District does seem a good lad, what gripes me though is that i work with a couple of chelskie fans and their stories are as follows; One used to be a die hard Luton supporter both home and away until they started declining and changed to chelskie due to their new formed wealth. Second was born in Norwich with a strong accent but supported Forest as a child when they were winning things but then changed to Chelskie after Forests decline and Chelskies rise. That for me is why they are now labelled plastic supporters.
You do get a lot of floating fans though. For instance one of my mates was a Man Utd fan and changed to Fulham once they got good. A lot of people I know were Wimbledon/AFC Wimbledon and changed to Fulham once they got good. Another close friend of mine supported Man Utd and changed to Liverpool just when the former started to decline. Floating fans always have and always will exist.
Just to put it in perspective re floating fans, Chelsea average home gate in 1992 was 19,000 and something. Only started going up (25,000 mid to late 90s) when they started winning the FA Cup. Now they want a 60,000 seated stadium - they have to keep winning to get any where near filling it - with at least 40,000 'floaters' (in every sense), more if their hard core have been priced out as frequently claimed.
And apologies DL if I came across patronising, just an old git offering opinions where they are not asked for......
They couldn't even sell out a Champs lge games last night, even with every radio station trying to flog tickets. Someone on another site said CFC were going to give away tickets to save embarrassment.
I know, but the point I'm making is it doesn't just happen amongst the "big clubs" Attendances all across the board went up in the 90s as hooliganism began to decrease and the aftermath of Hillsborough leading to the introduction of all seater stadiums, it meant that games became more family orientated. When I first went to the Bridge in the 90s you simply just didn't take your wife and kids to games, it was almost unheard of, even since then times have changed. Attendances have always been affected by team performance. Arsenal had an attendance of around 4,000 in 1966. This came at a time when Chelsea were the top team in London, Spurs 2nd and West Ham 3rd. 5 years later when they won the double they were not getting attendances below 30,000. QPR's average attendance in 1965 was just over 5,000. 10 years later it was 20,000. So as you can see performance has always affected attendance. You are just singling Chelsea out presumably as you don't like us, but if you look at the bigger picture you'll find it is human trait and the fickle nature of the average football fan. No problem, I enjoy your posts. There was a massive boycott Genk campaign on social networking sites and forums trying to protest against the 60% increase on CL ties in the group stages. Many including myself opted not to go because of it. All that taken into consideration and considering UEFA restrictions mean our attendance cannot exceed 40k for European games, I'd say just over 38k or so isn't that bad for a midweek game against less than glamorous opposition. Not many if any clubs could sell out under the same circumstances.
I think the problem a lot of teams will face is fans can't afford to pay the prices they are expected to pay for top level football. Our prices for the facilities provided are extortionate, even allowing for the review after the Goons left. Chelsea charge astronomical prices but provide a team matching those prices, but still find they can't sell-out every game and if they were to move to a 60,000 stadium they probably still wouldn't sell-out all their fixtures. There is going to be a point where the fans really won't wear the prices being asked and the Hooray Henrys will find something else to watch while they quaff their bottles of Crystal champers. Who knows, rugby could become the new football...
