What caused more people to stop supporting City?

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Originally Posted by ken smith

Think age is a factor.

During early 90's we had a young fan base and I reckon 80% or so we're under the age of 30. As the fan base has gotten older, the younger generation haven't replaced us and when you look at the crowds nowadays I'd say that 80% are over 30.

As our aging fan base gets older people have moved away, gotten families etc.

The cost of tickets on a match to match basis takes the piss if you have a family, and despite what people think, walk up fans are practically non existent due to the fact you have to queue twice to get in the ground.

For the 15 years or do we steadily grew our core fan base with promotion, and cup runs despite the riddler and scams antics, then the last 3 or 4 years the club decided to do its best to ruin everything. We seem to have turned a corner and things are improving, but I think we need something like a good cup run to get the lost fans/youngsters to start coming back.

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I think this is a good point. But season tickets for under 21 these days are £99 which are superb value imo. If these were the prices when I was growing up I would have saved every last penny I could to get one.

When you look at our team, where is the player who is City through and through who will make that last ditch tackle in the 90th minute even though we are 3-0 up - your Kavanagh, McNaughton, Stant etc. Can't really count Whittingham in that though he is a hero for me.

I just can't relate to players like Morrison, Peltier, Halford. Sounds stupid when I say I could relate to Chopra and Hudson whilst they were probably earning triple of what the current players are. But they loved this club and I'm not sure the current crop do (well not all of them).

Maybe this is why the kids aren't coming in their hundreds anymore? Because they can't see their heroes on the pitch. Might have to do with the fact that Wales are 10x better on paper these days and people just prefer that (like me - though the Ireland performance was no better than what you'd see at CCS every week).

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Originally Posted by ken smith

Think age is a factor.

During early 90's we had a young fan base and I reckon 80% or so we're under the age of 30. As the fan base has gotten older, the younger generation haven't replaced us and when you look at the crowds nowadays I'd say that 80% are over 30.

As our aging fan base gets older people have moved away, gotten families etc.

The cost of tickets on a match to match basis takes the piss if you have a family, and despite what people think, walk up fans are practically non existent due to the fact you have to queue twice to get in the ground.

For the 15 years or do we steadily grew our core fan base with promotion, and cup runs despite the riddler and scams antics, then the last 3 or 4 years the club decided to do its best to ruin everything. We seem to have turned a corner and things are improving, but I think we need something like a good cup run to get the lost fans/youngsters to start coming back.

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But we were only getting average crowds of 3 - 4k, yes the odd big crowd of 10k here and there. The average these days is 15k, so I can't see much in the debate about deserting fan base etc. As figures show over the decades our fanbase and attendances have actually grown.
The dip in attendances has dropped since the prem years not over the decades.
Spedger

To answer your question, Paul, obviously they all read your accurate reports on the 'quality' of the football and said "........NAAAAH".

By the way no Sheffield Wednesday quiz this week? Not that I can ever get any of the answers - do you create the questions for University Challenge by any chance?

Definitely an aging fan base, our lot in the pub on Saturday mornings look like the cast from Last of the summer wine.

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Originally Posted by ian gibson

Definitely an aging fan base, our lot in the pub on Saturday mornings look like the cast from Last of the summer wine.

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:hehe:

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Originally Posted by ian gibson

Definitely an aging fan base, our lot in the pub on Saturday mornings look like the cast from Last of the summer wine.

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:hehe:
Which one are you then? ;)

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Originally Posted by Zenith

Might have to do with the fact that Wales are 10x better on paper these days and people just prefer that (like me - though the Ireland performance was no better than what you'd see at CCS every week).

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You could be right there. Fans used to relative success (Cup finals, promotion pushes) haven't the stomach for mid table mediocrity and so are riding the Wales golden era wave instead :thumbup:

It's a hard question to answer because I asked about City supporters in general rather than any of you as individuals.

For my part, the rebrand affected me more than I expected it to and, about a month before the decision was made to go back to blue, I decided not to renew my season ticket for 2015/16 if we were still going to be playing in red. Of course, saying you're going to do something and actually doing it are two very different things, but I'm about 95% sure I would have followed through on my decision. One of the reasons I'm so confident about that was that I had stopped enjoying games with Russell Slade as manager - I still maintain that the only truly entertaining home match that season was the one with eventual Champions Bournemouth.

Although I kinda welcomed Neil Warnock's appointment, I readied myself for more Slade like boredom as our new manager took us to safety by adopting effective, but hard to watch methods. Instead though, I find it's the exception rather than the rule if I go home from a game bored by what I've seen - Warnock's football has been effective, but, in home matches at least, it's also been enjoyable because this feels like my Cardiff City again.

