The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

at last nights forum JE got quite upset at the falling attendence issue, he raised the point that if we dont get the gates up we are gonna struggle to survive he asked why we have lost so many fans and how do we get them back?
we look better as a team than we have for years, so why wont people support us?
theres loads of reasons people stopped coming...relegations, tippit, hart, hill, prices etc..
but how do we get people back? those of you who dont come anymore..what can the club do to gain your support?

I think you're asking the question in the wrong place, most of (if not all of) us still go !! Its for us to encourage as many people as possible to come along and try and get at least one person extra along to the next home game.

It was a very passionate plea and he is genuinely hurt by the lack of support being shown by local people.

We (fans) really need to get the message out via posters, talking to people, trying to convince them it's changed, especially people new to the area with young families. There will always be those that hold a grudge against the club for all manner of stupid reasons, but the point should be stressed to those that do that it is a very different club to the one KC sold.

People need to let go and draw a line under the past.

I also think we need more people to volunteer, especially in getting out to the local community to work on bringing fans in.

We took 1500 AWAY to Oxford in the play-offs last season. The supporter base IS there. There need to be a concious effort from the start of next season to draw people back, trying different initiatives.

BartonRaz wrote:We took 1500 AWAY to Oxford in the play-offs last season. The supporter base IS there. There need to be a concious effort from the start of next season to draw people back, trying different initiatives.

You're spot on in your post (although it was 1100 fans we took to Oxford, but that's not the point). This area could support a 3-4000 gate in the long term. That conscious effort needs to be undertaken by us the fans as well. We're one of the biggests assets that should be bringing more down to Nene Park.

For a start just look at some of the regular posters that are on this forum and are not attending recent fixtures.

BartonRaz wrote:We took 1500 AWAY to Oxford in the play-offs last season. The supporter base IS there. There need to be a concious effort from the start of next season to draw people back, trying different initiatives.

Absolutely BUT, we must NOT leave this for the people at the club to do alone. IT IS OUR CLUB, and we must engage with it, so if you have an idea (however wacky it sounds), present it to the club via the email address posted for Gill Wignall.
THIS IS NOT A FALSE ALARM, THIS IS NOT A TEST, we need to see action now not words.
Speaking to Steve Beasant and Justin Edinburgh afterwards, there will be a lot more happening around the club and the community side. They're also looking to bring the Sports & Exhibition centre back into the fold if possible at some point.
The club will also be looking at possibly mailshotting the ex season ticket holders who have since left, depends on various factors (data protection act etc)
On the minus side I voted for Burger D :evil: :lol:

Its simple why a lot aren't going, £17 to watch a game against Hayes and Yeading for example, it isn't sounding exactly glamorous is it. Clearly higher prices haven't worked, so may as well stop it.

It's the amount of home games we have had in the past month and they were teams down the bottom, they hardly came with any fans. Plus it's got to have something to do with fuel also. It's hard for everyone, everything is going up in price (tickets) , apart from our wages .

Plus if the team was consistent then I am sure the fan base would be also 8-) ! They have got to take a bit of slack too I think

BartonRaz wrote:We took 1500 AWAY to Oxford in the play-offs last season. The supporter base IS there. There need to be a concious effort from the start of next season to draw people back, trying different initiatives.

It was an excellent away following considering we had more fans at Oxford than we've had at many home games this season (and even last season at times) but the home leg's attendance (2200 home) still confuses me. Alright there was only a few days to sell tickets and it was an awkward day of the week but considering we averaged higher than that as a team bottom of the football league the season before, I really thought a big playoff semi final to get back into the league would bring more back than it actually did but it showed that'll it'll take promotion back into the league to get many back but obviously we now just have to work on moving the attendances in the right direction and regularly 1000+ again.

And for anyone who was at the forum last night, was a fans day suggested or mentioned, i.e. free kids tickets or even free for all and what Wrexham and Mansfield did last season as both showed that it can work, not sure what the effect of their fans days were in the long term but I'd definitely like to see us try it out.