I loved having a packed Valley, it was a blast from the past of how things used to be, man do I long for those days to come back, when opposing teams hated coming to the valley, and the north stand really were the 12th man.
Do you really think so? The attendance was double normal, but I’m not really sure the atmosphere was commensurately better.
Agreed . I thought the atmosphere was poor considering how packed it was . I sat in a seat level with the half way line in the Alan Curbishley stand and Wrexham were definitely the louder crowd.
A full or near full Jimmy Seed is always louder if they sing.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
I meant realistically the next opportunity to market in this way will be a cup game.
No other fixtures in L1 give us that same opportunity.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
What worked today was capitalising on the Wrexham factor which they did well. You want those people coming back but the fans will never know if it worked or not
I enjoyed this afternoon with seeing a packed Valley , did you Fen from your seat?
I don’t expect a similar gate for the next 5 home games between now and the end of the year, but Methven and his employees can’t let this opportunity this afternoon go to waste and need to get hold of those first timers this afternoon from Monday morning to get them back once again
I hope you are right and we snag a few fans from today however the majority of those first timers were there to see Wrexham, not us
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
I meant realistically the next opportunity to market in this way will be a cup game.
No other fixtures in L1 give us that same opportunity.
With all due respect Nick, if the club think the way you are saying then that is rather disappointing and will show today was a short term solution to gaining some extra revenue in
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
It’s a safety issue, but then who ever got killed going into a football ground, eh? Spend some of the windfall and get it fixed, because eventually the council will restrict the capacity if they don’t. People were also admitted without ticket checks and are routinely admitted through exit gates to relieve congestion at other games.
Windfall? I'd credit the Club with being proactive in promoting the match and earning the income.
Wrexham’s circumstances are clearly the main driver of additional revenue here. The crowd couldn’t have been and wouldn’t have been generated against Birmingham or Stockport. That isn’t to denigrate anything the club did, but if they had approached it in exactly the same way as every other game they would still have got most of the extra revenue. That’s the very definition of a windfall and exactly the context in which it is generally used.
The League Cup draw at Man United also produced a windfall, if that helps. We could credit the players for the win over Brighton that got us there, but they didn’t make the draw.
I get what you're saying in that the freak show nature of the fixture sells itself to a large degree, but when presented with a chance to cash in, the Club hasn't fluffed their chance and missed the open goal, in spite of some volume related operational issues and questionable merchandising decisions.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
What worked today was capitalising on the Wrexham factor which they did well. You want those people coming back but the fans will never know if it worked or not
I enjoyed this afternoon with seeing a packed Valley , did you Fen from your seat?
I don’t expect a similar gate for the next 5 home games between now and the end of the year, but Methven and his employees can’t let this opportunity this afternoon go to waste and need to get hold of those first timers this afternoon from Monday morning to get them back once again
Couldn’t make it today and gutted I couldn’t, think it would have been great.
Totally agree that they need to drag those people back in, I’m hoping the late drama will have helped!
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
What worked today was capitalising on the Wrexham factor which they did well. You want those people coming back but the fans will never know if it worked or not
I enjoyed this afternoon with seeing a packed Valley , did you Fen from your seat?
I don’t expect a similar gate for the next 5 home games between now and the end of the year, but Methven and his employees can’t let this opportunity this afternoon go to waste and need to get hold of those first timers this afternoon from Monday morning to get them back once again
I hope you are right and we snag a few fans from today however the majority of those first timers were there to see Wrexham, not us
AB When it comes to Legendary Charlton fans you are right up there with the Best of them and for all your work in getting back to the Valley i and many others will Always remember you for that
But I’m sorry but IMO since your fall out with Richard Murray… You have always had an axe to grind with the vast majority of your comments always against the club - some of which are absolutely right However I struggle to find anything positive you can say about the club in recent times and you are better than that
Fall out with Richard Murray? News to me and probably RM too. Last time I saw him we had a good chat.
I have struggled to see anything good in any recent set-up at The Valley because it has largely been a pile of shit.
What I see is people who care about the club being mugged off - by Jimenez, Duchatelet, Southall, Sandgaard and now Methven - and I’m angry about that because the club matters to me.
i understand the temptation to focus on chinks of light and see them as evidence of progress and renewal. For me there have been good moments on the pitch but that is all.
It’s a basic safety requirement to have working turnstiles and the number is specified within the regulations. If the club can’t be bothered with it I’d say that supports my view of who is running it, but my only point was that it is unsafe and should be fixed.
On the other hand, I would question why it is necessary to call out a proper use of the word windfall and an observation about the turnstiles as an attack on the club.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
I meant realistically the next opportunity to market in this way will be a cup game.
