Not being present at the FGR game myself, I can't speak for our performance on the day. The result kind of suggests we were awful, but there may have been moments of hope. Did anyone at the game see any hint of anything that might encourage the extra fans to return....anything that suggests we may win our next game?
The average number of County fans at home League games before the FGR fixture was 3009..... so some extra 848 turned out for the Boxing Day clash with our near-rivals.
Will many /any of them return?..... should we have sold a ticket bundle after all?

We were playing fine and more than in the game until the sending off. I don’t think it was a foul for their first goal either, was only 10 yards away from it.
Could and should have gone on level at half time but when we went down to 10 men and they score from the free kick FGR were so good in keeping the ball and we didn’t stand a chance.

This is the Newport public though so I imagine the vast majority won’t return, but I’ve said it many times before, those ‘fans’ are only ever one poor performance away from not coming anyway.

Exile 1976 wrote:We were playing fine and more than in the game until the sending off. I don’t think it was a foul for their first goal either, was only 10 yards away from it.
Could and should have gone on level at half time but when we went down to 10 men and they score from the free kick FGR were so good in keeping the ball and we didn’t stand a chance.

..... enough to make a floating fan think we may beat Crawley?...

newgroundrodney wrote:

Exile 1976 wrote:We were playing fine and more than in the game until the sending off. I don’t think it was a foul for their first goal either, was only 10 yards away from it.
Could and should have gone on level at half time but when we went down to 10 men and they score from the free kick FGR were so good in keeping the ball and we didn’t stand a chance.

..... enough to make a floating fan think we may beat Crawley?...

I don’t know. The problem is they will have left that game after seeing us totally dominated for the last 25 mins and lose 1-4. Understandably, that will probably be their only memory of the game

TBH we have a rather fickle fan base, and I can honestly see us losing quite a few more off Saturday's gate sadly following yesterday's game!

I have made this point before. Regular supporters don't get to every game. But they all tend to make certain games. The first game of the season, the last and holiday games.

I suspect that the majority of the extra 848 are actually regular attendees.

I'm not sure where the "new" fans will come from ?, I'm in my 60's and used to sneak into Somerton Park to watch the games, I didn't have : A any money or B anyone who would take me, without doing this I wouldn't be supporting County today.What if everyone under 16 accompanied by a paying adult got in for free, the numbers would increase at no extra cost to the club and we would be building our next generation of County fans.

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, we don’t have 800-odd “missing” fans, and it’s inaccurate to portray it as a discrete group of people who are “fickle”.

I’ve said it before, but we have 1,500-2,000 regular die-hards who go to most home games. We then have a pool of about 10,000 semi-regulars who will attend half a dozen home games a season. But those games aren’t chosen at random - they’ll be against bigger opposition, when there’s a lot at stake (promotion / relegation), when the weather’s nice or when there’s a bank holiday (Boxing Day particularly). All clubs attract bigger crowds when one or more of the above criteria are met.

We need to stop slagging off “fickle” or “fair weather” fans, or accusing them of “going missing”. Instead, think about how we can get them to attend 8-10 games instead of 4-6 each year. Doing that is how you build a sustainable fanbase.

Here are a few suggestions:
- “bundle” tickets where people get a discount for attending a number of games during a set period (eg, the Winter Bank Holiday period). 4 games for the price of 3 etc.
- put ALL home match tickets on sale as soon as fixtures are announced each year; if someone has a burst of enthusiasm and wants to book matches for four months hence, make it possible for them to do so!
- review ticketing for families; most attractions offer a “family ticket” (2 adults and 2 or 3 kids), we should do the same.

But the main suggestion is for the 1,500 regulars to stop making themselves out to be somehow superior (and, by implication, the semi-regulars inferior) based on how many games they make. Different income levels, work commitments, family life and a host of other factors mean that some people attend fewer County games than I do - but they’re not lesser fans, and they deserve to enjoy our successes every bit as much as anyone else who Supports The Port.

Edit: just realised Stan made basically the same point two posts above, but much more succinctly!

well said

Kairdiff Exile wrote:At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, we don’t have 800-odd “missing” fans, and it’s inaccurate to portray it as a discrete group of people who are “fickle”.

