Thanks Clive. Any idea what impact that'll have on parking? My guess is that there'll be more residents only zones and those of us from out of town will be left floundering.
It seems that 'The Royal Borough of Greenwich' want to press ahead with plans to discourage motorists from parking in the borough.
Our Sustainable Streets programme aims to reduce the number of car journeys in our borough and encourage more people to walk, cycle or use public transport, to reduce air pollution, traffic and congestion, improve road safety and lower carbon emissions.
The Council need your feedback to help develop detailed potential designs. Share your thoughts by Wednesday 19 March 2025.
I think that fact that non 3.00pm Saturday games are all on Sky has had a massive detrimental effect on attendances .
I’ve tried to get to most matches this season but I admit there’s been a couple of Tuesdays when I’ve not braved the cold and stayed at home . It’s a shame and it will only get worse when Sky eventually show all saturday games and that’s definitely coming .
It has an affect on Saturdays already. If there is a Tuesday game before or after then there's less incentive to spend £26+ that Saturday.
but it was on Charlton Tv last year wasn’t it ? My point is that ‘sky’ isn’t the issue or a new issue.
The issue remains 3rd division football at an expensive cost relative to other choices of entertainment.
As someone involved said to me yesterday, it is foolish and short sighted to try to charge a parent with two children £48 to travel on Valley Express, particularly as parking close to the ground gets more difficult.
If the tickets were lower people would come. Or you need to do a promotion that drags someone back. Season ticket holders can bring a friend for free and then two weeks later do football for a fiver. Gives the friend a week away to do other things but drags them back in cheaply
I’m not sure that’s sustainable. There are things to do, but the only thing that will result in repeated, higher attendances is the team performance well on the field.
If the tickets were lower people would come. Or you need to do a promotion that drags someone back. Season ticket holders can bring a friend for free and then two weeks later do football for a fiver. Gives the friend a week away to do other things but drags them back in cheaply
I’m not sure that’s sustainable. There are things to do, but the only thing that will result in repeated, higher attendances is the team performance well on the field.
Doesn't have to be sustainable, this late into the season you can only really do that once anyway. At a push you could do two "bring a friend" games. Agree that team performance is the biggest driving factor but as others have said price is a massive one too
Large freebie turnout in the East yesterday. I’m desperate for the club to get higher crowds so appreciate it has to be tried, but I’m really not sure this approach ever really works and if you sit in the area where they put the Community Trust issued tickets, some games its such a pain in the arse with the constant arriving late, not knowing where their seats are, then moving seats as the sun is in their eyes, then leaving early for half time, then returning late for 2nd half, then starting to leave between 65-85 mins. Sometimes they don’t even bother coming back for the 2nd half. Is what it is, but I honestly think the likelihood of any of these ever returning is minimal.
All this talk of Sky showing midweek games. The play off semi finals will be on Sky and likely to be midweek. Would that affect the attendance?
Totally different prospect. Play off semi in May vs Crawley/Orient at home in December is like chalk and cheese. People would go to a play off game for the occassion
The long term solution to Attendances, is we must find a way to appeal to the 41%+ of Londoners who were not born in the UK. I had an example of this problem the other day. I am a school governor and the other day sharing a school governors meet the parents with a parent governor Eric, a great fella. So in between talking to parents we talked football, I asked him which team he followed, first up was Accra in Ghana where he comes from. The next question any English teams and answer surprised me, no but he follows Bayern Munich. Why? because it was the football that they could get in Ghana when he was a boy , so hooked on them, he admired British fans for their loyalty to the local team though. We need and not just Charlton but all lower league clubs , to over come this.
Thanks Clive. Any idea what impact that'll have on parking? My guess is that there'll be more residents only zones and those of us from out of town will be left floundering.
It seems that 'The Royal Borough of Greenwich' want to press ahead with plans to discourage motorists from parking in the borough.
Our Sustainable Streets programme aims to reduce the number of car journeys in our borough and encourage more people to walk, cycle or use public transport, to reduce air pollution, traffic and congestion, improve road safety and lower carbon emissions.
The Council need your feedback to help develop detailed potential designs. Share your thoughts by Wednesday 19 March 2025.
All this talk of Sky showing midweek games. The play off semi finals will be on Sky and likely to be midweek. Would that affect the attendance?
