Attendance issues

[saunders_heroes]

For me Villa Park just isn't a magical place anymore prinipally because of the loss of the Holte and the Trinity.

Now it looks soulless and unspiring.

 There's also something particularly conspicuous and depressing about empty sky blue seats.

Why are most of our seats that colour anyway when it's only our secondary colour?

Paint them claret for God's sake, we don't want to look like the Ricoh! 

Nonsense. If you want to see a soulless ground go and look at Sunderland or Derby, Arsenal, Bolton or any other new identikit stadia across the land.  Our team is shite at the moment that's why the atmosphere seems awful at Villa Park. Our atmosphere has always mirrored what occurs on the pitch. Villa Park is one of the last great football stadiums in this country with tradition, inspiration, history and more importantly, soul.

[Risso]

It's not just the big games though. We have, at best, 20000 season ticket holders, add 2000 away fans and 1000 corporate seats means that even for a game like Norwich we sell around 10000 "walk-up" tickets.

To convert these though they need to be entertained otherwise they won't come back to the next game or the one after that.

I bet Villa are unique with having such a high proportion of non-season ticket holder making up the attendance, with how we are playing that's not going to change anytime soon sadly.

We've never had a great number of season ticket holders simply because you've never need one. I can't remember any game in my Villa-supporting life when tickets haven't been available to anyone who got there early enough.

Villa - Spurs when Bosnich knocked out Kilinsmann.  I may be mistaken but I seem to remember that was sold out good and proper.

[dave.woodhall]

It's not just the big games though. We have, at best, 20000 season ticket holders, add 2000 away fans and 1000 corporate seats means that even for a game like Norwich we sell around 10000 "walk-up" tickets.

To convert these though they need to be entertained otherwise they won't come back to the next game or the one after that.

I bet Villa are unique with having such a high proportion of non-season ticket holder making up the attendance, with how we are playing that's not going to change anytime soon sadly.

We've never had a great number of season ticket holders simply because you've never need one. I can't remember any game in my Villa-supporting life when tickets haven't been available to anyone who got there early enough.

Villa - Spurs when Bosnich knocked out Kilinsmann.  I may be mistaken but I seem to remember that was sold out good and proper.

We've had sell-out games but you could always get tickets if you bought them in advance. I meant get there early to queue when they went on sale or the turnstiles opened rather than some Seattle Villainesque love nor money dream scenario

[JJ-AV]

And then to contrast you hear talk of Arsenal/Spurs/Newcastle/Liverpool having thousands on a season ticket waiting list.

Actually, I'm sure I heard Arsenal have over 40k on a waiting list. Surely that can't be right?

[saunders_heroes]

And then to contrast you hear talk of Arsenal/Spurs/Newcastle/Liverpool having thousands on a season ticket waiting list.

Actually, I'm sure I heard Arsenal have over 40k on a waiting list. Surely that can't be right?

Never believed any of that.

[dave.woodhall]

And then to contrast you hear talk of Arsenal/Spurs/Newcastle/Liverpool having thousands on a season ticket waiting list.

Actually, I'm sure I heard Arsenal have over 40k on a waiting list. Surely that can't be right?

Never believed any of that.

Arsenal claim to have 40k on a waiting list but a quick scan of their forums seems to indicate that you don't have to wait very long for one.

[saunders_heroes]

And then to contrast you hear talk of Arsenal/Spurs/Newcastle/Liverpool having thousands on a season ticket waiting list.

Actually, I'm sure I heard Arsenal have over 40k on a waiting list. Surely that can't be right?

Never believed any of that.

Arsenal claim to have 40k on a waiting list but a quick scan of their forums seems to indicate that you don't have to wait very long for one.

It's all PR bullshit.

[Lizz]

Apparently fish and chips at the Emirates costs £13.90. Someone on R5 on Saturday lunch time was attempting to justify prices charged by Arsenal in general as a reason for their fans' expectation levels.

[saunders_heroes]

Apparently fish and chips at the Emirates costs £13.90. Someone on R5 on Saturday lunch time was attempting to justify prices charged by Arsenal in general as a reason for their fans' expectation levels.

Bet they wish they were back at Highbury.

[Pat McMahon]

Apparently fish and chips at the Emirates costs £13.90. Someone on R5 on Saturday lunch time was attempting to justify prices charged by Arsenal in general as a reason for their fans' expectation levels.

I heard that too Lizz. They were saying that it is all fine and dandy to claim they are in transition again, but if you charge the highest prices in the league and pay one of the highest managers' salaries too then the fans have the right to caterwaul when they don't get success.

[dave.woodhall]

Apparently fish and chips at the Emirates costs £13.90. Someone on R5 on Saturday lunch time was attempting to justify prices charged by Arsenal in general as a reason for their fans' expectation levels.

I heard that too Lizz. They were saying that it is all fine and dandy to claim they are in transition again, but if you charge the highest prices in the league and pay one of the highest managers' salaries too then the fans have the right to caterwaul when they don't get success.

Two years ago we were standing outside the ground when some of their supporters staged a protest march. Nobody could understand what they had to complain about. 

[eamonn]

It's not just the big games though. We have, at best, 20000 season ticket holders, add 2000 away fans and 1000 corporate seats means that even for a game like Norwich we sell around 10000 "walk-up" tickets.

Pretty sure one of the papers, the Mail I think, reported in the summer that we'd sold our largest number of season of tickets since 07/08 or 08/09, I can't remember. But definitely remember a figure of 25k being mentioned. Your reckoning of 20,000 at best seems rather low.

[Pete3206]

Apparently fish and chips at the Emirates costs £13.90. Someone on R5 on Saturday lunch time was attempting to justify prices charged by Arsenal in general as a reason for their fans' expectation levels.

I heard that too Lizz. They were saying that it is all fine and dandy to claim they are in transition again, but if you charge the highest prices in the league and pay one of the highest managers' salaries too then the fans have the right to caterwaul when they don't get success.

Two years ago we were standing outside the ground when some of their supporters staged a protest march. Nobody could understand what they had to complain about. 

14 quid fish & chips is a start.

[maidstonevillain]

When you only see a win at VP about every 3 months its difficult to keep 40,000 interested. 

Or, despite me and MVJunior  travelling to about 6 games a season (typically 4 home, 2 away), not seeing a win in over 3 seasons.

[Andy1874]

Within my circle of friends, there are a good 13/14 villa fans amongst us, the majority of us have been going down the villa all our lives up until the last few years. We're now in our early 20's and the only thing that attracts us now are away days, does anyone else find it worrying that this could become a common occurrence within the younger fan ?

Are people just generally losing interest in the game ?