What is the minimum it would take to fill Withdean again

[TonyW]

About 3 million gallons of salt water, and a very long hose.

Sick of watching football in this shit hole - bring on Falmer!

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

Spending the afternoon at Withdean involves two sacrifices for me.

1) It puts a serious dent into the quality time I get to spend with my family.

2) It puts a serious dent into the finances.

I could happily get away with 1) every now and again if 2) wasn't an issue. That's what keeps me away most of the time - not results on the pitch.

 

[Brovion]

Your first suggestion could see us going out of business pretty quickly - I can't see how you can base a ticket price on performance - it surely has to be based on running costs.

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But it isn't based on running costs is it? If you wanted the ticket price to cover the running costs they'd be about £50. Currently I would argue that the one-off South Stand price is at the worst level it could possibly be: not enough to cover the costs and too much to make us casual fans want to go to the Hereford game.

But if we were top of the League and playing well .... then maybe I'd think it wasn't quite such bad value after all.

 

[British Bulldog]

A winning team coupled with construction finally starting on the new stadium is the only way I can see fans getting the enthusiasm to start supporting the Albion in numbers again.

 

[BensGrandad]

As has been said we have lost 1 group of children in the 7 to teens age group whilst being away from The Goldstone and they would have been supporters for life but probably will never ever be now. Our only hope is to produce a winning side as, although the prices are too high, we cannot afford to reduce them.

 

[Horsham Gull]

 

[Mendoza]

maybe an incentive for non season ticket holders, like If you attend TEN Withdean League games a season, you receive an 10% off your season ticket for Falmer.

Or if you buy a season ticket at Withdean you get a 15% discount for the first Falmer season ticket

 

[The Part Time Fan]

I dont think reducing the prices will really help, who honestly wants to spend 2 hours plus standing in the rain watching shit football? we need football that people want to watch first, then look at the ticket prices

 

[strings]

I dont think reducing the prices will really help, who honestly wants to spend 2 hours plus standing in the rain watching shit football?

I think this is the crux of the issue; my girlfriend was going to come to Withdean with me next time we are in Sussex, but then she realised that it didn't have a roof. I am now either going on my own, or with my Dad.

 

[Superphil]

I don't think that would matter if what was on display on the pitch was entertaining and exciting, we filled the Goldstone when we had a succesfull and entertaining side and over 1/4 of the ground was exposed to the elements.

I really feel we have been watching some dreadful football over the last few seasons and a return to decent football would see the crowds rise dramatically

We filled Withdean pretty much every match a few years back, with people climbing the trees to see the game. So what has changed?

Obviously there are more seats to fill, but where has tre excess demand gone from 6 or 7 seasons ago?
People have got fed up with Withdean as a venue so don't want to be there. People are definately fed up with the high prices.
And it doesn't help that the teams performances on the pitch have not matched what we saw 5 or 6 seasons ago.

So, of all those things, only one can be changed instantly, reduce ticket prices, it would have to be subsidised by the board, but that is the only way you could get Withdean full on a regualr basis without a major improvement in results on the pitch.

 

[Knotty]

But it isn't based on running costs is it? If you wanted the ticket price to cover the running costs they'd be about £50. Currently I would argue that the one-off South Stand price is at the worst level it could possibly be: not enough to cover the costs and too much to make us casual fans want to go to the Hereford game.

But if we were top of the League and playing well .... then maybe I'd think it wasn't quite such bad value after all.

You have summed up the dilemma perfectly.

Reducing the prices would provide even less of a contribution to running costs unless there were the requisite increase in attendance and we know that the increase can only go so far. If that doesn't happen, the decision to reduce prices would be seen to be financial madness.

 

[Brovion]

We filled Withdean pretty much every match a few years back, with people climbing the trees to see the game. So what has changed?

Obviously there are more seats to fill, but where has tre excess demand gone from 6 or 7 seasons ago?
People have got fed up with Withdean as a venue so don't want to be there. People are definately fed up with the high prices.
And it doesn't help that the teams performances on the pitch have not matched what we saw 5 or 6 seasons ago.

So, of all those things, only one can be changed instantly, reduce ticket prices, it would have to be subsidised by the board, but that is the only way you could get Withdean full on a regualr basis without a major improvement in results on the pitch.

Obviously I agree with you, especially with the 'fed up' point. I used to go regularly to Withdean in the early years and now I find I'm put off; not only by the price, the shit football and the thought of sitting in the pouring rain but by the little things. I deeply resent being ripped off for shitty food (even though I know it happens at all grounds) and I'm irrationally angry that I have to pay for travel vouchers when I walk to the ground. None of this mattered in the first few seasons.

 

[Icy Gull]

We filled Withdean pretty much every match a few years back, with people climbing the trees to see the game. So what has changed?

