2nd Smallest average attendance in the Football League

One of the reasons the singing and atmosphere dropped was because the people who made noise and atmosphere (people who had been going regularly since later 80s) were made to feel unwelcome and unwanted by the club. This happened when promotion to the football league was achieved.

These people were shunned by the club in favour of 'Jonny come latelys' who have now vanished.

There are one of 2 ways we will achieve bigger crowds.

A- Success on the pitch, winning football, promotions, cup runs, good home results.

B- years of reaching out to young kids before their head is turned by Premier League football will eventually pay off in a generation or 2.

We had A for a few years and it was great fun, attendances went up to 3-4K regularly, but have now virtually halved.

Pricing, reds bar, catering, pre match entertainment, ground facilities, pre match kick etc. all have little impact. We used to give away hundreds of tickets every other game FFS...

So we haven't lost any then........glass half full.

That’s a great idea about the schools. Has that ever been done before? When I was at school we were only in the Doctor Martens league but now we are in League 2 it will be much more exciting for the school kids. Preferably a player that will stay for more than one year at the club to visit though!

This is one thing that you will hardly ever get for a premier league club - access to communicate with the players !

I agree about the Junior Reds but not sure I buy the Majeeds old chestnut. Unfortunately we never really built on our cup successes at a time when the Carrier Bags were at a low, we just drifted along. We just squeezed into League 1 on the last day, did well first season in League 1 (although sky high expectations meant fans were already very critical even at that!) but has just been a steady decline since then which to some extent means retaining the 1800 or so home regulars isn't that terrible (relatively speaking) bearing in mind the overall fare has been pretty poor with just the odd month or two of hope.
What does worry me is Selim being so star struck, firstly by Kewell (how much of a privilege and how much I am learning from him"!!!) and from the forum seemingly getting into bed with the Carrier Bags. I know it isn't a view shared by all but I see it as a dangerous path to start down, wanting a formal tie up to get first choice of their kids. We are already swamped by their U23s and Womens teams and now it seems he wants to be their academy. Just erodes our identity in the eyes of youngsters and if it happens I for one would feel very much like giving up after over 60 years of watching.

Joe Comper made some telling comments at the forum about interactions with local schools, we are often viewed as unreliable & damaged goods.

I think the target demographic is young adolescents, they are after independence, identity & opportunities for peer bonding... if their young siblings see them having a good time, they will aspire to similar when they are older, it will be a badge of honour. Should increase the noise level too...!

Be nice if they did roll up, not to have us lot moaning about screaming kids, we were all young once.

Joe along with the marketing & community teams, do a much more difficult job than they are ever given credit for. We are lucky to have Joe, as he could make a fortune as a David Brent looky-likee.

Ps. I really like the slogan (think Matt Turner deserves credit) on the back of the Reds bus: "There is no substitute for live football", which differentiates us from the televised competition.

outside of the playing staff the clubs biggest expense is the stadium. Unfortunately it only creates revenue on 25 days  - we need to maximise that revenue. As we can't seemingly increase the gates it needs to expand the number of days it is earning. That is why Brighton use the ground. It's simple really.

And I do think the loss of 1000 fans in our second season in the conference is still being felt - we can't be certain gates would have dwindled had we not taken such a massive hit. But in my view, we would have at least retained more of the 2400 average we got in the first conference season had we not had our history blighted by the Majeeds - it really is difficult to make some people comprehend just how damaging their tenure was