Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.
One benefit of dropping for a few years...
AFKABartram
Posts: 57,834
You get a massive opportunity to get local yoof following the club.
Ticket prices are affordable and with attendances tailed off you create the ability for teens to start going as a group and get involved in the North Upper.
you can see the benefit of that now in the North Upper and on aways such as Reading. We have been literally flooded with teens over the last 2-3 years, more so than in any period since I started going as a kid.
You sinply couldn’t have got that in the Prem or when the North Upper / Old Covered End remained sold out in previous Championship spells.
Lads want to go together and be amongst the noise. We’ve picked up a huge amount over last couple of years.
Its a massive factor in why our atmospheres at home and on the road have been so good the last couple of seasons
Ticket prices are affordable and with attendances tailed off you create the ability for teens to start going as a group and get involved in the North Upper.
you can see the benefit of that now in the North Upper and on aways such as Reading. We have been literally flooded with teens over the last 2-3 years, more so than in any period since I started going as a kid.
You sinply couldn’t have got that in the Prem or when the North Upper / Old Covered End remained sold out in previous Championship spells.
Lads want to go together and be amongst the noise. We’ve picked up a huge amount over last couple of years.
Its a massive factor in why our atmospheres at home and on the road have been so good the last couple of seasons
45
Comments
-
Fair point AFKA, I also think part of it for away games at least, is the fact the team can now win in front of large away followings under Lord Bowyer (Pompey, Gillingham, Doncaster, Reading and probably more) where previously just about every other occasion we'd melt and lose with the type of performance that wouldn't want groups of lads going to another Charlton away.
Certainly ticket prices make it more affordable but i'd certainly say style of play and results will always have a say too. One of my biggest fears if Lord Bowyer ever moves on is going back to the toothless away performances where we've brought a big away crowd.
1 -
Totally agree and have seen that myself. Commented on same when I went to the Doncaster away league match in Feb.
Other than access to space and tickets, and I can see why the numbers have grown post Bowyer, but why else did they start to follow.0 -
Very good point @AFKABartram and the result is a terrific atmosphere home and away on which many clubs are now commenting.
And we don’t need a plastic ultra scene to do it :-)6 -
I think it’s also down to the actual football, a lot more exciting than it has been in previous years under some of the lesser talented managers.2
-
Is this the "yoof" that rips up seats & other fittings like at Gillingham.
Yeah.....great to have them.0 -
Almost every other week on social media after an away game we are being described by other fans as “the best fans they’ve seen at their stadium in ages”.
6 -
Our away support is still pretty poor up north though.
1k at Blackburn, less than 800 at Barnsley. I don't expect many at Wigan next up either.
Definitely agree that the atmosphere is decent now though, and i've noticed a lot of opposition fans lately commenting on how noisy we are.1 -
A few years back in L1, Inwent to our first fixture away at Bury.MartinCAFC said:Fair point AFKA, I also think part of it for away games at least, is the fact the team can now win in front of large away followings under Lord Bowyer (Pompey, Gillingham, Doncaster, Reading and probably more) where previously just about every other occasion we'd melt and lose with the type of performance that wouldn't want groups of lads going to another Charlton away.
Certainly ticket prices make it more affordable but i'd certainly say style of play and results will always have a say too. One of my biggest fears if Lord Bowyer ever moves on is going back to the toothless away performances where we've brought a big away crowd.
We were shocking and in the radio interview afterwards, their manager (Flitcroft maybe) said “I think Charlton will do enough to stay safe this season”
i went there thinking it was it was a stroll in the park and they saw us as potential relegation fodder.
Time moves on and we are 2nd in the Championship and Bury are not in the league.
A pre season tour in the sun seems to do the trick.
0 -
I think I am about the same age as @AFKABartram and started going to aways about the same time he did. Doncaster was the first time I had gone to an away game and felt old. It felt totally diffrent to any Charlton crowd I had been in, the buzz outside the ground hours before kick off was unbelievable.
Wembley was the same, although lots of people went to both games the crowd felt younger than 20 odd years before.1 -
Yes, it does seem that we have accumulated in the last 2 years a new younger generation of supporters, and organically too as it wasn't down to a club or CAST initiative.
Pompey away in April 2018 was the first time I really noticed it, though to be fair the atmosphere at The Valley has even at its most silent, been better than at many other grounds0 -
Sponsored links:
-
Funnily enough, on the way back yesterday , I commented to my missus how there seemed to be loads more youngsters following us on Away days than there used to be.
She said, no don’t be daft, we’re just getting old!
Its funny even the coppers look too young to be doing the job!7 -
There’s nowt like blaming a whole generation for one or two idiots actions, if the youngsters were blaming the constant moaning and the smell of piss on our generation ( when it’s just @Redmidland)you’d soon be critical. 😉golfaddick said:Is this the "yoof" that rips up seats & other fittings like at Gillingham.
