Attendances

Club Notices General
1

The wonderful FA Cup run has brought up the age old argument of the ‘missing’ Witton fans. Having had a look at the attendances dating back to 1970 (thanks Chad) have we really that many fans out there that no longer come? We’ve tragically lost a lot of good friends over the last 20 years or so and non of us are getting any younger I believe our biggest problem is getting new supporters not attracting the so called stay aways. since 2000 our average has only gone over the 300 mark 3 times all buoyed by games v Chester, FC United and Telford so this year we are doing better than we have in a decade! Most of the ‘glory’ years of the 90’s we had a terrific average thanks mainly to away support.

So I guess my message is forget the stayaways lets think hard about how we can sell this wonderful HONEST club to the people of Northwich who simply have never been near us yet…

2

Sadly, it’s not just a problem we have. As a nation people would much rather go round the pub or watch football at home. I mean, the others are top of the Premier and only got 340ish themselves last week. I think the only thing we can do is keep advertising the games with flyers around town. It really is a shame especially when you see those early 90s gates!

3

I think you’ve got to take so many positives out of Saturday.

350 Wittoner plus volunteers and workers(another 30+) watched the team, Amongst that number there are some fantastic cases of individual effort.

Of the people I know we had people travelling to the game from Sheffield, Coventry, Glasgow and even Holland!

One very noticeable thing is the amount of people who can make a Saturday game and not the Wednesday game and vice versa. Peoples lifestyles change you can watch football all day Saturday in the pubs.

Lots of people have to work Saturdays compared to years ago.

Money is tight at the moment for a lot of people, but I honestly believe if we dropped admission prices we wouldn’t see a significant difference.

When talking about prices its worth remembering that they do include VAT so your £8.50 is actually only worth £7.10 to the club! and for concessions the £5.50 is actually £4.60!

The Central Ground in the sky is unfortunately filling up, and there is defintely less youngsters watching, but we have to stay positive, the Juniors are closer to the club than they’ve ever been and hopefully, eventually that should manifest itself into more Witton supporters.

This F.A.Cup run will definitely improve the clubs profile as would a promotion to a Division where people can actually see that we exist and have fixtures on the Sky Sports News Bar for instance.

The one thing that won’t increase attendances is moaning and being negative.

There are so many good things going on at the club on and off the field that it would be good if the forum reflected that (Its read by so many more people than those who post - other clubs, the media, the players and officials) Sometimes a few opinions (And I KNOW ITS A FORUM NOT THE WALTONS!) can be perceived as the mood when thats really not the case.

Anyway UP THE ALBS! - Still smiling from Saturday!

4

Ground is half full not half empty sort of thing Chad? I agree with all you have said and if we can’t be positive at the moment I dread to think what will happen if we lose a game!! We haven’t lost for weeks!!
WHS.

5

I’ve always said that the pre match is as important as a good game when it comes to attracting new and younger supporters to the club. Why can’t the juniors have an exhibition game before the game or at half time. Why can’t we have a crossbar challenge at half time. Just little things like this make the whole matchday experience far more fun.

If we can’t attract the crowds now on this fantastic run when will we?

6

Well said young Chad! As positive as ever. Agree with everything you said.

Up the Albion!

7

I “stayed away” from the mid to late 90s to the beginning of last season. My son was 6 at the beginning of last season and I figured it would be good to start going again, and taking him. So there may be more stay aways who can be convinced to come back!

£8.50 is a pain but with the lad getting in free it’s bearable, at least for the weekend games. Paying it twice a week, added to the fact he’d be up till gone 10pm means I don’t tend to bother with the midweeks although would probably make an exception for a big cup replay.

I think advertising the fact that kids get in free might bring a few more like me in, particularly for those with 2 or 3 kids. An afternoon out for less than a tenner (or less than £20 if the wife comes - no pun intended) compares favourably with other leisure activities.

The guardian can certainly help here; getting the cup run on the front page would be nice, and using that to advertise that kids get in free to all league home games.

Not sure how the family day did last year but i was able to convince the brother in law to come down with his wife and kids. The chance to take some penalties on the pitch helped with that, but they havent been since, so aside from a one off attendance spike maybe it’s not something to pursue.

One final thought, now that Witton have an U8s team, is getting one of the parents to hand out kids season tickets to parents of the opposition players. Most of the teams in that league are local (I think Congleton, Macc and Tarvin are the only ones out of 16 or so teams not within a couple of miles of town). The games start at ten and are finished by half twelve. The parents are up and out and it could pull in a few kids, some of whom hopefully stick around and nag to go every week.

