Plummeting Attendances

[Youpies]

Notts have worked hard under Hardy to turn around attendances, but without stating the obvious, the winning football has made a huge difference to Lincoln and Notts.

Notts have done the following promotions:
Free shirts for local school kids
Free tickets to local schools
£10 games
Bring a friend tickets for season ticket holders
Reinstate half season tickets
£2 tickets

All of these have helped bring in people and the atmosphere has been better. I do think the improved, winning football has helped

 

[GodsGift]

I have friends who are Imps fans and have told me the details about the recent upturn over there. There is quite a good element of 'football in the community' etc which keeps the youngsters interested. This increase in interest can only be a good thing for Lincoln and league 2 football overall. I for one congratulate Lincoln FC for this. Keep up the good work.

Good post. Some of the other Mansfield fans should take note.

 

[Conker]

Good post. Some of the other Mansfield fans should take note.

No it’s just you take stuff on a football forum too seriously.

 

[AdamStag]

No it’s just you take stuff on a football forum too seriously.

Have Lincoln all of a sudden got massive and cockwaving again? who'd have thought.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

I have friends who are Imps fans and have told me the details about the recent upturn over there. There is quite a good element of 'football in the community' etc which keeps the youngsters interested. This increase in interest can only be a good thing for Lincoln and league 2 football overall. I for one congratulate Lincoln FC for this. Keep up the good work.

As much as people like to joke about the 'bandwagon' and obviously success on the pitch has a lot to do with the growth in attendances, the way the club is now run has also had a huge influence. As you say, the club are much more active in the community and there are far more families, women and kids going to games than in the past. The club puts loads on to get people to come and spend longer than just 90 minutes in the ground - there's the new fanzone, the food has been improved (and is being put out to tender in the hope of getting a better caterer to run it). The club seems to listen to the fans and want to improve the matchday experience, and that counts for a lot.

 

[AdamStag]

Notts have worked hard under Hardy to turn around attendances, but without stating the obvious, the winning football has made a huge difference to Lincoln and Notts.

Notts have done the following promotions:
Free shirts for local school kids
Free tickets to local schools
£10 games
Bring a friend tickets for season ticket holders
Reinstate half season tickets
£2 tickets

All of these have helped bring in people and the atmosphere has been better. I do think the improved, winning football has helped

It's something that our chairman is unfortunately well behind on.

We've a family offer where you've an adult and a child for £18 but we don't advertise this well enough and the locals don't hear of it. Offers are only put about on Stagsnet, fb etc - which is mainly to an audience who'd already be attending games.

We're lightyears behind on offers and incentives for children or families and we've got to be more on the ball on this. Unfortunately, despite continuous mentions to the powers that be, this doesn't change.

A blot on an in general brilliant management of the club by JR

 

[Richard Cranium]

Ours are going in the right direction. Currently on 4400 this season. Hopefully we continue to push for top 3 and the home gates go up and with Coventry, Port Vale and Lincoln still to come maybe some sell outs in the away end.

That site only goes back to 74/75 season but overall since then we have average 3972 so it’s good to see us above that.

 

[GodsGift]

Have Lincoln all of a sudden got massive and cockwaving again? who'd have thought.

No Mansfield fans are just bitter as fuck.

 

[Conker]

What are Mansfield fans bitter about? First time I have ever heard anything like that you sensitive little soul.

 

[AdamStag]

What are Mansfield fans bitter about? First time I have ever heard anything like that you sensitive little soul.

Was about to say, bitter about Lincoln?

 

[PaulHaddock]

Lincoln should be idolised in what a club can do in such a short time. From midtable in the Conference to challenging for promotion in L2 in 18 months is incredible and kudos to those at Lincoln City.

That’s not to say that the plastics that have turned up since the Ipswich away game are not utterly deplorable people. That includes the Lincoln posters who were a lot quieter 2 seasons ago.

 

[darren gregory]

View attachment 7700

Ours are going in the right direction. Currently on 4400 this season. Hopefully we continue to push for top 3 and the home gates go up and with Coventry, Port Vale and Lincoln still to come maybe some sell outs in the away end.

That site only goes back to 74/75 season but overall since then we have average 3972 so it’s good to see us above that.

