Shrimpsvoices

Where were the fans from Saturday? I said after the Blackpool match that we'd been everything I was crying out for last season. It was an entertaining game, with a great result, against one of the favourites for promotion... surely every Morecambe fan who was there would be back again on Tuesday night for the visit of an ex-Premiership side, favourites to win League Two?

Okay, literally not everyone would be able to get there but I was surprised that the Morecambe attendance had visibly dropped. If Saturday's game doesn't get people wanting to come back, I don't know what will?

However, to end on a positive, second half in particular, when our backs were against the wall, our fans sounded great!

Keith, I think there are a few factors:

1. The numbers of Morecambe fans on Saturday were, at least slightly, swelled by Blackpool fans either not able or not wanting to go in the away areas.
2. Blackpool was Saturday afternoon, Portsmouth Tuesday evening; you'll never get as many on a weekday night.
3. It's going to take more than 1 or 2 good performances to get the casuals returning on a regular basis.
4. Crap reporting by the VIsitor, suggesting Blackpool should have walloped us.

I'm sure others can suggest more reasons.

2 home games in 4 days is expensive.

Maybe some sort of promotion if the fixtures come like that.

It was still well up on the Winter home game with Pompey.

In our area last night we were surrounded left, right and below by Pompey fans. It was quite amusing when one lad was cheering them on, we told him to sit down and shut up and he said - oh sorry, that's my brother!
He had no idea we had beaten Blackpool. The guy to our right was up and down like he had ants in his pants, soon left before the end

Blimey ................ a post from Keith with the word negative in it !!!! But his point is valid and my follow up relates to exactly how do the majority of people in the area obtain information about MFC. In my younger days (many years ago I know), the Visitor was an absolute must every week for keeping in touch and finding out what was happening. I won't comment further on that as there is a thread devoted to the demise of this newspaper elsewhere. I would suggest that the majority of folks in the catchment area are not necessarily in their first flush of life and probably do not spend too much time online and are possibly rather techno-phobic (like me?).
So how do MFC get news and results etc out to all these people? It sounds a very simple question but I'm not sure that there is a simple (or easy) answer.
Perhaps if in the reasonably near future the club does have new owners, this is something that they need to think about and if they can find a solution, spend some time and money on it. I guess that an advertising company may need to be involved, but certainly the club does somehow need to try and get a higher profile in the area.

Pompey for £17 in League 2
Premier League Bournemouth for £10 in the cup.

Lets do the maths for an area without much cash!

Probably a reasonable number away on holiday too

If it was easy to answer the problem of declining attendances then I'm sure the Board would have acted.

However the fodder served up last season will stick in the throats of many and getting them to part with hard earned cash once again will take more than a couple of excellent results and performances.

As has been posted the local newspaper in its heyday used to be the font of all things Shrimps but over the years since the demise of Mr Quinn it has gradually gone down hill until today it can no longer be either well respected in what it reports or even be classed as a serious newspaper. Even my local the Westmorland Gazette can afford to have a locally based reporter at the Kendal Town games! In a nutshell The Visitor is a complete joke and not worth the cover charge. If as has been suggested it merges with the Lancaster Guardian I suspect that its reporting of our games will continue to be second best.

As for promotions to encourage more to attend, other than financial incentives alongside continued progress on the field it's difficult to know what our club can do to attract an increase in gates.

IF a new owner is on the horizon (and I believe there are positive moves in that direction) then unless they can wave a magic wand we are stuck with what we have until the root of the problem for me is resolved and that is consistent, positive performances on the field that provide entertainment and put the feel good factor back into our club.

Christies Child wrote:If it was easy to answer the problem of declining attendances then I'm sure the Board would have acted.

However the fodder served up last season will stick in the throats of many and getting them to part with hard earned cash once again will take more than a couple of excellent results and performances.

As has been posted the local newspaper in its heyday used to be the font of all things Shrimps but over the years since the demise of Mr Quinn it has gradually gone down hill until today it can no longer be either well respected in what it reports or even be classed as a serious newspaper. Even my local the Westmorland Gazette can afford to have a locally based reporter at the Kendal Town games! In a nutshell The Visitor is a complete joke and not worth the cover charge. If as has been suggested it merges with the Lancaster Guardian I suspect that its reporting of our games will continue to be second best.

As for promotions to encourage more to attend, other than financial incentives alongside continued progress on the field it's difficult to know what our club can do to attract an increase in gates.

IF a new owner is on the horizon (and I believe there are positive moves in that direction) then unless they can wave a magic wand we are stuck with what we have until the root of the problem for me is resolved and that is consistent, positive performances on the field that provide entertainment and put the feel good factor back into our club.

Can't you actually add .....'perhaps we now have the beginnings of that'? ....from the sounds of the last 3 games most people who attended would be happy to be stuck with that sort of team effort.

It's simple folks. Not much to do with lack of cash in people's pockets or dodgy results from last season. I reakon, judging by the attendance there were possibly 1300 Morecambe fans there. (It did look sparse on the TV.) That means there were over 500 Pompey fans. Commendable for a Tuesday but would have been double that on a Saturday. If anyone is to blame it's the football league fixture planners...er...a computer!

Not a great home attendance last night (about 1350) but compare it to many of last season's mid-weekers it was probably up around 300. These games are always noticeably lower than Saturday ones.

Saturday's 1800ish home fans was also up about 400-500 on our Saturday games on average last season.

If we can keep winning the majority of our home games and playing like the last two matches I reckon we can get our average back up close to the 2000 mark with help of course from away followings.