What’s with the reduced interest?

AFKABartram

Interested in people’s thoughts. Away games aren’t seeing the demand they were pre-Covid and after such a break probably less home tickets have been sold since hoped.

Personally, I’m not really feeling particularly enthusiastic, but I can’t really put my finger on why. For me it’s not Covid concerns, just after such a my gap interest has waned a little and I currently feel less wanting to give up such a chunk of my weekend. 

Such that will change at some point in the future as it’s been my life for 30 years now. Anyone else got on thoughts on it?

Blackheathen

I’m sure a couple of decent results will stoke the fires.

mendonca

I'm happy with a lot about the Club apart from....

the squad. We followed a target and journey to reach the Top 6 last season. They both feel and look like hollow words now sadly

Hartleypete

Loss of enthusiasm plus the way we are playing, not inexpensive for myself and family.

Always loved an away day but at moment just can’t get excited.

TEL

I said to someone at the club years ago that if fans stopped coming to games it's ten times more difficult to tempt them back as they find other things to do that then become the norm. 

I think it's quite natural AFKA. 

oohaahmortimer

Apathy with us and football in general but I think it’s cos we’re getting old 
numbers will naturally drift lower due to our poor results 
I'm sure we have a healthy(for us) number of youngsters going when you consider this is currently our worse footballing period ever . 

A grown up answer out of respect for Afka 
when really I wanted to say it’s cos our away support is shit , couldn’t control myself 

SouthWest_Addicks

AFKABartram said:

Interested in people’s thoughts. Away games aren’t seeing the demand they were pre-Covid and after such a break probably less home tickets have been sold since hoped.

Personally, I’m not really feeling particularly enthusiastic, but I can’t really put my finger on why. For me it’s not Covid concerns, just after such a my gap interest has waned a little and I currently feel less wanting to give up such a chunk of my weekend. 

Such that will change at some point in the future as it’s been my life for 30 years now. Anyone else got on thoughts on it?

League 1 is rubbish. Won promotion in the 94th min winner at Wembley, and we already back in this league. Zero desire to put the hard yards in again for another slog of league 1.

JiMMy 85

After dad died I made myself go to a bunch of games to get used to it again. But in the years since, without him to help compel me to go, my attendance has dropped off. Now I’m working weekends I don’t even have a choice - but even when I’ve seen midweek games appear I don’t get excited at the idea. I don’t feel the same as I did 5 years ago. It’s a combination of factors for me - personal priorities, the Valley atmosphere not being much fun, not having players I care about as much. 

Much like another major aspect of my life, I think I peaked at 20 and, since hitting 30, I’ve slowed down a lot. Now I’m at 40+, I’m lucky to get up there once a month!

Huskaris

I don't feel any closeness with any of these players, but that's a chicken and egg issue because I don't go as often anymore.

I used to love being in league one with players such as Kermorgant and would have even taken that over the championship. 

Just don't have it with this lot.

CAFCTrev

I just spent over £150 to go to Oxford and MK only to witness utterly appalling performances. Kinda killed my motivation to do Gillingham. 

hermann

Feeling the same. I think theres a combination of factors:

- Watching every game, home and away, for a relegation run in and a disappointing L1 season.
- That happening without the atmosphere of being there making it all much more of a grind.
- Feeling a bit down on the game as a whole with the whole ESL thing/clubs in trouble/general PL circus through the pandemic.
- Being emotionally drained investing so much in the Euros run.
- Crap start to the season.

Plus there's the general thing of readjusting to normal life after the past 18 months. 

All of that said, first season ticket for a few years and hoping it'll all be shaken off before long!

stoneroses19

Financial is my issue. It’s been a tough past year for work etc. Just can’t justify spending £100+ on an away day. Even with home games, I’m looking at the fixture list and deciding which game to choose from every 5-6 weeks (although treating myself this month by going to Wednesday and Crewe games).

se9addick

hermann said:

Feeling the same. I think theres a combination of factors:

- Watching every game, home and away, for a relegation run in and a disappointing L1 season.
- That happening without the atmosphere of being there making it all much more of a grind.
- Feeling a bit down on the game as a whole with the whole ESL thing/clubs in trouble/general PL circus through the pandemic.
- Being emotionally drained investing so much in the Euros run.
- Crap start to the season.

