Getting crowds up

How does Argyle achieve this?

Obviously the best way is to win games and be successful but that is all a bit chicken-and-egg and we are where we are.

It looks as though our attendances are currently stalled at around 6000. We used to have 13000 season ticket holders so how do we get the missing 7000, or some of them at least, back?

Why don't we chase the names we have on the club database? If they don't go anymore at least try to find out why. Or allow free entry to a third game once 2 have been attended? Or something.

Any bright ideas out there?

Money.

Most people are concerned for their jobs and are saving their disposable income. We are in a recession. In recessions cash is in short supply as Joe Public doesn't spend, instead he pays off his debts and saves.

This is why (coupled with the poor on field performance) there are fewer attendees at HP.

I recently enquired how much a half season ticket would be until the end of the season and was told no decision had be taken yet. Most season ticket holders didn't buy because they thought that the club might be wound up and their money lost perhaps?

Give the people a reason to believe and they will come.

A club with Argyle's history of missed opportunities will always get the 'same old Argo' tag, taught to us by our fathers and grandfathers.

Crowds will grow if the team is challenging, has a decent manager and enough investment to make a difference.

When we reach our nemesis, the 2nd tier the next time, real investment / new football orientated owners must be sought out. The people will then buy in. Could have happened 4 or 5 years ago but Stapes and co got greedy. Your best staff won't hang around if they see that the club is not going to go for it. Poor training facilities, unfinished stadium etc .......... must be more of a priority than buying the freehold for personal gain ?

Money is obviously a factor but not quite as direct a one as you seem to suggest. If the team was winning and in or near a play-off spot then attendances would be better even at current prices.

I agree with your point about ST sales though but that ship has sailed for now. How do we entice those who decided not to buy one and don't currently POTD to come back?

Tringreen wrote:

Give the people a reason to believe and they will come.

A club with Argyle's history of missed opportunities will always get the 'same old Argo' tag, taught to us by our fathers and grandfathers.

Crowds will grow if the team is challenging, has a decent manager and enough investment to make a difference.

When we reach our nemesis, the 2nd tier the next time, real investment / new football orientated owners must be sought out. The people will then buy in. Could have happened 4 or 5 years ago but Stapes and co got greedy. Your best staff won't hang around if they see that the club is not going to go for it. Poor training facilities, unfinished stadium etc .......... must be more of a priority than buying the freehold for personal gain ?

I reckon Brent is trying to provide that "reason to believe" now.

All that stuff about freehold etc is in the past. We don't own it now. Nor can we quickly complete the stadium. Is there an issue with the current training facililities? I think they match our current requirements well enough.

We couldn't have picked a worse time to have our most dismal patch considering it's also the world's most dismal patch. We need a combination of low admission cost and success and even then it won't be easy enticing an understandably cynical public to pass through the turnstiles.

30,000 students in plymouth... I'd hazard a guess that a fair few of them like to watch football, Get some deals for them because between the ages of 18-25 there doesnt seem to be many argyle fans.

More needs to be done to gets bums on seats, we're a big club, we're a big city, we should have big crowds regardless of where we are in the league!

yeah but over half of the 30,000 are female with little interest, then there's the high foreign proportion that are not interested and subtract those that would sooner do geophysics and anatomy and it leaves the student cupboard quite bare really.

GOB wrote:

yeah but over half of the 30,000 are female with little interest, then there's the high foreign proportion that are not interested and subtract those that would sooner do geophysics and anatomy and it leaves the student cupboard quite bare really.

I think we could get a couple of hundred out of the 30,000 to turn up at home every week if the price was right!

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

How does Argyle achieve this?

Obviously the best way is to win games and be successful but that is all a bit chicken-and-egg and we are where we are.

It looks as though our attendances are currently stalled at around 6000. We used to have 13000 season ticket holders so how do we get the missing 7000, or some of them at least, back?

Why don't we chase the names we have on the club database? If they don't go anymore at least try to find out why. Or allow free entry to a third game once 2 have been attended? Or something.

Any bright ideas out there?

Darned good idea about making contact with ex season ticket holders and finding out the reasoning behind their lapsed interest,maybe an idea that the trust should pursue with the club in due course.I think i know what the majority of answers would be-the failure to push on when the gates were at their highest,the subsequent failure to back Pulis/Holloway and the sale of 5 of our best players in the season that we were supposed to be "going for it" would figure very strongly,i would surmise.This is not a new phenomenon either-Argyle have alienated thousands of potential supporters over a period of many decades with their small minded and unambitious approach when apparently in a position to move forward,thats why the fanbase pales in comparison to that of cities of a similar size.Its very deep rooted and will not be solved to any great extent by schemes or special offers.In all truth,i'm surprised that the crowds have held up so well-5th best in the division last year in spite of administration and relegation,probably about the fourth best this year in spite of occupying 92nd position in the FL.Not to mention the truly awful football and results for the past 4 seasons,don't think the club can complain at all.

monti czardas wrote:

30,000 students in plymouth... I'd hazard a guess that a fair few of them like to watch football, Get some deals for them because between the ages of 18-25 there doesnt seem to be many argyle fans.

