Floating Fans

[olaftab]

Just a thought - why did we get the (positive) "blip" of the Norwich attendance?

Not a fashionable, successful or local club yet we have 35k+ while the two previous derbies were lower.
Many factors I suppose.

Let's see the comparisons for the three Red matches coming next...

I don't think it was that significant a 'blip". Attendance of home fans was on par with Wigan and Blackburn match plus about 1,500 for a vey heavy  offer promotion. The difference was where as those two  had a few hundred (no more than 500)  come along Norwich was the best away support  so far. More numerous than Baggies and Wolves.

[Witton Warrior]

Just a thought - why did we get the (positive) "blip" of the Norwich attendance?

Not a fashionable, successful or local club yet we have 35k+ while the two previous derbies were lower.
Many factors I suppose.

Let's see the comparisons for the three Red matches coming next...

I don't think it was that significant a 'blip". Attendance of home fans was on par with Wigan and Blackburn match plus about 1,500 for a vey heavy  offer promotion. The difference was where as those two  had a few hundred (no more than 500)  come along Norwich was the best away support  so far. More numerous than Baggies and Wolves.

You demonstarte the other factors admirably aftab.

[Ad@m]

I would class a floating fan as one who only turns up when it's fashionable too, rather than floats from club to club.  There are plenty of people I know who went to the Villa pretty regularly when the feelgood factor was around the place at the start of Randy's reign but since the upheaval of the past couple of years and the feelgood factor has gone, they don't bother turning up.  Like others have said, for those people the nature of the opposition is a factor in them deciding whether they'll bother to turn up too.

As for what the club can do about them.  Keen pricing is the main one but not the only one.  Good publicity helps - I bet the Acorns deal when it was announced got a fair few people through the doors who hadn't bothered before.  Attractive football helps too - look how Arsenal's attendances have gone since they were rebranded as the 'best footballing team in the land'.  They still get silly attendances despite not having won anything for years.

None of it's rocket science in principle, but it certainly isn't easy to achieve either unless you've got a billion pounds in your sky rocket.

[Californian Villain]

I haven't been to more than 3 or 4games in the last eight years because I don't live in the UK, does this make me a "sinking" fan? I'm sitting here reading H&V on a sunday morning though, so maybe that helps my case...

[old man villa fan]

I always think of floating fans as those who don't support a particular team and will watch whichever game takes their fancy.

When I started watching football (mid 60's) there were many fans who, although having a preference for one team, would go to any of the local grounds just to watch the football, particularly if a top team was in town or, more so, if one of the top stars was playing.

One of our neighbours was a Blues supporter but would regularly go down the Villa with us.  My Dad, a staunch Villa fan when he was alive, went to the 56 cup final to see Blues but missed the 57 cup final.

[Dave Cooper please]

Come to think of it, the only person i've ever met who went semi-regularly to league games with no allegiance to any team was a non-league fan. But he only went because he took a delight in criticising all aspects of league football as compared to the vastly superior non-league brand. Again though, i'd say these 'special' types of match going fans are very thin on the ground

But I do have an allegiance to a league team, as do the other 'floating fans' that I know, and as far as I know non of us slag off The Premiership except in the way many others do in respect to that way it is systematically destroying football as we once knew it.
We know the quality of the football is far superior, even at The Villa! The match-day experience is why we dip in and out of top flight football. I had a fucking superb day out at Hinckley v Tamworth yesterday, a minibus crawl to several real-ale pubs, a cracking game (although spoiled by a few morons now being outed as Leicester and Coventry fans only there because of the international break) and all in great company, it's something I rarely experience watching Villa (apart from the company, I love you all!).

[garyfouroaks]

As a kid I would cycle down to Villa Park for mid-week games after I had done my homework and get in free at half time – because I thought the team needed me.

At £43 to watch a game against an ordinary West Brom, that sense of obligation has gone.

There is a bigger floating support in the City than many care to acknowledge. In the 60’s/early 70’s it was not unusual for fans to watch us and Small Heath at home on alternate weekends before away travel became popular/affordable.

Now the above is virtually unheard of. What is more common is floating fans reining back on the nothing games to take in the more interesting alternatives ( Small Heath v Brugges, West Brom v Man U , Tamworth v Hinckley  (and in the recent  past Walsall v Leeds). The wild odd fluctuations in our attendance, and those of others, reflects this.


Clubs are now reaping what they sow. If they want consumers rather than supporters, and the show down the road is more attractive,  then consumers wil behave like consumers.