Saints Attendances Hold Up Are You Doing Your Bit
Thursday, 6th Dec 2007 12:50

Despite the fact that its been an indifferent season so far Saints fans have remained loyal.

The average attendance so far this season has been 20,832, only 785 down on the correponding period last year, pretty good seeing as the form that we have been in.

Of course this is less than last term but there are other underlying factors and it has to be said that in the main the like for like games have seen a slight increase on the corresponding fixture last year, although in fairness in the case of Colchester united it was only 37 !

The total average for last year was 23,879, but this was pushed up by two boom periods, Xmas last year saw a bumper crowd of 25, 919 for Norwich on 16th December followed by two big gates over the festive period, and the final three home games had an average of 29,000 again pushing up the final average by around a thousand.

This season I cant see Saints getting anywhere near 25k for the visit of preston and we only have one home game over the festive period that being on New Years day and that isnt the big attraction that a Boxing day fixture is.

If we are to maintain our average its essential that the team starts to pick up, last term it dropped away in the New Year, meaning that our gates dropped accordingly so there is the opportunity to keep up the average if we can find form.

In these trouble times the club needs its support and its perhaps a time for every Saints supporter to look to their consciences, in short Saints finances arent that badly off that they couldnt be cured by another 5,000 per game through the gate, that would equate to about £100k a game, that over the rest of the season would bring in about £300k per month, a big boost to the finances.

Every lapsed saints fan I speak to has a good reason why they arent going, some are honest and say because the team are poor, others trot out a variety of excuses, but the fact is that if everyone of our 20,000 or so lapsed fans turned up once every four games that would be a big boost.

In troupled times the Club needs its supporters, its easy to support a football team in the good times and i take the point about fans not getting value for money, but you have to counter balance that with the times when we got more than good value and perhaps give a little bit back when the club most needs it, after all how can we as supporters expect others to invest in our club, when we arent willing to do so ourselves