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Some mental statements there fair play. I’ll leave you to talk to yourself on the positives of Cardiff
There are teams who are utter shit who have bigger crowds in lower leagues. Logically it doesn’t add up. Derby for example have massive crowds, with James Collins playing up top.
The city of Cardiff should be more engaged with the club and they aren’t. No idea why
Derby, for example, won the first division.
Cardiff, for example, have not.
Genuine question, why does it bother some of the older folk on here that we aren’t ‘well’ supported?
I’m 27 and honestly couldn’t care less. I support the team of my home city passionately, but I’m also fully aware that we are a dross football club that will provide me with very little excitement for my investment.
The majority of you reading this message will be over 50, it isn’t a surprise to anyone yet you all argue like we are a dying big club.
Get over it, we’re an average sized shit football club. It is what it is.
They were last in premier league over 13 years ago since then have been relegated, embargoed and almost lost their stadium. With an owner arguably worse than Tan
You and others can’t eloquently articulate reasons why the people of Cardiff don’t follow the club. Yet people further afield do
You sound like you been hoovering gear.
Are we massive no? Should a city and surrounding area of Cardiff be producing bigger crowds yes
Not entirely sure what your point is?
That smaller clubs have entered the premier league since Derby’s drop off?
Or that people who live 150+ miles travel to Cardiff games regularly?
Football clubs of any stature will always attract people from miles away for a variety of reasons. I live in Streatham with a season ticket and try to get back to at least 15 games a season. My Dad grew up in Germany on an Army camp but supported city.
I’m not criticising our supporters, I’m criticising the idiots that suggest we should have a bigger fanbase just because.
We are a shite football club, it’s as simple as that.
What's he apologizing for? It's been called 'soccer' for as long as I can remember:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPaYry5XOMQ
You make some valid brutal points but Cardiff is big enough, it’s 4 times that of Burnley who get similar crowds and they are surrounded by other clubs and big cities….is does have a shocking reputation though, not from hooligan anymore but just being “shit” as most people I know say. It’s hard to defend sometimes and when you look at what happened when we got to the PL it’s even harder to defend. It’s not in people’s habit here to attend, youngsters aren’t interested in football, maybe it’s too expensive? It’s either oldies or kids not much in between? Money is tight for most, loads of people I know play sport but rarely attend what they play.
Surprised no one has mentioned the John Toshack exodus which kick started the plastic era!
Yes yes we’re shite etc it’s cheap and lazy excuses and overlooks the primary point.
The people of the city of Cardiff don’t back the team. Uniquely there is no other team near us and this should be the easiest fan base to engage with.
Instead our support is drawn from further afield where people have to endure TFW, coaches or driving to the game. If we can attract support from further afield why not on our own doorstep?
My point on Derby is that no success and the football club being ran by clowns doesn’t mean poor crowds. Visa versa Bournemouth have had a decade of unprecedented success and can’t fill a tiny stadium.
Should the only football club in a city of 360k with support across south Wales sustain higher attendances? Absolutely
Derby is a football town, Bournemouth isn’t, if they and Brentford went back to league 1 or two no one would notice or think they are a big fish. I reckon it would take 5-10 years of continuous PL status for us to change the way people think in the city. The parents never went so doubt their kids will…..
I agree, sustained success would see a rise on the base line again as we've seen in the last 15 years. We've just hit a plateau.
I don't know what constitutes a football town, but they (Derby) are surrounded by more successful teams and hold their own, same as Coventry. I'd imagine fans come from the city itself. As I keep saying even a small % increase from the people of Cardiff would see a jump in attendances.
The fact you can wander around Grangetown, Canton or Riverside on a Saturday and have no idea that there's a football club ten minutes away is crazy. There must be a reason why the people who live so close to the ground have no appetite?
If we can convince lads to drive down from the Rhondda etc then surely convincing someone to walk over to the ground should be easy?
That's the bit which doesn't make sense for me, seems counter intuitive?
Clubs who did ok in the 70’s/80’s all have a core following, all those midlands clubs for example, Derby, forest Leicester. Even Coventry were in the top division forever when I was growing up. Both Sheffield clubs, Ipswich, Norwich too. The generations follow on in those places, we haven’t got that here as we were terrible for 25 yrs….and before that crowds were never great (70’s)…the odd big one.
Nevermind grangetown and riverside, two of cardiffs poorest area’s, I doubt we are going to attract much support from there less we give away free tickets, it’s way too expensive. Wander around the city centre in a match day, there must be 1000’s of potential fans just milling about…..The club should be giving away tickets to schools to fill the red seats every game, they’d still make money from all the other stuff families buy and then you might hook them in, not by playing like we have of late mind.
Good post.
I think our core home support holds up pretty well when you consider that the average away attendances at CCS are around 1,200 per season. Coventry’s average away attendance at their home ground is around 2/3,000 more per match as is most other teams on the championship.
Being located where we are probably loses 2,000 visiting fans per match , which would take our average gate close to 23,000.
Not bad at all
Interesting point: On the other hand looking at us rather than other clubs visiting, we don't have any other teams in our immediate area who are direct competition.
Within the 360,000 surely the club can do more to engage and attract these people? Not many other clubs have the luxury of such a large audience on their doorstep.
You could argue that social economic conditions play a part in our attendances especially for non season ticket holders.
The fact that the road and rail system is not the best in comparison to other cities is also a major problem with supporting the club.
Night games are inaccessible for a significant portion of fans unless you have a car
Absolutely, it makes it even more remarkable that we have so many fans trudging down to Cardiff every week.
I know other clubs offer discounted tickets for local residents, surely that's a no brainer? There seemed a period a few years back where the club seemed to be more active in the local communities.
Has the club every actually bothered engaging with the people of Cardiff? We've discussed this before but there's a huge student population they could tap into for instance as well as people who've lived here for years. There always seems to be a "build it and they will come" attitude with football clubs when in reality they're fighting with countless other forms of entertainment. Any engagement seems focused on the valleys (Warnock's tours for instance).
I don't think the amount of fans who live in Cardiff is as low as suggested either but we could definitely improve
As for our attendance figures, Eric is generally correct in what he says and we definitely aren't over the rebrand which cost us some hardcore fans