Fanbase

[redkev]

Going on our attendances over the last year or so and our away support especially this season at most ( not all games ) I have to admit I personally think it’s been pretty impressive

When you take into consideration how poor our form has been over the last 2-4 years with the club in the same division and pretty much treading water our attendances have held up very well . Any big game now be it cup , localish Derby ( as we ain’t had a proper Derby against the other lot for ages now ) the tickets seemed to be snapped up pretty much before getting to general sale every time ( take note if we ever get to prem ) why has our support held up and if not held up improved without taking steps forward on the pitch. Is Ashton gate a more pleasant match day experience for the average fan ( not the hardcore we want our east end back fan Ashton gate will never be the same for them me included ) or are we gaining more fans that would have gone to the blue few as we deffo seem higher profile than them now and obviously get better teams come to Ashton gate with better players and quality players . I’m pretty sure the way things are with our current fan base IF we did ever get to the prem in the near future all games would be a sellout and full allocation would be taken for every away game.
Your thoughts fellow reds 

 

[Aipearcey]

I think there’s an acceptance of the position we’ve found ourselves in with regards of financial fair play(or whatever it’s called now) and the need to cut the budget. When you go through a period like that but are still slowly progressing whilst bringing youth players through and a squad giving their all, that’s all most loyal fans ask for. Then days like Sunday give you hope and make it all worth while, taking a team 6th in the premier league all the way over 90 minutes with 5 academy players in the starting line up is something most club would be proud of.

[extonsred]

No discussion needed...all true...but it is so obvious that it is not surprising everyone associated with this club lives a life in total frustration! Definitely sell every ticket for every match...season tickets alone would fill our capacity.

[Jeez]

In general Match day attendances are up everywhere across the leagues post Covid bar the odd exception…..

[Phileas Fogg]

I think the club has a got much better at marketing. Little things like bus adverts, the ads in city centre etc help tacitly cement awareness of the club in people’s minds. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, Jeez said:

In general Match day attendances are up everywhere across the leagues post Covid bar the odd exception…..

They are, but in the medium to long term the fanbase (sounds an Americanism tbh) has grown without doubt. If tickets sold is the metric we all know the gap between attendance and sold but same at many clubs.

[mattjb]

Look at the amount of kids,women and families at games nowadays.These days the stadium and its facilities make it much more of an option for people that probably won’t have come to games years ago. It’s one of the main reasons the gas lag so far behind us with their aging fan base and portaloos 

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Going on our attendances over the last year or so and our away support especially this season at most ( not all games ) I have to admit I personally think it’s been pretty impressive

When you take into consideration how poor our form has been over the last 2-4 years with the club in the same division and pretty much treading water our attendances have held up very well . Any big game now be it cup , localish Derby ( as we ain’t had a proper Derby against the other lot for ages now ) the tickets seemed to be snapped up pretty much before getting to general sale every time ( take note if we ever get to prem ) why has our support held up and if not held up improved without taking steps forward on the pitch. Is Ashton gate a more pleasant match day experience for the average fan ( not the hardcore we want our east end back fan Ashton gate will never be the same for them me included ) or are we gaining more fans that would have gone to the blue few as we deffo seem higher profile than them now and obviously get better teams come to Ashton gate with better players and quality players . I’m pretty sure the way things are with our current fan base IF we did ever get to the prem in the near future all games would be a sellout and full allocation would be taken for every away game.
Your thoughts fellow reds 

 

Not sure it's just a Bristol City thing.

Population growth / explosion over the past decade or so.

Live football at an all time high. Football as popular as it has ever been.

I suspect the majority of clubs outside the PL are experiencing record numbers of Season ticket holders, as well as record high season on season attendances.

 

[RedLionLad]

7 minutes ago, mattjb said:

Look at the amount of kids,women and families at games nowadays.These days the stadium and its facilities make it much more of an option for people that probably won’t have come to games years ago. It’s one of the main reasons the gas lag so far behind us with their aging fan base and portaloos 

Can you imagine the reaction from some of their knuckleheads seeing our concourse facilities ?