Plus there's the general thing of readjusting to normal life after the past 18 months. 

All of that said, first season ticket for a few years and hoping it'll all be shaken off before long!

I wonder if that does have something to do with it. During Covid I actually watched more football than ever, wonder if there’s been a bit of saturation. 

That being said I reckon a good run and people will be up for it again, but of a shame that is required however.

Rob7Lee

I don't think it's down to any one thing but a mixture;

1. COVID - Some people will still be nervous about going somewhere with lots of people, public transport etc
2. Like others have said, once you get out of the habit of going it's easier to continue that habit and harder to get back into the swing of going (especially if footy is rubbish!)
3. Streaming - a lot of people really like that, especially for away games, so maybe more are doing so where possible
4. Cost - Many people have suffered financially over the past 18 months so may not have the ready cash, especially for away games.
5. Quality - if you get a really poor start to the season on the field, the casual attendee's just don't bother going
6. Holidays - has always effected attendances in August, maybe more so this year.


Overall I think the extended absence will have made people find other things to do. For some, they simply won't go back to what they used to do without a lot of tempting.

killerandflash

Leaving aside the dispiriting performances on the pitch, the fixture list hasn't helped either, overfamiliar L1 grounds kicking off with 2 "same old, same old" away games in Oxford and MKD, followed by the marmite experience of Gillingham, which combines over familiarity with a horrible away end. 

Pavoren007

We are still in summer season, with families on holiday, the team are performing below expectation, some fan’s motivations dented by being back in league 1 (live), last time we were all allowed in we were in the Championship. All that said average home attendance cup aside for league 1 is still none too shabby and if by some miracle we could string 2,3,4… wins together, I suspect the feel good factor would return for a few.

Sillybilly

Some practical reasons. Namely, I don’t think we should underestimate the sense of under-whelmment (I may have invented a new word there. I thank you) at the state of the squad following the hope of a new dawn built up back in May.  If I’d still been local and healthy I’d have snapped up a season ticket on the back of Nigel and Thomas’s feel good bounce.  If I’d chosen to bide my time I’m not sure I’d be buying one now. And the impact of our ongoing shiteness (there’s another one. I’m on a roll) on the walk up/buy game by game crew is bound to be significant.  Add to that the COVID factor (some may still be reticent and, bless their souls, I’m sure we’ve lost a few) and the fact that people are on holiday.  It’s also not a cheap day out either with the peripherals added. Getting on for 30 smackeroodgies (yay!  hat trick) for a seat with a decent view (I’m old) for a league 1 game is a lot IMHO.  

Other than that, as you suggest, I don’t think the lockdown version of football did much for those of us whose appetite for what our great game has become (money rules, play acting, sterile tactics etc) was already on the wane. My Sky subscription is, like my right leg, a distant memory and I can tell you which one I miss the most!   Before COVID I was already finding match days a bit of a chore with traffic, diminishing options for a decent pre-match pint etc) adding to the sterility of league 1 football. 

I also never quite recovered from the sense of anticlimax after the heroics of Wembley when we just lamely surrendered our hard won place back in the championship. While I’m giving Sandgaard the benefit of the doubt for the moment, the stench of Roland still lingers and until we get the assets back I still feel a sense of unease. Due to lockdown, I’ve never seen this squad in the flesh and I feel very little attachment to them. 

So all in all a cocktail of reasons for my lack of enthusiasm. Obviously, the fact that I’ve moved away is another factor which may, in the eyes of some devalue some of my observations but I’d counter that with the old “absence makes the heart grow fonder” cliche which has the advantage of being true. The reaction of people on this forum to my ongoing health issues has been a genuine and overwhelming thing for me and has, if anything, cemented my love for our club even more. But it’s not easy being an Addick at the moment. 