No other fixtures in L1 give us that same opportunity.
With all due respect Nick, if the club think the way you are saying then that is rather disappointing and will show today was a short term solution to gaining some extra revenue in
Yes. That’s the truth about L1.
However to be positive if it was an exercise to show the investors what could happen if we get promoted then all is (very) good.
I’m not knocking today at all. I’m just being realistic about the immediate significant impact on attendance.
My view remains that for L1 we are a very expensive choice for a family to spend money on when alternatives exist. Even more so when we turn to colder and darker months which disincentivise the next generation if we aren’t winning.
Be bold with cheap tickets is my solution especially if you link it to multiple games.
What was strange as well, the emptiest block was the one directly next to the Director’s box, which was premium pricing but shown on website as being sold out.
What happened there? Deliberately not sold due to closeness to celebrities? Allocated to ticket companies and they didn’t sell? Retained for corp packages that didn’t sell?
The upper half of those seats in that section are linked to the various lounge packages . We could have had seats in the directors box with our season tickets, Centre Circle Lounge we’re in, chose the less busier and quicker option to get back in to lounge by staying the other side of the divide , where we’ve sat for last 3-4 years . Never can buy them up top section unless part of lounge ticket , which can be bought for individual games, but lower part of that section can be bought on the ticket site . we usually have plenty of scouts sitting around at the back . obviously I like it cos less people there !
The good: seeing a noticeably much more diverse crowd - lots of women and children plus different ethnicities. Maybe we should make ourselves the Red, White & Black Club instead of it just being a day? Suggested to me that a lot of the extra attendance was the hard core bringing friends and family plus outreach into immediate local community. Not coming along for the Wrexham.
The bad: couldn’t get into River Ale House after the game (so not so bad, went to The Pelton instead.)
I seriously believe that if we made a concerted effort to market every home match locally we could add a couple of thousand to the average gate. Stick the fixtures on Eventbrite and Timeout listings. There really is an audience of people who will come to live football on their doorstep. And they might develop a bit of an affinity for the Addicks - and last minute goals.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
There were not 22k Charlton fans.
Probably no more than 15k Charlton "fans" and 7k neutrals.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
I meant realistically the next opportunity to market in this way will be a cup game.
No other fixtures in L1 give us that same opportunity.
With all due respect Nick, if the club think the way you are saying then that is rather disappointing and will show today was a short term solution to gaining some extra revenue in
Be disappointed all you want, but there’s no chance of getting today’s sort of numbers for any other league game this season (save for some sort of match that involves promotion/relegation jeopardy).
I do think fans have changed since the Premiership years.
20 years ago we'd get 25k most weeks but I certainly dont remember so many people leaving their seats 10 mins before half time & not returning until the 55th minute (as happened A LOT today in the AC stand). Yes people left at HT to get a drink or go to the loo but I still had streams of people up & down the stairs with chips & bottles of coke 10 mins into the 2nd half.
I do think fans have changed since the Premiership years.
20 years ago we'd get 25k most weeks but I certainly dont remember so many people leaving their seats 10 mins before half time & not returning until the 55th minute (as happened A LOT today in the AC stand). Yes people left at HT to get a drink or go to the loo but I still had streams of people up & down the stairs with chips & bottles of coke 10 mins into the 2nd half.
Society changes over 20 years, shocker! There has been a shift in a lot of places post COVID though. When I get to games I sit in the covered upper and people don’t move until about 44 mins, always going to get more movement in Curbs and West. Think today some of that will have been down to much higher demand too
The good: seeing a noticeably much more diverse crowd - lots of women and children plus different ethnicities. Maybe we should make ourselves the Red, White & Black Club instead of it just being a day? Suggested to me that a lot of the extra attendance was the hard core bringing friends and family plus outreach into immediate local community. Not coming along for the Wrexham.
The bad: couldn’t get into River Ale House after the game (so not so bad, went to The Pelton instead.)
I seriously believe that if we made a concerted effort to market every home match locally we could add a couple of thousand to the average gate. Stick the fixtures on Eventbrite and Timeout listings. There really is an audience of people who will come to live football on their doorstep. And they might develop a bit of an affinity for the Addicks - and last minute goals.
There were clearly a quite a few there for Wrexham but nowhere near as many as I thought it'd be. It was an odd day but great to see The Valley full again. Glad to hear Trevor had a good day's business in the RAH (even if you couldn't get in!), the Green Goddess was doing a really healthy trade too.
I think it does show the power of some decent marketing. I'm not sure the week in, week out trudge of League One will have the same appeal, but worth giving it a go for a few matches and seeing what works. But they really need to do something similar for the women's team - because that's where a new crowd will be found.