[mattjb]

2 minutes ago, RedLionLad said:

Can you imagine the reaction from some of their knuckleheads seeing our concourse facilities ?

I happened to be working with a gashead last week and he said he’d been to a gig at AG and was really impressed with the facilities. He also said he wouldn’t dream of taking his daughter to a game at the mem because of how bad the situation is with portaloos for toilets etc. Must have cost them a lot of future fans.

[redkev]

1 hour ago, Sir Geoff said:

Not sure it's just a Bristol City thing.

Population growth / explosion over the past decade or so.

Live football at an all time high. Football as popular as it has ever been.

I suspect the majority of clubs outside the PL are experiencing record numbers of Season ticket holders, as well as record high season on season attendances.

 

Your theory goes out of the window in two words 

Bristol Rovers

[redkev]

1 hour ago, mattjb said:

Look at the amount of kids,women and families at games nowadays.These days the stadium and its facilities make it much more of an option for people that probably won’t have come to games years ago. It’s one of the main reasons the gas lag so far behind us with their aging fan base and portaloos 

Totally agree with what you say about families going to games , let’s be fair who would take there kids/ to that dump ,

With Bristol seemingly ( I could be wrong ) growing I would of thought any genuine football fan who has moved to our area who perhaps doesnt go and watch his original team etc ( travelling work etc ) would deffo plump for Ashton gate 

[beaverface]

Does the stats on our attendances give us serious credence for somehow getting the capacity increased to ~30,000?

There seems to have been a lot of talk about the number of u12 season tickets restricting normal pay on the day ticket purchases, but would a higher capacity mitigate that?

[Wedontplayinblue]

6 minutes ago, beaverface said:

Does the stats on our attendances give us serious credence for somehow getting the capacity increased to ~30,000?

There seems to have been a lot of talk about the number of u12 season tickets restricting normal pay on the day ticket purchases, but would a higher capacity mitigate that?

Stopping cheap under 12 tickets in anywhere except the upper lansdown would reduce it massively I imagine. 

[Betty Swallocks]

1 minute ago, Wedontplayinblue said:

Stopping cheap under 12 tickets in anywhere except the upper lansdown would reduce it massively I imagine. 

Cheap under 12 tickets is the reason why our fanbase has been increasing year on year. 
A cheap under 12’s ticket is an adults season ticket in the future. 

[mattjb]

14 minutes ago, redkev said:

Totally agree with what you say about families going to games , let’s be fair who would take there kids/ to that dump ,

With Bristol seemingly ( I could be wrong ) growing I would of thought any genuine football fan who has moved to our area who perhaps doesnt go and watch his original team etc ( travelling work etc ) would deffo plump for Ashton gate 

Any kids without any football allegiances in their family will be gravitating towards us if they want to watch games live. The gashead in work was also saying he knows a gas family and one of their kids watches City with his mates because he refused to watch the gas at their dump!

[Wedontplayinblue]

7 minutes ago, Betty Swallocks said:

Cheap under 12 tickets is the reason why our fanbase has been increasing year on year. 
A cheap under 12’s ticket is an adults season ticket in the future. 

That I fully agree with, but wouldn’t the same uptake be taken if it was restricted to only the upper lansdown, and if they wanted to pay the extra they could have more premium seats?

It’s no different to how the “GWR Stand” was first used and free kids season tickets were handed out, it’s how I got my first season ticket and I’ve had one ever since now. 

[Betty Swallocks]

1 minute ago, Wedontplayinblue said:

That I fully agree with, but wouldn’t the same uptake be taken if it was restricted to only the upper lansdown, and if they wanted to pay the extra they could have more premium seats?

It’s no different to how the “GWR Stand” was first used and free kids season tickets were handed out, it’s how I got my first season ticket and I’ve had one ever since now. 

I’m not sure it would. If I was restricted to only being able to buy a season ticket in Lansdown Upper when my lad was a nipper then I wouldn’t have bothered getting a season ticket. 
 

