| Attendances 09:56 - Oct 26 with 2100 views | BlueStripes |
Why do Col U get such low home attendances? On Saturday our attendance against Walsall, one of the top teams in this division, was the lowest in League 1 and even half a dozen League 2 attendances were higher. I know the geographical position of Colchester probably doesn't help, being close to Ipswich (although I can't see the attraction of them at the moment!) and within striking distance of London, but Southend are even closer to London and their attendances are always significantly higher than ours. We have an excellent stadium and OK the defence is a shambles but we play attractive attacking football and the entertainment level is usually pretty high, so why the poor crowds? |  | | |  |
| Attendances on 10:17 - Oct 26 with 2087 views | Barsidepete |
I think you answered your own question. Ipswich doesn't help, Neither Norwich. Braintree are improving. I know a number of people who are West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham supporters.
I mean, I'm a die-hard. But it's like the attendance cannibalizes itself. Some won't show up because few show up.
I'm positive things will improve. But the Weston Homes was built for a Championship side, not League 1. There is nothing to do around the stadium. That doesn't help. |  |
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| Attendances on 10:58 - Oct 26 with 2084 views | durham_exile |
Bluestripes:
Coutesy of Coludata Home attendances since I first started supporting the U's
You must visit Coludata which has invaluable stats for the U's
Season Home Games Av
1971/72 159,472 28 5,695
1972/73 86,007 25 3,440
1973/74 134,427 24 5,601
1974/75 147,426 27 5,460
1975/76 84,632 25 3,385
1976/77 138,436 28 4,944
1977/78 118,724 26 4,566
1978/79 109,783 28 3,921
1979/80 106,163 27 3,932
1980/81 79,816 27 2,956
1981/82 88,516 28 3,161
1982/83 72,628 27 2,690
1983/84 85,412 30 2,847
1984/85 60,077 27 2,225
1985/86 56,327 25 2,253
1986/87 74,324 27 2,753
1987/88 51,503 29 1,776
1988/89 83,273 29 2,871
1989/90 81,620 26 3,139
1990/91 83,097 26 3,196
1991/92 101,423 30 3,381
1992/93 94,208 25 3,768
1993/94 70,819 25 2,833
1994/95 76,828 24 3,201
1995/96 85,767 26 3,299
1996/97 95,814 28 3,422
1997/98 88,221 27 3,267
1998/99 107,574 25 4,303
1999/00 91,228 24 3,801
2000/01 86,657 25 3,466
2001/02 96,338 26 3,705
2002/03 80,797 24 3,367
2003/04 108,164 29 3,730
2004/05 93,983 27 3,481
2005/06 107,599 28 3,843
2006/07 125,718 23 5,466
2007/08 130,699 24 5,446
2008/09 121,814 24 5,076
2009/10 130,488 24 5,437
2010/11 105,837 26 4,071
2011/12 93,685 25 3,747
2012/13 81,179 23 3,530
2013/14 90,785 25 3,631
2014/15 96,312 26 3,704
2015/16 31,555 9 3,506
Up the U's |  |
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| Attendances on 11:41 - Oct 26 with 2067 views | Leadbelly |
On Saturday I saw more Arsenal shirts than Col U shirts on the train from Manningtree. This is the norm in my experience. Worst example this season was Us shirts outnumbered by Orient shirts!
Looking at the figures from Durham you can see the average attendance begins with a three. I don't see this changing unless or until the club does something revolutionary to attract new fans or persuade those whose support has lapsed to return.
The move to a new stadium had to be made but I believe mistakes were made by the club before the move that have affected attendances:
1) Initial ticket prices for the new ground were a huge hike from those at Layer Rd. The club did reduce these but I think the damage was done as a lot of season ticket holders did not renew.
2) Whilst I find travel arrangements to the ground very straightforward many people perceive getting to WHCS to be complicated.
3) Ticket prices remain relatively high.
4) Despite the club's regular comments about increasing season ticket sales the figures show very clearly that overall attendance is falling.
5) The atmosphere at WHCS, in my opinion, isn't a patch on that at Layer Rd.
Geography plays its part, as does an apathetic Colchester public, but would attendances be so low if we had a team that won at home on a more regular basis? An annual battle against relegation may not be the biggest incentive to attend matches. | |
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| Attendances on 12:18 - Oct 26 with 2058 views | Barsidepete |
| Attendances on 11:41 - Oct 26 by Leadbelly |
On Saturday I saw more Arsenal shirts than Col U shirts on the train from Manningtree. This is the norm in my experience. Worst example this season was Us shirts outnumbered by Orient shirts!