A play-off game is a one off event with promotion directly at stake. It's not an apples to apples comparison with the other 23 league games with varying levels of jeopardy that people can pick and choose to attend.
The long term solution to Attendances, is we must find a way to appeal to the 41%+ of Londoners who were not born in the UK. I had an example of this problem the other day. I am a school governor and the other day sharing a school governors meet the parents with a parent governor Eric, a great fella. So in between talking to parents we talked football, I asked him which team he followed, first up was Accra in Ghana where he comes from. The next question any English teams and answer surprised me, no but he follows Bayern Munich. Why? because it was the football that they could get in Ghana when he was a boy , so hooked on them, he admired British fans for their loyalty to the local team though. We need and not just Charlton but all lower league clubs , to over come this.
i think that will help but for me its mainly about nicking back the floaters from our local rivals who are currently doing better than us on the pitch - and our dormant supporters - having said that, i like to think i've done my bit - a chap at work from cambridge now living in London is a regular and i brought another from saudi arabia along a couple of years ago. Against Barnsley we have a little work contingent coming along which includes a chinaman, a saudi arabian, a latvian and a cambridgeman - there were plenty of foreigners there yesterday as well
Arguably our best team for years and myself feel this team can at least make the play offs but 14k today with 1.2k Exeter (good turnout) have our fans found other things to do on Saturdays after years of garbage? Will it pick up? Personally I can’t see it going above 15k until late April if we are still with a chance
The official attendance was just under 15,000
We have 8,000 season ticket holders
1200 in the away end
That’s about as accurate as it gets on this afternoon’s fixture
So are we seriously saying that just under 6,000 people walked up to the turnstiles this afternoon via buying online in advance or on the day and paid to watch League one football at an adult price of £25 minimum
Or are the figures being massaged to impress the owners
I've long thought that our actual attendances are a lot lower than the published figures. Sometimes, so much so that it seems hard to believe the difference can be explained by missing STs and freebies. That said, I can't get my head around the idea of them being 'massaged to impress the owners'. Surely if they were, the owners would be looking for more income in the bank.
I agree with most of what's been said above about the long term run down of the club. Hopefully the better football and winning ways will encourage a few back. But the damaging malaise has been too long and too deep to expect a complete turnaround on the basis of a good couple of months.
One thing that I think could hold us back next season, even if we get promoted, is the difficulty getting parked. Yesterday on the industrial estate it was worse than ever. It seems to me that that whole area has been allowed to get more and more run down, presumably in the expectation that the scummier it is, the less opposition there'll be to demolishing it all and covering the whole area in flats. There are cars parked all over the pavement (many of which look like they've been dumped by a breakers yard) and thick mud in the streets. It's harder than ever to find a space and a really unpleasant and potentially dangerous walk to the ground once you've got one. Perhaps this is an issue that could be raised by our Fans Champions.
Regenerate that area and the area right next to it will look even shabbier than it does at present. that would surely be next and bang in the middle of that is The Valley
Arguably our best team for years and myself feel this team can at least make the play offs but 14k today with 1.2k Exeter (good turnout) have our fans found other things to do on Saturdays after years of garbage? Will it pick up? Personally I can’t see it going above 15k until late April if we are still with a chance
The official attendance was just under 15,000
We have 8,000 season ticket holders
1200 in the away end
That’s about as accurate as it gets on this afternoon’s fixture
So are we seriously saying that just under 6,000 people walked up to the turnstiles this afternoon via buying online in advance or on the day and paid to watch League one football at an adult price of £25 minimum
Or are the figures being massaged to impress the owners
I've long thought that our actual attendances are a lot lower than the published figures. Sometimes, so much so that it seems hard to believe the difference can be explained by missing STs and freebies. That said, I can't get my head around the idea of them being 'massaged to impress the owners'. Surely if they were, the owners would be looking for more income in the bank.
I agree with most of what's been said above about the long term run down of the club. Hopefully the better football and winning ways will encourage a few back. But the damaging malaise has been too long and too deep to expect a complete turnaround on the basis of a good couple of months.