He now in the under 18 bracket and is completely hooked on going because he loved being around the atmosphere by S82 as much as he enjoyed watching the game. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

28 minutes ago, redkev said:

Totally agree with what you say about families going to games , let’s be fair who would take there kids/ to that dump ,

With Bristol seemingly ( I could be wrong ) growing I would of thought any genuine football fan who has moved to our area who perhaps doesnt go and watch his original team etc ( travelling work etc ) would deffo plump for Ashton gate 

 

10 minutes ago, mattjb said:

Any kids without any football allegiances in their family will be gravitating towards us if they want to watch games live. The gashead in work was also saying he knows a gas family and one of their kids watches City with his mates because he refused to watch the gas at their dump!

In my experience core allegiances definitely don't change. Of the two here as s neutral, interested or not that interested you would go and watch at AG. I know a few where j used to work who certainly didn't have us as their firdt team owing to moving from elsewhere but when they took in some football always us not the other lot.

On the pitch, off the pitch, we are ahead of them and yet we have significant room for growth of, improvement to the matchday experience.

[Rossi the Robin]

Bought my nephew a u12 SS a few years ago and it took him a while to really get into it so didn’t do every game. 
Now he is hooked -it even gets to the level of following an Albanian game on his phone because AM is on the bench 

 

Edited January 10 by Rossi the Robin

[lenred]

17 minutes ago, Wedontplayinblue said:

That I fully agree with, but wouldn’t the same uptake be taken if it was restricted to only the upper lansdown, and if they wanted to pay the extra they could have more premium seats?

It’s no different to how the “GWR Stand” was first used and free kids season tickets were handed out, it’s how I got my first season ticket and I’ve had one ever since now. 

Why should mates who have been going for decades with the same friends have to sit somewhere else because they have kids and want to ingratiate them to City, thus devaluing both their game day and their mates who don’t take their kids / don’t have kids?  Why should kids be made to sit in particular areas? It’s crazy.   

This constant wanging on about people taking their kids and taking up space of others who don’t buy season tickets is just getting really ridiculous now.  If people have such an issue pick it up with the club. It’s simple.   I’m sure @phantom will do it.  Or @JerrySLO But as others have said, these kids are the future of our club.  Weird that people keep attacking them going.  

[BS15_RED]

43 minutes ago, beaverface said:

Does the stats on our attendances give us serious credence for somehow getting the capacity increased to ~30,000?

There seems to have been a lot of talk about the number of u12 season tickets restricting normal pay on the day ticket purchases, but would a higher capacity mitigate that?

I’d imagine that if we began to seriously challenge for promotion to the PL then that would definitely become a priority. 

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, BS15_RED said:

I’d imagine that if we began to seriously challenge for promotion to the PL then that would definitely become a priority. 

Summer rebuild then ?

[myol'man]

2 hours ago, beaverface said:

Does the stats on our attendances give us serious credence for somehow getting the capacity increased to ~30,000?

 

It's difficult to see where to next capacity increase would fit in.

Fill in the Atyeo corners? Lose segregation, gain a few hundred.

Two tier Atyeo? Not a huge increase in numbers, right to light protests from Ashton Road residents. 

Two tier South Stand? Possible, but hugely expensive.

Complete rebuild of the Dolman?          Is there room? 

[NOTBLUE]

22 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

Summer rebuild then ?

What year?

[Wedontplayinblue]

1 hour ago, lenred said:

Why should mates who have been going for decades with the same friends have to sit somewhere else because they have kids and want to ingratiate them to City, thus devaluing both their game day and their mates who don’t take their kids / don’t have kids?  Why should kids be made to sit in particular areas? It’s crazy.   

This constant wanging on about people taking their kids and taking up space of others who don’t buy season tickets is just getting really ridiculous now.  If people have such an issue pick it up with the club. It’s simple.   I’m sure @phantom will do it.  Or @JerrySLO But as others have said, these kids are the future of our club.  Weird that people keep attacking them going.  

Im not attacking kids going at all, It worked with the GWR Stand when it was put in, did it not? Introduced many young city fans to having season tickets etc. 

I haven’t said kids have to go in a certain area, I’m saying if people wanted free/cheap kids season tickets then the upper lansdown could be used which is a perfectly fine part of the ground,  it’s absolutely no different to what city did nearly 30 years ago, which was clearly a success. 
 

