woeful attendance

[cheltenhamlion]

No. To quote his song, he is a horses arse:

Johnnie Holder
Johnnie Holder
Johnnie Holder is a horses arse

He's the meanest
He sucks a horses penis
Johnnie Holder is an 'orses arse

He looks like a horses arse
He smells like a horses arse
He is an 'orses arse
 

All sung loudly in your best bumpkin accent of course!

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I've had a season ticket for pretty much all of my adult life, I'm 38 years old. I've not renewed this season, not because of McLeish, not because of the shitty boring football, and to be honest not even because of the cost.

I haven't renewed for a couple of reasons;

1) The players earn at Villa earn in a week what I do in two years in some cases, and i'm not prepared to give them my hard earned money with Billy 'Big Bollock' attitude they have. I'll watch it in the pub over 3/4 pints.

2) The Premier League is boring and dull. We know before a ball is kicked pretty much that 4 from 5 will play in the Champions League, and 3 from 4/5 will be relegated. I know full well we'll finish somewhere between 8th and 12th.

It's not Villa that is the problem, it's football.

[russon]

No. To quote his song, he is a horses arse:

Johnnie Holder
Johnnie Holder
Johnnie Holder is a horses arse

He's the meanest
He sucks a horses penis
Johnnie Holder is an 'orses arse

He looks like a horses arse
He smells like a horses arse
He is an 'orses arse
 

All sung loudly in your best bumpkin accent of course!

Just opened the 'Woeful Attendance' thread to be greeted at the top of the page by this ditty which threw me somewhat.

Aberdeen fans sing the horse's arse song too, they address referees with it (as opposed to the unfortunate Mr Holder)

[Lsvilla]

I've had a season ticket for pretty much all of my adult life, I'm 38 years old. I've not renewed this season, not because of McLeish, not because of the shitty boring football, and to be honest not even because of the cost.

I haven't renewed for a couple of reasons;

1) The players earn at Villa earn in a week what I do in two years in some cases, and i'm not prepared to give them my hard earned money with Billy 'Big Bollock' attitude they have. I'll watch it in the pub over 3/4 pints.

2) The Premier League is boring and dull. We know before a ball is kicked pretty much that 4 from 5 will play in the Champions League, and 3 from 4/5 will be relegated. I know full well we'll finish somewhere between 8th and 12th.

It's not Villa that is the problem, it's football.

This is me too - only i'm nearer 48 sadly.
Going on Saturday for the first time this season - £43 to sit in the Witton lower - just wish i could get excited about it but already underwhelmed - will buy a fanzine though 

[Blackcountry Villa]

I had a season ticket for years and did almost every away game but i didn't renew this season and won't be attending a game all season.

There are a few factors:

Lerner. Cutting the wage bill drastically and not replacing our best players. Being more interested in the financial side of things than the football side, bullshitter Krulak said the other week 'our aim is to be in the top 20 in the financial list'. To me that says they're happy as long as we're profitable, sod the football. Our ambition these days is to avoid relegation, finish somewhere around mid table and spend as little money as we can. Then there was the ridiculous appointment of that shite manager.

Mcleish. We all knew before the start of the season exactly how we would play, and he isn't proving us wrong. 'He won a cup at Blues', yes but their fans still hated him and his crap football which says it all. We appointed the manager of our rivals who had got them relegated twice in three years, ambitious. We haven't lost yet but i didn't think we would lose many, i said we would draw loads and play shit, negative football and thats exactly whats happening. No way was i going to pay 500 odd quid to watch that garbage and every game i've seen so far has made me think thank christ i didn't waste my money. Anyone who pays £43 to watch that crap needs their head looking at.

The atmosphere. There isn't one. 100 blokes singing in the upper Holte isn't an atmosphere, nobody can even hear them. Try and stand up and the stewards threaten to throw you out, thats when theres something to actually sing about. The football isn't exciting at all so the fans have nothing to get excited about and nothing to sing about. I do miss the atmosphere at away games, but even our away fans don't sing as much as they used to and we only took 1800 to Everton and we've got 1600 for QPR so it seems the away go-ers have had enough aswell.

The players. £43 to watch the likes of Petrov and Heskey? No thanks.

The Premier League. Only 3 teams can win it, another 3 teams will finish in the European places and we will finish 8th-12th if we're lucky with injuries and below 12th if injuries hit. Then theres the standard of a lot of games, Fulham v Villa and Villa v Wolves were absolutely dire.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

[Pete3206]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

Perhaps the tickets were affordable.

