Non League Day 22.03

[rickthediamond]

It is Non League Day this Saturday 22nd March (we are at home), just wondering if we are planning to promote it?

Non League Day often sees an increase in attendances.

[BartonRaz]

We will be doing something yes, but for our current season ticket holders. Details tomorrow.

[Rushdenjim]

Interested to know if the board felt that initiative moved the dial at all on attendances. Sounds a good offer but the attendance seemed pretty average.

[rickthediamond]

I’ve kept a keen eye on our attendances this season as I was living in hope that an improved campaign would see our attendances increase to 450ish on average over the season. I’m a bit of a saddo when it comes to attendances, I’m equally fascinated and disappointed at how our club/s has seen home crowds of 6,000+ and now struggles for 400. This obviously comes as no massive surprise of course, it was obvious all along that we had fickle fans in our heyday. Nonetheless, it is interesting to me that we have fallen back to the kind of crowds Rushden Town used to get - you’d surely think after all of those glorious years we would now have more than 400ish.

I know you have to put it in perspective, to be 3rd in attendances behind a bigger city in Worcester and a bigger town in Corby is about right given the size of Rushden, Higham & Irthlingborough. With that said, history is an important factor when it comes to attendances and ours is rich (haha).

Our average attendance is currently 383, so non league day was actually below our average. I agree with what the board chose to do though, as Alex said in his notes, the season ticket holders have technically lost value this season due to the pay what you want initiatives. So, it was important to give some extra value back. I do think it could have perhaps been promoted for a longer period (that’s not intended as a criticism). I personally tried to promote the game after the club announced the initiative on the Rushden & Higham Spotted page, and not a single soul was interested. It is slightly bewildering to me how apathetic the wider community seems to be about having a football club with our history in their town.

Our current attendance average this season represents a 7.26% decrease from last season. This is disappointing for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, I think mid-table obscurity has had a massive impact on our attendances. This is really the first time we have been in this table position since we reformed.

I’ve been to 19 games this season (including cups and pre season), which is less than I would normally go to due to moving away, however I do think our style of play probably turns people off too. Completely content with the job Harriman & Co are doing, but I don’t think we play good football from the matches I’ve seen, albeit the Hayden Road pitch has not helped this year.

Dulwich Hamlet, whilst in London, is still an interesting case study of how a club can really improve its attendances. From the following link, it appears that we as a club do most of if not all of the things that they have mentioned. They do give a lot of credit to Non League Day though. https://dhst.org.uk/the-trust-and-the-c ... 0community.

Really hoping we can be a bit higher up next season, 9th or above would be nice come this time next year. If we have something to play for, more people will come through the gates.

[BartonRaz]

Interested to know if the board felt that initiative moved the dial at all on attendances. Sounds a good offer but the attendance seemed pretty average.

The crowd was below average, however the nature of the offer meant it wasn't necessarily done to drive an attendance spike. It was more about adding value to a season ticket that hasn't offered a great deal of value this season. We will address that ahead of next year.

[BartonRaz]

I’ve kept a keen eye on our attendances this season as I was living in hope that an improved campaign would see our attendances increase to 450ish on average over the season. I’m a bit of a saddo when it comes to attendances, I’m equally fascinated and disappointed at how our club/s has seen home crowds of 6,000+ and now struggles for 400. This obviously comes as no massive surprise of course, it was obvious all along that we had fickle fans in our heyday. Nonetheless, it is interesting to me that we have fallen back to the kind of crowds Rushden Town used to get - you’d surely think after all of those glorious years we would now have more than 400ish.

I know you have to put it in perspective, to be 3rd in attendances behind a bigger city in Worcester and a bigger town in Corby is about right given the size of Rushden, Higham & Irthlingborough. With that said, history is an important factor when it comes to attendances and ours is rich (haha).

Our average attendance is currently 383, so non league day was actually below our average. I agree with what the board chose to do though, as Alex said in his notes, the season ticket holders have technically lost value this season due to the pay what you want initiatives. So, it was important to give some extra value back. I do think it could have perhaps been promoted for a longer period (that’s not intended as a criticism). I personally tried to promote the game after the club announced the initiative on the Rushden & Higham Spotted page, and not a single soul was interested. It is slightly bewildering to me how apathetic the wider community seems to be about having a football club with our history in their town.

Our current attendance average this season represents a 7.26% decrease from last season. This is disappointing for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, I think mid-table obscurity has had a massive impact on our attendances. This is really the first time we have been in this table position since we reformed.

I’ve been to 19 games this season (including cups and pre season), which is less than I would normally go to due to moving away, however I do think our style of play probably turns people off too. Completely content with the job Harriman & Co are doing, but I don’t think we play good football from the matches I’ve seen, albeit the Hayden Road pitch has not helped this year.

