Diamonds Vs Crawley

All things unofficial about AFC Rushden & Diamonds and general football talk.
Formic
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Formic »

I think people are looking rather too simplistically at the reason for the drop in attendance.

If it was solely down to the price issue on the DeBanke how do people explain the drop in numbers in the South Stand. How many people would honestly predict that if we dropped the price to £12 / £10 our gates would rise back to the 1800 mark we were getting in our first season back in the Conference before the dross that Garry Hill served up turned so many people away ?

It's clear that there is a general issue with people's disposable income, and this is getting worse as time goes by - with a particular post-Christmas hit - let's not forget there wasn't a significant dip in attendances in the first couple of months of the season. With the additional cost of both seats and standing at Nene Park, plus petrol (it costs me £7.50 just for the Nene Park round trip) and the parking charges on top people are starting be a lot more choosy about which games they watch.

With five home games in a row we were bound to see the impact of some / all of these general cost increases.

As some have said, having midweek games at this time of year isn't ideal due to weather and Champions League - people don't mind missing the Champions League group stages, but want to see the games now. We already have something approaching the maximum number of games in August, but September and October are quite sparse so having a couple more games in those months would make sense.

More in the ET on this - http://www.northantset.co.uk/sport/foot ... _1_2488380
Trek
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Trek »

Biggles wrote:.....so taking an average of say £13 per person (£17 less a mix of season tickets,concessions,trust prices) would be around an average of 1200 to cover the playing squad.
Your nett value of £13 per person is wildly optimistic bearing in mind admission charges for Under 8's (free), Under 16's, students and over 60's. Don't forget that 20% of any figure is VAT payable so the nett receipts per head is probably nearer £9 to 10.
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Pigman
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Pigman »

Formic wrote:I think people are looking rather too simplistically at the reason for the drop in attendance.
I totally agree Tony, there are loads of reasons why people aren't attending, price is just one of them. I also agree that the way the fixtures have panned out for us with so many home games bunched together hasn't helped - surely the "authorities" have got to look at that for next season?

A 1300 average to break-even has surprised me though, thought it would be more than that - we must really have got our budget under control for that to be the case - which makes what Justin has achieved even more impressive.
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Biggles
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Biggles »

Trek wrote:
Biggles wrote:.....so taking an average of say £13 per person (£17 less a mix of season tickets,concessions,trust prices) would be around an average of 1200 to cover the playing squad.
Your nett value of £13 per person is wildly optimistic bearing in mind admission charges for Under 8's (free), Under 16's, students and over 60's. Don't forget that 20% of any figure is VAT payable so the nett receipts per head is probably nearer £9 to 10.
My figure of around 1200 and £13 can't have been that wildly wayoff as the Chairman has stated that 1300 is the breakeven figure this season, so not bad for a person with GCE grade D Maths :lol:
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Arendee
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Arendee »

An interesting thread.

I think that Crawley is doing exactly what RDFC did. I mentioned this some years ago - one of the most thought provoking things I saw, when we finally got promotion to the FL, was an article in the Guardian by a guy who was less than glowing in his views of RDFC. In summary, he argued that we didn't have the foundations to survive long term - some of his comments almost bordered on the vindicative. It created a lot of debate on here and the writer was unsurprisingly vilified by the supporters. However, it created a worry in my mind for the first time that this might not be forever. What would happen if the money was removed? It was the one subject no-one spoke about.

This articale was produced just after we had a great season, a great FA Cup campaign, national recognition, a new stadium, big investment, an expensive squad, etc. Sounds familiar?

In terms of RDFC, the big question for me is: how do you get the support to increase in the same way it did in the 1990s? There were no great names to draw people in, the stadium was still being built and the team was successful however not spectacularly. People flocked in. Living in Rushden you could see there was a buzz around. People wanted to know what was going on and local companies flocked to use the facilities. The "package" was spot on. The clubs ambition rubbed off on every one and attendance grew. Max and his fellow directors were everywhere and you knew they wanted to see good football at Nene Park - just the same as the fans.

I think it is possible to do it again, and without spending fortunes, but it needs to start with getting the idea of football back into the mainstream for the club, a sensible and clear ambition and an achievable target. I think fundamentally that's exactly what Max did.
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Three of Diamonds »

It's the "knock on" effect in most cases isn't it? Max subsidised the place and others to come to NP, with a great team that won things and the knock on was that people followed. When he pulled out we started lots of negativity (we can't afford this, we have to close that - and no doubt made worse by the Safety Advisory Group who have no flexibility it seems ), the football got worse, the prices went up and the knock on effect was negative in the fact people turn away. The negativity must stop or be reduced to a managable level, and the club (and us) must start being pro-active and positive again. Marketing is an absolute MUST if we are to get the ball rolling again, the team is pretty close and the extra push off the field will lift it as well. Of course it's a balancing act, but every journey starts with a first step. If it were me, I'd take away the parking charge and tell the world. Get people into the place THEN take their money.
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Trek
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Re: Diamonds Vs Crawley

Post by Trek »

Biggles wrote:
My figure of around 1200 and £13 can't have been that wildly way off as the Chairman has stated that 1300 is the breakeven figure this season, so not bad for a person with GCE grade D Maths :lol:
Perhaps he forgot about the 20% VAT deduction as well. Hence the transfer embargo. :oops:
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