Where will the Diamonds finish? Diamonds Half Season Preview

[Pigman]

Step 3, if achieved next year, will be an awesome achievement in just 5 years (4 if you just count the senior team). To come from just having a youth team to Step 3 would be fantastic!

Until we get our own ground I genuinely think that's our limit! I doubt if attendance would increase much - maybe up to a 550-600 average? I'd like to think so anyway, some of that increase will be more away fans.

With a ground back in the Rushden area and a successful side who knows, maybe 1000 average would be achievable (look at the Higham game).

Off field revenue is all important, as important as turnstile turnover - so having our own ground to maximise revenue streams is vital if we are to go further. We don't have a benefactor like many others, so we can only spend what we earn.

Would I be happy sitting in Step 3? Yes I would! But I'd want to see us competitive and up the right end of the table - but doing so sustainably!

Get to step 3 and our biggest challenge is staying there - then getting that all illusive ground !!

[Olly]

I agree that it would be difficult to progress higher than step 3 in our current situation with crowds not really looking like climbing much higher than the 500 mark on average. But yeah, step 3 brings some relatively attractive opposition with a few away fans, the team up the A6, possibly Corby, King's Lynn, St Neots, Leamington, further afield you've got Weymouth and Merthyr who'd bring maybe a few and then probably Hereford a couple of seasons down the line too, so hopefully those games will attract fairly decent crowds and I'd be pretty excited if it were a league containing us, K*ttering and Corby!

Though I'd perhaps worry a little about crowds dropping further if we were to hang around step 3 mid table for several years, but that's probably inevitable until we move to a permanent home, even as we carry on up the pyramid top of step 4, the crowds have actually dropped slightly again, even if the weather hasn't been great.

[BartonRaz]

The league we're in probably has the worst average attendance of any of the 6 leagues at Step 4. Only three clubs have an average of over 200, and one of those is St Ives whose attendance figures i'm highly suspicious of. A promotion this season would definitely see the average attendance rise considerably, even by as much as 30-40% I reckon because we'll be playing sides that actually bring decent away support and the games will be more appealing to the floating fan.

As mentioned previously we could potentially have a league that includes ourselves, K*ttering, Corby and Brackley. There's 3 games that could have 1000+ attendances straight off should that come off. Then there's the likes of King's Lynn, Weymouth, Leamington and Cambridge City who would bring a decent amount. If you read anything into the projections on the non-league matters website we could have St Albans, Basingstoke and Havant & Waterlooville in our league next season also:

Let's say for arguments sake that we go up and get a 35% increase on the current average of 446 (which I think is fair given the games against Corby and K*ttering alone would draw huge crowds), that works out at around 600 which would be the 2nd highest average in the SLP currently, and would be bang average in Conference North.

Our crowds will be able to sustain a Step 2 side IMO should we be lucky enough to get there, question is, can the Dog & Duck?

I'm not 'getting ahead of myself' here and I realise there is a long way to go to get to Step 3. The above is just for debate really!

[Pigman]

I'm sure the Dog and Duck could be adapted to enable Step 2 football to be played there, I guess the question is do we want to spend the money required to do so on what we are all hoping is a "temporary" home? I guess it's also down to what works the owner will approve as well?

[Frogerz]

All down to how long it takes to find a new ground. If we spend a few years at Step 3 and there’s still no viable option for a permanent home then that’s when the question will be asked.

A lot of fans would soon get bored off playing for nothing at an average level. In the interests of progressing the club it would make sense to take the hit and progress the D&D.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

In the interests of progressing the club it would make sense to take the hit and progress the D&D.

That would only progress the First Team though surely?

[therushden]

Also, these teams who have smaller gates may also have a chairman that picks up the bills. We have to sustain our entire club on what we can generate.
I think we'll win this league, maybe not by much, but we'll win it.

[Pigman]

All down to how long it takes to find a new ground. If we spend a few years at Step 3 and there’s still no viable option for a permanent home then that’s when the question will be asked.

A lot of fans would soon get bored off playing for nothing at an average level. In the interests of progressing the club it would make sense to take the hit and progress the D&D.

That's a tough call to make though - if you invest heavily in the Dog and Duck then the funds are gone! What do we do if that illusive bit of land crops up?

It's a balancing act isn't it?

[SouthRushdenJFC]

I wouldn't be happy with making a significant investment on any ground that didn't have a long term lease on it.

[Frogerz]

All down to how long it takes to find a new ground. If we spend a few years at Step 3 and there’s still no viable option for a permanent home then that’s when the question will be asked.

A lot of fans would soon get bored off playing for nothing at an average level. In the interests of progressing the club it would make sense to take the hit and progress the D&D.

That's a tough call to make though - if you invest heavily in the Dog and Duck then the funds are gone! What do we do if that illusive bit of land crops up?

It's a balancing act isn't it?

Very tough call indeed, would be a gamble either way. Depends on the costs involved, I’ve no idea how much it would be to get the D&D to step 2 but I’d imagine quite a lot.

I wonder whether Mr Cousins would sell Nene Park to us… Not that we would want to hand over money to him mind.