Family Days!!

[Up the Shrimpers]

Lets face it without the family day then the crowd against Doncaster would have been below 7,000.

Actually I think they should offer some form of discount for the Tranmere and Crewe games, because although our results have improved our crowds against those 2 especially Crewe will be quite low.

I also know for a fact that Family Days have encouraged people that have never been before to become regular supporters.

 

[shrimper dan]

Blimey, I dont go to away games. I take it Im not a real fan then.....

i'm just saying i hate it when loads of people go to the bigger games but when its not as important or its a smaller club then no one turns up. e.g 26000 of us at cardiff and our average attendance that year was about 6000. where are the other 20000 people when we need them.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

i'm just saying i hate it when loads of people go to the bigger games but when its not as important or its a smaller club then no one turns up. e.g 26000 of us at cardiff and our average attendance that year was about 6000. where are the other 20000 people when we need them.

Already been covered many times before.
That was our first ever national final, pretty much all the exiled fans from around the world made the effort to attend. Also, everybody took a fair few friends/family with them too, for example, only me & my Dad are what you could really call Shrimpers, I bought 6 tickets for the Blackpool game (that's a 200% increase in support!)

 

[shrimper dan]

Already been covered many times before.
That was our first ever national final, pretty much all the exiled fans from around the world made the effort to attend. Also, everybody took a fair few friends/family with them too, for example, only me & my Dad are what you could really call Shrimpers, I bought 6 tickets for the Blackpool game (that's a 200% increase in support!)

yea but it goes for loads of other games like luton, col u and brighton away. small crappy little grounds and we dont fill it. col-u managed to go on general sale. when we played man-u people qued for hours just to watch it, yet we struggled to reach 10000 average attendance.

 

[Jam_Man]

I'm a season ticket holder. My eight year old and my three year old also have season tickets. We come to nearly every home game and this year my eight year old wants to start going to away games too, his main choice being Millwall, god help us!

3 year old ?!?!!?

How does he do, does he get bored ? (Dont include the first half on Saturday as I got bored then!)

Didnt think a child under the age of 5 or 6 would be able to sit through a whole game.

i'm just saying i hate it when loads of people go to the bigger games but when its not as important or its a smaller club then no one turns up. e.g 26000 of us at cardiff and our average attendance that year was about 6000. where are the other 20000 people when we need them.

Thats life.

However we have been getting in excess of 8,000 for three years now, yet you class a portion of Saturdays 8,000 as not real fans.

Im more than happy with the progress we have made and will be delighted if we can get 14-15k averages in the new stadium even if 3-4,000 of them are occassional supporters.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

i'm just saying i hate it when loads of people go to the bigger games but when its not as important or its a smaller club then no one turns up. e.g 26000 of us at cardiff and our average attendance that year was about 6000. where are the other 20000 people when we need them.

Before our first trip to Cardiff our average crowd was only about 4,300 straight away after that our crowds 'shot' up and we ended the season with an average of 4,800. The first Cardiff trip kicked off a huge interest again in Southend United and I'm sure we gained quite a few new fans from that game.

 

[stickyboy]

I also know for a fact that Family Days have encouraged people that have never been before to become regular supporters.

I knew 2 people who went for their 1st ever Southend game on Saturday and really enjoyed it and are now going to start going regularly so it does work. There are people who do go (in their fancy dress XL shirts - dont they do Childrens sizes?!) and have no intention of coming again but think overall its a good idea. Not that I get there early for Chico or Journey South of course

 

[Mr. Benedict]

yea but it goes for loads of other games like luton, col u and brighton away. small crappy little grounds and we dont fill it. col-u managed to go on general sale. when we played man-u people qued for hours just to watch it, yet we struggled to reach 10000 average attendance.

Level of support at away games depends on a lot of things - the time of year, how well the team are doing in the league, the distance (and therefore cost) of travel, ticket pricing, and of course how big the opposing team are.

If you're seriously wondering why people will queue around the block to see Manure as opposed to QPR or Preston then you really need your head examined.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

yea but it goes for loads of other games like luton, col u and brighton away. small crappy little grounds and we dont fill it. col-u managed to go on general sale. when we played man-u people qued for hours just to watch it, yet we struggled to reach 10000 average attendance.

Luton, was a Friday night on Sky.
Col U, guessing people thought we'd get done & didn't want to witness it.
Brighton, again people were a bit fed up after a dodgy start to the season.

