Small clubs can play in front of big crowds

Dwindling attendances and how lower league sides are missing a trick.

Ask any young boy that dreams of being a footballer what he sees when he closes his eyes. Iconic stadiums full to capacity, the roar of the crowd as the home side takes to the field, and an eruption heard for miles when the ball hits the back of the net. These are the images captured by the cameras as Champions league games, ‘Super Sunday’ match ups and soon to be World cup games are beamed into our homes. The reality for the vast majority of footballers that ‘make it’? Hours on a coach to a damp Tuesday night fixture played in front of little more than one man and his dog.

Though the loyalist of fans attempt to recreate it, no League Two fixture will capture the atmosphere found at Celtic Park on a Champions league night, and a lower league side would find little benefit of playing in a 60,000 capacity stadium (though Leyton Orient seem to think differently), as they just will not fill it. However, every club should strive to reach their potential, whether that is to bring in a global audience and win major trophies, or reach out to the local community and challenge for local honours. Whatever level a side is at and however well known a club is, there is always opportunity to achieve more. Looking at what the local clubs are currently doing, they can certainly do this from an attendance point of view in my experience.

With success naturally comes interest. The larger clubs with the bigger fan bases are usually the ones that are challenging for the title. Perhaps this is because more money comes into the club, and so more is spent on marketing, or perhaps it is just because naturally people want to watch a successful club. However, football in this country is a tradition, as much a part of our lives as a Sunday roast or the Royal family. There is a natural interest in the game, and I don’t feel that the clubs lower down always act upon this to their full potential.

My local club is Colchester United. Historically a smaller club that peaked at the turn of the century by winning promotion to the second tier. Colchester has always been a club that has spent within its means, and for this I have always admired them. With the promotion came a new 10,000 seated home for the U’s in the Weston Homes Community stadium. Money well spent by a club that had awful facilities before, though I truly believe that helped them to win promotion in the first place. As a teenager I would visit Layer road often; an old-school ground in the middle of a residential area with terraces on top of the touchline and prehistoric facilities less than welcoming for away teams. Looking back at some of the scalps that I have seen Colchester pull off against the bigger sides, I believe that the shoddy pitch and intimidating atmosphere won the U’s a few points that propelled them up the table. A few seasons later and the club have been relegated back into League One and usually get 3,500 down to the new ground, which may as well be 300. Echoes of murmurs scatter around the ground on a match day until the full time whistle is blown. Colchester is not a massive town, but I believe that there are plenty of opportunities that exist to bring in the numbers, get the ground rocking and provide some much needed revenue to the club.

Walking around the town, you wouldn’t know that the club exists. The only blue and white stripes are Tesco carrier bags and there is no advertising presence in the area at all. Maybe some are reminded of the local team as they drive past the stadium on the A12 on the way home, and I have noticed the two screens that now display events to passers-by, but that’s about all that exists. More worrying are the ticket prices if anyone does turn up. Pay on the day prices are usually £22-£30 for adults and differing rates for juniors. Under 18’s will pay between £13 and £16, £6-£9 for under 14’s and £2-£5 for under 8’s. Now it’s great that a young child can get in to a League One club for £2, but in reality most families will still be priced out for regular attendance. A day out for an adult and two kids depending on age will cost around £50 for admission. This is before travel, parking, food and drink let alone programmes and whatever else the kids may pick up in the club shop. For a top four club on a one off day then maybe you would see it as a viable cost, but for a local club that hasn’t really got much hope of competing at the moment it is too much, and certainly not viable for most on a regular basis.

 

A few miles down the road and a few tiers down the football system, Chelmsford City have shown that they are willing to attempt to increase the numbers of visitors to the Melbourne recently. Again in my eyes for the level that they play at the entrance fee is too much, but looking at the turnout in their ‘pay what you want game’, maybe justifiable. Here Chelmsford had the novel idea of allowing fans of both sides in their league fixture against Hayes and Yeading to pay any fee that they fancied. Usually the club charge around £14 for adults, which I know would be seen by many as a lot for a local club. However, the turnout that they usually get is still around 670. By allowing the fans to in effect pay a penny to watch the game, they increased the attendance to 718. Now on a pure business model, drawing in an extra 48 fans from the average by decreasing ticket prices to almost nil proves that reductions simply do not make sense. If these extra few only came because it was cheap, would knocking an extra couple of quid off of the standard prices still bring them in? Probably not, thus unfortunately proving that price increases should if anything be looked at if a club like this is wanting to increase revenue rather than the other way around.