ParkinsonOut

Started supporting the team in 70/71 season but my passion started to dwindle during the early part of the roland era. I went to a lot of matches during our Selhurst & Upton Park years & was at the Valley return on 5 December. But a combination of things - financial, shite football, years of dreadful owners & sub-standard players - have all but knocked the remaining enthusiasm out of me. 

As other posters have said above, I have no affinity with any of the players. I watched most of our games online last season & have seen our 4 league games this season - but I’m not sure when (if at all) my enthusiasm & love for CAFC will return.

bolloxbolder

I said to my friends, when we were getting dragged into the relegation quagmire in 2020, that I just couldn't face another season in League 1. The standard of football compared to the Championship is absolutely awful.
The squad is poor and I just feel the club are all about broken promises right now. It hurts seeing how superior Palace are over us, but now so are the scum.

I've gone from being positively excited before the first home game to dreading Saturday v Crewe, where a defeat and no noticeable incomings will confirm (to me at least) that we are, at least until the January transfer window, in a relegation scrap.

Being a Chairman of a tennis club is taking up a lot more of my time and sad to say have got a lot of very close family issues, so not feeling the love right now, but it will never burn out. I could just jump on a train from Abbey Wood to get to Gillingham, but I just can't see us winning. It would just upset me even more. It's been a bad year, so here's hoping 2022 is better.

MrWalker

They started it. 

Leeds_Addick

I think a lot of people are underwhelmed with progress since TS took over - I appreciate a lot may have changed behind the scenes but on the face of it not much has.

At the end of last season I couldn't wait for this one to start in the knowledge that the squad would look very different, the football would be better and we'd win most games. That's clearly not the case and it's reduced my enthusiasm for it a little. 

I'm absolutely still in the honeymoon period as far as live football in concerned - I quite enjoyed the Wimbledon game simply because I was watching it live and not on TV but I don't expect the novelty to last that long.

Bedsaddick

I try to get to away games but are increasingly put off by some of the idiots that follow us away . 

EugenesAxe

A big financial commitment to watch awful football is my guess.

Wheresmeticket

Before covid I still managed to get up from Cornwall for a few home games and the Plymouth away fixture...a new dog, work now so stressful (health and social care) that I sometimes just need to rest for the weekend and a sense of disappointment in the transfer window has made it less likely that I will spend upwards of £200 to see a dull as ditchwater match.

Having said that I have the hotel booked for the Portsmouth weekend and will enjoy a few days in the smoke and being at the match whatever the result.  See you in the pub.

ValleyGary

I don’t like any of the players

cafcfan

For me, rather than the expectation of horrendous football, it's the near certainty of horrendous traffic conditions en route.
Both my trips to The Valley this season have been almost double the time it should take because of holiday traffic, accidents and roadworks. I'm not doing that all over again but for longer journeys until the kids are back at school and the caravans are off the road.

WhenIwasLittleBoy

Done a couple of away games already, both games I have come out deflated and that is only the away games. Will give the next two ago, see where we are then if nothing improves in terms of performances, signings, and results then i will cherry pick the games. I cant justify spending over £100 plus to watch them play like that, when I could be doing stuff with the family and putting my money to better use. 

blackpool72

CAFCTrev said:

I just spent over £150 to go to Oxford and MK only to witness utterly appalling performances. Kinda killed my motivation to do Gillingham. 

Same here.
As a season ticket holder I shall attend most of the home games but unless our form picks up I see a disappointing season ahead and can't see me doing more than about 7 or 8 away games. 
Normally I'd do double that.

cafctom

I’ve gone to every game this season (with exception of MK), plus a pre season friendly. I’ll still be going to as many games as I can going forward, as I still love the experience - regardless of the result.

I have noticed an apathy in others though.

The take up on Oxford was disappointing - should have been a nailed on sell out considering the occasion.

I have a feeling Gillingham might also not sell out. Again, that would have been unimaginable if you’d have asked a month ago.

The results on the pitch are having the highest impact in my opinion. Like it or not, we do have some fair weather fans who will only want to put the effort in if we’re winning games. Each to their own.

redman

Were the numbers taken to Oxford and MK Dons, the latter for a night game, poor? Be interested to see some numbers. 

Baldybonce

Cost.