It doesn't. If we were in the PL and winning 1-0 every week people would turn up. Arsenal fans see far more entertaining football than they did years ago but were happier when they were singing "1-0 to The Arsenal" and putting trophies in the cabinet. Years ago Leeds were considered boring and low scoring but Liverpool in the 1960s weren't prolific scorers. Fans were quite happy with success though.
Its just fantasy thinking we could attract 30,000+ We had 5,000 empty seats for our 1st FA Cup 1/4 final for 40+ years. I really couldn't imagine us getting near that figure
We've only lost once at home this season in the League. I can't remember a season when we were undefeated at home- so I assume this is as good a season as any form-wise, unless of course our fans are now so spoilt that they demand winning and entertaining football. I just don't get this 'entertainment' fad at all - where does it come from ? A nightly diet of top-drawer Euro football? You are never likely to get the same type of football fix when you have to pay £30 to watch second tier football and see City play the likes of Wolves or Brentford, or another of the many teams who have parked the bus here this season (hello BHA & SWFC) in temperatures barely above zero. For all the appalling ****ups of the Allams and their antagonistic policies, we would still have a proportion of fickle, leave-before-the-end, bloody-rubbish-City types even if were in the CL. We shouldn't let the Allams distract us from this fact. (Just read some of the negative ****e posted on this forum)
It demonstrates we can pull people into the club when we're not even their first choice. I would suggest we could easily fill a 30k stadium. Unfortunately our periods in the top flight have coincided with poor owners, who actually haven't a clue. In the late 40s early 50s we averaged 30k plus per game. We're only talking about an extra 5k fans based on approx attendances we achieved in the PL. with a better assembled team and more workmanlike performances, something fans from the area can a) relate to b) buy into and a chairman that can seize the opportunity (See below Leicester example) and back it, rather than making every effort to jeopardise it. Look at Leicester - their owner has done relatively cheap things for him (buy everyone in the stadium a drink and a doughnut for his birthday) relatively low cost for him, but high perceived value for the fans. If we do make the PL again, we can be the only team within an hour or so that can offer PL football, there's a lot of people that we could attract, 5k isn't that much more.
I do a spot of football coaching. The number of kids turning up in Hull City kits is phenomenal, much more than when I was at school. The owners should be tapping into and encouraging this support, not working against it. It's already in the pipeline, it just needs managing properly by retaining the concession pricing and doing everything possible to ensure they remain hooked.
They should be in every single primary abd secondary school with £6/7 tickets. Also college's. Its not even difficult to think of promoting the club better
Given,our league position, our home record and previous attendance record at the KC: is there another team in the 4 leagues with such comparitively poor attendances this season?
Compared with other clubs in this league that have issues with their current owners, probably about where we'd expect them.
I wonder if its the fact that we dont really have any local rivals. Newcastle have Sunderland. Liverpool have Everton, Leeds have Man U. and we have Scunthorpe /Grimsby?
Not really- it just indicates it's a competitive and fluid thing- our core catchment area is upwards in the East Riding. Even when we were getting relatively poor crowds in the old Div 2 days under Don Robinson, there was a good percentage of the fan base coming from Driffield, Hornsea and the like, but because Leeds were doing so well, they competed for fans on that turf as well. If we were doing exceptionally well and the conditions around the club were right, then of course we could draw in a lot more fans from York, Goole, Selby, Lincolnshire and the like and get 30,000 crowds. Allied to that, as Hull City says, even now there are a lot more young kids wandering around in Hull City kits than I ever remembered in the 80's and 90's- what we can't afford to do now is to alienate them by pricing them out of following their local football team.
I'm sorry, but people are kidding themselves if they think that, in competition with Leeds United, we would make inroads into what has traditionally been their catchment area. Sadly, next season, we probably will be in more direct competition with them, battling it out for 11th and 12th places... Face it; we're not 'massive' and we never will be.
A few of us even travel up from Derbyshire (but I won't be next season) I see a lot of Hull City car stickers around us. Now the Allams are pricing out the kids just watch the Hull City strips for kids dropping off again.
