shocking attendences

[bray boy]

You cant blame the weather,time,performances,or teams.yesterdays attendance was simply unacceptable and shocking wouldnt even say five hundred.We may not have been playing a big dublin team or recent form hasnt been great but this really is a very very poor attendance theve been bad this season but i think yesterday was one of the worst.the club can hardly go anywhere when we cant even get 500 through the gates.....

[dublinwanderer]

true.

shocking crowd i'd say there was 500 at it but no more. the question is are the club doin enough to get the crowd in? especially for the likes of sligo galway games... last season they did loads of 2for1 offers etc, none this year. also i dont even see many signs up around bray advertising matches. something needs to be done. they have a full time promotions officer - is he actually promoting the club interms of getting an increase in attendances???

next weeks cup game better bring the fans out as dundalk will bring a few hundred down with them.

[pdebruin]

I'll have a go at answering this.

1. The main reason in my opinion, isn't just poor form, I've seen bray string together worse results and the attendence has been reasonable. On a few occasions this season, (Sligo match being one and the Galway match being the other), I organised a group of friends (10-15) to attend the match - the quality of football from Bray was dire (Cawley aside), they honestly can't believe that I would go down every week to watch it!! None will be coming back any time soon. Bray aren't scoring goals, creating chances (playing 1 up front ineffectually for the majority of the match yeaterday, at home against a rival??!) the games aren't exciting - simple as.

2. 3 home league games in 70 days doesn't help. I remember the same thing happening (was it last year or the year before) when for several weeks in a row the club kept switching the matchday from Friday - there were terrible crowds for weeks after that too.

just re-reading this....dire isn't the right word, I know it's a young team, that seems to have lost confidence trying to play football, but poor set-piece play, few chances and even fewer goals lead to a not very exciting spectacle.!!

[Red&White Rover]

Have to say, was shocked at the low turnout yesterday...

Barely 400...

[naoise kennedy]

I'll have a go at answering this.

1. The main reason in my opinion, isn't just poor form, I've seen bray string together worse results and the attendence has been reasonable. On a few occasions this season, (Sligo match being one and the Galway match being the other), I organised a group of friends (10-15) to attend the match - the quality of football from Bray was dire (Cawley aside), they honestly can't believe that I would go down every week to watch it!! None will be coming back any time soon. Bray aren't scoring goals, creating chances (playing 1 up front ineffectually for the majority of the match yeaterday, at home against a rival??!) the games aren't exciting - simple as.

2. 3 home league games in 70 days doesn't help. I remember the same thing happening (was it last year or the year before) when for several weeks in a row the club kept switching the matchday from Friday - there were terrible crowds for weeks after that too.

just re-reading this....dire isn't the right word, I know it's a young team, that seems to have lost confidence trying to play football, but poor set-piece play, few chances and even fewer goals lead to a not very exciting spectacle.!!

i would totally agree with these points,, last week i wrote that bray are not performing and that i think that it comes down to the manager and that it was time for a change ie tactics or staff. playing one up front is not working and this tactic is down to the manager. last night he brought dunphy on and moved o keeffe on to the wing,again only leaving one up front, ok he then put paddy up front with ten minutes to go.. a bit too late imo.. robson (attacking midfielder)left on bench and emeka not even on the bench.. what is eddie and is staff doing ????????????????

[bray boy]

Naoise stop turning this into a bashing eddie thread please.

The thing is what someone was saying about perfromances and how theyve been bad so that effects the attendences thats simply rubbish.

In my opinion the club needs to change its target market from familys to building up a bigger hardcore.
Firstly id like to make it clear that i dont just mean people who sing,stand and the rest i mean the people wholl travel to see the seagulls and be there for the good majority of home games

.I would also like to say that families are of course a big part of any club as they bring through the next generation of supporters.

How ever we cant boast ourselves as a family club for the simple reason and this season and last night has shown it that it has'nt worked. No one at the club can say the attendances are of decent standards because they are simply dreadful.Look at any time one of the bigger clubs come to the carlisle and every time away fans out number home fans its pathetic.

For some reason the club ( and many other clubs) are soley concerned with catering for family needs which is fine but take this into account. Families will most likely only go to home games and on the odd occasion where we get to a cup semi or something bring them away. Secondly what we saw last night a lot are going to blow in and out depending on performances and if we're going on that the fact that we're not going to win the league any time too it doesnt seem like a very good plan.

Im not going to come up with some master plan to bring in thousands just displaying the fact that how the club at this moment in time is marketing itself its not working and we cant use the excuse of previous years attendences because if we go by them then will never fill the ground.

[naoise kennedy]

Naoise stop turning this into a bashing eddie thread please.

The thing is what someone was saying about perfromances and how theyve been bad so that effects the attendences thats simply rubbish.

In my opinion the club needs to change its target market from familys to building up a bigger hardcore.
Firstly id like to make it clear that i dont just mean people who sing,stand and the rest i mean the people wholl travel to see the seagulls and be there for the good majority of home games

.I would also like to say that families are of course a big part of any club as they bring through the next generation of supporters.

