fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Yeah I was there, Wimbledon
Big crowds at the weekend (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter CV22SBA
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Yeah I was there, Wimbledon
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Think the last terrace in the Premier League was probably at Roker Park in 96/97, can't think of any others as most of the established top flight clubs had gone all seater before then.
Tile Hill Phil
Well-Known Member
Do you think many students would be interested in going to the match if they were offered packages or deals to entice them. I’m not sure myself
Evo1883
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure either tbh
Sick Boy
Super Moderator
If it was a city centre ground I’d say so.
SkyblueDad
Well-Known Member
Shocking decisions over the years affected support from Jimmy Hills all seater reducing HR capacity by about 15000 at a stroke putting seats on existing terracing open to the elements. We only had about 19000 home capacity until we moved to the CBS and then the Northampton & Birmingham debacles.
We are doing well currently pushing home support to 20000ish.
We are doing well currently pushing home support to 20000ish.
LastGarrison
Well-Known Member
That 35k includes students at all of their campuses (Scarborough and three in London) so the actually number in Cov, from memory, is something like 28k.
Of those roughly 40% are international students. Naturally West Midlands is the biggest recruitment area for home students and then after that London.
Warwick have around 30k but obviously a lot of their students live outside of Coventry in Leamington, Warwick etc.
The club did at one point offer the uni cheap tickets but that ended years ago. I think they are missing a trick not engaging with the universities and especially as CU Scarborough sponsored Scarborough Athletic a few years back.
Londonccfcfan
Well-Known Member
The younger fans want identity...and let's face it. We are one of the few clubs who win more than we lose (under Robins). Why wouldnt the younger fans want to ride this wave.
ccfc1234
Well-Known Member
31,407 was the attendance vs Chelsea in 2009. Not sure there is that much more segregation.
Just isn't true. We have very good support from within the city boundary. Don't kniw where people get this from. Virtually everyone I know in the city follows the club in some form.
The issue is more that we don't attract more from outside the city, particularly north Warwickshire. When I got the train from Nuneaton last season for the Blues game, there were more Birmingham fans getting on the train than Cov. That should never be the case. Place is full of Villa and Leicester fans too.
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Were there? Don't the SBT and EST (club travel) use Ridleys? That's a Warwickshire company but coaches running from Cov. Same with SBA who use coach leasing based out of Nuneaton. Wouldn't judge that based on the place name on the back of the coach tbh. I'd say all but a couple of coaches yesterday ran out of Cov.
Alan Dugdales Moustache
Well-Known Member
Ipswich have achieved absolutely nothing for donkeys years and have one of the best supports in the country. No dishonour in not matching them. Their season ticket sales will mean we won't get more than them but doesn't mean we won't average over 20,000. They certainly will.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
They finished in the top 5 the year we got relegated from the Prem didn't they?
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SkyblueDad
Well-Known Member
Ipswich are a club with a good history were proper league championship challengers for years
Ipswich are also the only club in Suffolk with an 800K population to draw on, with very little competition.
This point always gets missed. Take teams like Middlesbrough, you go to Stockton or Redcar, they are solid Boro towns. Nuneaton, Atherstone, Stratford? Not nearly as much. We are so reliant o CV1 to CV6 for our base.
Take Leicester too. Not only is Leicestershire so much bigger than Cov and Warks (around 300K more people in total), there is much more loyalty to Leicester from the wider county than we get. How many people in Shipton on Stour identify with Cov?
These clubs just have much bigger catchment areas than we do, so the fact we'll be top 6 or 7 for attendances in the Championship this season should be celebrated.
This point always gets missed. Take teams like Middlesbrough, you go to Stockton or Redcar, they are solid Boro towns. Nuneaton, Atherstone, Stratford? Not nearly as much. We are so reliant o CV1 to CV6 for our base.
Take Leicester too. Not only is Leicestershire so much bigger than Cov and Warks (around 300K more people in total), there is much more loyalty to Leicester from the wider county than we get. How many people in Shipton on Stour identify with Cov?
These clubs just have much bigger catchment areas than we do, so the fact we'll be top 6 or 7 for attendances in the Championship this season should be celebrated.
ccfcchris
Well-Known Member
If we manage to carry on playing attractive football and winning games the crowds will increase. It takes time. People want to be part of a feel-good factor which has been missing for so long.
That's not the case now and the stats prove that people are coming to support the club.
That's not the case now and the stats prove that people are coming to support the club.
Gleneagles65
Well-Known Member
Wise words, Norwich crowds were very average pre 2002 but they then they did their homework. ‘Get em young’ and you’ve got them for life.
SkyblueDad
Well-Known Member
At one point I’m sure the vast majority of Norwich fans were season ticket holders, might still be.
David O'Day
Well-Known Member
Where do HE students study? | HESA
On this page: Students by HE provider | Location of study | Student accommodation
www.hesa.ac.uk
lot of ouw still live outside cov though
pusbccfc
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, our troubles started when football began growing in popularity. Other similar sized clubs grew due to success/promotion to the top flight. Had we stayed in the top flight and moved to the Ricoh earlier, we'd have developed a 25k fanbase like Leicester, Southampton, Derby etc. Even Stoke grew to this while we were playing in different towns and cities.
That's why we are seeing a good growth now because we've actually had something to cheer about.
There's a lot of Coventry fans in the city but not enough have got into the habit of going. I've said many times before, a lot of our most loyal fans live outside of Coventry, whether that be in the smaller towns in Warwickshire or elsewhere. Particularly our away support.