One thing that I think could hold us back next season, even if we get promoted, is the difficulty getting parked. Yesterday on the industrial estate it was worse than ever. It seems to me that that whole area has been allowed to get more and more run down, presumably in the expectation that the scummier it is, the less opposition there'll be to demolishing it all and covering the whole area in flats. There are cars parked all over the pavement (many of which look like they've been dumped by a breakers yard) and thick mud in the streets. It's harder than ever to find a space and a really unpleasant and potentially dangerous walk to the ground once you've got one. Perhaps this is an issue that could be raised by our Fans Champions.
That's been the case for a number of years - the "regeneration" is moving along at a snail's pace (the only decent-sized development under way is the block behind the old Victoria, with a block next door supposedly imminent).
I don't think there's any threat to the retail parks and their car parks for the next few years, but that won't be the case for ever.
Parking is going to be a broader issue, though, with the spread of CPZs, even if the matchday restrictions appear to have gone nowhere, and the deterioration in public transport options in the past few years.
All this talk of Sky showing midweek games. The play off semi finals will be on Sky and likely to be midweek. Would that affect the attendance?
A play-off game is a one off event with promotion directly at stake. It's not an apples to apples comparison with the other 23 league games with varying levels of jeopardy that people can pick and choose to attend.
Exactly, everyone comes out for a play off game in the same way they'd come out if we drew Arsenal or Man U at home in a cup game.
If i remember rightly we sold out the Doncaster away play off in one day and that was an allocation of over 3k. We'd do well to take half that many there for a league game.
Arguably our best team for years and myself feel this team can at least make the play offs but 14k today with 1.2k Exeter (good turnout) have our fans found other things to do on Saturdays after years of garbage? Will it pick up? Personally I can’t see it going above 15k until late April if we are still with a chance
The official attendance was just under 15,000
We have 8,000 season ticket holders
1200 in the away end
That’s about as accurate as it gets on this afternoon’s fixture
So are we seriously saying that just under 6,000 people walked up to the turnstiles this afternoon via buying online in advance or on the day and paid to watch League one football at an adult price of £25 minimum
Or are the figures being massaged to impress the owners
I've long thought that our actual attendances are a lot lower than the published figures. Sometimes, so much so that it seems hard to believe the difference can be explained by missing STs and freebies. That said, I can't get my head around the idea of them being 'massaged to impress the owners'. Surely if they were, the owners would be looking for more income in the bank.
I agree with most of what's been said above about the long term run down of the club. Hopefully the better football and winning ways will encourage a few back. But the damaging malaise has been too long and too deep to expect a complete turnaround on the basis of a good couple of months.
One thing that I think could hold us back next season, even if we get promoted, is the difficulty getting parked. Yesterday on the industrial estate it was worse than ever. It seems to me that that whole area has been allowed to get more and more run down, presumably in the expectation that the scummier it is, the less opposition there'll be to demolishing it all and covering the whole area in flats. There are cars parked all over the pavement (many of which look like they've been dumped by a breakers yard) and thick mud in the streets. It's harder than ever to find a space and a really unpleasant and potentially dangerous walk to the ground once you've got one. Perhaps this is an issue that could be raised by our Fans Champions.
Regenerate that area and the area right next to it will look even shabbier than it does at present. that would surely be next and bang in the middle of that is The Valley
Have had a quick scan through a the regen docs, which are from 2017, all moving very slowly as InspectorSands points out. Interestingly we may be in for a new Clipper ferry terminal just along from the Anchor and Hope, which would be nice.
All this talk of Sky showing midweek games. The play off semi finals will be on Sky and likely to be midweek. Would that affect the attendance?
A play-off game is a one off event with promotion directly at stake. It's not an apples to apples comparison with the other 23 league games with varying levels of jeopardy that people can pick and choose to attend.
Exactly, everyone comes out for a play off game in the same way they'd come out if we drew Arsenal or Man U at home in a cup game.
If i remember rightly we sold out the Doncaster away play off in one day and that was an allocation of over 3k. We'd do well to take half that many there for a league game.
Which was the case when we played them earlier in the season.
Clipper service would be an option for me, Fenchurch Street and then Tower to Charlton. Hopefully it doesn’t take ten years to sort out…
I’ll probably get a season ticket again next year, as my Son is now 8 and no matter how hard his friends try, he isn’t switching to Arsenal or West Ham! Yesterday we brought the Father-in-law too, so four of us. I have no idea where to park now (used Kinveachy Gardens when my Grandad lived there), so we use public transport (yesterday we had bus replacement due to engineering works yet again). We probably spent around £90 on transport, £90 on tickets, £150 on food and drink and my Son spent £50 in Club shop. That’s nearly £400 in a day.