Man U, again the game had novelty value so everybody wanted to be there.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

yea but it goes for loads of other games like luton, col u and brighton away. small crappy little grounds and we dont fill it. col-u managed to go on general sale. when we played man-u people qued for hours just to watch it, yet we struggled to reach 10000 average attendance.

10000 average for a relegation season was an amazing effort, last time our average crowd was more than that was in the early 1970's. Even if you do not include the away support we still had more than 8,600 home fans for every game last season. Home areas last season were running at well over 90% capacity.

 

[shrimper dan]

Luton, was a Friday night on Sky.
Col U, guessing people thought we'd get done & didn't want to witness it.
Brighton, again people were a bit fed up after a dodgy start to the season.

Man U, again the game had novelty value so everybody wanted to be there.

when we played col u that was the 1st time they had beaten us in i think it was 16 years.
more people would go to a friday night game. luton aint far and most people wont be working saturday.

 

[shrimper dan]

10000 average for a relegation season was an amazing effort, last time our average crowd was more than that was in the early 1970's. Even if you do not include the away support we still had more than 8,600 home fans for every game last season. Home areas last season were running at well over 90% capacity.

yea your missing the point, i'm saying that why were we getting 10000 at home games but we couldnt fill about 700 at col u on a saturday and we haddent lost there for 16 years. if people really supported the club they would follow them through thick and thin.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

luton aint far and most people wont be working saturday.

You obviously don't remember the pages of rants and moans about getting from Southend & District up to Luton then when they changed the game to a Friday for Sky. It was all about the hassles of getting around the M25 & up the M1 (both notoriously bad on Friday evenings)!!!

 

[shrimper dan]

You obviously don't remember the pages of rants and moans about getting from Southend & District up to Luton then when they changed the game to a Friday for Sky. It was all about the hassles of getting around the M25 & up the M1 (both notoriously bad on Friday evenings)!!!

what about using a train. its faster and cheaper than driving.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

what about using a train. its faster and cheaper than driving.

I think there were moans about that too at the time (from getting from Southend to Luton).

From memory, I think it only really suited those city workers who could just get a rush-hour fast train up to the cesspit of humanity that is Luton!

If I wasn't exiled, I guess I'd have gone to Luton, whether or not it was a Friday evening!

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

yea your missing the point, i'm saying that why were we getting 10000 at home games but we couldnt fill about 700 at col u on a saturday and we haddent lost there for 16 years. if people really supported the club they would follow them through thick and thin.

I didn't go to Colchester last season in the League that was the first time ever I had missed a Southend v Colchester game since I started going (22 games in total). I think we took more than 700 to Colchester?

Infact I only went to 7 away games last season and have not been away this season yet, not much of a supporter am I. You will see me at Blackpool & Bristol Rovers though, see you there.

 

[shrimper dan]

i cant remember how many col-u holds but i know we didnt fill it.

 

[ShrimperJim]

yea your missing the point, i'm saying that why were we getting 10000 at home games but we couldnt fill about 700 at col u on a saturday and we haddent lost there for 16 years. if people really supported the club they would follow them through thick and thin.

I've been supporting the club for 20 years, I didn't go to Colchester because you can't see sod all from their terrace. Does that mean I don't support the club through thick and thin?

 

[SUFC_Al]

i cant remember how many col-u holds but i know we didnt fill it.

we've filled out Layer Road ebery time I've been there, we only get 900-odd tickets.

Were you there for the 3-0? I could not move in the away end and we had half of the home end at the other end of the pitch.

 

[Robbo]

3 year old ?!?!!?

How does he do, does he get bored ? (Dont include the first half on Saturday as I got bored then!)

Didnt think a child under the age of 5 or 6 would be able to sit through a whole game.



Thats life.

However we have been getting in excess of 8,000 for three years now, yet you class a portion of Saturdays 8,000 as not real fans.

Im more than happy with the progress we have made and will be delighted if we can get 14-15k averages in the new stadium even if 3-4,000 of them are occassional supporters.

His first game was versus Barnsley in the FA Cup lats Jan when he was 3 years and 1 month old. He watches the game, looks at the programme, loves the mascots (poor, misguided child) and enjoys the Bluebelles (top fella). Final 20 mins are a bit tough as he usually needs the toilet (we missed Alan's goal on Saturday because of this) but overall I think he's ok, he wants to be there and he doesn't irritate anybody else.