Barrow AFC.net

It takes time to grow - it doesn't happen over night.

Things are improving. But people want better facilities, they want to get a drink at half time and not miss any of the game, they don't want to have to queue to get into the ground.

To grow quicker the club would need to look outside the box with some ticket promotions and some pricing changes. A run in the FA cup and trophy go a long way to promote the club and I do think the club is better now at selling itself.

I am happy with how things are going however I wasn't aware that ground improvements were dependant upon crowds rising I can't remember seeing that in the Casson manifesto.

Does make me laugh that sometimes the people that moan about poor crowds are the ones that don't go themselves.

Money does indeed matter, the worry about last night is that Taunton had 580 more for their home game, admittedly we took a couple of hundred but that still doesn't make good reading. Still think the commercial dept could/should be doing more and the ticket incentive still never gets a look-in. It'd get the floaters at least thinking about it. Keep last night's stub, or Solihull this Saturday and this entitles you to a 3rd round ticket 'IF' we get through. No matter who we play, no matter where.

Thought the attendance was just about right... lower league opposition, not the most appealing of draws for the second round, England on telly, three home games in seven days etc.

Matty wrote:Thought the attendance was just about right... lower league opposition, not the most appealing of draws for the second round, England on telly, three home games in seven days etc.

Totally agree. In fact I think it was an excellent attendance, the fact that Taunton achieved 2300 is completely irrelevant.

Why compare our attendances to other clubs?

Jist of this debate being we've currently got an owner who must be quietly despairing about the gates. And yeh ok promise to never, ever compare attendances again 'cos you said not to...

DaveP wrote:I think you've hit the nail on the head there Mickmike.

The owner must be really disappointed at the crowd levels and wonder what the Barrow public want.

they have a decent team and I'm sure he was hoping we would be averaging a higher crowd than we have been to date.

I know its Catch 22 because the facilities in cold wet weather are pretty poor but still he's bound the reign back on some of his planned spend

Casson is no fool. I do not believe that he is disappointed with attendances. They have always hovered around 1200/1400 during a conference season, they will never increase unless we get in the league and even then we wouldn't average above 2000.

It's just blind optimism to expect more!

mulholland wrote:Jist of this debate being we've currently got an owner who must be quietly despairing about the gates. And yeh ok promise to never, ever compare attendances again 'cos you said not to...

When asked about what crowds he wanted if we were challenging he was fairly relaxed about it all (on the radio and said 1700/1800 which is where we are heading) - so I doubt he is quietly despairing.

Maybe he needs to think about ways of boosting the crowds if he is and improving the "product" on offer.

In terms of Taunton it was their biggest game in years - last night wasn't our biggest game in years.

Alley_Cat wrote:

DaveP wrote:I think you've hit the nail on the head there Mickmike.

The owner must be really disappointed at the crowd levels and wonder what the Barrow public want.

they have a decent team and I'm sure he was hoping we would be averaging a higher crowd than we have been to date.

I know its Catch 22 because the facilities in cold wet weather are pretty poor but still he's bound the reign back on some of his planned spend

Casson is no fool. I do not believe that he is disappointed with attendances. They have always hovered around 1200/1400 during a conference season, they will never increase unless we get in the league and even then we wouldn't average above 2000.

It's just blind optimism to expect more!

Disagree, Accrington / Morecambe / Fleetwood whilst not the best supported clubs in the league when we regularly played in the same league as us averaged crowds of much less than us - the potential is there but it's about a Barrow mentality - a town that doesn't believe it can be better than it is.

prague bluebird wrote:

BristolBluebird wrote:
its about three miles away you'll need to hop into a taxi to get to the ground from there or the cheaper option would be the number 75 bus which drops you off outside the ground it should say cribbs causeway on the bus

Why do you ask Tomahawk Kid will you take Captain Dan and Billy Bones in a boat.

Thanks BristolBluebird.

PragueBluebird, me and a couple of fellas are collecting a 'drop' at the harbour we are then going to infuse the Bristol water supply with LSD.
You're very Nosey, aren't you!