[Blackcountry Villa]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

Tickets in Germany are dirt cheap compared to over here. I remember one game, i think it was Dortmund v Schalke, they were being asked to pay about £20 to stand on a terrace and they said they would boycott the game because it was too expensive and the club backed down and lowered the prices. Fans in this country would love to pay £20 to stand on a terrace to watch a top flight game. Terracing is another big factor, every ground over there has a safe standing area. Dortmund have a terraced stand that holds 28,000 and the atmosphere is usually electric. If they made the lower Holte terraced and charged £20 you would get the normal fans come back who have been priced out of it or simply don't want to pay £43.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

Perhaps the tickets were affordable.

I guess so.

If we adopted the German model - i.e. cheap tickets, safe standing, fan orientated experience etc etc - and let's say we had a 60,000 seater stadium, does anyone think we would fill it?

[john e]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

Perhaps the tickets were affordable.

I guess so.

If we adopted the German model - i.e. cheap tickets, fan orientated experience etc etc - and let's say we had a 60,000 seater stadium, does anyone think we would fill it?

yep, when Take That come again

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

How the hell did Borussia Dortmund average 78,740 fans last season coming from a city of only 585,045?

Their average attendance was bested only by Barcelona's average of 81,500.

Tickets in Germany are dirt cheap compared to over here. I remember one game, i think it was Dortmund v Schalke, they were being asked to pay about £20 to stand on a terrace and they said they would boycott the game because it was too expensive and the club backed down and lowered the prices. Fans in this country would love to pay £20 to stand on a terrace to watch a top flight game. Terracing is another big factor, every ground over there has a safe standing area. Dortmund have a terraced stand that holds 28,000 and the atmosphere is usually electric. If they made the lower Holte terraced and charged £20 you would get the normal fans come back who have been priced out of it or simply don't want to pay £43.

Can't see the cheap tickets coming over here but hopefully safe standing does.

I know the Football Supporters Federation have been campaigning for it.

[JJ-AV]

I don't think we would. Not consistently anyway. Once the euphoria of 'cheap' (relatively) tickets died down we'd soon see a drop off in attendances against Blackburn and Bolton et al.

To take us past the 43k+ mark we'd need some success, IMO, but for the medium term we just need to believe again. We need to be galvanised. Randy and MON did it, Bent did it (although it was quickly undone).

At the moment not too much damage has been done, our attendance this season will probably average out at low-mid 30's, which can be improved upon. The worry is another Summer or two of what we've just had and that average will go down even further.

McLeish has had a solid start and has a decent base to build from. The defence is looking better, now is the time to try and win games (especially at home), while we have a bit of a cushion.

[Blackcountry Villa]

I don't think we would. Not consistently anyway. Once the euphoria of 'cheap' (relatively) tickets died down we'd soon see a drop off in attendances against Blackburn and Bolton et al.

To take us past the 43k+ mark we'd need some success, IMO, but for the medium term we just need to believe again. We need to be galvanised. Randy and MON did it, Bent did it (although it was quickly undone).

At the moment not too much damage has been done, our attendance this season will probably average out at low-mid 30's, which can be improved upon. The worry is another Summer or two of what we've just had and that average will go down even further.

McLeish has had a solid start and has a decent base to build from. The defence is looking better, now is the time to try and win games (especially at home), while we have a bit of a cushion.

It's not just about winning games though, it's about the style of play. If he's winning games 1-0 the crowds won't improve, not many people are going to fork out 40 odd quid if they know they won't be entertained. Take the Wolves game for instance, before the game even kicked off most of us knew it would be dire stuff and you're not going to part with your money if you know that. Even if we'd nicked that game 1-0 it wouldn't have got any of the stay away fans back because it was rubbish. MON was the same, we finished 6th three years on the trot but we still didn't sell out regularly because the football on display was crap and wasn't entertaining. I've always said i'd rather we finished 8th and play good football than 6th playing how we did under MON and now McLeish.

[NeilH]

Nope we wouldn’t fill it. Back before the Premiership started, ticket prices were pretty cheap and we still consistently failed to fill the stadium. Yes there were contributing factors to this, but I do not believe that reducing prices at Villa would facilitate a large increase in crowds. Our average gate is traditionally around the 30k mark and we really have to push the boat out on the field to get above that mark. It is my opinion that the board have realised that this floating 10k are simply too expensive to attract on a regular basis.
Any talk of expanding the stadium would simply be folly and you only have to look at Juve to see how a giant of European football has built its stadium based on the realistic attendance numbers.

[Blackcountry Villa]

Expanding the stadium to 50k would be madness. Try signing some good, big name players and getting into Europe (and taking it seriously) first. You're not going to get 50,000 to watch the likes of Petrov, Heskey and Agbonlahor battle to finish mid table.