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Where have all the fans gone?











Surf's Up

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2011
10,147
Here
Maybe something to do with ground capacity and the way tickets are sold (ie no POTG)?
 




stss30

Registered User
Apr 24, 2008
9,545
It's on TV, the cost, some families will give it a miss as it's a school night. You know that though.
 


Greg Bobkin

Silver Seagull
May 22, 2012
14,744
BACK IN 1972 WE HAD 34700 IN THE GROUND, A POSSIBLE COUPLE OF THOUSAND OUTSIDE FOR ROCHDALE AT HOME,A GOOD 36,000 ALBION FANS.
Tonight 29,000 of which 2600 are derby giving us 26,400 home fans, nearly 10,000 down on a promotion game in a league below.
WHY?:moo:

Who's to say that there won't be 34k+ at Wembley IF we make it to the Play-off final? :shrug:
 


Wilko

LUZZING chairs about
Sep 19, 2003
9,921
BN1
If we had the weekend fixture then it would have sold out by now. Simple.
 








The Grockle

Formally Croydon Seagull
Sep 26, 2008
5,669
Dorset
Yeah too right Rev, 29k for a second division match is embarrassing. Long gone are the heady days of the Goldstone with 35k packed in every other Saturday in the old third division.
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Mar 27, 2013
52,006
Burgess Hill
So, apart from :
-Ground doesn't hold 34,700
-No point queuing outside as no POTG
-Cost
-It's live on Television
-It's Thursday night (and during GCSEs)
Where have all the fans gone ?

FWIW I reckon we'll sell out whatever Wembley allocation we get. I could name 15/20 pals already who have said they 'are going if Albion get the the final' who otherwise don't go to many (or in some cases any) games.
 








Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
It'll be more or less sold out - around 29,000.

And that's with just 5 days notice, at £30-34 a ticket, and on the telly.

Good effort.
 




Hastings gull

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2013
4,635
BACK IN 1972 WE HAD 34700 IN THE GROUND, A POSSIBLE COUPLE OF THOUSAND OUTSIDE FOR ROCHDALE AT HOME,A GOOD 36,000 ALBION FANS.
Tonight 29,000 of which 2600 are derby giving us 26,400 home fans, nearly 10,000 down on a promotion game in a league below.
WHY?:moo:

On the face of it, it does seem odd, and I was rather surprised to see that probably about 1000 tickets are left over, and you are of course right with the Maths. But how do we NOT know that 34,000 different fans have seen the Albion this year? Because "only" 26,400 Albion fans are there tonight, it does not necessarily mean that these fans are lost, though as you say, some probably are with the "wilderness years". When at withdean, even though at max I think it only held about 9,000, the Albion had a fan database of 20,000. And the Cardiff play-off final match involved well over 30,000 fans. There are quite a few reasons why the (probably, but accept it is a generalisation) less keen Albion fans will not be there - it is on TV, warnings about long queues, when you might arrive later anyway due to work, Thursdays might not be convenient ( I had to beg for permission to miss a meeting) and, perhaps, a perception, rightly or wrongly, that we are not likely to be successful. I was at that match against Rochdale, by the way and still recall the excitement. But I do feel that with Wembley possibly in sight, the Albion will have 35,000 fans there, when it is at a normal time.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
I think there's an interesting topic of conversation to be had about ticket sales for tonight, so can we just put [MENTION=12634]Return of the Rev[/MENTION]'s nonsense to one side and have that discussion.

I imagine the club are a bit surprised/disappointed that this hasn't sold out. I would guess that they thought there was no chance it wouldn't sell out, which is why there were no timescales for general sales announced for this game.

A large part of it has to be the awkwardness of travel for evening games. Most options are not particularly pleasant for those who either need to travel far or have very young children. If this wasn't on Sky then I would imagine we'd have sold out as the takeaway and a beer on the sofa option would not be available, obviously.

You can bet there'll be 40,000+ interested should the unbelievable happen and we have a Wembley play-off final to look forward to.
 




Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,276
Today is no different from then. Fair weather fans will come out of the woodwork for the big games.
It is obvious if you study our history that our true hard core for years i.e those that would go whatever the circumstances was probably between 5000-6500. Those were the diehards, rain or shine. Goldstone, Gillingham and Withdean.
It has changed now. That bottom line figure is a lot higher. Thats why it will be more difficult to get tickets for big games. If you are already getting 27000 for home games and an allocation at Wembley is 35000, it doesn't leave a lot spare.
" Where have all the fans gone, long time passing "
" Where have all the fans gone, long time ago "
" Where have all the fans gone...gone to graveyards, everyone "
" When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn "
 


Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
Wise words [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]. Quite clearly, loads of us would have taken our kids if we had Derby's Sunday match, but have chosen not to.

In fact, I bet we'd have completely sold out yesterday at the latest if the game had been Sunday afternoon. I maintain that 29,000 for a Thursday evening with 5 days to sell tickets at £30-34 is a very good crowd.
 



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