I’d spend less and it would be far easier if there was a dedicated CAFC secure parking area for the match, or a park and ride. Wouldn’t go down the pub, so that saves too. We would attend more too, but without secure parking I’m not interested in driving. We will attend probably two more home games, but as I’ve said, for me personally it’s parking that’s the issue. If that was easier, I’d attend nearly all home games from Essex.
Train £30, ticket £30, 3 pints £23, food £10....thats the bare minimum for being out of the house on my own for 9 hours. Double it if my Mrs comes and add another £50 if the boy attends.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
Train £30, ticket £30, 3 pints £23, food £10....thats the bare minimum for being out of the house on my own for 7 hours. Double it if my Mrs comes and add another £50 if the boy attends.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
Aside from the post-Covid season, Charlton's attendances are higher than they have been in League One since 2009-12, when they generally included larger numbers of comps. The official figures are very, very unreliable, across all these seasons, but recorded attendances are significantly higher than under RD in L1 and notably higher than in the last two seasons.
For what it's worth I don't think the gap between actual and announced has got any bigger.
What some people seem to be hoping for, or bemoaning the lack of, is Championship attendances in L1.
Train £30, ticket £30, 3 pints £23, food £10....thats the bare minimum for being out of the house on my own for 7 hours. Double it if my Mrs comes and add another £50 if the boy attends.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
Yes it's expensive, but the food and drink element is optional, you could always bring sandwiches etc. And if you had gone somewhere else, you'd still be eating and drinking.
Clipper service would be an option for me, Fenchurch Street and then Tower to Charlton. Hopefully it doesn’t take ten years to sort out…
I’ll probably get a season ticket again next year, as my Son is now 8 and no matter how hard his friends try, he isn’t switching to Arsenal or West Ham! Yesterday we brought the Father-in-law too, so four of us. I have no idea where to park now (used Kinveachy Gardens when my Grandad lived there), so we use public transport (yesterday we had bus replacement due to engineering works yet again). We probably spent around £90 on transport, £90 on tickets, £150 on food and drink and my Son spent £50 in Club shop. That’s nearly £400 in a day.
I’d spend less and it would be far easier if there was a dedicated CAFC secure parking area for the match, or a park and ride. Wouldn’t go down the pub, so that saves too. We would attend more too, but without secure parking I’m not interested in driving. We will attend probably two more home games, but as I’ve said, for me personally it’s parking that’s the issue. If that was easier, I’d attend nearly all home games from Essex.
CAST can sort you out a parking voucher for the roads round The Valley (eg Charlton Lane, Coxmount Road) for £2.40. Email secretary@castrust.org with your registration number.
Clipper service would be an option for me, Fenchurch Street and then Tower to Charlton. Hopefully it doesn’t take ten years to sort out…
I’ll probably get a season ticket again next year, as my Son is now 8 and no matter how hard his friends try, he isn’t switching to Arsenal or West Ham! Yesterday we brought the Father-in-law too, so four of us. I have no idea where to park now (used Kinveachy Gardens when my Grandad lived there), so we use public transport (yesterday we had bus replacement due to engineering works yet again). We probably spent around £90 on transport, £90 on tickets, £150 on food and drink and my Son spent £50 in Club shop. That’s nearly £400 in a day.
I’d spend less and it would be far easier if there was a dedicated CAFC secure parking area for the match, or a park and ride. Wouldn’t go down the pub, so that saves too. We would attend more too, but without secure parking I’m not interested in driving. We will attend probably two more home games, but as I’ve said, for me personally it’s parking that’s the issue. If that was easier, I’d attend nearly all home games from Essex.
You and your son could use the river boat from barking riverside to Woolwich I think @photoellery on a Saturday. I wouldn't be keen after a game myself, in the dark but it zips along between Woolwich and barking and might cut your current journey time too.
Train £30, ticket £30, 3 pints £23, food £10....thats the bare minimum for being out of the house on my own for 7 hours. Double it if my Mrs comes and add another £50 if the boy attends.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
Yes it's expensive, but the food and drink element is optional, you could always bring sandwiches etc. And if you had gone somewhere else, you'd still be eating and drinking.