To solve the problem, they need people walking up and down the aisles selling hot dogs and sodas…
Blocking the view for a lot of fans. I think not. Walk the concourses yes.
It was just a bit tongue in cheek, not a real suggestion.
If they put them on the concourses it wouldn’t solve Golfie’s issue!
It would help, the more sellers there are the quicker people get served and get back to their seats.
NB it's obvious that people were more inclined to get back to their seats on time to see Thierry Henry, Ryan Giggs, Shearer, Drogba (add another 50 plus names), rather than pretty much no one in League 1. Nothing to do with society changing and everything to do with the quality of players on view.
I’m sure they can work at Charlton too, but not if the person holding it doesn’t understand their role, checks bags and then sends people back through an adjacent turnstile with a working reader.
You need the staff to know how to work them and how to solve problems quickly - I wouldn't want to do that job in the Harvey Gardens entrances.
The problem is that you can't get rid of staff and replace them with automated gates - with the best will and best systems in the world, someone trying to scan a ticket on their own for the first time is always likely to have a few seconds of finding the right spot on the reader.
I was at St Pauli v Mainz in the Bundesliga a few weeks back - they use Apple/Google wallet tickets, which work well because they set phones to the correct brightness, but even then there's someone on each gate to make sure.
You need the staff to know how to work them and how to solve problems quickly - I wouldn't want to do that job in the Harvey Gardens entrances.
The problem is that you can't get rid of staff and replace them with automated gates - with the best will and best systems in the world, someone trying to scan a ticket on their own for the first time is always likely to have a few seconds of finding the right spot on the reader.
I was at St Pauli v Mainz in the Bundesliga a few weeks back - they use Apple/Google wallet tickets, which work well because they set phones to the correct brightness, but even then there's someone on each gate to make sure.
There's never going to be a perfect solution, it's about finding the least imperfect solution. It's tempting to blame the issues on temp staff (not the staff themselves mind, they can't help it if they aren't trained properly) but there must be solutions out there. I bet they cost a few bob in the short term though which is probably why we haven't invested in them sadly
I loved having a packed Valley, it was a blast from the past of how things used to be, man do I long for those days to come back, when opposing teams hated coming to the valley, and the north stand really were the 12th man.
Do you really think so? The attendance was double normal, but I’m not really sure the atmosphere was commensurately better.
Agreed . I thought the atmosphere was poor considering how packed it was . I sat in a seat level with the half way line in the Alan Curbishley stand and Wrexham were definitely the louder crowd.
When we did the free tickets against Plymouth, I sorted some mates out with tickets on halfway in the AC and they said it was the best home atmosphere they'd experienced as neutrals in England. Today was always going to have too many people with no interest in Charlton to create a decent atmosphere.
I didn't see anyone celebrating Wrexham goals in the home areas.
I loved having a packed Valley, it was a blast from the past of how things used to be, man do I long for those days to come back, when opposing teams hated coming to the valley, and the north stand really were the 12th man.
Do you really think so? The attendance was double normal, but I’m not really sure the atmosphere was commensurately better.
Agreed . I thought the atmosphere was poor considering how packed it was . I sat in a seat level with the half way line in the Alan Curbishley stand and Wrexham were definitely the louder crowd.
When we did the free tickets against Plymouth, I sorted some mates out with tickets on halfway in the AC and they said it was the best home atmosphere they'd experienced as neutrals in England. Today was always going to have too many people with no interest in Charlton to create a decent atmosphere.
I didn't see anyone celebrating Wrexham goals in the home areas.
I do think fans have changed since the Premiership years.
20 years ago we'd get 25k most weeks but I certainly dont remember so many people leaving their seats 10 mins before half time & not returning until the 55th minute (as happened A LOT today in the AC stand). Yes people left at HT to get a drink or go to the loo but I still had streams of people up & down the stairs with chips & bottles of coke 10 mins into the 2nd half.
Have you thought of taking a peashooter or water pistol with you?
I honestly feel that I have become totally out of touch. I am completely bemused by the size of the attendance today. I am aware that Wrexham were taken over by rich Americans and now I understand that they are young (ish?) film stars. Is that right? What a bizarre choice of football club. I remember when their home crowds were barely scraping 5k. It all felt a bit surreal to me, or even unreal. It's not like they were all Wrexham fans, who the fcuk else was drawn into this fake mystique? A weird anomaly, and now the circus has left town and we can go back to our fake 13k, real <10k attendances
This game brought in extra revenue, some of which should be spent ensuring every turnstile works properly. It is a fundamental priority, even for those who make decisions at the club who never have to use a turnstile themselves.
Some of you just can’t wait to criticise the club FFS this is the 3rd tier of English footi and a crowd of over 22k Charlton fans Why not celebrate that fact and the commercial success it was for the club Oh no - let’s have another pop
Well done to all involved this afternoon Ray.
