Bridcutt

[Vegas Seagull]

Fine. Adjust that to could have rung up and bought a ticket the day before, the point stays the same.

And dwindling? Our fanbase has been roughly the same for over 20 years. A few peaks, a few troughs, but we've mostly had around 15/16,000. I imagine that will go up next year, as some who come a bit get season tickets or come more, and some fairweathers come back, but that core of 15/16,000 will be there.

Likewise your core of 6,000 will still be there, even if Bloom went bust and the Amex collapsed. They're proper football fans and I have nothing but respect for them. Those of you who went to the Withdean and stuck with Brighton know who you are. Those of you who spend the years cheering Man United or Chelsea on from your telly "cause my family support them" know who you are too.

Our 'core' is now 18,000 though...
After our first season at the Amex we lost 700 from 18k season tickets. 4k + new ones joined making 22k ish. This coming season 1,000 have walked but 2k + have joined taking us past 23k and counting. So, 1,700 'plastics' have left & 18k have had ST's for more than 2 seasons now...

 

[Psalm 56:5]

Our 'core' is now 18,000 though...
After our first season at the Amex we lost 700 from 18k season tickets. 4k + new ones joined making 22k ish. This coming season 1,000 have walked but 2k + have joined taking us past 23k and counting. So, 1,700 'plastics' have left & 18k have had ST's for more than 2 seasons now...

Forgive me, but I don't regard new season ticket holders gained during the most successful period in the club's (modern) history as representative of a core. Nor would I do so for Palace, in the unlikely circumstance of our staying up and becoming established in the Prem. We'd undoubtedly see a rise in season ticket holders and crowds, but I won't claim that as representative of our core after two years, because I wouldn't be confident that those fans would still be there when things went to shit. And I'm not confident yours would be either.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

8 fans turning up to a meet a player evening at Selhurst is pretty poor no matter how you try to talk up the palace support.

Maybe this is the palace core

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Forgive me, but I don't regard new season ticket holders gained during the most successful period in the club's (modern) history as representative of a core. Nor would I do so for Palace, in the unlikely circumstance of our staying up and becoming established in the Prem. We'd undoubtedly see a rise in season ticket holders and crowds, but I won't claim that as representative of our core after two years, because I wouldn't be confident that those fans would still be there when things went to shit. And I'm not confident yours would be either.

£100 says we won't have a league gate under 20,000 in the next 5 years

 

[upthealbion1970]

Forgive me, but I don't regard new season ticket holders gained during the most successful period in the club's (modern) history as representative of a core. Nor would I do so for Palace, in the unlikely circumstance of our staying up and becoming established in the Prem. We'd undoubtedly see a rise in season ticket holders and crowds, but I won't claim that as representative of our core after two years, because I wouldn't be confident that those fans would still be there when things went to shit. And I'm not confident yours would be either.

Are you 1 of the selhurst 8? forgive me if you are I don't regard fans unless they are hardcore and represent the core fanbase of your club.

 

[Lethargic]

I once went to Sainsburys to get some milk and it was closed, shocking really.

 

[BobbySmith]

Some reasonable points, but the main 2 things that you miss are:
1. We have a huge fan base, bigger than most clubs on the uk, as we are not close to any other club, and no we don't really count Crawley.
2. We have Falmer, which is wonderful and so enjoyable to go to.

I think maybe you are a youngster and don't realise that we used to get bigger crowds than Palace in the 70/80's not every year, but a few and a lot of them are coming back. The passion of the fans near me are not in question. Please just accept the fact that at this moment in time we get bigger crowds than you, based on facilities and good football and of course that's more than Withdean, as simply football and ground are a lot
Better

I will take a £100 bet with any Palace fan that we will have larger crowds for 5 years, irrespective of what league we are in.

 

[HP Seagull]

Forgive me, but I don't regard new season ticket holders gained during the most successful period in the club's (modern) history as representative of a core. Nor would I do so for Palace, in the unlikely circumstance of our staying up and becoming established in the Prem. We'd undoubtedly see a rise in season ticket holders and crowds, but I won't claim that as representative of our core after two years, because I wouldn't be confident that those fans would still be there when things went to shit. And I'm not confident yours would be either.

The 'core' of a club will shrink and rise along with the fan base as a whole. If Palace spent a decade playing League 1/2 football at a dilapidated athletics track I would envisage them getting crowds comparable, if not lower, to the crowds we sustained.

 

[Se20]

The 'core' of a club will shrink and rise along with the fan base as a whole. If Palace spent a decade playing League 1/2 football at a dilapidated athletics track I would envisage them getting crowds comparable, if not lower, to the crowds we sustained.

Why is this such an issue ?
We are historically both similar supported clubs, if we had a shiny new stadium, we would have the same size gates.
Likewise we would have smaller gates in the lower leagues.
Any club can have a feel good factor through promotion, it's keeping the new or returning fans when the going gets tougher.

 

[Se20]

You're a small club getting far too big for your boots. Now fukkk off.

Oh the irony !!