Tbh that would include bringing god knows how much snacks and food for the 6 year old. There's only so much you can carry when you leave home at 10am and return at 7pm.
That was also a very frugle potential spend, 3 drinks and some food over 9 hours is hardly going mental. I still attend when I can, just pointing out why it's less than previously and it's probably the same for many others.
Train £30, ticket £30, 3 pints £23, food £10....thats the bare minimum for being out of the house on my own for 7 hours. Double it if my Mrs comes and add another £50 if the boy attends.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
Yes it's expensive, but the food and drink element is optional, you could always bring sandwiches etc. And if you had gone somewhere else, you'd still be eating and drinking.
Tbh that would include bringing god knows how much snacks and food for the 6 year old. There's only so much you can carry when you leave home at 10am and return at 7pm.
That was also a very frugle potential spend, 3 drinks and some food over 9 hours is hardly going mental. I still attend when I can, just pointing out why it's less than previously and it's probably the same for many others.
We’ve seen photos of your 6 year old son. I find it impossible to believe that you are unable to carry enough food for him. Sorry.
Comments
Our Sustainable Streets programme aims to reduce the number of car journeys in our borough and encourage more people to walk, cycle or use public transport, to reduce air pollution, traffic and congestion, improve road safety and lower carbon emissions.
The Council need your feedback to help develop detailed potential designs. Share your thoughts by Wednesday 19 March 2025.
https://sustainable-streets-rbg.commonplace.is/
The issue remains 3rd division football at an expensive cost relative to other choices of entertainment.
I had an example of this problem the other day.
I am a school governor and the other day sharing a school governors meet the parents with a parent governor Eric, a great fella.
So in between talking to parents we talked football, I asked him which team he followed, first up was Accra in Ghana where he comes from. The next question any English teams and answer surprised me, no but he follows Bayern Munich.
Why? because it was the football that they could get in Ghana when he was a boy , so hooked on them, he admired British fans for their loyalty to the local team though.
We need and not just Charlton but all lower league clubs , to over come this.
i think that will help but for me its mainly about nicking back the floaters from our local rivals who are currently doing better than us on the pitch - and our dormant supporters - having said that, i like to think i've done my bit - a chap at work from cambridge now living in London is a regular and i brought another from saudi arabia along a couple of years ago. Against Barnsley we have a little work contingent coming along which includes a chinaman, a saudi arabian, a latvian and a cambridgeman - there were plenty of foreigners there yesterday as well
I don't think there's any threat to the retail parks and their car parks for the next few years, but that won't be the case for ever.
Parking is going to be a broader issue, though, with the spread of CPZs, even if the matchday restrictions appear to have gone nowhere, and the deterioration in public transport options in the past few years.
If i remember rightly we sold out the Doncaster away play off in one day and that was an allocation of over 3k. We'd do well to take half that many there for a league game.
Hopefully it doesn’t take ten years to sort out…
I’ll probably get a season ticket again next year, as my Son is now 8 and no matter how hard his friends try, he isn’t switching to Arsenal or West Ham!
Yesterday we brought the Father-in-law too, so four of us. I have no idea where to park now (used Kinveachy Gardens when my Grandad lived there), so we use public transport (yesterday we had bus replacement due to engineering works yet again). We probably spent around £90 on transport, £90 on tickets, £150 on food and drink and my Son spent £50 in Club shop. That’s nearly £400 in a day.
We will attend probably two more home games, but as I’ve said, for me personally it’s parking that’s the issue. If that was easier, I’d attend nearly all home games from Essex.
£100-£250 spent without even trying and people wonder why attendances are lower than previously.
For what it's worth I don't think the gap between actual and announced has got any bigger.
What some people seem to be hoping for, or bemoaning the lack of, is Championship attendances in L1.
You and your son could use the river boat from barking riverside to Woolwich I think @photoellery on a Saturday. I wouldn't be keen after a game myself, in the dark but it zips along between Woolwich and barking and might cut your current journey time too.
That was also a very frugle potential spend, 3 drinks and some food over 9 hours is hardly going mental. I still attend when I can, just pointing out why it's less than previously and it's probably the same for many others.
I find it impossible to believe that you are unable to carry enough food for him. Sorry.