7000 missing

[crownhill pilgrim]

Some people can't make it down for a midweek match. Some people have to work nights or get up for work/school early.

No one likes a purist.

 

[up the line]

Obviously I understand people can't make it to every game, but 55%!!

 

[HC Green]

we

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.

Until Hull City reached the Premier League, in Hull like Wigan the biggest supported teams were the rugby league teams. In Hull, Hull City has to compete with two rugby teams for supporters.
We don't have that problem.

 

[loyal1970]

we

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.

Until Hull City reached the Premier League, in Hull like Wigan the biggest supported teams were the rugby league teams. In Hull, Hull City has to compete with two rugby teams for supporters.
We don't have that problem.

so where in hull suddenly do 20,000 extra football fan's come from when they get to the premier and we would be exactly the same, and we also have a rugby team in the CITY.

 

[kingobadingo]

Such a frustrating thread.

I've been to over 130 football grounds and most of them with Argyle but I do not live in Plymouth so struggle to get to the home games.

The derby game is always appealing as it draws in the bigger crowd and its one I always choose to attend.

Also for anyone to say Plymouth is not a football city needs to wake up! On most Saturdays supporters club coaches depart from Plymouth to attend other Premier League and Championship Club games! We have a perfect catchment area for big crowds but unfortunately only the die hard fans will continue to support Argyle whilst in League 2.

 

[argobenz]

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.

A few hundred?!?

I think you will find 7000 is closer to the number you're looking for.

 

[IJN]

Such a frustrating thread.

I've been to over 130 football grounds and most of them with Argyle but I do not live in Plymouth so struggle to get to the home games.

The derby game is always appealing as it draws in the bigger crowd and its one I always choose to attend.

Also for anyone to say Plymouth is not a football city needs to wake up! On most Saturdays supporters club coaches depart from Plymouth to attend other Premier League and Championship Club games! We have a perfect catchment area for big crowds but unfortunately only the die hard fans will continue to support Argyle whilst in League 2.

I'm sure no one intended to slag off the exiles, no one can blame them for the low gates.

Your last paragraph says it all.

Plus, I truly believe that Plymouth is not a football city. I used to believe it was, but the CCC last few seasons seemed to prove otherwise.

Thank God we have the Cornish support. :scarf:

 

[argobenz]

Such a frustrating thread.

I've been to over 130 football grounds and most of them with Argyle but I do not live in Plymouth so struggle to get to the home games.

The derby game is always appealing as it draws in the bigger crowd and its one I always choose to attend.

Also for anyone to say Plymouth is not a football city needs to wake up! On most Saturdays supporters club coaches depart from Plymouth to attend other Premier League and Championship Club games! We have a perfect catchment area for big crowds but unfortunately only the die hard fans will continue to support Argyle whilst in League 2.

Sorry a couple of coaches or even 5 would only represent a couple hundred people.

 

[argobenz]

Without our fans from outside the city we would be 3-4000 hardcore at best.

About 1.6%

 

[tbc]

Why are we always lamenting the 'lost' supporters, instead of celebrating the extra 7,000 on certain days.

Everyone here is so quick to judge and throw around the 'plastic' insult, just accept that some games will attract more support than others.

Yes they are there and yes they may just attend derby day and Boxing day etc., but they still spend their money. I'd rather 7,000 people paid for a few games a season than just said 'no I dont go every week, so I'm just a plastic, so I wont bother going'

The glass is half full

 

[X Isle]

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.

She (I believe) emmended the figure. Initially it was £14000.

 

[IJN]

Why are we always lamenting the 'lost' supporters, instead of celebrating the extra 7,000 on certain days.

Everyone here is so quick to judge and throw around the 'plastic' insult, just accept that some games will attract more support than others.

Yes they are there and yes they may just attend derby day and Boxing day etc., but they still spend their money. I'd rather 7,000 people paid for a few games a season than just said 'no I dont go every week, so I'm just a plastic, so I wont bother going'

The glass is half full

I think that's all it is - 'lamenting'. If we didn't have this 'problem' we'd be as big as Pompey are in this (and the next and possibly the next) league up. Perhaps Greenskin is right, we have to achieve something first.

 

[X Isle]

Why are we always lamenting the 'lost' supporters, instead of celebrating the extra 7,000 on certain days.

Because they're 'lost' for 20-21 games a season, they're only 'found' for one or two.

If your car only fired up once or twice every twenty three attempts you'd hardly be chuffed with it would you.

If your 'old boy' only 'fired up' once or twice every twenty three attempts you'd hardly be chuffed would your love life would you.

You'd be frustrated, the buzz word of this thread, the only word to describe it.

 

[Knarf Reprah]

Cost, pure and simple

 

[chunkymonkey78]

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:

I'm not sure if the first sentence was supposed to be condescending?

Just wondered as your first sentence tends to pour scorn on my reasoning, then your second basically agrees with it?

Money doesn't buy team spirit, sometimes these teams with money don't do well because they're full of mercenaries. Last time we paid big money for wages that worked well didn't it?

Or relied on the promise of big bucks from investors etc.

It's not just us, Cardiff's manager was moaning a while back about crowds dropping since they fell into the championship.

The club, like most clubs, are lucky that fans have an emotional bond with them so continue to put their hands in pockets when the entertainment is poor. And that's all that football is, entertainment. From that comes the community aspect etc but at the end of the day, it's about entertainment.

You wouldn't persistently pay the local cinema week in, week out, change shifts, travel long distances, recommend it to others and spend money on their merchandise if they served the same poo films up at different times of the week would you?