Hmmm we won't be selling anywhere out this season i'm afraid.

 

[dedwardp]

2003–04 L1 3,730
2004–05 L1 3,481
2005–06 L1 3,843
2006–07 CH 5,466
2007–08 CH 5,446
Moved to the new stadium
2008–09 L1 5,076
2009–10 L1 5,437
2010–11 L1 4,071
2011–12 L1 3,747
2012–13 L1 3,530
2013–14 L1 3,631
2014–15 L1 3,704
2015–16 L1 4,299
2016–17 L2 3,974
2017-18 L2 3,239

The biggest gripe to have with our attendances is that we never made the most of the move to a new stadium, whereas most clubs seemingly increase their attendances when they do so. If you take out the two Championship seasons and the first two seasons at the new ground, then it's fairly consistent really. If we had been in the new stadium during the two Championship years it would have been at least 8,000 I would think, as we were pretty close to capacity and could only offer 1,000 away tickets near enough.

Unfortunately, moving into the new stadium on the back of a relegation was pretty awful timing. The club made quite a few mistakes in the first season around pricing, stewarding and so on which put quite a few people off, plus we were pretty poor when the talk had been around looking to bounce back. The season after we were in and around the top three for most of it which kept attendances reasonable, but since then the football on the pitch has been generally woeful, we've had one of the worst home records in the country for years up until last season and the area around the ground is only just starting to develop.

Free tickets for U11s since 2014-15 had helped a little and, to be fair, it was quite good that the crowds were actually growing year on year despite struggling to stay up each season. Dropping down to League Two has been a setback for those though, with this year's average so far notably the lowest we've had since 1994-95.

 

[AdamStag]

Hmmm we won't be selling anywhere out this season i'm afraid.

View attachment 7700

Ours are going in the right direction. Currently on 4400 this season. Hopefully we continue to push for top 3 and the home gates go up and with Coventry, Port Vale and Lincoln still to come maybe some sell outs in the away end.

That site only goes back to 74/75 season but overall since then we have average 3972 so it’s good to see us above that.

We've also hosting heavyweights like Accrington, Barnet, Crawley and Newport - who'll bring about 500 between them.

 

[Richard Cranium]

dedwardp Is there anything for the home fans to do at the ground on match days? Bars etc and fun games for the kids and that like penalty shoot out things. Loads of space and it’s seemed dead on the 2 visitis I’ve made. But all that will add to the match day experience, I did notice Sincil Bank was very very busy before our game there in September.

I won’t be in a hurry to come back as it’s a right walk to a pub and I still can’t bring myself to watch Mansfield without at least 6 pints inside me.

 

[darren gregory]

We've also hosting heavyweights like Accrington, Barnet, Crawley and Newport - who'll bring about 500 between them.

Are you doing the 2 quid ticket offer same as Notts County then ? 500 is well optimistic

 

[darren gregory]

I think the overall thing with attendances is watching a winning team.
We had 12,000 in 12/13 v Burton who brought 700. And similar v Northampton who off top of my head brought 1200 ish.
Last year we had a couple of 9000 gates and Sheff Utd and Bolton both brought 4500.
People will watch success even at our level and i guess this reflects on all teams crowds.
Lets face it this cracking offer Notts County are doing v Crewe may well get 12'000 upwards, had it been when they were 18th they may of got 7000 ish , just guessing but my point is winning football attracts the numbers.

 

[AdamStag]

Are you doing the 2 quid ticket offer same as Notts County then ? 500 is well optimistic

well 500 between them is 125 each, they should be able to must that - just.

 

[MrGloverLover]

I think the overall thing with attendances is watching a winning team.
We had 12,000 in 12/13 v Burton who brought 700. And similar v Northampton who off top of my head brought 1200 ish.
Last year we had a couple of 9000 gates and Sheff Utd and Bolton both brought 4500.
People will watch success even at our level and i guess this reflects on all teams crowds.
Lets face it this cracking offer Notts County are doing v Crewe may well get 12'000 upwards, had it been when they were 18th they may of got 7000 ish , just guessing but my point is winning football attracts the numbers.

Absolutely right. Our average gate in our last season in the ICIS League (equivalent level to National League South) was only 100 less than it is this season. That was because we won the league with 101 points scoring lots of goals - it included a gate of over 8000 with 2000 locked out for one game (I was locked out. Watched it on top of a portakabin).

