Quote Originally Posted by Badly Ironed Shirt View Post
To be honest, I was expecting around 15k. Early kick-off, plus Cardiff are not playing very well at the moment.

This is how the average crowd has been going since the start of the season.

1 23,899
2 20,872
3 20,088
4 19,850
5 21,312
6 20,900
7 20,557
8 19,981
9 19,576
10 19,322
11 19,205
12 19,411
13 19,283
14 19,170

The average attendance after home match 13 is the lowest it has been all season. The club are currently 3rd, a position they have been higher than for the majority of the season. To average 20,000 crowds, the club must average 21,291 over the next 9 games.

These are the average crowds in 2011-12. The last season before the you-know-what. Cardiff were 3rd after home game 14, having spent the first half of the season in 8th/9th spot.

1. 22,639 (5.3% lower than this season)
2. 22,826 (9.4% higher)
3. 22,505 (12% higher)
4. 22,167 (11.7% higher)
5. 22,234 (4.3% higher)
6. 22,163 (6% higher)
7. 21,949 (6.8% higher)
8. 21,960 (9.9% higher)
9. 22,025 (12.5% higher)
10. 22,024 (14% higher)
11. 22,147 (16.4% higher)
12. 22,273 (14.7% higher)
13. 22,266 (15.5% higher)
14. 22,289 (16.3% higher)

The average crowd in 2011-12 season is 3,119 higher than this season. The ticket prices are unchanged. The team are performing as well as, if not better. In real terms it is less expensive to watch Cardiff City now than it was in 2011/12. On Home match day 3 of 2011/12 Cardiff played the glamorous Doncaster Rovers with 8 points from 5 games, and being 6th in the league. The crowd was 21,863. Cardiff City, this season, played QPR having won all of their previous games. The crowd, 18,520. A difference of 3,343.

In the course of 6 years, the club have lost an average of 3,119 fans a game - despite being better placed on the pitch. I doubt if Newport County are averaging 3,119 fans.

I've heard that there are too many games, too few games, silly kick-off times, and all sorts of other reasons for the drop in crowds. Not one person seems willing to point the finger at Vincent Tan. They prefer to point at a fickle fan base, but here are figures from a season that pales in comparison to this current season - 2011/12 provided ample opportunities for the fickleness of fans to shine through.
Yourargument is rubbish. How many of the games from 2011/2012 were live on the tv and/or had altered kick off times - I would hazard a guess at less than this season. Also in 2011/12 we had had a number of years pressing for promotion and crowds had built up over a period of 5/6 years, whereas now we are starting from the Slade/Trollope disasters of 18 months ago - much less time to have a major effect. Also we have home games to come this season against main rivals Wolves and Bristol City plus old adversary Birmingham and Middlesborough - all of these games will achieve well over 20000 crowds to boost our average.

Unlike you, most people have now got over what happened with Tan a few years ago and recognised that he is doing his best to put things right. Warnock is also the best manager we have had for many years and crowds will continue to build further as we progress under him. Your argument about the rebrand is also shot down by the fact that crowds didn't fall greatly until 2 years after it occured. The home average in 2014/2015, when we had been relegated from Prem the season before, was still over 21000 and it was the next season, under Slade, that it dropped to 16500. The real reason for our crowds dropping therefore is not Tan, its Slades crap management and the way the team was playing under him. Our averages have since increased every season and currently stand at over 19000 - hardly the disaster that you are portraying. Get off Tans and the clubs back.