More needs to be done to gets bums on seats, we're a big club, we're a big city, we should have big crowds regardless of where we are in the league!

This is a misconception I believe. Clubs develop solid fanbases after a period of top flight exposure. Our crowds were as good if not better than the likes of Ipswich, Southampton and NAAAAAARICH before they all made the top flight/ Europe. The city still remembers and believes.
That is why they get about 20k in their darkest hours in Div 1 etc. The people believe and know they'll be back.

It made me cringe with embarrassment and forboding when the Aviva boys were laughing at Norwich and the Saints. We were trusting in Stapes

The Gob Theory

Temporary success = Temporary higher crowds

Sustained success = Greater loyalty and higher crowds

Naked female football = Higher crowds

Free beer = Higher crowds

Free Beer & naked female football = Season ticket sell outs

GOB wrote:

The Gob Theory

Temporary success = Temporary higher crowds

Sustained success = Greater loyalty and higher crowds

Naked female football = Higher crowds

Free beer = Higher crowds

Free Beer & naked female football = Season ticket sell outs

Cant argue with that can we!

What about substained success, free beer and naked female football though?

So, I want to go to every remaining home game.

Cost? 10x £20 + 10 x £7 = £270

No advantage to POTD, except my seat is my seat. Since there's about 10,000 empty ones that's not exactly a big deal.

Incentive to get me to part with my money? None.

There's your missing fans.

Plenty of you need to get something up once in a while

I'll get me coat...

Pitbull wrote:

Plenty of you need to get something up once in a while

I'll get me coat...

Would that be a raincoat by any chance?

Pitbull wrote:

Plenty of you need to get something up once in a while

I'll get me coat...

Cobi, for one quite so young, you're showing worrying signs of having been swallowed by the Borg.
Take a gap year ... or four.
Or perhaps those fanfests are in reality a retro pastiche, and I'm missing out big time.

The crowds are low due to a combination of being a club in decline, terrible football, terrible management, league position and its expensive (for the 'entertainment' served). I had a ST for 11 years until this one. I've no incentive to buy another as I like the convenience of choosing when I go- a few years ago nothing else mattered but going to Argyle. The years of attrocious football served up by Sturrock, Mariner, Reid and now Fletcher has worn me down (although I'm likely to go to my third home game in a row tomorrow ). Its £20 for a game- I'm sure many have thought about spending similar money on family entertainment after watching another dire performance.

I'm sure students have gone to games in the last 3-4 years, but don't return because of the reasons listed above.

penzancepirate wrote:

Pitbull wrote:

Plenty of you need to get something up once in a while

I'll get me coat...

Cobi, for one quite so young, you're showing worrying signs of having been swallowed by the Borg.
Take a gap year ... or four.
Or perhaps those fanfests are in reality a retro pastiche, and I'm missing out big time.

Only ever been to 1 fans fest, I'm not as aviva as you all think

I have been missing for nearly a season and a half now. I am not interested in paying £20 to watch diabolocal 'football' played by a 'team' in freefall which shows absolutely no sign of improving. I lasted in L1 until it became crystal clear a second relegation was inevitable, which was quite early in the season. For the past 5 years we've been in a shocking state both on and off the
pitch and there's no way me and thousands of others are going back until there's improvement in all areas of the club - direction, management and on the pitch. And as we've spent the whole of this season rooted to the foot of L2, the crowds clearly won't be coming back yet.

What will bring the crowds back? Success on the pitch and a sense that "something positive is happening" off it - hence the large recent crowd a few weeks ago. Keep playing well, keep winning and the crowds will increase. Anything else is just fiddling at the edges that may bring a few more people but too many mid-season special offers will simply put off season ticket holders.

Get Argyle into schools for after hours football club lessons, players meet the kids, give out free kid tickets with an adult ticket half price. Give free adult and kids tickets for evening games via schools, st and half season tickets as raffle prizes, players and coaching staff giving football classes, etc. Get them young, give them a taste of argyle and if they like it they will want more. Both my daughter and son go to chelsea club after school once a week and they love it, my son being an avid chelsea fan now. Oh the shame of it all!!!! We can't compete with the likes of chelsea at all but we can at least try to reach out to a new generation of football fans and turn as many of them green as possible before they are lost to prem teams.

knecht wrote:

What will bring the crowds back? Success on the pitch and a sense that "something positive is happening" off it - hence the large recent crowd a few weeks ago. Keep playing well, keep winning and the crowds will increase. Anything else is just fiddling at the edges that may bring a few more people but too many mid-season special offers will simply put off season ticket holders.

It was the only home game over Christmas and against Torquay. Most of the extras don't even live in the area.

Tringreen wrote:

knecht wrote:

What will bring the crowds back? Success on the pitch and a sense that "something positive is happening" off it - hence the large recent crowd a few weeks ago. Keep playing well, keep winning and the crowds will increase. Anything else is just fiddling at the edges that may bring a few more people but too many mid-season special offers will simply put off season ticket holders.

It was the only home game over Christmas and against Torquay. Most of the extras don't even live in the area.

Exactly. The xmas holidays have always attracted bigger crowds, not to mention the added 1000+ away supporters.