8

The vouchers noting kids are free has now been reintroduced in the guardian (you wont see it for a few weeks tho while we keep having these cup games!)

The season tickets again has been done for the last couple of seasons with hit and miss response. It is however a preferred option (as at least ppl know of it if they dont use it)

As noted by the chariman at the last info the few of us at board level desperately need volunteers at the infrastructure level to make these things happen. We are not after your money but a small proportion of your time to make things happen.

As always there are no secrets or hidden agendas at the club (for which we must be grateful) and could achive yet more if new people could spare a hew hours on such projects.

Thats not a pop at you Mookie Ive just used it as a good example of something that we WANT to do but require a little assistance to fufil it (and the rewards could be significant for the club)

9

No probs Neil.

What sorts of things are you looking for people to help with? I don’t mind giving up a few hours of my time if it helps the club.

10

Thanks Mookie I have sent you a pers msg

11

Spoke about all of this with Pritch in the summer, and it was something i started to look at. I then heard that somebody else was already making plans with it - although nothing has ever materialised?

If anybody out there has started anything along these lines, please let me know. Otherwise i’ll pick it up again. (Although we have probably missed the boat now with the weather etc).

In regards to attendances; i have heard some suggestions that the move away from Birtwistle’s pies coincided with a sharp drop in the attendance? I don’t know if Phil Chad has the stats to back this up though? :whistle:

12

robbo pls pick it up again

13

[quote=“Robbo_” post=39787][quote=“rabbitsopinion” post=39765]

In regards to attendances; i have heard some suggestions that the move away from Birtwistle’s pies coincided with a sharp drop in the attendance? I don’t know if Phil Chad has the stats to back this up though? :whistle:[/quote]

Crouchy doesnt come much anymore. I did wonder why…

Neil, i’ve responded to your message, cheers.

14

Good post Andy - you would not expect me to agree with everything you say but overall well done !

15

Spoke about all of this with Pritch in the summer, and it was something i started to look at. I then heard that somebody else was already making plans with it - although nothing has ever materialised?

If anybody out there has started anything along these lines, please let me know. Otherwise i’ll pick it up again. (Although we have probably missed the boat now with the weather etc).[/quote]

Robbo me and Pritch spoke about it at some length recently. It needs someone to take it on. I firmly believe that small changes like this would give a better impression of the fantastic club and add to the matchday experience.

We’ll chat on Wednesday about what has been done so far

16

Spoke about all of this with Pritch in the summer, and it was something i started to look at. I then heard that somebody else was already making plans with it - although nothing has ever materialised?

If anybody out there has started anything along these lines, please let me know. Otherwise i’ll pick it up again. (Although we have probably missed the boat now with the weather etc).[/quote]

Robbo me and Pritch spoke about it at some length recently. It needs someone to take it on. I firmly believe that small changes like this would give a better impression of the fantastic club and add to the matchday experience.

We’ll chat on Wednesday about what has been done so far[/quote]

OK - dont forget my song!

17

Katy Perry? :sick:

18

Yep it’s all good things like this if they can be got up and running!

19

Didn’t want to let this thread end as it is relevant to us and every club in the land. What do people think about kick off times? I am not talking about the traditional Saturday 3 pm time which the vast majority of us want and love but midweek. I know we are fighting, traffic, weather etc but would reverting back to 7:30 pm or earlier kick offs help attendance? Would the 15 minutes make a difference to parents wanting to bring their kids to a game or be even bolder go for 7 pm kick offs? I know there are issues surrounding this and you would hope common sense would prevail when possible, with the fixtures but would it help attendances? I feel this change from 7:30 to 7:45 kick offs couple with 15 minutes for half time was met with little or no opposition. Also what about Friday night football? I know this club many years ago used to play quite a few Friday night games and it seemed to generate bigger crowds as it was not a school night and allowed people time to do other things in their weekend. We have a FRIDAY night home game scheduled in for Nov 4th against Curzon Ashton (subject to change) which nobody seems to be aware of. Any thoughts?

20

Not keen on Friday night games but earlier kick offs midweek might be a good idea after the fiasco of the game against Northwich Villa which could have ended near midnight!! I know it was no ones fault but it did mean several people, me included did not see the end of the game. Had it been set for 7-00pm there might have been no delay at all.
WHS.