I’ve said it before, but we have 1,500-2,000 regular die-hards who go to most home games. We then have a pool of about 10,000 semi-regulars who will attend half a dozen home games a season. But those games aren’t chosen at random - they’ll be against bigger opposition, when there’s a lot at stake (promotion / relegation), when the weather’s nice or when there’s a bank holiday (Boxing Day particularly). All clubs attract bigger crowds when one or more of the above criteria are met.

We need to stop slagging off “fickle” or “fair weather” fans, or accusing them of “going missing”. Instead, think about how we can get them to attend 8-10 games instead of 4-6 each year. Doing that is how you build a sustainable fanbase.

Here are a few suggestions:
- “bundle” tickets where people get a discount for attending a number of games during a set period (eg, the Winter Bank Holiday period). 4 games for the price of 3 etc.
- put ALL home match tickets on sale as soon as fixtures are announced each year; if someone has a burst of enthusiasm and wants to book matches for four months hence, make it possible for them to do so!
- review ticketing for families; most attractions offer a “family ticket” (2 adults and 2 or 3 kids), we should do the same.

But the main suggestion is for the 1,500 regulars to stop making themselves out to be somehow superior (and, by implication, the semi-regulars inferior) based on how many games they make. Different income levels, work commitments, family life and a host of other factors mean that some people attend fewer County games than I do - but they’re not lesser fans, and they deserve to enjoy our successes every bit as much as anyone else who Supports The Port.

Edit: just realised Stan made basically the same point two posts above, but much more succinctly!

Makes a change.

However I agree entirely with the suggestions you make.

what performance???????

mark oh wrote:what performance???????

Exactly , we’ll not only lose the extras that turned up, we’ll also lose some of those that have started supporting us lately after that , I can’t distinguish it with “ performance “ or even “ effort “ , let’s call it a débacle - there’s probably no English word for that sh!t.

One of the chaps in work life long fan is giving them a one match ban Saturday

UPTHEPORT wrote:One of the chaps in work life long fan is giving them a one match ban Saturday

What’s upsetting a lot of fans is the management’s inability to stamp out the leakage of early goals. Much as I like Pipe and Bennett , I wouldn’t select them against such a pacy side when we have younger defenders with a bit of speed while leaving youngsters like Semenyo and Harris on the bench who in turn could have troubled their defence. Meanwhile the midfield is as competitive as Andy Pandy v Lennox Lewis. Mind you , first half the b@stards in the black did their very best to screw us , that doesn’t mean FGR didn’t look the better side.

Kairdiff Exile wrote:At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, we don’t have 800-odd “missing” fans, and it’s inaccurate to portray it as a discrete group of people who are “fickle”.

I’ve said it before, but we have 1,500-2,000 regular die-hards who go to most home games. We then have a pool of about 10,000 semi-regulars who will attend half a dozen home games a season. But those games aren’t chosen at random - they’ll be against bigger opposition, when there’s a lot at stake (promotion / relegation), when the weather’s nice or when there’s a bank holiday (Boxing Day particularly). All clubs attract bigger crowds when one or more of the above criteria are met.

We need to stop slagging off “fickle” or “fair weather” fans, or accusing them of “going missing”. Instead, think about how we can get them to attend 8-10 games instead of 4-6 each year. Doing that is how you build a sustainable fanbase.

Here are a few suggestions:
- “bundle” tickets where people get a discount for attending a number of games during a set period (eg, the Winter Bank Holiday period). 4 games for the price of 3 etc.
- put ALL home match tickets on sale as soon as fixtures are announced each year; if someone has a burst of enthusiasm and wants to book matches for four months hence, make it possible for them to do so!
- review ticketing for families; most attractions offer a “family ticket” (2 adults and 2 or 3 kids), we should do the same.

But the main suggestion is for the 1,500 regulars to stop making themselves out to be somehow superior (and, by implication, the semi-regulars inferior) based on how many games they make. Different income levels, work commitments, family life and a host of other factors mean that some people attend fewer County games than I do - but they’re not lesser fans, and they deserve to enjoy our successes every bit as much as anyone else who Supports The Port.

Edit: just realised Stan made basically the same point two posts above, but much more succinctly!

........................................................

I was talking about "extra" fans, ie, above and beyond the average up to that point. I made no mention of "missing" fans and certainly made no derogatory assumption of their being in any way lesser fans.
I simply asked whether there was anything that may encourage them to return.
In my last sentence I touch on the issue of ticket bundling, on which we probably both agree.