davidjack

I've just given you actual hard facts about Bradford, Not in Crawley, which you've chosen to ignore. The discount here is to people who otherwise wouldn't be coming - they've already got the season ticket money in - and season ticket holders make up about 80 per cent of our support currently. Trying to do something that boosts the crowd for this one game and which may well tempt a few more to come back...well I just don't see how that can be anything but positive. Your solution is simply a counsel of despair - and will see those swathes of empty seats get bigger as the season fades away into nothingness. Isn't marketing supposed to be about boosting demand and growing revenues, to use the horrible jargon of the trade, rather than saying ah fuck it, might as well accept it's all going to shit so let's do nothing? But crack on with your 'theories' anyway.

True, but a sunny Saturday in August in Norwich would have seen us take a lot more than the 300 who went for a Friday night televised game. Though back in August we did still have the lunatic in charge. (Yes I know they won again y'day...tho I also see he's rotating his squads in advance again - regardless of how the team has performed in the previous game. We all know how well that eventually worked.)

But they weren't doing well. They'd just got relegated to the bottom tier. And where the trend usually sees crowds drop further, they almost doubled theirs. And kept them. And eventually got promoted again. I'd say that does prove the point.

Not wrong Spider!

A fucking massive city that was getting 6k crowds ...which suddenly jumped to 12k - way before the 2013 Cup final. This was 5 or more years ago. And those fans have stayed.

And the perception is there is absolutely no value in 30 quid tickets for Millwall at home. And that perception is correct. Which is why people aren't coming in great numbers. But more will be tempted if it's a fiver. In other words, it absolutely is about price. Not solely of course (a shit team with a shit manager - see previous regime - will always struggle to give tickets away).

How do you explain Bradford's crowds then? Double what they were a few years ago (and occurred while they were in league 2). It just happened? Or the fact they slashed season tickets to a hundred quid, did buy one get one free and various other deals played their part?You decide.

We probably wouldn't sell out every week, not at this stage of a season with nothing to play for, a patched up team and, despite Lennon's efforts so far, a fanbase which has drifted away after several seasons of shite. But the current price structure can hardly be right if it's leading to a situation where there are more empty seats than filled ones for most games. Not unless you think 14k is the maximum attendance we ought to be aiming for. Which I don't. This offer - and others like them - are a start. I'd be surprised if we didn't get an extra 3 or 4k going who otherwise wouldn't have. If even ten per cent of those come back the week after then that has to be a good thing, doesn't it? From small acorns...

No, replay would be the week after.

Don't think that away figure is correct - and it will be boosted after Blackburn and Wigan away anyway. We've also had the worst set of long distance fixtures of any team I reckon - Fulham, Charlton, Boro (Ipswich to come) all midweek, Norwich and Millwall on Friday nights (the latter just before Xmas). Take those out and a lot of our away followings have held up well. Home crowds are currently down almost a thousand on last year and almost 3k on the year before - which is inevitable given the steady decline (notwithstanding the boost under Lennon - without which we'd be getting crowds under 12k I think now). All the more reason why we need a proper push to get fans back for next season. Unless we reduce on the day prices and offer some of the ticket bundle ideas for those who can't afford or commit to a full season ticket, I can't see things changing much. Of course, getting off to a flying start would help.

CWP, if ticket pricing isn't the issue, let's put prices up to Chelsea levels then - 60 quid a throw. That should do the trick.

Let's see shall we, before we try and out negative each other. There's a week to go. We've not exactly been pulling up any trees of late and there's fuck all to play for, so hardly surprising folk aren't falling over themselves to get tickets, even at a fiver a throw. There'll definitely be a bigger crowd than we would have got otherwise though, so I don't really see a down side. Our group of 4 have all bought a ticket for a mate, fwiw...let's hope everyone on here and beyond can manage the same. NLSWA.

Got tickets for this and Wigan today. Hope we turn up this year, unlike last. I reckon we will. 1-0. 3,365 Whites.

You're welcome. :-)

Season end can't come soon enough. Get our injured players back and a proper pre-season and give it a real go next year. 1357 there today according to twitter - good following. Can't imagine many will be splashing out 31 quid for Boro. NLSWA.

It's good to know where we stand. I imagine Bolty the multiculturalist will be along in a minute to dissociate himself from a self-confessed racist though.

None of which has anything to do with the fact you think it's ok to say "what's all the fuss about this black guy? He was probably asking for it anyway, I mean white folk have got every right to start abusing him, after what happened to those journalists and that soldier...". If you seriously don't think there's anything wrong with that sentiment then you're a racist. I notice you only referenced the word 'ignorant' - so maybe you're happy with describing yourself as racist? Perhaps, if you'd been there, you'd have been singing the same song as those Chelsea racists?

I was taking issue with your associating a bullied and abused black man with the killers of journalists in Paris and a soldier on a London street. And you know full well that's what I was doing. Throwing Ukraine into the argument (afterwards) and what a multiculturalist you really are in the choice of your friends doesn't change that basic fact. I called it for what it was - racism. The fact you've chosen, repeatedly, not to try to explain your linking of what happened on that metro platform to terrorist acts suggests you actually believe there is a connection. If so, expect the 'r' word to be directed at you, and those who think like you.

Bobcat, you're embarrassing yourself now with your racist ignorance. I'd stop digging.

Yours and bobcat's racism is what's at issue here - and has nothing to do with what's going on in Ukraine, so don't give us that shit. You both tried to link an innocent black man with terrorist acts carried out by other non white people. If you can't see that that's racist and has no place in 2015 (or any other fucking year), then it's your own education you want to be looking at. Questioning whether the media have devoted a disproportionate amount of attention to this, given other world events, is perfectly reasonable. (Not even casual) racism isn't.

Quite, gonzo. It is possible to be appalled at someone getting beheaded (whoever they are, and whether it's on the streets of London or Baghdad) without saying every black person is a terrorist. Maybe holding those two thoughts simultaneously is beyond some people though. Fucking depressing if that really is the case.

If objecting to someone suggesting all non white people are potential terrorists is "being part of the problem" then, yeah, guilty as charged. If a black or Asian person tried to link you with the actions of, say, Anders Breivik I think you quite rightly might take offence. How a guy being stopped from getting on a train by a bunch of Neanderthals singing about how racist they are and how they love it is all of a sudden in the wrong here - oh and a terrorist to boot, cos well he's black and possibly a Muslim and that's what 'they' are all like - well, just have a think about that for a minute. And no, it's not political correctness gone mad - it's calling it for what it is - racism.

You and Jim Davidson.

'One of them' ? Aye, 'they' are all the same. Have we gone back to 1973? Kinell.

It's Soton's song really. But I like it when we sing it. Takes me back to my first games at Burnden as a kid. Also think it sounds more effective sung slowly - as it was at Blackpool a couple of seasons ago.