Yeah.....great to have them.6 -
I think it’s good to see younger people at the games , saves me getting frisked by the stewards.8
-
It’s great to see the numbers increase and the noise is brilliant .
but with that the wally count does go up and I’m sure when I was a youngster I wasn’t as divvy as some of the baseball cap brigade I saw strutting round like peacocks after we’d beaten the mighty Doncaster away in the play offs (prolly cos I couldnt and can’t fight)
I’m all up for some raucous behaviour but there’s a time and a place
and if pavement dancing is your thing then go find like minded rather than wait for the wall of policemen or stewards to start giving it the big one to other fans .
oh fuck I’ve turned in to Len Glover !
20 -
Ticket prices must have played a part in our attendance numbers £10 a ticket for under 25’s if I’m mistaken?
I was talking on the tube to a Chelsea fan yesterday who was going to the Sheffield United match, he wasn’t a season ticket holder and had paid 47 quid for his ticket!
I asked him what he thought the Chelsea score would be, he said 3-0 but then again when I started raving about the ‘ Blonde Frank Lampard’ they’d loaned us, he’d never heard of him!0 -
To counter that though, the premier league do cap away ticket prices at 30 quid and will do for the next 3 years.Mendonca In Asdas said:Ticket prices must have played a part in our attendance numbers £10 a ticket for under 25’s if I’m mistaken?
I was talking on the tube to a Chelsea fan yesterday who was going to the Sheffield United match, he wasn’t a season ticket holder and had paid 47 quid for his ticket!
I asked him what he thought the Chelsea score would be, he said 3-0 but then again when I started raving about the ‘ Blonde Frank Lampard’ they’d loaned us, he’d never heard of him!1 -
The youth tickets may be fairly priced, but our adult prices have risen a stupid amount. £30 for Brentford put me and others off. Pricing should be about filling empty seats as well as getting new fans in.4
-
One of the few bits of intimate physical contact I get these days, and even that's been taken away from meBlackheathboy said:I think it’s good to see younger people at the games , saves me getting frisked by the stewards.
10 -
Yup......every last one of them are worthless juvenile mugs.golfaddick said:Is this the "yoof" that rips up seats & other fittings like at Gillingham.
Yeah.....great to have them.
Ban them all I say.
golfie......you do talk some crap at times fella!1 -
I'm all for the yoof making a noise etc, i just wish they wouldn't come up the back of the Covered end, take other peoples seats and suggest they could go elsewhere. Some of the other youngsters are a bit intimidated and us older ones don't really want to tell them fo fuck off.2
-
Sponsored links:
-
Does anyone remember Ipswich away a few years ago, when we won 2-1. Fuller might have been playing. I reckon our support that day had an average age of 60.2
-
It never really crossed my mind during the Premier League years that we might be better off with fewer, but younger, fans.0
-
Atmosphere and noise in past year has been superb - long may it continue.0
-
So did our teamUboat said:Does anyone remember Ipswich away a few years ago, when we won 2-1. Fuller might have been playing. I reckon our support that day had an average age of 60.3 -
Plus all the moany sods have been boycotting. ;-)AFKABartram said:You get a massive opportunity to get local yoof following the club.
Ticket prices are affordable and with attendances tailed off you create the ability for teens to start going as a group and get involved in the North Upper.
you can see the benefit of that now in the North Upper and on aways such as Reading. We have been literally flooded with teens over the last 2-3 years, more so than in any period since I started going as a kid.
You sinply couldn’t have got that in the Prem or when the North Upper / Old Covered End remained sold out in previous Championship spells.
Lads want to go together and be amongst the noise. We’ve picked up a huge amount over last couple of years.
Its a massive factor in why our atmospheres at home and on the road have been so good the last couple of seasons
1 -
I think it's the kids who came in the premier league years as five, six, seven year olds now being in their 20s with disposable income.
Having a good team to follow helps a lot too.3 -
I don’t personally. Obviously, not all but I suspect most of them have been followers of other (bigger) clubs until they’ve started going along with their school mates for the crack in last year or so and the bugs bit. Was certainly the case when me and my mates started going as mid-teens early 90s and would expect to be the case now.Henry Irving said:I think it's the kids who came in the premier league years as five, six, seven year olds now being in their 20s with disposable income.
kids that age are more interested in the atmosphere, banter etc than the actual football.
Agree totally though that winning helps set the backdrop though.
just great to see youngsters getting into us and not being sheep-like following that lot down the road2 -
The amount of younger fans at the play off final was a real eye opener.1
-
When I first started going in the 90s as young kid I think there was a gap in the fan base I didn’t see the blokes in their 20 and 30s as much, I just put it down to the selhurst years.
Now our support has all sorts of ages but notably massive increase in lads in their 20s and 30s who go away from home. I think we’re the generation who grew up seeing the Scott Parker’s and Matt Holland’s and are continuously chasing the glory days, like a gambler chasing loses, but are happy for the ride it takes to get there because we were starved of your Rochdale’s and the Blackpool’s, I genuinely mean that too those little grounds if we ever get back to the promised land will be talked of fondly.
Thats my take on it anyway.2 -
Let’s face it. All this wave of feel good factor we’re riding on is completely and 100% down to Lee Bowyer. Got the same players Robinson had underperforming into the playoffs. Last season moulded an exciting team and togetherness that swept us to promotion. This season assembled a squad of quality and same team spirit and commitment and managed to unite the fans and players in a way not seen for years and all this while the madness of Duchatelet still hangs over our club.8
