The Botwell Warren

14 pound to get in and 2 pound too park.will this effect the crowds,pretty worried about this,apart from the hardcore support how many will go elsewhere in the borough too watch there footy.a lot of people pick and choose there games and i feel that they wont pay this ,watch uxbridge ,northwood etc attendances rise.i f we have a tues and saturday home games looking at 32 pound without programme,food etc.dont think many will pay that.Does the board know there is a recession on.

Even though they're starting at a low level, I think attendances will drop a fair bit this season.

There isn't a recession on.
However I do agree, the problem is we are in line with the rest of the division.
I think it is a problem across the whole of football and not just us.
I think we should keep it to a minimum though and I think (unless we have a brilliant season) that attendances will take a hit.

Glad to know it's boom-time in your world Dr. H

A recession is 2 quarters of negative growth. Since we grew in the last quarter, we are out of the recession.

Given that, this bloody Condom lot are about to take us into another recession anyway...

Ticket prices have increased to £14 this season, but lets not forget we are playing in the 5th highest football division in this country and most of the sides are fulltime.
This is the average price charged by most clubs in this division and we have had to follow suit.
Of course it is cheaper to watch Northwood or Uxbridge , because they are playing four or five divisions below us.
If people want to watch a higher level of football they have to pay for it , whether it is Conference or Premiership.
The season ticket offers good value for money, and as I have said on this forum before, the Club / supporters club need to advertise in the local paper ( Leader ) .Make people aware of the football club and the level that we are playing at.With only three weeks to the start of the season now is the time to think about this.

Problem is most other clubs in our division do not have QPR chelsea and brentford right on there door steps

Wealdstone must be doing/have done something right as they have constantly better crowds than us and have a fantastic following.
Dartford regularly have over 1000 at their home games.
Both London clubs who have the same problems in terms of proximity to Premier League/Football League clubs as we do but thrive in terms of a solid and stable fan base.

In terms of other clubs in this division:
Kidderminster have all the Black Country sides on their doorstep which is a lot more than we have. Aston Villa, West Brom, Birmingham, Wolves, Walsall etc etc
Mansfield have Notts Forest and County reasonably close by.
Altrincham are in the Manchester suburbs
etc etc etc

Somebody is doing something right at these clubs

Football in England is not cheap. That is a fact. I think £14.00 is expensive,but relative to other tickets at other levels it is reaonably proportionate. We have to also look at other conference teams. I believe it is a problem for all smaller teams with small crowds.

Hayes will always struggle - competition from league clubs , hayes is really an ethnic area where people are not interested in local football.
Also all attention in this country goes to the very top.There is very little coverage of non league fooball. There are good stories out there, but the media are not bothered. Hayes coming back from the dead in the play off semi was an amazing peformance - coverage nil.A club surviving in the Conference part time deserves attention.
It all adds to the struggle for the club. What the club need is the support of everyone, though at times it can be difficult.

Remember Dr H. Wealdstone don't even have a permanent ground. I understand from a friend of mine who is an avid Stones fan that they play on Ruislip Manor's old ground. Yet they still get a four figure attendance? No, I'm with most people on this forum. While the ethnicity of the area plays a major part, publicity leaves a lot to be desired. I don't live in West Middx so I'll leave it to everyone else to report if our fixtures are ever advertised in the Gazette in a tombstone advert - instead of a couple of lines in small type....

I think that if you compare the prices in the league then they are fine. If you start to compare it beyond that then they do seem a tad high. The money that is spent on football competes with with other leisure activities. This is much more of a concern with fans that bring their families.

Saying that, I dont think that the club had much of a choice. We have been promoted. We kept the prices the same even though we went up (which most clubs wouldn't have) and so the increase comes this year.

If it means we can stay in this league and build then I think that it is an increase that inevitable over time.

According to the Stones fans that I know or know through other people they say that Grosvenor Vale is now their permanent ground as they have acquired a long-term lease for it.
Oh and Wealdstone don't get a 4-figure attendance, it's regularly up above 500 though.

On the subject of Ruislip Manor, now Tokyngton Manor of course. It seems the Viking Sports Ground has been closed down to due being dangerous, hardly surprising after Eddy and I's visit there last season.

Didn't realise its been shut down, any idea where they now play. All I know is that they play in the Middlesex County League. Suprised me the state of that place, my old man used to play for Vikings up there and it seemed alright, but years of nothing at the ground seem to have made it dilapidated. I played for Vikings, but we were next door at Glaxo's Leisure Complex, which has also shut down due to the building of a school, although I recently heard that Ealing Borough can no longer afford to pay for the school to be built.

With regard to the ticket prices, I agree with you Dr H about the clubs such as Kidderminster and Mansfield etc, but lets not forget that they were Football League clubs only a few years ago. Altrincham must do very well or have something done right with the likes of the Manchester's around etc. I think our ticket prices reflect on how football has changed over the years. I have always believed that ticket prices should not be extortionate and some clubs should reduce them to allow for more fans to come through. If the club reduced the ticket prices, would more fans come down and watch?

I also agree with New Fan about Hayes being an ethnic area, and the attraction of young people today seems to be centred on the big clubs or into the bigger clubs that surround Hayes. I don't think there is going to be much difference or anything that can really change that, unless the team start doing really well. Gone are the days when local clubs used to get good crowds. I think the funding that these clubs get from the higher levels is not good enough and needs to be sorted out if football is going to change

To be honest, you can't really disagree