lower. We won't always be top of the league and playing well, there's going to be periods, especially if we go up, where we don't win for a while. It is then that it conerns me what sort of attendences we will be getting.[/quote']

You worry how many we would get if we were mid table? Take a look at the average attendances over the last 3 seasons then?

Attendances will increase from now until the end of the season if we carry on our good form.

Should we go up we will average around 6500 next season i reckon and like ive said that is way more than we have been getting in league 1 the last time we were there.

 

This whole debate gets blown out of proportion with people making up lies lies and more lies about our history.

 

Our average crowd, taking into consideration our past few years and admin, is superb for a club of our size in this division.

[dave 260]

I know of loads of ex Vale fans who now go down stoke and after what we we have had to endure over the years who can blame them. I thinks some are starting to slowly treacle back but it will take time.

The fact is many of Stoke fans are Premier League fans first. Proof of that was yesterdays gate in the FA Cup match against Man City which was a third down. If yesterdays game had been a Premier League game it would have been sold out.

[Mr Carter]

Fortunately I know of no one personally who used to follow vale but now the lard . It is purely the floating fans who do this IMO . Die hards do not chuck in the towel and follow some one else because their team falls on hard times. Our attendances are not a million miles off what I expect , we are now establishing ourselves as real contenders and the weather will soon start to improve . Smurf and wildes have backed Micky , now we need a bit of consistency at home and you can start adding 2k to home gates . Remember we have only just come out if admin , have only just brought in reinforcements , have not been promoted for 17 seasons and had only 1 season in that period where we looked as though we may reach the play offs . You do not suddenly double your gate after 3/5ths of a decent season ! It takes time . If we start winning more home games more will start to return ! It will happen :) UTV.

 

Good post....Success breeds success

[andy jones]

WE went through years of depression under V2001 and Sjoke have had seasons of success under Coates.

 

However, this season is for me a turning point.

 

We are now receiving investment with admission initiatives on the horizon, top of the league, scoring goals for fun and probably going to get promoted. Whilst down the road out of the FA Cup, mid-table with nothing to play for half season, more sighting of the Loch Ness monster than Stoke goals, away performances that border on the criminal.

 

It doesn't matter what division you are in - if you don't win and entertain you lose fans - What would Stoke's attendances be now if they weren't nearly all ST holders? the FA Cup attendance against Man City was shocking - its a tournament that Stoke have recently done brilliantly well in (including a final appearance) they were playing the richest club in football and how many Stokie's turned up because they had to PAY?

 

If things continue to go well for the Vale and Stoke continue to bre the pants off fans then I see a major swing in ST sales this time round - Stoke fans will be thinking twice and we will get back to the 6,000 plus of a few season ago. Then with initiatives for those who for instance can't attend on a Saturda i.e. a night match ST then we will (with continued investment) be averaging 7,500 next season. If we do well next season in league 1 (if promoted) then you can see another load of fans boarding the Boslem Bus.

[sinnott2spinnit]

Gillingham home gate yesterday....4893. Not a good attendance for a team that has been at the top for most part of the season. So it's not just the Vale.

[Heatwave]

When I was watching Vale in the 70s 4000 was a good gate for a league game. Sub 3000 was nearer the mark.

 

We were spoilt by the years in the old Div 2 and the expectations voiced in this thread stem from then. And yes, Stoke were in the old Div 1 in the 70s as well. We're doing a darn sight better than then, largely owing to our spell in the aforementioned Div 2 - to which I'm confident we'll eventually return.

[blackdog]

Vale will get promoted I have no doubt. But if the club offer season ticket initiatives when they will invariably need a bigger playing budget then that in itself creates a conundrum for the new owners. As long as they are willing to bridge the financial gap then that's ok.

 

Stoke's Premier League crowds have been excellent, I don't think they'll drop that drastically as it is such a huge saving to buy your season ticket before Feb 20th. Based on the different categories my saving this season is nearly £250 or around £13 a game.

 

The FA Cup crowd was extremely poor, but I think it was just a simple case of fans deciding to keep their money in their pocket and watch the game on TV. £20 was decent value, but times are tough and people are struggling in a relatively low paid area.

 

I admire your optimism but in the main Stoke-on-Trent fans from both side of the divide are pretty fickle, at times capable of excellent crowds/followings and at times extreme lethargy.

 

I don't think you can underestimate just how much some Vale/Stoke fans are struggling financially at the moment though, it is definitely a factor..........

 

Stoke seem to be at a cross roads at the moment ,the season is over and a large proportion of stoke followers are disillusioned ....

 

http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Potters&action=display&thread=207090

 

The gate was poor against Manchester City even though it was stokes big chance to get something from the season,the support did not embrace the dream.

 

The Vale have had 10 years or so of problem after problem,fan against fan,protest and aggravation so I think our gates are OK but I do agree fans are fickle, but even through all our troubles our gate has held up stokes gate against Wigan will be interesting.

[mbycars]

In fairness, it's not the first thread discussing attendances. There are a huge number of circumstances to factor into the equation. Have Plymouth got a premiership team down the road? NO. Is the population of Bristol much higher than Stoke on Trent? YES. Do Vale do £100 STs? NO.

 

More importantly, do I have to work most Saturdays? YES

 

We have been through all these arguments countless times.

 

Stoke on trent has a smaller population than Bristols which is approx 420,00 but when you add the borough of Newcastle under lyme and the Staffordshire Moorland regions adloining Stoke on Trent, the combined population is 470,00. I am amazed when people discard Newcastles population when quoting how small a city we are. In many cases parts of Newcastle are nearer to Burslem than parts of Stoke on Trent.

[mbycars]

Fortunately I know of no one personally who used to follow vale but now the lard . It is purely the floating fans who do this IMO . Die hards do not chuck in the towel and follow some one else because their team falls on hard times. Our attendances are not a million miles off what I expect , we are now establishing ourselves as real contenders and the weather will soon start to improve . Smurf and wildes have backed Micky , now we need a bit of consistency at home and you can start adding 2k to home gates . Remember we have only just come out if admin , have only just brought in reinforcements , have not been promoted for 17 seasons and had only 1 season in that period where we looked as though we may reach the play offs . You do not suddenly double your gate after 3/5ths of a decent season ! It takes time . If we start winning more home games more will start to return ! It will happen :) UTV.

 

Good sensible realistic post.

[andy jones]

TP - good points and I accept that times are hard.

 

I have been away for the weekend and didn't realise Stoke was live on TV and that explains a lot.

 

Also having got back this evening I hadn't realised the amount of snow the area has had.

 

It will be an interesting few months where ST's are concerned because will the hard times mean that some Stoke fans wont commit to a ST no matter how cheap (is interest charged on your ST if done over instalments?) - whilst the new owners at our place have to work out how to increase ST sales without losing income and I think the interest free ST's on instalments at early bird prices may well see a big increase on last year ST sales and as you know success breeds success so if we managed 6,500 ST sales after a relegation because there was optimism about (but no concrete proof of investment) just how many will we sell when prospective ST buyers see the quality of player that is being brought in.