 

[Se20]

Again limited with knowledge and facts, you could not just but a ticket on the day, it was all ticket and none on sale at the Withdean, but carry on making things up, quite funny really. Fact is, Palace make up facts to make their dwindling fan base look better.

The highest figure for season tickets at the Withdean was around the 4000 mark , and that was in your last season there and fans were getting loyalty points for the Amex.
I'm sure it was hard to get a ticket on the day, but with all your season ticket holders now, it seems strange that there wasnt more at the Withdean ?

 

[Dougie]

Oh the irony !!

Beat me to it it appears botty can't handle the ale

 

[Psalm 56:5]

8 fans turning up to a meet a player evening at Selhurst is pretty poor no matter how you try to talk up the palace support.

Maybe this is the palace core

I have no idea what you're talking about, and care even less. I've been a Palace fan through thick and thin, I was there outside Lloyds and have endured seasons of utter tedium under Taylor and Francis, yet I have never been to a "player evening" and never will. I'm not judging those who like that kind of thing, but I couldn't personally give a shit, and I don't give a toss if 8 people to to one or 800

 

[BobbySmith]

Se20, you normally talk sense, but you are not correct about Withdean, never mind, think I will give up. Lets just all agree that Palace fans know more about us and our Withdean years than the fans that went there each week. All I know is that I wonder how Many Palace fans would turn up week in week out on a horrible ground, with no facilities, watching some awful players and team. Oh hang on !!!

 

[Se20]

Se20, you normally talk sense, but you are not correct about Withdean, never mind, think I will give up. Lets just all agree that Palace fans know more about us and our Withdean years than the fans that went there each week. All I know is that I wonder how Many Palace fans would turn up week in week out on a horrible ground, with no facilities, watching some awful players and team. Oh hang on !!!

What wasn't I correct about ?
I'm not saying you wasn't there, I take my hat off to all the fans who loyally supported the club during the wilderness years,I'm just making a point about fans using the argument of not been able to get a match day ticket, when the reality was they could have purchased a season ticket like they do now.

 

[Superphil]

The highest figure for season tickets at the Withdean was around the 4000 mark , and that was in your last season there and fans were getting loyalty points for the Amex.
I'm sure it was hard to get a ticket on the day, but with all your season ticket holders now, it seems strange that there wasnt more at the Withdean ?

It was quite a bit more than that when we first went there, very few general sale tickets available for the first 5 years or so, but that llace ground a few dow. Apart from that, most of what you say makes sense.

 

[BobbySmith]

Check your facts is all I will say

 

[Aquilaugh]

I think you'll find that the home ends were sold out when we were at your level (Championship) and pretty much full when we were in the lower leagues. However, as you have never had to suffer this (as you didn't attempt to pay your debts) then we can only guess how you would have fared crowd-wise in a similar position. Your paltry crowds in recent low key Cup games gives us a pretty fair indication though.

I note your season ticket sales for next season are about half of ours - says everything about your current support level really.

not suprising really after all your floundering around in the lower leagues for so long and suddenly being propelled into the 2nd tier of English football with a new stadium - another two seasons of failure to get promoted will be the real test of how 'real' your new fans are won't it - they've turned up with high expectation levels with little or no regard or respect for established Championship clubs and assumed promotion would be innevitable - I'd like to clarify that the Withdean regulars are more likely to be more realistic and sensible about expectations and of course stick with their team regardless - you won't have found many if any Palace fans last season who predicted promotion and as you know many Brighton fans felt you had a very good chance and look what happened - redundancies and management suspensions indicate to me that maybe expectation levels were too high at the top of your club and dare I say it your club has more than a hint of arrogance about it - maybe all the turmoil at your club will end up being for the best in the long term

 

[COYP]

Some reasonable points, but the main 2 things that you miss are:
1. We have a huge fan base, bigger than most clubs on the uk, as we are not close to any other club, and no we don't really count Crawley.
2. We have Falmer, which is wonderful and so enjoyable to go to.

I think maybe you are a youngster and don't realise that we used to get bigger crowds than Palace in the 70/80's not every year, but a few and a lot of them are coming back. The passion of the fans near me are not in question. Please just accept the fact that at this moment in time we get bigger crowds than you, based on facilities and good football and of course that's more than Withdean, as simply football and ground are a lot
Better

I will take a £100 bet with any Palace fan that we will have larger crowds for 5 years, irrespective of what league we are in.

Ladies and gents meet our version of Seaside. The chap who came onto the HOL giving it the mouth, making all manner of bets (for the REMF and Geoff Thomas Foundation no less) and then disappeared.

No thanks Bobby. I don't bet with welchers.

 

[Hillian1]

I have no idea what you're talking about, and care even less. I've been a Palace fan through thick and thin, I was there outside Lloyds and have endured seasons of utter tedium under Taylor and Francis, yet I have never been to a "player evening" and never will. I'm not judging those who like that kind of thing, but I couldn't personally give a shit, and I don't give a toss if 8 people to to one or 800

I find it rather strange that almost every Palace fan that comes on here claims to have been there at Lloyds but there was only about 100 there.