7000 missing

[Johndelve]

To be honest you'll struggle to find to back to back home games of such poor quality. On reflection I don't blame anyone of them due to the poor performance on the pitch on Saturday.

Saturdays performance would only have counted for a few hundred not returning tonight.

Have you supported Argyle for like a week? This happens every time we have the Derby!!!!

Exactly. thats why the result on Saturday was irrelevant. Win lose or draw on Saturday the crowd would have been sub 7,000 tonight. People turn up for derby games and on boxing day with no intention of attending the next game.

 

[X Isle]

Agreed Greenskin, but the scale of the figures can't be disputed. With them we'd be a very rich club, without them we're not. With them we'd be guarenteed a successful side, without them we're not.

The most frustating example was several years back (Martin Barlow era if memory serves) it went down to the last day, a game at home to Gillingham where if results went against us or we didn't win we'd go down. Now that WASN'T a local derby.

I made the point then that if those self same missing X thousands had been there all season then the extra £X M's would've produced a side that would never have been troubling the bottom of the league in the first place. It was like a load of mourners turning up to watch a funeral for someone they could all have saved from dying.

Well that's life really. Remember when Burnley had to beat Orient to stay in the football league? 18000 there when their previous gates had dropped to less than 2000 earlier in the season. Every club in the lower divisions with the exception of Pompey could say that "if only we had 8,9,10 thousand every week, what a team we could build". It doesn't work that way-clubs have to earn loyalty and build their fan bases from generation to generation in the way that clubs like Swansea, Hull, Brighton etc,who were all getting gates similar to ours, have done.

There *IS* a difference though isn't there.

Yer Accringtons, yer Morcambes, yer Crawleys, yer Stevenages etc. .....none of them KNOW there are another 8, 9,10 thousand out there, because they've never had them.

We on the other hand know full well there's another 8,9,10 thousand out there who COULD come, who DO come from time to time.

To other clubs that extra support, all that extra money, well it's just wishful thinking, to us it's a tantalising reality.

Like I say, all very frustrating.

 

[HC Green]

Unfortunately Plymouth is not a football town. If you work out the average attendance as a percentage of the city's population Argyle has one of the lowest fan bases in the country. If you add in the catchment area due to the lack of other teams to compete for fans it is even worse.

 

[Burdy]

There have been many posts on Pasoti over the last few months concerning the low increases in attendances since Argyle hit top spot in league 2. I have to agree with one of the previous posts- Plymouth is to not a football town. Pulis and Holloway eluded to it in the Championship days - we simply do not have a big enough fan base.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I appreciate that there are many people in Plymouth that cannot afford to attend 2 games in a matter of days. However, there are many others that will attend 3 to 4 games in a season, who want Argyle to do well but are simply NOT passionate about Argyle. The atmosphere against Exeter last Saturday was poor, where was the vocal support for Argyle when the team needed it ?

We are TOP of the league and have generally played great football this season. For a city with a population of 250,000 plus the whole population of Cornwall, we should be getting 10,000 on a Tuesday night.

Our loyal 6,000 are fantastic and the away support is second to none. Brent has saved this club and it time for those fans who turn up now and again to support their local team.

Wee have TOO many part time supporters but NOT enough so we can increase the numbers in the squad or pay better wages to attract new players.

 

[chunkymonkey78]

And your point is?

...typical bleddy Argo :roll:

No Katkin, 7,000 x even a modest £20 a head is actually £140,000.

Now, that £140,000 extra over the other 22 home games would give Argyle well over £3,000,000... even more if you include the extra catering/programme and 50/50 monies etc..

I bear the missing 7,000+ no personal ill, I actually kinda 'get' the reasons why it happens. It's just a HUGELY frustrating catch 22 situation...

WITH that massive injection of gate revenue, the team would be much much better and you couldn't beat the 7,000+ off with a stick, they'd WANT to come back = a virtuous circle.

WITHOUT that massive injection of gate revenue the team is less good, so when they roll up it invariably falls flat on it's face and they walk away saying 'typical bleddy Argyle' = a self fulfilling brown tinted prophecy.

The fact they turn up and then go away again just gives a glimpse of what the club could be if they stayed. It's like a huge 'flashmob tease'. They show the club they're there and then b*gger off again.

Frustrating, that's the only word for it. All the understanding and all the historical precidence for it happening doesn't stop it being frustrating.

I'm not sure I agree with your reasoning that if we had more regular fans our team would be better as we'd have more money.

Portsmouth are an example. They're 5 or 6 points behind us. Not exactly running away with it as their fan base should suggest.

Accrington are doing well. They get small crowds.

Northampton are skint. They're 3rd.

Burton went up as champions last season, they get small crowds.

Wycombe narrowly lost out in the play off final on a shoestring budget.

It's been proven time and time again in football that having money doesn't always mean guaranteed success.

As an aside, the attendances would always of course be lower than in a Derby game.

I had to change my entire week's shift so I could attend tonight. My two kids are too young to attend an evening game when there's school the next day.

