| Cowling speaks 09:52 - Jul 18 with 672 views | durham_exile |
"ROBBIE Cowling insists Colchester United are trying hard to attract more fans to the JobServe Community Stadium.
But the U’s chairman and owner admits that the 10,000-seater venue is too big for them, at this moment in time.
Colchester saw a dip in attendances last season with their average home crowd falling below 3,400, the lowest since the 1997/1998 promotion-winning season.
Cowling, speaking at the club’s annual Open Day, stressed the U’s have historically never attracted huge crowds to home games.
He said: “I accept that we don’t get the crowds.
“But show me a time in Colchester’s history when you were getting the crowds and full stadiums.
“In the Championship, there were 3,000 away fans travelling and we still couldn’t fill Layer Road.
“We have to live with what we’ve got.
“We have to appreciate what the council did.
“It went out on a limb to build a stadium for a football club and there are lots of good things — I think we concentrate on the negatives, at times.
“I’m not sure we can make the tickets any cheaper than free for under-11s.
“Even beyond that, it’s only £2 or £3 for other youngsters to come and watch us.
“I can only look at the figures and the fact that we’re winning Family Excellence awards every year suggests that we are getting things right.
“We couldn’t stay at Layer Road.
“A lot of people signed the petition to get a new stadium at the time and people have got what they were looking for.
“The stadium is too big for us, at this moment in time.
“But we’ve done other great things here like host the Sir Elton John, Lionel Richie and Little Mix concerts.
“It’s not simple and we do try hard — we do a lot of things and the Open Day is another testament to that.
“When we first did the Open Day, there were a lot of youngsters walking around in Ipswich, West Ham, Norwich and Arsenal shirts.
“But (this time), I think I’ve seen one Ipswich shirt, a Hull shirt and an England shirt — the rest have been Colchester.”
Cowling was asked by one U's supporter at the Open Day question and answer session why visiting supporters are not seated nearer home fans.
The away section at the Community Stadium is currently located in either the North Stand or the far corner of the East Stand, well away from U’s supporters.
“The reason we don’t put the away fans there (nearer to home fans) is because of the abuse that goes on,” said Cowling.
“We’re a family club and that’s one of the most important things that we do.”
Cowling’s JobServe company took over from Weston Homes as the Community Stadium’s new sponsors last month and the U’s supremo said the deal suits both parties.
Cowling added: “It makes good business sense.
“It was a big decision to make it the JobServe Community Stadium but I think the two things go together really well.”
Regardless of this stadium is too big for us nonsense, a 10,000 all seater is the minimum requirement to attract the International games that have been staged here and occasionally a glamour tie comes along and we do get the 8,000 + crowds.
This is our third season in the basement League, people are voting with their feet, enough is enough.
Promotion is required and then we will see an upsurge in Home support.
There is a hard core Away support and always will be but the supporters want success and definitely this season.
See you at Meadow Lane!!!!
Up the U's
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| Cowling speaks on 14:51 - Jul 18 with 642 views | Leadbelly |
"ROBBIE Cowling insists Colchester United are trying hard to attract more fans to the JobServe Community Stadium"
Who scrapped the shuttle bus service? Does he believe making it more difficult for many fans to get to the ground will increase attendances?
I'm not asking anyone to subsidise my travel expenses but in the overall scheme is Mr Cowling certain that the £23k loss on the shuttle buses won't be exceeded by the loss of revenue from ticket, catering and shop sales? By my calculation the average cost of an Earlybird season ticket across all stands is £380.89 it only needs 60 adults to decide not to renew and the savings from scrapping the bus service have been wiped out. If ST renewals do not drop further than that I'll be absolutely staggered. |  |
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| Cowling speaks on 16:29 - Jul 18 with 631 views | mfb_cufc |
"In the Championship, there were 3,000 away fans travelling and we still couldn’t fill Layer Road".
What complete rubbish. From what I remember Layer Road was sold out for every game in the Championship. Even if it wasn't sold out there was definitely not 3,000 away fans. As all the games were all ticket the away fans wouldn't have been given 50%. I can only think he is getting confused with the new stadium when at times there has been 3,000 away fans (Leeds for one), and it still wasn't full. |  |
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| Cowling speaks on 01:02 - Jul 19 with 581 views | wessex_exile |
| Cowling speaks on 16:29 - Jul 18 by mfb_cufc |
"In the Championship, there were 3,000 away fans travelling and we still couldn’t fill Layer Road".
What complete rubbish. From what I remember Layer Road was sold out for every game in the Championship. Even if it wasn't sold out there was definitely not 3,000 away fans. As all the games were all ticket the away fans wouldn't have been given 50%. I can only think he is getting confused with the new stadium when at times there has been 3,000 away fans (Leeds for one), and it still wasn't full. |
It is slightly confused - was he possibly thinking about our fans travelling to away matches in the Championship? I don’t remember 3k doing so, but there was some big travelling support, particularly in the first season (RC was amongst us at Stoke, and I think that was nearly 2k?). However, the other point is correct, we rarely sold out Layer Rd in the Championship, if at all apart from Ipshit? |  |
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| Cowling speaks on 06:13 - Jul 19 with 565 views | noah4x4 |
| Cowling speaks on 01:02 - Jul 19 by wessex_exile |
It is slightly confused - was he possibly thinking about our fans travelling to away matches in the Championship? I don’t remember 3k doing so, but there was some big travelling support, particularly in the first season (RC was amongst us at Stoke, and I think that was nearly 2k?). However, the other point is correct, we rarely sold out Layer Rd in the Championship, if at all apart from Ipshit? |
The fact is Colchester's indigenous population is probably under 100,000. The rest comprises of people like me that originally came to the town as a London commuter with prior affinity to other football clubs. I am a rare example of a Brummie that has always actively supported his local team; which has been Col U for 16 seasons, but prior to that I supported Bristol City. When I lived in my home town I travelled 50 miles round trip to support Villa and only occasionally went to Kiddermister Harriers.
Enjoying gates around 4% of the local indigenous population is a fairly routine rule of thumb that applies to most football clubs. There are big towns/cities with large indigenous populations hence big gates (examples; Portsmouth, Huddersfield etc). Then towns with small populations (Crawley, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Burton). Colchester is barely bigger than these, but (like Kidderminster) over half the local population has affinity elsewhere due to its status as a commuter town surrounded by bigger clubs. Unless we get a sustained period of successful tenure in the Championship we will never gain much ground. Since 1937, we have had merely one year of success at that level (the second season we ended bottom). It is pie in the sky to think we can ever average gates over 4,000 until we do see sustained success. If Ipswich and West Ham had five year spells in the bottom division the dynamics would change there. Clubs like Colchester, Burton, Fleetwood can merely flirt with higher divisions and with Financial Fair Play are unlikely to sustain success.
Interesting also to see match day standing admission at Dagenham is now £18 in the National League. Braintree is similar. The price of EFL football at the Jobsworth Stadium isn't the factor that some people claim, particularly early bird pricing. Decisions like withdrawing the shuttle buses can only add to our demise. Gates will rise if we consistently start winning (and Ipswich losing), but converting the commuter that frankly wants to live 60 miles away but lives in a CO post code because he can't afford to live in London will always be challenging. |  | | |
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