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Post by hantslondoner on May 11, 2019 18:02:29 GMT
They beat AFC Fylde today 3-0 at Wembley in the play-off final.
We ran them close.
Attendance 8049
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Post by michaelefc on May 11, 2019 18:30:53 GMT
Given the season that Salford, overall, have had, I think no-one can begrudge them the second promotion place. Our goal next season is to try and get more points than we did this. Do that and once again, we will have a chance.
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Post by tenacres on May 11, 2019 20:08:06 GMT
If we are to make a serious bid for promotion next season I think its handy that Salford are out the way as they would have been a strong contender. Not so sure about Fylde.
What might have been...
Next season!
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Post by back4more on May 12, 2019 0:08:06 GMT
They beat AFC Fylde today 3-0 at Wembley in the play-off final.
We ran them close.
Attendance 8049
The attendance figure is a bit worrying. The year we lost to Grimsby in the play off semi and they met Bristol Rovers in the final there were over 50000 people at Wembley to watch the final, including me.
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Post by nobadspitfire on May 12, 2019 7:38:53 GMT
The attendance was entirely expected, I think. Fylde's average attendance is probably only about 1500, especially after the Oystons have left Blackpool, and Salford's about 2500, on the back of £10 & £5 admission. Like us, neither would have many exiles. And what were their crowd averages 2/3/4/5 years ago? A lot lower than ours. Plus a 400 mile round trip for both sets of fans. Just the way the cookie crumbles. Imagine if the final had been Solihull v Borehamwood (OK, BW weren't in the playoffs, just saying). Any guesses how many we would have taken if we'd won last Sunday? More than Fylde & Salford, I'd wager. But still, the crowd would have only been under 15000.
With hindsight the game could have been played at any reasonably sized ground in Lancashire, but tickets had already been sold for the game to be at Wembley and 5/6days notice is far too late to change a venue. Europa League final in Baku, anyone?
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Post by michaelefc on May 12, 2019 7:53:17 GMT
A shocking attendance. Really no neutrals that would have been interested in going? The Vase final normally get more than that. I reckon had we been in the final attendance would have been at least 20,000. Given the money that is in the game, they should have made the tickets very cheap, or even given them away free rather than have an attendance like that. Not much of an advert for the The National League and it weakens the case for 3 up to the football league.
This shocking attendance should alert the authorities that something is wrong. They need to discuss what it is and then fix it.
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Post by hantslondoner on May 12, 2019 8:12:12 GMT
At £41 (£36 for a non-perfect view) entry (unless you take a punt and buy a ticket well in advance - what Eastleigh fan was going to do that?!) then I think that's one answer. Not only neutrals but also Salford/Fylde fans may have thought twice about that one. Contrast that with England international prices and the FA Vase/FA Trophy double next week (£25, although you can't leave the stadium in between games and can't take in your own food and drink). Orient have already sold 22K for their Trophy game, Even Chertsey (Vase finalists) have sold 5500. Wembley's a rip-off. If they hope to attract non-league fans then make the pricing more acceptable. We're not Premier League fans!
Some people would also say that both Salford and Fylde are 'bankrolled' clubs and as such don't have a big traditional supporter base. It may come in time.
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Post by unknownquantity on May 12, 2019 19:12:30 GMT
I think what is concerning is that in the National League attendance table for home attendances Salford come fifth, Eastleigh come eighth and AFC Fylde 10th. Supporters of these two clubs also presumably also travel expenses to contend with and are further from Wembley than most National League clubs and AFC Fylde have to make the trip to Wembley twice in eight days.
I think like ourselves both Salford City and AFC Fylde have progressed through the lower echelons of Non-League football with wealthy owners/investors who have been prepared to finance the club.
I think their situation is something akin to Eastleigh having to travel to Old Trafford for a playoff final with similar prices and it would be a challenge to fill the coaches, with the cost of attending the game being roughly a third of the cost of a season ticket.
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Post by hantslondoner on May 12, 2019 20:49:48 GMT
Talking of crowds, Woking got 4865 to see them beat Welling today and get promoted to the NL.