Dulwich Hamlet, whilst in London, is still an interesting case study of how a club can really improve its attendances. From the following link, it appears that we as a club do most of if not all of the things that they have mentioned. They do give a lot of credit to Non League Day though. https://dhst.org.uk/the-trust-and-the-c ... 0community.

Really hoping we can be a bit higher up next season, 9th or above would be nice come this time next year. If we have something to play for, more people will come through the gates.

Some very valid comments in there.

I'm not unhappy with our attendances but like you, would rather we would have seen another increase after quite a sizable increase last year. Taking the current average specifically, yes we are 7.26% down as it stands, however don't forget that we had almost 900 people in the ground for Community Day last year. If you take that out of the equation, then we're virtually identical (383 VS 387). We obviously have Community Day to come against Long Eaton on the final game of the season, and a home game against well-supported Worcester City, so I remain confident that if we don't beat last year's average when all's said and done, we'll come very close to it.

I actually think we're doing a good job of generating new supporters - and I don't mean to sound like I'm trumpet blowing here - but I think that we've done as well as we ever have at getting young people in to the ground on a consistent basis. Hayden Road was thronged with children yesterday which was great to see. However I can also think of a large number of people I know personally, not to mention faces I can recall of people I don't personally know, that have walked away from the Club for one reason or another and no longer attend matches. I know people move on, life moves on, but you can probably count on one hand the amount of past board members at this Football Club who still attend matches and I personally find that incredibly sad.

We will keep plugging away and doing what we can to increase attendances but as you so rightly said on social media this week, it's exciting football or an exciting situation that puts bums on seats, and whilst from a board point of view I'm delighted to see a relatively boring season after the last two, I accept that this won't help growth in attendances.

[rickthediamond]

I actually think we're doing a good job of generating new supporters - and I don't mean to sound like I'm trumpet blowing here - but I think that we've done as well as we ever have at getting young people in to the ground on a consistent basis. Hayden Road was thronged with children yesterday which was great to see. However I can also think of a large number of people I know personally, not to mention faces I can recall of people I don't personally know, that have walked away from the Club for one reason or another and no longer attend matches. I know people move on, life moves on, but you can probably count on one hand the amount of past board members at this Football Club who still attend matches and I personally find that incredibly sad.

I am perhaps looking at it from an angle that is too short-sighted. I definitely agree with what you’ve said regarding getting young people through the gates, I’ve noticed that this year. Lots of mini diamonds fans shouting behind the goals! That will 100% help our attendances in the long-term.

Agreed on the second point above too. I often wonder why we don’t see many ex board members at matches.

[Biggles]

Agreed on the second point above too. I often wonder why we don’t see many ex board members at matches.

Well in my opinion its because they are afraid of Abuse in many cases or just that visiting the club may bring back unwanted stress levels.

[Rushdenjim]

I’m equally fascinated and disappointed at how our club/s has seen home crowds of 6,000+ and now struggles for 400.

I do think this is an interesting point. Having been there every game during that late 90s and 00s period, my memories are obviously of a very successful time, Nene Park buzzing. But actually we very rarely filled Nene Park. You talk about 6,000 + crowds, I might be wrong but I think we only have got 6,000 + three times... Leeds in the FA Cup, Rochdale Play-Off first leg and Hartlepool on the last day of the following season.

Even in our season in Division 2, we only got over 5,500 for three games (Sheff Wed, Luton and QPR). Our average that season was under 4,500. Unless one of the big boys were in town our base crowd was much nearer to 4,000 than 6,000.

[rickthediamond]

I’m equally fascinated and disappointed at how our club/s has seen home crowds of 6,000+ and now struggles for 400.

I do think this is an interesting point. Having been there every game during that late 90s and 00s period, my memories are obviously of a very successful time, Nene Park buzzing. But actually we very rarely filled Nene Park. You talk about 6,000 + crowds, I might be wrong but I think we only have got 6,000 + three times... Leeds in the FA Cup, Rochdale Play-Off first leg and Hartlepool on the last day of the following season.

Even in our season in Division 2, we only got over 5,500 for three games (Sheff Wed, Luton and QPR). Our average that season was under 4,500. Unless one of the big boys were in town our base crowd was much nearer to 4,000 than 6,000.

Fair enough point! I was only 10 when RDFC folded so my memories are mainly of Nene Park having 1-2,000 people in, with the exception of the local derbies and games against the likes of Luton.

I think it takes time to build up that loyalty and in our case, the crazy rollercoaster that we went on clearly was not over a long enough period for the majority of people to stick with it when times got tough.

To be fair, if we had our own ground and were playing Step 2 football or Step 1 (yes maybe that’s a pipe dream), I would imagine people would come out the woodwork again and our crowds would be close to the 1,000+ mark.