You'll have people not living in the area but coming back at weekends, people working shift work. All sorts.

And people that simply can't afford it.

I don't think 6500 odd on a cold, damp Tues night when we've lost a derby beforehand, and lost the last three at home is too bad a turnout. Especially with champions league on the gogglebox too.

 

[X Isle]

You'd think the basic reasoning that 'money helps', would be quite a difficult reasoning to argue against...but we'll done for trying :lol:

Of course it doesn't guarantee anything, of course without it it's possible to buck the trend. But trend it is, 'richer clubs do better' is the norm.

Put it this way, if, as we are now, a new owner came along and promised to invest £3M+ (the sum these missing fans would yield if they came all season) folk would be frothing at the mouth with excitement.

You'd be in a very small minority if you were to turn round and say "nah, you're alright fella, i've seen what more money does for Pompey, we don't want any of that nonsense' :lol:

Like I said earlier, I get why the gates go up and down, sometimes wildly as we'be seen in the last three days. But all the understanding in the world doesn't stop it being a frustrating situation.

It boils down to the age old problem, the chicken v the egg.

The 'floaters', shall we coin them, would come every week if a swashbuckling Argyle side that always won, and always won well were produced for them.

But in truth they need to come first to generate the cash to fund the said swashbuckling Argyle.

Beyond our loyal hardcore support, the 'floaters' want the cart put before the horse, they want someone else to finance and produce a quality product before they'll come regularly.

And that my friends will never happen for Argyle :sad:

 

[satfan]

Crowds are always lower for evening games except for the premier league. The football league should not allow lower League clubs to play consecutive home games in a space of 3 to 4 days, as this is unaffordable for a lot of fans.

 

[pearces greens]

I know they would of already paid, but I noticed four season ticket holders that I know of who didn't turn up. I don't understand it.

 

[Emu]

Worst, most fickle, big game once a season support in the country

This isn't just an Argyle disease, this would happen with the majority of clubs.

A, it is to be expected after facing a local derby for starters.

B, two home games in the space of three days . Not everyone can afford it, so have to pick and choose.

C, Champions League football on the TV

Fickle you say? No, just the way of the world of most football fans in the lower divisions.

 

[Emu]

I know they would have already paid, but I noticed four season ticket holders that I know of who didn't turn up. I don't understand it.

Again, this is not isolated to just Argyle, this happens at clubs up ands down the country. I cannot understand it either if the truth be known, but such is life!

I used to get to a few Palace games and the number of times they would read out the attendance and we'd have a chuckle on where the missing 5k fans were

 

[Stiffler]

The Yeovil game could be even bigger gate as segregation won't be as much.

 

[Pilgrim imp]

So would you call me one of the missing 7000
I live 190 miles away attend a home game once a month but do do a few away games during the season
My kids are both season ticket holders and they text me each and every game to tell me what's going on!!
If I could I would b there every home game but distance and work seems I can't still doesnt mean I don't hurt when we lose not there

Keeping the faith
In Adams I trust

 

[loyal1970]

And your point is?

...typical bleddy Argo :roll:

No Katkin, 7,000 x even a modest £20 a head is actually £140,000.

Now, that £140,000 extra over the other 22 home games would give Argyle well over £3,000,000... even more if you include the extra catering/programme and 50/50 monies etc..

I bear the missing 7,000+ no personal ill, I actually kinda 'get' the reasons why it happens. It's just a HUGELY frustrating catch 22 situation...

WITH that massive injection of gate revenue, the team would be much much better and you couldn't beat the 7,000+ off with a stick, they'd WANT to come back = a virtuous circle.

WITHOUT that massive injection of gate revenue the team is less good, so when they roll up it invariably falls flat on it's face and they walk away saying 'typical bleddy Argyle' = a self fulfilling brown tinted prophecy.

The fact they turn up and then go away again just gives a glimpse of what the club could be if they stayed. It's like a huge 'flashmob tease'. They show the club they're there and then b*gger off again.

Frustrating, that's the only word for it. All the understanding and all the historical precidence for it happening doesn't stop it being frustrating.

he said 140 thousand.

 

[Greenskin]

Argyle's gate last night would have been the third biggest in league 1 as well, admittedly way behind the top 2 but nonetheless ahead of some clubs who are doing well, so there must be an awful lot of places that peculiarly suddenly become "non football towns or cities" on Tuesday evenings. The phrase "non football city" is one of the most trite and hackneyed pieces of nonsense in history-Plymouth is as much a football city, if not more so, than places like Reading, Swansea, Hull and all the rest of them, who have earned the right to long term loyalty by vastly improving their infrastructure physically and financially and consistently putting high ranking teams on the pitch.

 

[loyal1970]

Unfortunately Plymouth is not a football town. If you work out the average attendance as a percentage of the city's population Argyle has one of the lowest fan bases in the country. If you add in the catchment area due to the lack of other teams to compete for fans it is even worse.

or city even, it's roughly the same population as hull and they had about the same as us until they got to the premier and there crowd's increased so would ours.