Chorley weren't far off 4K either to see them get through on penalties against Spennymoor and join them.
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Post by tenacres on May 12, 2019 21:39:42 GMT
"Any guesses how many we would have taken if we'd won last Sunday?"
Really tricky to say. 8000-10000 maybe? Of course we have a big advantage in being a lot closer than Fylde & Salford.
Strangely I think we'd probably take more to a Trophy final, which, although would be a much smaller game than a PO final, we would have a much bigger lead time.
Hopefully we will find out in the next year or two!
on average 3 conference national clubs make wembley per year, so if we stay at this level it probably (touch wood) won't be that long before we get a shot at it!
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Post by alanweufc on May 13, 2019 19:14:56 GMT
At £41 (£36 for a non-perfect view) entry (unless you take a punt and buy a ticket well in advance - what Eastleigh fan was going to do that?!) then I think that's one answer. Not only neutrals but also Salford/Fylde fans may have thought twice about that one. Contrast that with England international prices and the FA Vase/FA Trophy double next week (£25, although you can't leave the stadium in between games and can't take in your own food and drink). Orient have already sold 22K for their Trophy game, Even Chertsey (Vase finalists) have sold 5500. Wembley's a rip-off. If they hope to attract non-league fans then make the pricing more acceptable. We're not Premier League fans!
Some people would also say that both Salford and Fylde are 'bankrolled' clubs and as such don't have a big traditional supporter base. It may come in time.
The other thing that would have made a Wembley trip expensive was the short notice for the finalists - with a week between semi and final, train priced would have been high. Salford took a large number of coaches, but if you couldn't get coach tickets, you either had to pay inflated train fares or go by car, which on a 400 mile round trip would have potentially cost in the region of £80 as well - ok if you share between 4 or 5, but otherwise pricy.
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Post by michaelefc on May 13, 2019 19:29:49 GMT
Given the money the owners of Salford and Fylde have, is it too much to expect that they could have put in the funds to ensure everyone who wanted to go could go. Imagine if SD had still been at EFC and we had been playing at Wembley, no one would have missed out through shortage of funds and rightly so. Were I a supporter of either of the finalists I would have been asking some very awkward questions.
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Post by unknownquantity on May 13, 2019 23:49:58 GMT
I would think that taking 8000-10000 would be optimistic at these prices. The attendance for the previous three years has been below 20000, even though amongst the teams playing have been Grimsby once and Tranmere twice, both of whom are well supported former football league clubs who certainly did not have the lowest admission charges to watch their games.
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Post by hantslondoner on May 14, 2019 8:42:52 GMT
I would think that taking 8000-10000 would be optimistic at these prices. The attendance for the previous three years has been below 20000, even though amongst the teams playing have been Grimsby once and Tranmere twice, both of whom are well supported former football league clubs who certainly did not have the lowest admission charges to watch their games. Understand what you're saying, but the opponents in the last three playoff finals have been forest Green (twice) and Boreham Wood.... I wouldn't be surprised if Grimsby and Tranmere took 10000-15000 each time. It was rumoured that Fylde took fewer than 1000 last Saturday. Agree with the comment above about the short notice not helping. Fylde reckon they have got 23 coaches going to the Trophy final next Sunday, which is one they've had time to plan. I think we might have taken about 5000, especially if there was a good deal on the coaches and there was enough of them. Usually for big games we get a very good deal.
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Post by unknownquantity on May 14, 2019 17:48:38 GMT
Boreham Wood's attendances were poor even when they reached the playoffs, but I would not necessarily say the same about Forest Green.
I think that a turnout of 148 for a midweek game at Wrexham and 369 at Salford was quite impressive. 5000 would be an excellent turn out for us if we reached the playoff final (I expect this would be comfortably our best following for a match away from the Silverlake stadium), but if getting this number was significantly boosted by good rates for coach travel the people coordinating the coach travel would be working hard in the week before the game and on the day itself.
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