 

[jacobncfc]

I think the overall thing with attendances is watching a winning team.
We had 12,000 in 12/13 v Burton who brought 700. And similar v Northampton who off top of my head brought 1200 ish.
Last year we had a couple of 9000 gates and Sheff Utd and Bolton both brought 4500.
People will watch success even at our level and i guess this reflects on all teams crowds.
Lets face it this cracking offer Notts County are doing v Crewe may well get 12'000 upwards, had it been when they were 18th they may of got 7000 ish , just guessing but my point is winning football attracts the numbers.

Yeah, it makes a massive difference. We’ve never got massive crowds for games where we’ve done offers in the past generally because we’ve done them to try and revive flagging crowds when the team is bad. Generally they don’t work because people don’t want to watch a bad team and those who do come inevitably don’t want to come back.

Hardy seems to be piling different kinds of offers on whilst we’re doing so well in a bid to get people back again quickly who liked what they saw last time. We’ll see if it has any long term impact on, for instance, season ticket sales next season.

The club seem to be suggesting that they think they can get close to selling out for the Crewe game. I can’t see it myself, but more than the 13,200 we got for the ‘community day’ against Forest Green should be possible.

It’ll be a good indicator of what our potential fan base is actually because everyone is going to come to a game that’s two quid to get in when you’re battling for promotion.

 

[Gaz12321]

04/05 - 7,941
05/06 - 9,139
06/07 - 8,580
07/08 - 6,492
08/09 - 6,019
09/10 - 6,931
10/11 - 6,242
11/12 - 5,858
12/13 - 5,882
13/14 - 7,387
14/15 - 8,702
15/16 - 8,226
16/17 - 8,046

The sharp decline from 07/08 to 12/13 was during our plummet from the Championship down to No League where we struggled to get back up. 13/14 was our promotion year back in to the League and since then in League Two our averages have been back up towards what they were in the Championship days.

We're in desperate need of a new stadium though.

 

[dedwardp]

dedwardp Is there anything for the home fans to do at the ground on match days? Bars etc and fun games for the kids and that like penalty shoot out things. Loads of space and it’s seemed dead on the 2 visitis I’ve made. But all that will add to the match day experience, I did notice Sincil Bank was very very busy before our game there in September.

I won’t be in a hurry to come back as it’s a right walk to a pub and I still can’t bring myself to watch Mansfield without at least 6 pints inside me.

Not a great deal, although the club do try. There's no real bar, but they open up the concourse behind the goal at lunchtime so you could watch the football on tele and have a drink, but then nobody really wants to stand in a cold, grey concourse as an alternative to going into a pub/bar. There's often a live band playing outside too but, again, apart from the start and end of the season when the weather is nicer you don't really want to be stood outside. Of course it also seems a bit better when there's a bigger crowd, so there's more of a general matchday buzz of people milling around but, in the main, when it's only a third full for the likes of Mansfield (no offence!) it is very dead.

There used to be a room near the offices where kids could go and the mascot would be in there with a few games and so on, and there's often a penalty/hardest shot style area from the Football in the Community people outside one of the corners. But no, not a huge amount really apart from a few select games a season where it will be a nominated 'Family Day' type thing and there's a lot more going on.

The area around the ground is slowly starting to develop now so give it another few years and there will be places to eat and drink etc nearby but until then it's a pretty horrible matchday experience to be fair.

 

[dedwardp]

Agree with the above also that, ultimately, it is a successful team that plays the biggest role in determining crowd size. The last game of last season we had over 6,000 home fans to watch us against Yeovil just because we had a chance of sneaking into the play-offs even though we usually get around half of that. There were no promotions, special incentives etc - I don't even think it was advertised any differently.

 

[Posh Red]

Ours have fluctuated a fair bit since the turn of the century.
Not surprisingly the average is generally better when the team is doing better, albeit the second highest average was the season we got relegated to League 2 the last time, although this was largely based on good season ticket sales following the play-off final & an expectation we could kick on.
This years average is 6,589 so far, and it feels like the crowds are dropping. Our poor home form & pretty dire football hasn't helped, so would be interesting to see what happens in the second half of the season IF we can improve our home form & challenge for one of the auto spots.

