Boreham chairman laments poor crowd

[Oldstripy]

Boreham Wood chairman Danny Hunter says he may reduce his investment in the club after a "laughable" crowd of 407 saw their defeat by Sutton on Saturday.

The National League side have averaged 655 fans over three home games so far.

Taking away season-ticket holders and travelling fans, Hunter said there were only 46 paying adult Boreham Wood supporters at Saturday's match.

"I've got to reassess what more I can do, as the town clearly doesn't want to consciously support its club," he said.

"Saturday's abysmal crowd just makes me feel sad, as so much hard work goes into making this club over achieve every year and we just want a bit more support for those efforts."

'Laughable' attendance
Boreham Wood reached the 2017-18 National League play-off final, but fall well below the average divisional attendance of around 2,300 so far this season.

The Hertfordshire club - promoted four times since 2005-06 - introduced a £99 adult season ticket this summer in a bid to increase crowds, but Hunter said it had not improved matters.

"I suppose if you want an excuse, the lower than normal crowd could be put down to 300 adult and OAP £99 season ticket holders, who took up our offer but never bothered to turn up and support us," Hunter told the club website.

"I'm probably just feeling a bit sorry for myself, but 407 as a gate attendance at our level is laughable."

Hunter says he has put £500,000 into the club since February, with a total spend of £1.2m over the summer to build a new stand and upgrade facilities.

"It might simply be the right time to re-evaluate my own ambitions and consider downsizing my year on year investment here and get rid of a few of the white elephants in the room," he added.

Boreham Wood, who sit 16th in the National League after five games, are away to Bromley on Saturday, 24 August, with their next home game - against Ebbsfleet - on Monday, 26 August.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49395213

[optipez]

Comes a point where there's personal empire building over and above what the town can stand.
Gretna Green were never a sustainable Scottish top division team, Fylde , FGR, probably Fleetwood and Salford are being backed way beyond their natural level.
Fun while it lasts but when the owner goes, the clubs sink to their sustainable level.

[Freeman25]

Most of the comments on Twitter are about their ticket prices being far too high at £20 a game for matchday prices, they're not going to attract any fans of bigger clubs that would otherwise get to a few games because they're cheap and their "main team" aren't playing at the same time with tickets that high and they have a lot of teams around their to compete with.

[sidders]

Ticket price is key. I was unpleasantly surprised by prices at Harrogate. The facilities are best described as ramshackle. Regarding Boreham Stiff, it would be better to have 1,000 spectators at £10 a time rather than 408 at £20. It may not make a lot more money, but it will generate a lot more atmosphere.

[BigFatPie]

Ticket price is key. I was unpleasantly surprised by prices at Harrogate. The facilities are best described as ramshackle. Regarding Boreham Stiff, it would be better to have 1,000 spectators at £10 a time rather than 408 at £20. It may not make a lot more money, but it will generate a lot more atmosphere.

I think his main beef is that people have bought 99 quid season tickets but then not bothered to turn up despite it being er free.

Owners and chairmen moaning about attendances is never a good look. No one forced em to spend a shed load of money and no one is under any obligation to turn up. I think the reason I’m more sympathetic to Hardy than others is that unlike other owners he didn’t moan about poor crowds, he actually did stuff to get people in.

[navypie]

Ticket price is key. I was unpleasantly surprised by prices at Harrogate. The facilities are best described as ramshackle. Regarding Boreham Stiff, it would be better to have 1,000 spectators at £10 a time rather than 408 at £20. It may not make a lot more money, but it will generate a lot more atmosphere.

Cost me and my lad £26 to stand at Harrogate. Being season ticket holders I can't say for sure but I think it would only be £25 at Notts.

[Oldstripy]

Ticket prices for our Ebbsfleet game

Adult £17
60 and over £14
Student* £14
12-16 £9
Under 12s £1

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news...leet-a-010819/

Sensible prices.

[51Magpie]

When we played Boreham Wood two or three years ago I expressed surprise at the relatively high standard of the facilities and someone told me that Arsenal put their money in there because it was the home ground for Arsenal Ladies. Was (is) that (still) true?

[queenslandpie]

Ticket price is key. I was unpleasantly surprised by prices at Harrogate. The facilities are best described as ramshackle. Regarding Boreham Stiff, it would be better to have 1,000 spectators at £10 a time rather than 408 at £20. It may not make a lot more money, but it will generate a lot more atmosphere.

Didn't Hardy try this with Notts' though? Attendances increased for a while but are already falling. Doesn't really work in the long run I don't think. The prices for lower league football are high as a comparison to the higher leagues, but ultimately smaller clubs are more reliant on this revenue than the TV money, endorsements and so on Sid. It leads to slightly ill considered comments about non league football being expensive when in actual fact it is not that it is expensive at all as a result of anything it has done itself, it is expensive compared to the higher leagues and perceived better value for money, as many of the revenue streams enjoyed by clubs in higher leagues which mean they can keep ticket prices low as they are not reliant on them as a primary source of income are simply unavailable or only available in small amounts. ( Sorry for the huge sentence!). The Boreham Wood 99 quid season ticket is a bit daft though. it makes whats on offer appear worthless and as this is reflected in the attendances. They would be better off just charging 13 quid pay as you go. If the Chairman has put in 1.7 million this year the 40 odd grand from season ticket sales wont go far.

[queenslandpie]

When we played Boreham Wood two or three years ago I expressed surprise at the relatively high standard of the facilities and someone told me that Arsenal put their money in there because it was the home ground for Arsenal Ladies. Was (is) that (still) true?

If you read the articles about this the chairman is quite adamant that Arsenal is not their primary income.