Yesterday's attendance

[palmylad]

Palmylad suggests that Saturday's attendance wasn't that bad. Let me remind him that we are a team in the pretentiously named Championship: we were playing at home on a Saturday afternoon in July: we were playing a League Cup tie on which our progress to the last sixteen of the competition depended: and the attendance? One thousand and sixteen - yes, 1016. I agree that that is not bad - it's bloody dreadful. We played eighteen league games at Palmerston last season. At only five of these games did we have an attendance in excess of 2000 - two games against Rangers; two games against Hibs; and one game against St Mirren. The attendances at the two games against Rangers combined with the attendance at one of the games against Hibs dragged our average attendance to just above the 2100 mark. Strip out the two games against Rangers (who will not be in the league this season) and our average attendance for season 2015/16 drops to under 1700. What exactly do these statistics tell you about the state of professional football in Scotland?

I'm fully aware the 1,016 crowd isn't great Cresswell but I was comparing it to others in the same competition on Saturday and nothing else

[palmylad]

Here's some figures that might interest you Cresswell

Queens top 5 attendance averages since 1919 -

11,980 - 1948/49
11,033 - 1947/48
10,660 - 1949/50
10,633 - 1953/54
10,233 - 1946/47

and our lowest

586 - 1992/93
599 - 1984/85
609 - 1991/92
619 - 1990/91
689 - 1982/83

[palmylad]

Over priced and boring, when will some one realise they are supposed to entertain. How can you do that if you only ever play with one main forward and don't say wing backs etc are forwards , they are not that. It needs some one brave enough to play first and foremost "attacking entertaining football" stop playing not to get bea

Last year was boring but the seasons before that when we finished in the top 4 twice weren't .....

If fans want Queens to remain a full time club then the £16 entrance fee isn't that bad IMO and it's also the cheapest in the league

[Cresswell]

Last year was boring but the seasons before that when we finished in the top 4 twice weren't .....

If fans want Queens to remain a full time club then the £16 entrance fee isn't that bad IMO and it's also the cheapest in the league

If the general public isn't prepared to pay £16 for what is on offer at Palmerston then there can be only two conclusions:(i) the quality of what is on offer isn't good enough to attract "fans" in bigger numbers and (ii) the fans think that the quality of the product at a cost of £16 does not represent value for money. It is high time that clubs like Queen of the South (and several Premier League clubs as well) gave up the pretence that they can be full-tine professional clubs and accepted that, unless there is a major change in circumstances, part-time, semi-professionalism is the way forward. A pessimistic view? Absolutely not. A realistic view? Yes.

[Francis_begbie_HFC]

whats needed is the sfa introducing a price cap thru the leagues lowering the cost to attend across the board ,that way all teams are in the same boat and it can only benafit scottish football with bigger crowds and with the lower prices teams might not be able to go sign foreign players and get back to bringing in scottish youth which will eventually have a plus on or national team .

[jardi]

Sorry Douglas I disagree.

Not with the fact that we should play attractive football and aim to win at all costs, but I reckon that even if Aiden Smith and the rest of the team could jump through fiery hoops and swing from the rafters with buxom cheer-leaders on their shoulders when they score, - it will make little difference to the attendance.

We will, or should average about 1500 home supporters this season, and if we play exceptionally well that might increase by 2 or 300 - if we are really lucky!

We should get a few hundred supporters coming along from Ayr, Dunfermline, Falkirk and Dundee Utd and 12 to 1500 Hibs fans, but that's about it.

If Queens struggle at the bottom of the league and the weather is wet and miserable, then Saturday's attendance will become the norm.

Nothing the Queens board of directors do will make that much difference to the numbers of people that turn up, as there is a finite number of people interested in the game.

There are several major factors: live football on TV and the fact that it is on every bloody day, 24 hours, - people are sick to the back teeth of it, - even the European Championship was boring!

The fact that people can do 100 other things than stand or sit in the freezing cold on a Saturday afternoon.

Locally, there are only so many people who would actually watch live football, and sadly all the potential extras are either playing or watching their own Southern Counties or Lowland League teams!

I've suggested for many years, that unless we do some joined up thinking and allow those who play in the local leagues to watch their senior teams, then the game will die out. There is a stubbornness in both camps that their games take priority, but I would really like to see the senior teams; - Queens, Annan and Stranraer offer some sort of incentive to the smaller teams to play their games at a time that allows their players, officials and followers at least an opportunity to take in a senior game.

Churches, golf clubs, Round Tables, Rotary Clubs and WRI's are all struggling to attract people, - as are football clubs. The inevitable stares us all in the face, and that is oblivion, - so some serious talking needs to take place sooner rather than later.

[Ftivano1]

Spot on Jardi - Queens have around 1,000 hard core supporters and any decent crowd nowadays depends on the
away team bringing a few 100 or the bigger teams up to 1,000. The last decent average at Palmy was away back
in 1963 - 64 at 4,153. We have just got to accept that those days will NEVER return because as you point out in these modern
times there are far more pleasant ways of spending a Saturday afternoon than standing or sitting watching our wee
hame team on a wet or freezing winter's day.

[Cresswell]

Jardi, that is a measured contribution on what must be the biggest crisis facing Scottish football in many years. There are, of course, many contributory factors to falling attendances. There is the socio-economic factor; the competition from Sky and BT to which you allude; there is the appalling state of so many grounds throughout Scotland (including Palmerston); there are iPads and iPhones with their various Apps; and so on and so on. Why, though, are so many reluctant to accept that a substantial contributory factor is the poor quality of the product on offer. I cannot be convinced that Scottish boys are innately less skilful today than they were fifty year ago so where is the next Deniis Law or the next Kenny Dalglish or the next Big Jim for that matter? The usual excuse is that boys nowadays are not playing football on the streets like they used to; which is true, of course, but today these same boys are diverted into the pro-youth schemes of our senior clubs. Regrettably, we find that after ten years of professional coaching we produce a stream of boys who are lacking the basic skills of the game. Why are players from unknown teams in unknown countries so much more comfortable on the ball than hone produced players. Could it be that our coaches and managers are themselves products of this system and that all they are capable of is regurgitating and perpetuating failure? Has the time come to abandon the pro-youth scheme and revert to the development methods of yesteryear - ie school football to juvenile football to junior football and so to the senior game? One thing is certain. If the footballing establishment in Scotland cannot address this problem then full-time professional football in Scotland will vanish down the plug hole.