The surprise, and disappointment, for me is that those who have stopped coming to games regularly (and I agree that the real drop away in attendances occurred during 14/15 when many who had bought season tickets in the hope we would still be in the Premier League just stopped turning up after a while) have been slow to come back despite the better results and more entertaining football. I lost my season ticket card a fortnight ago, so had to go through what a walk up supporter has to for the Brentford match and it is quite a production compared to the days when you could decide whether you were going to go to a game at about 2.15 and then walk in through a barely used turnstile ten minutes before kick off - this may partially explain why attendances have failed to rise despite our climb up the table in the last few months.

Out of the responses so far, I think Splott Parker may have come closest to providing a correct answer to my question - if such a thing exists.

People were spoilt with the success 2 cup finals from bottom tier to top tier in 10-15 years.
People just want to see the team win when we got promoted the football at times wasn't great.
It just feels like people have seen everything they wanted to experience after 10 years in the championship people were just waiting for promotion. The while rebrand arguement falls down because crowds were good in the premier league.

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Originally Posted by Vimana.

:hehe:
Which one are you then? ;)

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Nora Batty

For me personally it was the rebrand, still don't see myself returning anytime soon.

If anything it just made me realise that the burden of emotional investment I was putting in was kind of silly; naturally I don't have anything against those that still do, but as person I'm so much better off without the stress of it all...

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Originally Posted by Nick

Good points, well made. But doesn't address the question raised.

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I sort of touched on it Nick by mentioning the fickleness of South Wales sports fans in general and that a bit of success will see gates improve, they've gone down due to the end of the heady days of Wembley, play offs etc. We seem to have levelled off at 14/15 thousand at the moment, not too bad I s'pose given the sub 10 thousand gates of not so long ago. Perhaps we need to accept that we, like many other clubs, have numerous floating fans who need a bit of convincing before showing their faces again. But fair play to those floating fans in the past when they've turned up they've got involved (I'm thinking the Leeds cup game, Swansea, Bristol City matches etc) and helped create great atmospheres and not just merely attended. We're not a Man City who still had 30 thousand plus in the league below the Championship (3rd Division, I call it) a few seasons ago but they're an exception to the rule, success will bring 'em back, I just hope the enthusiasm is still there, that's the worrying thing.

For me it's a lack of any connection between the supporters and the club. Once I felt that we mattered in some small way and were appreciated. Obviously that is not the case and we're are merely customers. In fairness it's not just the City but the overwhelming majority of clubs as the game because more of a battle on the balance sheet rather than the pitch. I still follow the club but as I live away from Cardiff it's just the odd few games that I get too these days. But when I am there it is just not the same anymore. Shame but things move on and maybe some day that feeling will return.

My mates and myself still go, still enjoy it. I go more regularly now than I did in the 90's. Only two guys I know who stopped going, one because of the rebrand, one because of Russell Slade.

A succession of shite managers

I still can’t quite believe this will be my last season following CCFC. I haven’t attended many games this year and I haven’t renewed my ST for next year, after 39 years of regular attendance.

Can’t put my finger on one single cause but the passion (aka pashun) has definitely gone and I no longer seem to care whether City win or lose, which would have been unthinkable during the NP era!

Another factor is the increasing cost of travelling to the games, which together with the ST cost, comes to about £800 a year. On a fixed pension income that is a significant sum to spend on something that is becoming a bit of a chore, plus the two and a half hour journey each way to the CCS doesn’t help either.

Maybe there is the “age thing” too – perhaps more important priorities now?

Unlike some others on the MB I have never regarded myself as anything other than a source of income for the club, rather than a “valued customer” (that’s a pretty fanciful notion in today’s football world) so that is not a factor.

Finally, maybe the apparent lack of enthusiasm from the players and the absence of the more committed local players like Joe Dwyer and Jason Perry has a more subtle demoralising effect.

With regard football in general I too am not interested in the Premier League – the only time I watched Match of the Day was when City were in that league. Maybe I’ll go support my local non-league team – at £5 a ticket I can manage that!

I have a ST but I agree that the clubs a little sterile lately. I still enjoy it but I don't have the same overwhelming passion I used to. It used to wind me up if we conceded last minute, these days I just shrug my shoulders.

Nothing to do with the rebrand. It's the stadium. The songs are all the same and very little banter between the opposition which used to liven up the dull games.

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Originally Posted by TH63

My mates and myself still go, still enjoy it. I go more regularly now than I did in the 90's. Only two guys I know who stopped going, one because of the rebrand, one because of Russell Slade.

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.Exactly the same-our group has been going together now for about 10 years and still enjoy it-