Shrimpsvoices

Buton 3363 and Fleetwood 3713...

At least we are having far better gates than those above.

In all fairness those are both decent crowds for both those clubs.

If they have average/poor seasons they will only get gates of around 2000 - 3000 at best. Accringtion are a club in a very similar boat.

If we have a season like last season, where we are at the bottom end of the league, I think our lowest crowd would be around 3000 mark minimum, especially against clubs like Burton/FGR who may only bring a couple of away fans at best.

I think we've sold over 2,800 season tickets - so when added to home fans that 'pay on the gate' and the away following, I don't see us dropping below announced league attendances of 3,500 all season - even for midweek games. That's some achievement for us.

I agree that crowds for Burton Albion, Accrington Stanley, Fleetwood Town and ourselves aren't low at all - maybe for the division, but you have got to be realistic; these sides are traditionally all non-league outfits (even the one with a famous name) who were getting attendances well below 1,000 as recently as the 90's.

I think we should be benchmarking ourselves against these clubs to be honest - and I'm sure they will view us in a similar way. The Shrimps were ahead of all of them in the early years of the Conference on every level (spare a thought for Woking!), then we had to watch them all go above us one by one as they progressed through the leagues and we stagnated with no ambition and resulting financial troubles.

I always thought that ultimately we have more potential than each of the teams mentioned - and we can now see that on the terraces with the number of season ticket holders... something I'm sure each of the sides mentioned will be envious of. We are still behind all of them in some aspects though - but the gap is closing.

The teams quoted by RRW above seem reluctant to follow our model of new pricing structures when it has proved to be the life blood of our club.

I'm amazed that a club like Stanley who have a squad of 37 professionals are able to survive on their gates especially when we have shown that by careful financial planning a way forward for clubs like ours who will never be able to have regular gates of over 6500.....

I think our BoD and those who thought through the new pricing policy have proved themselves to be the saviours of our club. Had we continued with the same old same old before the new pricing structures then it is doubtful that we would have survived as an established progressive EFL club.