The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Looking at the attendance figures on the nonleaguematters website (which is brilliant by the way) it would appear that we currently have the highest average gate at Step 5. Clubs with average attendances over 150 are as follows:

AFC Rushden & Diamonds - 447
Spennymoor - 417
Whitley Bay - 323
Runcorn Linnets - 313
Tunbridge Wells - 306
Bishop Auckland - 244
Windsor - 235
West Auckland Town - 231
Celtic Nation - 228
Ashington - 199
Wisbech - 197
Ashford Utd - 193
Shildon - 182
Marske Utd - 180
Dunston UTS - 178
Glossop North End - 168
Heanor Town - 163
Athersley Recreation - 158
Sholing - 152
Crook Town - 150
Penrith - 150
Winchester City - 150

If you went up a level to Step 4, we'd be 4th. Clubs at Step 4 with average attendances over 230:

Darlington - 1,117
Guernsey - 1,061
K*ttering - 581
Hastings Utd - 415
Scarborough - 405
Halesowen - 300
Gresley - 271
Ramsbotton - 266
Slough - 266
St Ives - 247
Folkestone Invicta - 244
Sheffield FC - 244
Rugby - 242
Lancaster - 240
Burgess Hill Town - 238
Merthyr Town - 236
Herne Bay - 232
Leatherhead - 230

http://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/

Really interesting, i think attendances have been a little lower than i expect this season, maybe as a result of so much games so far this season. Maybe the increase in match day prices at the start of the season are partly the reason? We got to vote at the start of the season on the prices, time to scrutinize that decide?

cuz we play loads of tuedsay night matches, brings our average down

What we charge is spot on for UCL Prem football - if we dropped the price by £1 if wouldn't bring any more people in through the door, all it would do is hit the club financially.

therushden is right, Tuesday night games bring our overall average down - its still very impressive for Step 5 football, as is the quality of our play at times.

The thing we all need to do is get promoting the club locally, it still amazes me how many people are unaware that we're a new club born out of the ashes of the old one - we've got to get that message across and encourage them to come and watch us - we all have a role to play in doing that !!

Our average so far is 17.83% down on our final figure last season, but of course we had crunch matches towards the end of the season that saw large attendances (Oadby & Eynesbury), and the opening game against Thrapston.

We've still got the derby against Wellingborough and games against Spalding/Deeping which should see decent attendances so i'd expect to get closer to last year's average in the end.

We also got some unexpectedly high attendances last season, such as the midweek 550 against R&H, a couple of 500+ on winter Saturdays and nearly 700 for the Whitworth game. One thing that might not help is the blocks of home/away games that we have scheduled. I think our attendances would be higher if we had a home game every 2 weeks as was standard in the Conference. As it is we've been having runs of 3-5 home or away games, which might put off some people just out of football fatigue.

Out of interest how many season ticket holders do we have this season?

Saturday average for 4 home league games is 487 whilst Tuesday average for 4 home games is 406 so the drop off for midweek games is not so great as last season when Tuesday games were almost 200 lower.

Considering the amount of replays in cup games it might be better to compare total numbers through the gate to last season?

Certainly including FA Cup and FA Vase attendances at the Dog & Duck would improve the 447 figure. It should, however, be pointed out that the figures on the 'Non League Matters' site relate only to league fixtures. There have been two significant attendances at the Dog & Duck, ie Cambridge City and Cockfosters that were greater than our biggest league attendance which was recorded against the side at rock bottom in the league, Harborough Town.
It will be interesting to see how the attendances compare with last season once home matches against Wellingborough Town, Spalding United and Deeping Rangers have taken place.

Trek wrote:Certainly including FA Cup and FA Vase attendances at the Dog & Duck would improve the 447 figure. It should, however, be pointed out that the figures on the 'Non League Matters' site relate only to league fixtures. There have been two significant attendances at the Dog & Duck, ie Cambridge City and Cockfosters that were greater than our biggest league attendance which was recorded against the side at rock bottom in the league, Harborough Town.
It will be interesting to see how the attendances compare with last season once home matches against Wellingborough Town, Spalding United and Deeping Rangers have taken place.

Don`t forget Wisbech as they may not be as high up the league as Spalding & Deeping but are far better supported.
As much as many of us may love 2 games a week i`m sure the recent run, being completed tomorrow of 8 straight Tue games has possibly been a bit to much for some. Sure the average will start to increase with a few less games & visits from the other top 1/3 sides, as these games not only attract supporters from the teams involved but also the ground-hoppers & wandering followers of non league football looking for a decent game to watch.