What teams need to do is reach out to the fans with offers and deals that will bring them to the club, and hopefully then show them that going to the game on a Saturday is enjoyable and will make them want to do it again. In my view, clubs need to do this at an early age, and reaching out to the kids is where the smart moves will be made. Why are there not more tickets offered as prizes, or even just given out free? With over 85 primary schools in and around Colchester, if every home game 10 tickets were given out to each school as prizes, this would still have no impact on the stadium in terms of capacity. Firstly, in its own right, if these were given to kids and possibly an adult ticket for £5 alongside to get them to the game, siblings or friends will want to go as well. When at the game, food, drink and maybe the odd souvenir will get picked up on the ‘free’ day out, so the club will make money. But thinking long term, as the local child enjoys it and family see that, it becomes something that the kid will want to do again. Get that child there on a regular basis, they become a lifelong fan, and in future instead of paying £2 to get in, they’ll be paying £30.

 

Now in my example of Colchester, the quick win for me would be the garrison. One of the largest in England provides plenty of opportunity to draw in the numbers. If forces personnel could pick up tickets for £10, and the games were advertised in the right way then they’d turn up. I would be asking if the club has looked into fully utilising this asset that a lot of clubs would love to have in their towns. Thousands of young lads with spare cash that are usually looking to occupy time, why wouldn’t they go to the football if it was easy enough to do? It may take a bit of work from the club in terms of organising buses from the garrison, maybe putting on a few deals and maybe even offer a forces section, which would certainly add to the atmosphere. It would definitely be worth it and in terms of revenue, even the beer sales would make it worthwhile bending over backwards to get the forces personnel down.

But this is not just picking on Colchester. I ‘m simply using them as an example of things that could be done, and as the highest ranked football league side in Essex, I think plenty of opportunities exist to boost that dwindling crowd that make their way to see the U’s. Of course, the ability to put things into practice to an extent relies on money. Advertising around the area and laying on free transport services costs money. Even co-ordinating with the local schools requires organisation and employees which costs money, and the further down the football pyramid you go, the shorter the supply of money becomes. However, looking at Conference side Braintree Town who I have seen a lot of this year, their realisation of the importance of blooding young fans is evident from the first click on the website. “Free season tickets for under 16’s”. Now I’ll be honest I haven’t looked into the uptake of this offer, how it is taken advantage of or who qualifies, but certainly the idea is right. Take a hit on the small entrance fee that some of these youngsters would normally pay. Get them to bring their mates down. Why not? It’s free! Then all of a sudden those few bring a few and when they are earning money they pay for the privilege of seeing the side that they have been watching potentially by now for years.

                Outside the well mediated Premier league and European club games, I think that work needs to be done. Unfortunately the further you fall below the top tier in English football, the harder this work becomes and the less resources the clubs have to commit to it. However, reaching out to the fans is in my eyes the most important thing to every club. Success will bring fans, and as a team rises up the divisions, then the numbers will come in. But this will usually be to see the big name clubs and stars that the opposition bring. Those fans will soon disappear when the club falls upon harder times. Clubs need to build upon loyal fans, a more reliable source of income, and can move forward from there. The first building block is become established in the local community. Add to the current crowd with some youngsters. Get the kids in from local youth football sides, schools or anywhere and make them want to come again. Once this has been addressed seek out the ways to bring in extra adults. I know each club will try and do this anyway, and am not so naïve that taking money off of anyone that a club can attract will not already be top of the agenda. But I still think that this can be done better. The numbers increase not only gate receipts and other revenue from match days, but also sponsorship potential. Then when clubs have addressed this, look at what is happening on the pitch, not the other way around

 

             If more cubs took this stance, we would hear a lot less about the ‘evils of a certain broadcaster’ and the Premier league which many say is sucking the life out of football beyond the top division, and to some extent I would agree. The landscape is changing dramatically in football, and now more than ever clubs need to be proactive. The accessibility of watching top clubs and talent across the world is greater than ever, with football on TV almost every day of the week now. When the easiest football to see would have been walking down to the local side, perhaps clubs could rely on this alone. Now the situation is different, and whilst lower league sides will never compete with the talent on show by the top clubs, they can still offer entertainment and that is what football is about. Furthermore it is about unity, belief, love of the club and an upbringing. This is where the club can play a part, and needs to in the biggest of ways to make sure that the numbers continue, or risk losing those that occupy the seats in the stands of the future to a seat at home in front of a screen.