We should be looking to get 25k Saturday for a first game of the season, good weather, reasonable ticket prices and most of all a team that has held off selling it's big names.
Unfortunately it looks like it will be around 20k based on current sales and a woefully poor effort from Rotherham who have sold 800 for their first ever visit to the Ricoh.
That's why we are seeing a good growth now because we've actually had something to cheer about.
There's a lot of Coventry fans in the city but not enough have got into the habit of going. I've said many times before, a lot of our most loyal fans live outside of Coventry, whether that be in the smaller towns in Warwickshire or elsewhere. Particularly our away support.
We should be looking to get 25k Saturday for a first game of the season, good weather, reasonable ticket prices and most of all a team that has held off selling it's big names.
Unfortunately it looks like it will be around 20k based on current sales and a woefully poor effort from Rotherham who have sold 800 for their first ever visit to the Ricoh.
SeaSeeEffCee
Well-Known Member
I’m 26 and I was one of the only ones in my year at school to have a season ticket. Most of the kids were Liverpool, United or Arsenal fans, there was barely any Cov fans.
See thats the difference to now. My son is 15 and at school in Rugby and everyone his age and younger are cov fans, most have got season tickets this season too.
SeaSeeEffCee
Well-Known Member
That’s great to hear!
Warwickhunt
Well-Known Member
they still have not sent out all the season tickets yet! I heard that a large proportion still be sent. Looks like Saturday is going to be a long queue outside the ticket office for Sundays game.
Alan Dugdales Moustache
Well-Known Member
That may be the case but all these years later they consistently get substantial support irrespective of their league status.
Alan Dugdales Moustache
Well-Known Member
Rugby has always been Cov catchment area. A few Leicester fans here but this is Cov predominantly. More shirts on show here than I've seen in a good while.
Finham
Well-Known Member
Incredible considering that they averaged less than that 25 years ago, in a playoff season at that: Championship 1997/1998 - Attendance
Some of the gates in that really show how Championship have grown-Norwich and Stoke stand out as being particularly low.
Finham
Well-Known Member
Indeed, Norwich (and especially Ipswich) actually had mediocre crowds before relatively recently.
Ipswich surged massively when they went up to the Prem in 99/00, 18,000 year before, 22 first PL year, 24 year after in a relegation season, and incredibly back in the Championship, they increased their average gate by a thousand the year after! That eventually dipped a bit and as recently as 2014 and 2017 they were just under 17,000. Why they stand out is that their crowds went up a thousand after relegation to L1 and then another 2,000 after Covid. A very odd curve down the years but you have to admire their loyalty in adversity.
Norwich looks quite similar: lower than Ipswich in the mid-late 90's, around 15,000, picked up a bit early 2000's as the side got better (although only 18,000 in their promotion season 03/04), then bang, 24.5 in their sole PL year 04/05. But, like Ipswich, got 500 more in their season after relegation in the Championship-7,000 more than their average gate before they went up. That average stayed constant until they went down to L1: first year in L1 they got 200 more than the season before! When they got back up they put a few on, then another thousand in the Prem (3 years in a row as recent as 2014) and kept them after relegation. They've stayed at that 26k level pretty much since whatever the division, which makes me think they've reached a peak but a very loyal one.
Ultimately what you can maybe take away from it is that if you want to increase the fanbase for a the next 10 years, get a season or two in the Premier League! Those clubs didn't have "historically bigger crowds than us" until they had decent spells. Both subsequently kept their gates much better than us in L1, but by comparison we'd had the SISU years (Chapter1).
Covcraig@bury
Well-Known Member
I personally think if our ground was back in the city centre our attendance would be much greater . The transport system and location are a big factor.
Finham
Well-Known Member
That would really help, our new ground bounce was crap compare to most even with relegation factored in.
But what we really need is for Joy do down a couple of bottles of red during the first half against Rotherham and then at half time come out and do this:
2004/5 that, nobody in Norfolk wanted to miss a game after-not cos it worked, but because they didn't want to miss a repeat!
Legia Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
I think too much is made of the ground location. It's less than 3 miles from the city centre which is not too far really. The bigger factor, which you have touched on, was the ill thought out 'green travel plan', where strict parking restrictions were put in place, without any reasonable strategic public transport plan in place.
On top of that was the ever deteriorating performances on the pitch. If the results had gone the other way when we first moved and managed to get promoted to the PL, if only temporarily, our home crowds would have consolidated at a much higher level.
I'm afraid i'm of the opinion that our home support is poor in comparison to "similar" clubs (and i am aware that it seems to be slowly improving.
How far back do we go with the excuses... the past 20 years, granted have been pretty shocking... but our support was often poor through the "golden era" of the late 90's... do we go back to blaming all seater stadia in the 80's? That's 40 years ago, for the non-maths fans out there.
The potential has always been there but its never been achieved. At some point you just have to hold hands up and say we aren't well supported. In fact i doubt we'd sell out the Ricoh every week outside of a first season back in the Premier League, unless the absolute impossible happened and we were challenging for Europe regularly.
Our away following is mightily impressive though imo.
How far back do we go with the excuses... the past 20 years, granted have been pretty shocking... but our support was often poor through the "golden era" of the late 90's... do we go back to blaming all seater stadia in the 80's? That's 40 years ago, for the non-maths fans out there.
The potential has always been there but its never been achieved. At some point you just have to hold hands up and say we aren't well supported. In fact i doubt we'd sell out the Ricoh every week outside of a first season back in the Premier League, unless the absolute impossible happened and we were challenging for Europe regularly.
Our away following is mightily impressive though imo.