How ever we cant boast ourselves as a family club for the simple reason and this season and last night has shown it that it has'nt worked. No one at the club can say the attendances are of decent standards because they are simply dreadful.Look at any time one of the bigger clubs come to the carlisle and every time away fans out number home fans its pathetic.

For some reason the club ( and many other clubs) are soley concerned with catering for family needs which is fine but take this into account. Families will most likely only go to home games and on the odd occasion where we get to a cup semi or something bring them away. Secondly what we saw last night a lot are going to blow in and out depending on performances and if we're going on that the fact that we're not going to win the league any time too it doesnt seem like a very good plan.

Im not going to come up with some master plan to bring in thousands just displaying the fact that how the club at this moment in time is marketing itself its not working and we cant use the excuse of previous years attendences because if we go by them then will never fill the ground.

if a team does not perform(ok a player can have a bad match) who do you blame, if the tactics or not right who do you blame. at the end of the day these decisions are made by the manager. players go on a pitch with a plan in mind, where was the plan last night one person up front at home!!!!!!!!!!

[bray boy]

theres already a forum about gormely which you made so you can post your comments about him there....

[pdebruin]

Naoise stop turning this into a bashing eddie thread please.

The thing is what someone was saying about perfromances and how theyve been bad so that effects the attendences thats simply rubbish.

In my opinion the club needs to change its target market from familys to building up a bigger hardcore.
Firstly id like to make it clear that i dont just mean people who sing,stand and the rest i mean the people wholl travel to see the seagulls and be there for the good majority of home games

.I would also like to say that families are of course a big part of any club as they bring through the next generation of supporters.

How ever we cant boast ourselves as a family club for the simple reason and this season and last night has shown it that it has'nt worked. No one at the club can say the attendances are of decent standards because they are simply dreadful.Look at any time one of the bigger clubs come to the carlisle and every time away fans out number home fans its pathetic.

For some reason the club ( and many other clubs) are soley concerned with catering for family needs which is fine but take this into account. Families will most likely only go to home games and on the odd occasion where we get to a cup semi or something bring them away. Secondly what we saw last night a lot are going to blow in and out depending on performances and if we're going on that the fact that we're not going to win the league any time too it doesnt seem like a very good plan.

Im not going to come up with some master plan to bring in thousands just displaying the fact that how the club at this moment in time is marketing itself its not working and we cant use the excuse of previous years attendences because if we go by them then will never fill the ground.

I agree that the club could be marketed better in the town and the surrounding areas, and certainly it would be a great idea to increase the number of "hardcore" fans, but those "blow ins" that you mentioned in your post are exactly the type of people that the club should be targeting.

These are the people who watch premier league football on tv, travel to england to watch games, and generally claim to like and support football. Getting them to come down to the ground even once would be a huge win for the club - I've often told people that if they come down to watch they would be hooked - but not with unexciting,conservative and scoreless matches we've had recently, the quality does not have to be great, the results are not the driving factor, the spectacle is, for the new fan coming through the turnstile. Is what they see entertaining at the moment? No.

Word of mouth around the town is the best marketing there is - Are people asking friends to come down, because they know they'll enjoy the game? Are people talking about what a great match they went to the previous week? What are the national newspapers writing in the match reports - end to end stuff? or that Bray have scored 2 goals in 8 games? To say that the performance of a team does not influence attendences is naive. To say the two things are not corelated or that "the idea is simply rubbish" beggars belief - marketing can get people into the ground, however, what they see/experience when they get there will determine whether they will come back for more the following week - did they enjoy the experience?

Finally, I don't want to turn this into an Eddie bashing thread either - he's a young manager, has overachieved points-wise with the team, and I like the attempt at being a more progressive side, however, as the manager he must also take responsibility (not blame) for many things associated with the club, this includes results, performance, tactics, discipline within the club etc - I can't think of many topics you can discuss about a small league of Ireland football club where the manager does not have some influence.

[naoise kennedy]

I agree that the club could be marketed better in the town and the surrounding areas, and certainly it would be a great idea to increase the number of "hardcore" fans, but those "blow ins" that you mentioned in your post are exactly the type of people that the club should be targeting.

These are the people who watch premier league football on tv, travel to england to watch games, and generally claim to like and support football. Getting them to come down to the ground even once would be a huge win for the club - I've often told people that if they come down to watch they would be hooked - but not with unexciting,conservative and scoreless matches we've had recently, the quality does not have to be great, the results are not the driving factor, the spectacle is, for the new fan coming through the turnstile. Is what they see entertaining at the moment? No.

Word of mouth around the town is the best marketing there is - Are people asking friends to come down, because they know they'll enjoy the game? Are people talking about what a great match they went to the previous week? What are the national newspapers writing in the match reports - end to end stuff? or that Bray have scored 2 goals in 8 games? To say that the performance of a team does not influence attendences is naive. To say the two things are not corelated or that "the idea is simply rubbish" beggars belief - marketing can get people into the ground, however, what they see/experience when they get there will determine whether they will come back for more the following week - did they enjoy the experience?