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The change happened because two Championships, a promotion via the playoffs and a total of three seasons in the Championship was followed by absolute dross (yes in comparison DW last season as well and has continued with even worse form this season). We got away with playing pretty badly in the Championship on all three occasions because it was the Championship and I think most fans accepted that we couldn't compete, well until the clueless anti McGhee backlash. If we could produce the results of the league winning Championship seasons we'd have people in the trees again imo.

 

[Knotty]

We filled Withdean pretty much every match a few years back, with people climbing the trees to see the game. So what has changed?

Obviously there are more seats to fill, but where has tre excess demand gone from 6 or 7 seasons ago?
People have got fed up with Withdean as a venue so don't want to be there. People are definately fed up with the high prices.
And it doesn't help that the teams performances on the pitch have not matched what we saw 5 or 6 seasons ago.

So, of all those things, only one can be changed instantly, reduce ticket prices, it would have to be subsidised by the board, but that is the only way you could get Withdean full on a regualr basis without a major improvement in results on the pitch.

If you look at that from the board's point of view they would be subsidising ticket prices so that more people attended, but precisely because they are subsidising it the the extra fans would contribute nothing to the clubs coffers. I don't think that works.

If hypothetically, that subsidy money is available, you could argue that instead of simply allowing fans to get in at a cheaper rate, which benefits the fans but not the club, they could spend the money on better players which might improve the quality of football and attract more customers that way.

 

[Knotty]

Obviously I agree with you, especially with the 'fed up' point. I used to go regularly to Withdean in the early years and now I find I'm put off; not only by the price, the shit football and the thought of sitting in the pouring rain but by the little things. I deeply resent being ripped off for shitty food (even though I know it happens at all grounds) and I'm irrationally angry that I have to pay for travel vouchers when I walk to the ground. None of this mattered in the first few seasons.

But surely there were many more seasons than that at the Goldstone getting wet, eating awful food and watching bad football?

I hate Withdean too, but as far as comfort, football and food are concerned, the Goldstone was little better.

 

[bright1064]

Relegation SIX-POINTERS will certainly bring the crowds in!

 

[Icy Gull]

Obviously I agree with you, especially with the 'fed up' point. I used to go regularly to Withdean in the early years and now I find I'm put off; not only by the price, the shit football and the thought of sitting in the pouring rain but by the little things. I deeply resent being ripped off for shitty food (even though I know it happens at all grounds) and I'm irrationally angry that I have to pay for travel vouchers when I walk to the ground. None of this mattered in the first few seasons.

I'm willing to bet you'd be back like a shot if we were playing well and winning, whatever your grievances with Withdean. I really believe blaming Withdean is a cop out. The knock on effect of success on the field would be a surge in season ticket sales as people started to worry about whether they'd be able to get a ticket if Withdean started to have sell out games on a regular basis, which is what I beleive happened in the 1st few seasons back in Brighton. it was certainly the reason that I had one at the time even though I couldn't make quite a few games. Now I know I can get in for 99% of games without even thinking ahead so have no intention of getting another season ticket as things stand.

 

[Brovion]

You have summed up the dilemma perfectly.

Reducing the prices would provide even less of a contribution to running costs unless there were the requisite increase in attendance and we know that the increase can only go so far. If that doesn't happen, the decision to reduce prices would be seen to be financial madness.

Financially I DO agree, but I'm sure a happy medium can be reached. To state the obvious if you raise the price to £75 a ticket it would in all probability result in lower income as less people would attend. Conversely if you lower the price to £20 it might mean higher income as more people would come. The operative word is MIGHT. Of course that reduction still might not attract enough punters and then the club would lose more money than if they'd kept the prices the same.

However I do think that's a bit of a black-and-white 'beancounters' way of looking at it and I think we need to look at the bigger picture. We know we've lost a generation of fans and we've got to try and get them back, or else we'll only have about 8,000 rattling around Falmer. Trying to attract more fans, especially kids, (with the 'invisible' add-ons of increased replica shirt sales etc) is worth the possible drop in gate receipts that might result from lower prices.

And I wouldn't drop them for 'glamour' matches such as Leeds, Leicester, etc. Only the crappy fixtures like Saturday.

 

[Superphil]

The point I made about subsidising the tickets was purely to acheive the answer to "How to Fill Withdean Again". It is totally impractical, unlikely to happen, but IMO that is the only way the club could get those seats filled withut the team going on a storm up table with a Zamora like prodigy in the team.

 

[Icy Gull]

The point I made about subsidising the tickets was purely to acheive the answer to "How to Fill Withdean Again". It is totally impractical, unlikely to happen, but IMO that is the only way the club could get those seats filled withut the team going on a storm up table with a Zamora like prodigy in the team.

With the right service Murray and Forster would be just as successful as BZ imo. It's not like we're having trouble scoring is it, even with shite service to the front two. Imagine what they'd do with decent service. This is what is so frustrating about what is happening at the moment, it seems we have the players but they are not playing to or being managed to their potential.