18,000 for the home game against Oxford yesterday.
10,500 season tickets sold and we all know what has happened at their place over the past 4 or so years.
The loyalty their fans have shown is second to none.
CAFC is not about the board, the team or Chris Powell.
It is about our history our future and you the supporters. This club will never die.
And for those who have posted on here saying £40 million is asking to much for Charlton I would say think again because to me it is priceless.
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What about the gates of Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday in recent seasons.
I don't want to knock the thread but they are just a big club in a lower division. They were always going to get big crowds. We need to remember that this is a club that has been in two FA Cup finals in recent times.
Our current owners have no long term plan, they want to make money and turn a quick buck. They are unconvinced of the value of fan participation, they aren't too bothered about communication.
Why would anyone go that extra mile to put money in their pockets? Our club is just a vessel for speculation. Perhaps if it does all go tits up that may change, but I wouldn't expect a supporters trust to buy the club for anything more than a nominal amount, we would need all we could muster to get the club back on some kind of footing. Hopefully that could be without administration, and the inevitable fight with other interested parties that I would expect.
These are simple facts, not a tirade against anyone.
I guess it helps if the club has benefitted from a summer of publicity and is now taken into ownership via a Supporters' trust, but I don't think our situation has any bearing on their ticket sales, personally.
Brighton, yet another example.
Portsmouth on the other hand only really have Bournemouth / Southampton to fight with for supporters (and how many fans supporting Portsmouth have defected over to Southampton and visa versa over recent years... Not many I suspect)
Charlton fans forked out to buy our club in the way you suggest particularly while its losing 6m a year, the best we could hope for would be some kind of deal for a quid like the previous owners or to try and take it out of admin, neither of which would be easy, in fact very difficult. But I believe we could do if we had to and enough of us got involved.
I admire your enthusiasm though, would be great if it was so easy. Don't despair this Is even more reason why we need a trust.
We can build a network, get everyone on the same page and living in the real
Commercial world of football today.
Clubs get a 50% uplift in gates when they go up due to more away fans, hangers on and people coming more often but how many stick around?
There are many reasons for increasing gates like a new ground, promotion or simply building the fanbase... Leeds have just experienced their biggest gate on opening day for years - up by 10,000 on last season. Just when the new owners drop prices and start working with the supporters trust.
I am not going to spell anything out as there is no plan yet at CAFC but maybe the fans can help make a difference? And maybe they don't have to wait for a car crash?!
I'm not suggesting that the fans can't help, but I don't find the increases we've had or the gates that Portsmouth are currently getting all that strange.
As for Leeds, I have some Leeds fan friends and they were staying away under Bates and more particularly Warnock as they believed his teams played route one football and were dire to watch. Maybe their increase in fans this weekend had little to do with new owners and a new manager and a more to do with reduced prices and a supporters' trust, but that's just not how I (nor the Leeds fans I know) see it.
Leeds are massive and I agree with your take on their support this season and may be the economy is not as bleak up there as in previous years?