You could still buy kids season tickets in all areas of the ground just not at a massively reduced rate.
 

We can’t go down the lines of “people buying cheap kids tickets and not turning up” but not having a valid solution to it surely? 

Edited January 10 by Wedontplayinblue

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 hour ago, lenred said:

Why should mates who have been going for decades with the same friends have to sit somewhere else because they have kids and want to ingratiate them to City, thus devaluing both their game day and their mates who don’t take their kids / don’t have kids?  Why should kids be made to sit in particular areas? It’s crazy.   

This constant wanging on about people taking their kids and taking up space of others who don’t buy season tickets is just getting really ridiculous now.  If people have such an issue pick it up with the club. It’s simple.   I’m sure @phantom will do it.  Or @JerrySLO But as others have said, these kids are the future of our club.  Weird that people keep attacking them going.  

How can these kids be the future of the club if they either don't exist or never even stepped foot inside Ashton Gate? That's the issue here. The issue isn't with the genuine fans who attend regularly with their u12 kids. 

What needs to happen is there needs to be robust checks on these kids tickets. So birth certificate provided. I've seen things where adults admit using these tickets to enter the ground so there needs to be robust checks at the turnstiles. 

Also if you say you're not going to allow upgrades, inform the staff on the phone lines of that. 

I'd also look into looking at the attendance rate of these kids tickets. If they've not been used for a whole season or only been used once or twice, cancel them.

[red panda]

6 hours ago, redkev said:

Going on our attendances over the last year or so and our away support especially this season at most ( not all games ) I have to admit I personally think it’s been pretty impressive

When you take into consideration how poor our form has been over the last 2-4 years with the club in the same division and pretty much treading water our attendances have held up very well . Any big game now be it cup , localish Derby ( as we ain’t had a proper Derby against the other lot for ages now ) the tickets seemed to be snapped up pretty much before getting to general sale every time ( take note if we ever get to prem ) why has our support held up and if not held up improved without taking steps forward on the pitch. Is Ashton gate a more pleasant match day experience for the average fan ( not the hardcore we want our east end back fan Ashton gate will never be the same for them me included ) or are we gaining more fans that would have gone to the blue few as we deffo seem higher profile than them now and obviously get better teams come to Ashton gate with better players and quality players . I’m pretty sure the way things are with our current fan base IF we did ever get to the prem in the near future all games would be a sellout and full allocation would be taken for every away game.
Your thoughts fellow reds 

 

As well as the stadium obviously, and even though it seems like some of the football hasn't been great, it's still Championship standard and we are playing against Championship teams.  It's easy to forget that between 1980 and 2015 we were yo-yoing between the second and third tiers (or worse ), spending more time in the third tier than the second.  As recently as 2014/15 we were playing league matches against the likes of Colchester, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, Fleetwood, Walsall and Crawley.  For potentially wavering supporters, we're still a much more attractive proposition than we were only a few ago 

[INCRED]

5 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

 

In my experience core allegiances definitely don't change. Of the two here as s neutral, interested or not that interested you would go and watch at AG. I know a few where j used to work who certainly didn't have us as their firdt team owing to moving from elsewhere but when they took in some football always us not the other lot.

On the pitch, off the pitch, we are ahead of them and yet we have significant room for growth of, improvement to the matchday experience.

One thing I have noticed is the amount of foreign nationals watching us and coming to games. I have spoken to Ukrainians, Pols, Romanians who love there football and enjoy watching City as their local team. There are also quite a few others from the far east and Asia 

Quite a cosmopolitan crowd at AG now, not sure they have quite got a grip of the Wurzels just yet and drink up thee cider

[eardun]

5 hours ago, Rossi the Robin said:

Bought my nephew a u12 SS a few years ago and it took him a while to really get into it so didn’t do every game. 
Now he is hooked -it even gets to the level of following an Albanian game on his phone because AM is on the bench 

 

This is a great example of why the moaning about cheap kids’ season tickets (allegedly) causing empty seats in the South Stand is so short sighted. You can’t expect a child to attend every match; but there’s a good chance that this introduction hooks them for life.