Life in the Conference

[youstylishmagpies]

Attendance wise, the gap between 2nd and 3rd tier is the most noticeable gulf.....

Current average gates...
2nd tier - 20.090
3rd tier - 8.615
4th tier - 4.374
5th tier - 1.956

Quality of football is subjective but it's probably not that much different between the 4th and 5th. I fear it will be the standard of refereeing that will really hit us.

The standard of refereeing has been poor anyway. However a proper footballing outfit would do their homework on a referee as well as the opposition. My main fear is that we look unfit, lack quality and look weak when a game turns into a battle. I expect similar in the division below. Footballing wise I think there's little difference between league 2.

[slack_pie]

Attendance wise, the gap between 2nd and 3rd tier is the most noticeable gulf.....

Current average gates...
2nd tier - 20.090
3rd tier - 8.615
4th tier - 4.374
5th tier - 1.956

Quality of football is subjective but it's probably not that much different between the 4th and 5th. I fear it will be the standard of refereeing that will really hit us.

And those L1 stats are slightly misleading - it's not often you have a team down there who gets over 30,000 (Sunderland).

I've always thought that apart from a handful of genuinely big teams who shouldn't really be there, L1 isn't all that different from L2. It just feels better because it's one higher. As you say, the jump from L1 to the Championship is absolutely massive, in terms of quality, support, and the money required to compete.

I don't expect to be too shocked by a drop in quality in the National League. Most of our players would struggle to get games in that division anyway, so it's not like we're used to anything better. In fact, we've been picking up non-league-quality players for years now.

[pravda_plc]

Cheer up only 3 more weeks of league football to go !

Yee-hah, can't wait for next season's fixture list to come out.

I'm hoping for Gateshead away on the opening day - big, big ground with lots of room - followed up by a Tuesday night home opener, against mighty Maidenhead. Hopefully we will be playing at Meadow Lane but you never know with Notts do you. Maybe we'll have to go cap in hand to the Temple of Sin for a game or two, while the new Community Stadium is being errected at Holme Pierrepont?

[marky]

I still don't think Notts will be playing at Meadow Lane next year, it's just far too big for non league football, I really don't know how the hell the club will survive.

[legs77]

I still don't think Notts will be playing at Meadow Lane next year, it's just far too big for non league football, I really don't know how the hell the club will survive.

Of course we will Darlington played in their stadium when they dropped down.

There isnt a smaller ground in Nottingham we can play at.

[marky]

Darlington went bust when they dropped into non league they re formed and play at a much smaller ground now so that is a poor example. Seriously how can the club survive who will want to support them you can't attract new and young fans if you're not in the league.

[legs77]

Darlington went bust when they dropped into non league they re formed and play at a much smaller ground now so that is a poor example. Seriously how can the club survive who will want to support them you can't attract new and young fans if you're not in the league.

Well how will moving to a new ground attract fans then ?

We will still have fans like all the other clubs do in the national league.

Where exactly would we play if you don’t think we can play at ML.

[Masson4]

Fans will usually turn up to watch a winning team. IF Notts are relegated and IF they found a way to be winning most weeks there would be relatively decent attendances in my opinion.

[Elite_Pie]

I still don't think Notts will be playing at Meadow Lane next year, it's just far too big for non league football, I really don't know how the hell the club will survive.

Don't be silly, of course we will be playing at Meadow Lane next year. Yes, it's too big for non-league football, but then again it's too big for League 2 or even League 1 football. Regarding your second point, the club will survive because there are enough fans with the loyalty and passion to make it happen, whatever the term 'survival' ends up meaning.

[LaxtonLad]

I would think supporters of the National League teams would turn up out of curiosity to visit The World's Oldest Club. Likewise there could be a novety value from our own fans to see these other minor teams they have never even heard of. The problems of curiosity and novelty is that it will wear off after a while so success will be needed, as other ex-league clubs have found.