Now let’s look forward to the same marketing campaign which got the crowds in today for the rest of the season
Should be onto a winner even fits a small gain in the average attendance after and including today
Realistically we will only see similar if we draw a Prem team in the cup.
But of course that means winning a couple of games first…🙁
Why Nick? What worked today should get more people into the Valley if those marketing techniques are used again. Otherwise those individuals need to explain why
I meant realistically the next opportunity to market in this way will be a cup game.
No other fixtures in L1 give us that same opportunity.
With all due respect Nick, if the club think the way you are saying then that is rather disappointing and will show today was a short term solution to gaining some extra revenue in
Unfortunately there's a ceiling to the level of attendance we can attract in league one. The wrexham game is an anomaly, much like the cup games where we happened to draw a big club and therefore can attract a big crowd in isolation as others have alluded to.
I used this example before, but just look at our 2018/19 season. We won our last 6 home games in a row on the way to promotion and were playing some great stuff, yet we could not get more than 13k in the ground. Playing great football and consistently winning games is pretty much the ideal scenario for us to get more people to attend, but it didn't.
You can come up with pie in the sky promotions that would boost the crowd for one off occasions like football for a fiver, but those extra 'fans' never come back in large enough numbers for it to be impactful across the entire season. We are hamstrung by the league we are playing in, its like starting from square minus 1.
The reality is the people who could potentially attend a game at the Valley simply aren't interested in third tier football.
Comments
Totally agree that they need to drag those people back in, I’m hoping the late drama will have helped!
I have struggled to see anything good in any recent set-up at The Valley because it has largely been a pile of shit.
i understand the temptation to focus on chinks of light and see them as evidence of progress and renewal. For me there have been good moments on the pitch but that is all.
On the other hand, I would question why it is necessary to call out a proper use of the word windfall and an observation about the turnstiles as an attack on the club.
multiple games.
Never can buy them up top section unless part of lounge ticket , which can be bought for individual games, but lower part of that section can be bought on the ticket site .
we usually have plenty of scouts sitting around at the back .
obviously I like it cos less people there !
The bad: couldn’t get into River Ale House after the game (so not so bad, went to The Pelton instead.)
I seriously believe that if we made a concerted effort to market every home match locally we could add a couple of thousand to the average gate. Stick the fixtures on Eventbrite and Timeout listings. There really is an audience of people who will come to live football on their doorstep. And they might develop a bit of an affinity for the Addicks - and last minute goals.
Probably no more than 15k Charlton "fans" and 7k neutrals.
20 years ago we'd get 25k most weeks but I certainly dont remember so many people leaving their seats 10 mins before half time & not returning until the 55th minute (as happened A LOT today in the AC stand). Yes people left at HT to get a drink or go to the loo but I still had streams of people up & down the stairs with chips & bottles of coke 10 mins into the 2nd half.
I think not.
Walk the concourses yes.
If they put them on the concourses it wouldn’t solve Golfie’s issue!
I think it does show the power of some decent marketing. I'm not sure the week in, week out trudge of League One will have the same appeal, but worth giving it a go for a few matches and seeing what works. But they really need to do something similar for the women's team - because that's where a new crowd will be found.
NB it's obvious that people were more inclined to get back to their seats on time to see Thierry Henry, Ryan Giggs, Shearer, Drogba (add another 50 plus names), rather than pretty much no one in League 1.
Nothing to do with society changing and everything to do with the quality of players on view.
I am completely bemused by the size of the attendance today.
I am aware that Wrexham were taken over by rich Americans and now I understand that they are young (ish?) film stars. Is that right?
What a bizarre choice of football club. I remember when their home crowds were barely scraping 5k.
It all felt a bit surreal to me, or even unreal.
It's not like they were all Wrexham fans, who the fcuk else was drawn into this fake mystique?
A weird anomaly, and now the circus has left town and we can go back to our fake 13k, real <10k attendances
It is a fundamental priority, even for those who make decisions at the club who never have to use a turnstile themselves.
I used this example before, but just look at our 2018/19 season. We won our last 6 home games in a row on the way to promotion and were playing some great stuff, yet we could not get more than 13k in the ground. Playing great football and consistently winning games is pretty much the ideal scenario for us to get more people to attend, but it didn't.
You can come up with pie in the sky promotions that would boost the crowd for one off occasions like football for a fiver, but those extra 'fans' never come back in large enough numbers for it to be impactful across the entire season. We are hamstrung by the league we are playing in, its like starting from square minus 1.
The reality is the people who could potentially attend a game at the Valley simply aren't interested in third tier football.