Div 2 20th 2000/01 6,186
Div 2 13th 2001/02 6,362
Div 2 10th 2002/03 5,462
Div 2 5th 2003/04 7,839
Lge 1 12th 2004/05 5,835
Lge 1 23rd 2005/06 5,951
Lge 2 3rd 2006/07 7,419
Lge 1 13th 2007/08 7,172
Lge 1 15th 2008/09 7,499
Lge 1 5th 2009/10 8,389
Lge 1 24th 2010/11 8,455
Lge 2 1st 2011/12 8,411
Lge 1 6th 2012/13 8,529
Lge 1 8th 2013/14 8,130
Lge 1 4th 2014/15 7,926
Lge 1 16th 2015/16 7,409
Lge 1 22nd 2016/17 7,026

 

[County1]

We've also hosting heavyweights like Accrington, Barnet, Crawley and Newport - who'll bring about 500 between them.

As opposed to promotion chasing Mansfield, who brought a huge following of 160 to RP for a Saturday afternoon fixture in October! Precisely two more than we took to Mansfield in February when we had Westley as manager, were about 103 points adrift at the bottom and hadn't won for about two years!

 

[Enzo Scifo's Right Foot]

View attachment 7700

Ours are going in the right direction. Currently on 4400 this season. Hopefully we continue to push for top 3 and the home gates go up and with Coventry, Port Vale and Lincoln still to come maybe some sell outs in the away end.

That site only goes back to 74/75 season but overall since then we have average 3972 so it’s good to see us above that.

Right direction definitely, but lets be honest those Stags home attendances are pretty p!ss poor however you decide to slice in dice it. Especially when compared to other local historically sized teams! The Haslam effect has never been reversed not even close tbh. I always thought Mansfield, Chesterfield and Rotherham were all very similar, clearly I was wrong.

Totally, agree with the Notts poster, you have to take advantage of offers and promotions to the fans and local community during good/positive times, not the usual depressing times when this action often occurs. Our chairman, clearly has a commercial mind and is in touch with the fans/community and realises this.

Good times

 

[Richard Cranium]

Right direction definitely, but lets be honest those Stags home attendances are pretty p!ss poor however you decide to slice in dice it. Especially when compared to other local historically sized teams! The Haslam effect has never been reversed not even close tbh. I always thought Mansfield, Chesterfield and Rotherham were all very similar, clearly I was wrong.

Totally, agree with the Notts poster, you have to take advantage of offers and promotions to the fans and local community during good/positive times, not the usual depressing times when this action often occurs. Our chairman, clearly has a commercial mind and is in touch with the fans/community and realises this.

Good times

The last good season we had in the league was 03/04 averaging over 5000 and then Haslam sold everything we had and ripped the club to pieces. That 5200 dropped to 3000 in 3 seasons, then we eventually got relegated and never recovered.

What hasn’t helped is we don’t do anything to entice young supporters to come and watch us, We’ve missed out on a generation of young fans already but again at least now we do a Adult and kid ticket for £18 so it’s a positive step in the right direction but a long way to go on that, Mainly reducing the astronomical price for Under 16s at Field Mill.

 

[Impish]

2007/08 2,710
2008/09 2,423
2009/10 3,206
2010/11 2,123
2011/12 2,682
2012/13 2,758
2013/14 3,385
2014/15 3,021
2015/16 3,439
2016/17 3,774
2017/18 4,248

Hahaha pathetic..go back to non league!

 

[Moomin]

Is there a general website where you can check average attendances?

Ours peaked at around 5,700 when in L1 a few years back and we’ve generally averaged around 4,000 since being back in L2, which I guess isn’t too bad considering we get far fewer good away followings in this division. It’s even more remarkable considering our dire home form between 2012 and 2016.

Back in the mid 80s, before my time, I believe our crowds took a massive nose dive and we had plenty of sub 2000 crowds so we’ve certainly managed to tempt back the casual fan over the last 20-30 years.

 

[GTFCfish]

We don't need any incentives to draw fans in, as in the words of our Chairman Sir Lord Duke John Fenty MBE OBE CBE: "We do our PR on the pitch."