Looking at the figures from Durham you can see the average attendance begins with a three. I don't see this changing unless or until the club does something revolutionary to attract new fans or persuade those whose support has lapsed to return.
The move to a new stadium had to be made but I believe mistakes were made by the club before the move that have affected attendances:
1) Initial ticket prices for the new ground were a huge hike from those at Layer Rd. The club did reduce these but I think the damage was done as a lot of season ticket holders did not renew.
2) Whilst I find travel arrangements to the ground very straightforward many people perceive getting to WHCS to be complicated.
3) Ticket prices remain relatively high.
4) Despite the club's regular comments about increasing season ticket sales the figures show very clearly that overall attendance is falling.
5) The atmosphere at WHCS, in my opinion, isn't a patch on that at Layer Rd.
Geography plays its part, as does an apathetic Colchester public, but would attendances be so low if we had a team that won at home on a more regular basis? An annual battle against relegation may not be the biggest incentive to attend matches. |
I see the shirt thing as well.
Perhaps while people live in Colchester, they're simply fans of other clubs. Yes, you can hate on Ipswich, but there are many devoted fans. Taking a train to see a BPL club in Norwich or a London club, it's not that hard.
The ticket prices are not easy to swallow. Although sometimes I get press passes for me and Panners. And we do buy tickets. Mr. Hudson is polite to get us free seats. But I always say, We paid. What's unfortunate is that the other journos eat all the sarnies and last time even all the coffee was gone.
Maybe Colchester is not a football locale. Perhaps we are overthinking this. The U's are a 3600-4500 attendance place. That's fine.
I don't understand why the WHCS was built. Why not have created a gorgeous 7,500-8,000 place? Old school. Be like baseball here, a Fenway Park where they sell out 30,000-ish but could pack the house with 45-50,000? I'd be willing to spend 40 quid ...
I don't like being in an empty stad. | |
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| Attendances on 13:39 - Oct 26 with 2048 views | durham_exile |
| Attendances on 12:18 - Oct 26 by Barsidepete |
I see the shirt thing as well.
Perhaps while people live in Colchester, they're simply fans of other clubs. Yes, you can hate on Ipswich, but there are many devoted fans. Taking a train to see a BPL club in Norwich or a London club, it's not that hard.
The ticket prices are not easy to swallow. Although sometimes I get press passes for me and Panners. And we do buy tickets. Mr. Hudson is polite to get us free seats. But I always say, We paid. What's unfortunate is that the other journos eat all the sarnies and last time even all the coffee was gone.
Maybe Colchester is not a football locale. Perhaps we are overthinking this. The U's are a 3600-4500 attendance place. That's fine.
I don't understand why the WHCS was built. Why not have created a gorgeous 7,500-8,000 place? Old school. Be like baseball here, a Fenway Park where they sell out 30,000-ish but could pack the house with 45-50,000? I'd be willing to spend 40 quid ...
I don't like being in an empty stad. |
Pete,
When the WHCS was constructed, the foundations were laid to allow expansion of corners and East Stand to increase capacity from 10,000 to 18,000.
Clearly not now but future proofing.
When Leeds (Leadbelly) are in town (not very often) we get 8-8,500 and the successful experiment with England U21/18 games filled the stadium. Atmosphere was good for the Leeds game but they normally win 2-1!
The biggest crowd that I went to at Layer Road was 13,600 against Man U FA Cup where Jimmy Greenhoff scored in the 87th minute to win it for the Mancs and 10,002 against Gillingham when Brian Yeo scored twice for the Gills.
All the team can do is to keep winning at home and challenge for the top six, crowds might hit 4,500 to 5,000 then.
Shrewsbury do better than us with an almost identical stadium and capacity but they only have Wolves, Telford and Wrexham as neighbours. Colchester suffers from proximity to the smoke.
For the record I loathe Piswich.
It will be interesting to see the attendance against Scummend on Boxing Day!!!!
Up the U's
Humes Out! | |
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| Attendances on 14:49 - Oct 26 with 2033 views | Barsidepete |
| Attendances on 13:39 - Oct 26 by durham_exile |
Pete,
When the WHCS was constructed, the foundations were laid to allow expansion of corners and East Stand to increase capacity from 10,000 to 18,000.
