The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Honest question here, do people think that reopening the AirWair to home fans would increase attendance in general? So much so that it would be financially viable?

I was thinking about it last night, staring at the empty stand. It must be demoralising for players playing infront of nobody at that end, and the atmosphere in the ground / general matchday experience might be better as a result.

Question for Beasant/s at the forum perhaps.

Personally I think it would have a negative effect, the crowd would become more sparse and the stadium would look emptier. Although it is not ideal to have an empty stand, I don't think it it would have a great effect on the club if it was opened. I can't see people who don't attend now wanting to go just because they can sit in a nice stand.

I hear what you're saying, but it's never been tested since it was closed to home fans (06/07 season?)

I wonder how much the club actually used to lose by keeping the AirWair open?

BartonRaz wrote:I hear what you're saying, but it's never been tested since it was closed to home fans (06/07 season?)

I wonder how much the club actually used to lose by keeping the AirWair open?

Yeah, it's interesting. If they lost money then, I guess they would they would lose money now then. Definitely worth inquiring about on Friday though.

I think we should open it for local school children, armed forces, police, ambulance etc and let them in for nowt, then hopefully reap rewards from burger sales, and them coming back eventually. If a success kill 2 birds with 1 stone...sort of anyway.

D14MNDS wrote:I think we should open it for local school children, armed forces, police, ambulance etc and let them in for nowt, then hopefully reap rewards from burger sales, and them coming back eventually. If a success kill 2 birds with 1 stone...sort of anyway.

The cost of running it plus employing stewards would likely outweigh the money made from burgers etc though

I asked the question at the last fans forum and felt pretty stupid doing so really

I was looking at it at the weekend and as they charge us the same for all areas its a shame we can't change ends at half time so our boys will have home support to kick towards both halves. We could walk along the North Stand side to avoid the away fans and they'd only really need to steward the bit in the corner as they do already.

It won't happen due to the trouble of cleaning it etc, but they wouldn't have to open up the food outlets or anything like that, just allow access to the seats.

Just a thought. It'd help the players I reckon and help to create a bit more of an atmosphere.

HiHoRushden&Diamonds wrote:

D14MNDS wrote:I think we should open it for local school children, armed forces, police, ambulance etc and let them in for nowt, then hopefully reap rewards from burger sales, and them coming back eventually. If a success kill 2 birds with 1 stone...sort of anyway.

The cost of running it plus employing stewards would likely outweigh the money made from burgers etc though

Looking at the long term bigger picture though, if only say 15-20% became regulars it could be a good little bonus and could provide the basis for a new generation of fans for several years to come

BartonRaz wrote:
I wonder how much the club actually used to lose by keeping the AirWair open?

A figure of around £1000 a match was quoted by Club officials at the time the decision was made.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will make any difference at all to the attendance. I've no doubt that we lost a few fans when we decided to close it a few years back, but I can't see that re-opening it now would tempt any of them to return.