Finally, I don't want to turn this into an Eddie bashing thread either - he's a young manager, has overachieved points-wise with the team, and I like the attempt at being a more progressive side, however, as the manager he must also take responsibility (not blame) for many things associated with the club, this includes results, performance, tactics, discipline within the club etc - I can't think of many topics you can discuss about a small league of Ireland football club where the manager does not have some influence.

good points made above, i also like the changes he has made, bringing in new players over the past two seasons. i have been going to bray matches for the past four seasons and the last two seasons have been the best i have seen. this is down to eddie and is staff, when we were going through our good spell this year were playing most teams off the pitch,, this is down to eddie. i agree he is a young and first time manager and he is learning as he goes and up to this spell he was doing a bloody good job.
looking back at these and pdebruin points maybe blame is too strong a word but a would agree that he must take responsibility......

[bray boy]

I agree that the club could be marketed better in the town and the surrounding areas, and certainly it would be a great idea to increase the number of "hardcore" fans, but those "blow ins" that you mentioned in your post are exactly the type of people that the club should be targeting.

These are the people who watch premier league football on tv, travel to england to watch games, and generally claim to like and support football. Getting them to come down to the ground even once would be a huge win for the club - I've often told people that if they come down to watch they would be hooked - but not with unexciting,conservative and scoreless matches we've had recently, the quality does not have to be great, the results are not the driving factor, the spectacle is, for the new fan coming through the turnstile. Is what they see entertaining at the moment? No.

Word of mouth around the town is the best marketing there is - Are people asking friends to come down, because they know they'll enjoy the game? Are people talking about what a great match they went to the previous week? What are the national newspapers writing in the match reports - end to end stuff? or that Bray have scored 2 goals in 8 games? To say that the performance of a team does not influence attendences is naive. To say the two things are not corelated or that "the idea is simply rubbish" beggars belief - marketing can get people into the ground, however, what they see/experience when they get there will determine whether they will come back for more the following week - did they enjoy the experience?

Finally, I don't want to turn this into an Eddie bashing thread either - he's a young manager, has overachieved points-wise with the team, and I like the attempt at being a more progressive side, however, as the manager he must also take responsibility (not blame) for many things associated with the club, this includes results, performance, tactics, discipline within the club etc - I can't think of many topics you can discuss about a small league of Ireland football club where the manager does not have some influence.

Obviously every new comer to the club is going to be what you would call a 'blow-in' i think the key part is changing them from a blow into one of the hardcore. (I don't really like that word it reminds me of a forty year old bald man with his top of screaming) but someone who genuinely has a love for the club and support the club no matter what the circumstances.

i apologise for my rubbishing of the 'performances effect attendances comment' because yes of course performances effect attendances no one really wants to go down to see their team being smashed four nil or the likes. What i meant is that the clubs results should'nt effect attendances so much that the ground is nearly empty because then you can hardly say the supporters who were there during the good times had a love for the club. Look at rovers (and this is just the first team that came to my head just an example) when they went down they had enough 'hardcore' support that they still took over stadiums and probably had home attendances that rivaled or bettered ours.Of course it is'nt really fair to compare a club with such previous history and success but it shows that the 'hardcore' and i really hate using that word! will always be there!!

[dublinwanderer]

it reminds me of a forty year old bald man with his top of screaming

the only difference there is your not 40 or bald, but do occasionally take your top off and scream!!!!

i agree with you's we need to improve are fan base, families are ok but we cannot forget about the other groups the club should be marketing at. i'd say 90% of advertising/marketing is to try and get more families involved, i wont say stop this, but i think the club should try aim a campaign at others - students or working class people.

oh and about bringing people for the first time to watch sligo, your always taking a chance that the match could be sh*t. i brought someone to a bohs match early last season (we won 1-0, dunphy scored) and since then he hasnt missed a home game and goes to the odd away game.

[pdebruin]

oh and about bringing people for the first time to watch sligo, your always taking a chance that the match could be sh*t. i brought someone to a bohs match early last season (we won 1-0, dunphy scored) and since then he hasnt missed a home game and goes to the odd away game.

I suppose once I missed the Bohs match on July 15th I should have waited until Pats were in town on September 19th. :) I'll know the next time. To think I believed Bray might have put on a show at home against the team directly above us in the league!!!

And there wasn't even a penalty shoot out to bet on at half tiime :mad:

[Hulsey]

Word of mouth can only do so much and to be honest I'm sick of trying to get mates to go. Managed to finally convince a mate I'd been going on to for ages to go to a agem and when he agreed it was ucd at home earlier in the season and lost 2-0, and the game was muck and he hasn't been back since.
Think that was the point dublinwanderer was trying to make. Games against sligo or ucd may be on a par with a game against the likes of bohs or rovers on the match itself, but the atmosphere created by a decent away support as well as the home support has a greater chance of enticing people back