Clearly not now but future proofing.
When Leeds (Leadbelly) are in town (not very often) we get 8-8,500 and the successful experiment with England U21/18 games filled the stadium. Atmosphere was good for the Leeds game but they normally win 2-1!
The biggest crowd that I went to at Layer Road was 13,600 against Man U FA Cup where Jimmy Greenhoff scored in the 87th minute to win it for the Mancs and 10,002 against Gillingham when Brian Yeo scored twice for the Gills.
All the team can do is to keep winning at home and challenge for the top six, crowds might hit 4,500 to 5,000 then.
Shrewsbury do better than us with an almost identical stadium and capacity but they only have Wolves, Telford and Wrexham as neighbours. Colchester suffers from proximity to the smoke.
For the record I loathe Piswich.
It will be interesting to see the attendance against Scummend on Boxing Day!!!!
Up the U's
Humes Out! |
Beautifully said, Pete.
I'm probably the most blocked poster here who spends about 5000 per year to fly over and see us.
I've even said I'll donate 4 ST's for kiddos to attend.
Look. I don't loathe Ipswich. When I travel over I have fun days out in P8sswich. Saw the Canaries one day destroy the Tractor Boys. Another day, M'Boro, went to see that because I was born in Ostrava so there was a history.
Happy could not make it up for Derby at ITFC.
And yes, as some know, I have a Connor Wickham orginal. Don't ask me why :D .. or why I am friends with John White ;)
Back on point. Our U's are not doing poorly. I haven't felt this good about the U's in about a decade, give or take. | |
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| Attendances on 17:24 - Oct 26 with 2013 views | burnsieespana |
The season I started watching Col U was 1957/8 when the average was 9,351 and the following year when we were chasing promotion to the old Div 2, in competition with Ipswich 10,891 and to this day remains our highest ever average attendance. At the time it felt like the ground was full to capacity ( in those days 16,000) so having never looked at the average attendances before am somewhat surprised.
The figures show a pretty awful downward trend ever since apart from the odd season or two but guess what they do show the good people of Colchester have never really bought into watching Col U. |  | | |
| Attendances on 17:41 - Oct 26 with 2010 views | pwrightsknees |
| Attendances on 17:24 - Oct 26 by burnsieespana |
The season I started watching Col U was 1957/8 when the average was 9,351 and the following year when we were chasing promotion to the old Div 2, in competition with Ipswich 10,891 and to this day remains our highest ever average attendance. At the time it felt like the ground was full to capacity ( in those days 16,000) so having never looked at the average attendances before am somewhat surprised.
The figures show a pretty awful downward trend ever since apart from the odd season or two but guess what they do show the good people of Colchester have never really bought into watching Col U. |
Sorry to top trump you Burnsie, but I started in 1954. I believe Carruthers was even earlier.
Throughout the late 1950s, the gates were often close to 5 figures and sometimes more with the visits of Ipswich and Southend. But in those days, all clubs could boast high attendance figures as there were fewer other distractions and TV was limited with many still not having sets.
Our watershed came at the end of the 1960/1 season when we got relegated to Div 4, and Ipswich got promoted to the top flight. Many, including some of my own family members, were attracted to seeing the top clubs in the country at Portman Road. It was then that the U's attendances took a huge dive, and we've never recovered. | | | |
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| Attendances on 22:11 - Oct 26 with 1964 views | RSCOSWORTH |
If anyone can find a solution to this problem then I'm sure Robbie Cowling would be more than happy to hear it. I think if we were in League Two the attendances would be bigger due to our proximity to many of the clubs in that division but even if we were at the top of either division I'd be surprised if we averaged over 6,000. |  |
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| Attendances on 07:02 - Oct 27 with 1922 views | wessex_exile |
There are all manner of factors in play here, each having more or less influence season by season - performance, level, cost, recession, geography, neighbours, opponents etc, but the bottom line is that barring the post-war attendances experienced throughout the UK and beyond, and in our case the relative novelty of election to the football league in the 50s, our core fanbase has remained pretty constantly at around the 3.5k mark. The Championship years, combined with the new ground, showed me what we could aspire to on a regular basis, but I think we'll need a promotion season, or at least a season properly challenging for promotion before it happens again. |  |
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| Attendances on 23:34 - Oct 30 with 1787 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Would be interesting to see the same figures but without away fans included. | |
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