Bingo wrote:

Alley_Cat wrote:
Casson is no fool. I do not believe that he is disappointed with attendances. They have always hovered around 1200/1400 during a conference season, they will never increase unless we get in the league and even then we wouldn't average above 2000.

It's just blind optimism to expect more!

Disagree, Accrington / Morecambe / Fleetwood whilst not the best supported clubs in the league when we regularly played in the same league as us averaged crowds of much less than us - the potential is there but it's about a Barrow mentality - a town that doesn't believe it can be better than it is.

How can you say you disagree but then say that it's about a Barrow mentality. I think you are saying that because of this mentality that's why the crowds are historically low. If you are then you agree with me

Historically it's fairly safe to say we're in the best position we've been in since we were kicked out of the league yet the crowds don't reflect that and there has to be reasons for this. I think people within the club should be doing a lot more to promote the games as well as the club. Agree with 'Bingo' the overall match-day experience is, like the facilities, dreadful. Apologies 'Alley Cat' but let's compare us with say, Forest Green, who are probably also in their best position and also have a wealthy owner. Their average attendance has doubled in the last decade, the home fans are sheltered behind both ends and they've got openly accessible plans for their new ground. There, I've used a comparison, totally out of order I admit but what do you want me to compare us to...a launderette?

Alley_Cat wrote:

DaveP wrote:I think you've hit the nail on the head there Mickmike.

The owner must be really disappointed at the crowd levels and wonder what the Barrow public want.

they have a decent team and I'm sure he was hoping we would be averaging a higher crowd than we have been to date.

I know its Catch 22 because the facilities in cold wet weather are pretty poor but still he's bound the reign back on some of his planned spend

Casson is no fool. I do not believe that he is disappointed with attendances. They have always hovered around 1200/1400 during a conference season, they will never increase unless we get in the league and even then we wouldn't average above 2000.

It's just blind optimism to expect more!

I agree. For a town the size of Barrow 2000 would be a pretty decent average in Division 2 and 3000 average would be the absolute limit we could ever expect.

I think we're comparable in population to Burnley and probably got a larger catchment area before there's any other league clubs so it probably depends more on the historical success of a club and facilities etc. I'd say than actual size of the town. Let's face it there should be more going. WTF the majority of the male population do around here of a Saturday at 3 o' clock (local players/refs/coaches excepted) beggars belief is what I think I'm trying to say. I'm sure I'm among like-minded folk.
Apologies it took this long.

mickmike wilson wrote:

John Very Little wrote:Some people go on as though it matters more than it does.
We will never get anywhere near being sustainable at this level and neither will most other clubs, half of PC's ground plans from when he first came have already been shelved.

Sorry John but I'm not following you here,
Money matters John, Your mega fugal travel plans make that blindingly obvious & Cassons ground plans may have been in part due to the lack of support we were getting when we are having our best season ever while being NL, We we're stuck with 1200/1300 for a age....Recently we are drawing 1700/1800 which is miles better, Hopefully we can drag a few more in & our gate averages fly up then you never know we might just upscale our redevelopment plans again to suit the higher average.

If people read my post I said why did it matter that we'd got 30K - it was never mentioned or didn't seem to matter we lost £827,198 the other season?
How much more have we lost/are we losing - or PC subsidised us since? Now when we've won a couple of games in the Cup and 30K comes in it gets mentioned but its barely gonna make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Comparing me to Paul Casson is pointless as I'm not the owner with millions to spend - PC knew he'd have to do that when he first came here. If we want to be less unsustainable then one way is getting more people here by improving the ground with better facilities - Casson said this initially and that he was developing all 4 sides to help enable this to happen. Now he's only developing 2 sides and this was nothing to do with the lack of support we're getting but because he said we didn't need to - shooting down his own argument for being sustainable in the first place? How many extra people will come to the ground in the middle of winter in pouring rain with no roof on the Holker end?

I don't think he has said he is 'only' developing two sides of the ground - check back with his late summer interview on BBCRC.