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Take A Seat
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Why don't enough people come? How can the club do more? What's unique about going to Barnet?
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By:
Max Bygraves
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07/09/2023
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This article has been viewed 691 times.
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We’re top of the league. Playing some brilliant football. We have our best manager in years. Yet still one of the hottest topics amongst our supporters is our attendances and why they are what they are. This thread on OnlyBarnet has made for an interesting read recently. For full disclosure, this article was started on Monday evening - initially prior to the club's ticket promotion for Saturday's game. Someone at the club has been reading our half-finished work, it would seem. Stick around guys, we've got loads of good ideas.
Before anything else, it's important to point out that scratching heads on attracting a crowd is not a new problem. Twenty years ago, I clearly remember similarly desperate online conversations on the original Netbees forum.
You’re probably now anticipating this going into how we should have never left Underhill. Arugably a fair presumpion, but we’re not here for that today.
We are where we are and as recent articles from both of us show, we’ve made some kind of peace with things for the sake of enjoying supporting our football club again. And we really, very much, are. Still buzzing from Saturday.
Attendance
Whilst there won’t be dwelling on the rights and wrong of the move in this article, you can’t really get into this topic without location coming up. I read someone suggest this whole problem may be akin to ‘moving the deckchairs on the Titanic.’ Not sure it’s quite at those depths given the upturn on the pitch, but there’s no doubt we are starting on the back foot somewhat.
Before we delve into reasons away from the HA8 branded elephant in the room, the following comment posted on Only Barnet, from someone I believe is on the committee of the BFCSA (happy to be corrected on this), is sadly one of the most ignorant things I can recall reading in Barnet forum history:
”People that just simply ‘accept’ those not supporting the club after moving just 10km away, god forbid driving 15 minutes to get there, I can’t get my head around it. If you support a football club, you support it forever or you were never a proper fan.”
Putting aside the rocket powered car needed for a fifteen minute journey from EN5 on a matchday, there’s an awful lot wrong with this.
For a lot of people, supporting a club like Barnet is about supporting your local team. Not everyone wants to drive to football. A walk or perhaps a short bus ride to the ground - something convenient - will be the reason many start going and get hooked. For some, perhaps via a stop at a public house and consumption of their goods in quantities not matched with driving. No one's judging. The match itself is often secondary to the broader afternoon or evening out. The friendships formed can be more significant than goals scored and points gained. Supporting Barnet, that’s often a very helpful outlook. You can be an ardent fan without the game itself being all consuming.
The Hive is a challenge from Barnet on public transport but also the potential catchment areas of Whetstone, Finchley, Southgate, Muswell Hill and so on. We also lost a sizeable potential base of fans that could come in on the train to New Barnet. Potters Bar, Brookman’s Park and even as far as Welwyn Garden City were all places you wouldn’t struggle to find support from in years gone by.
The issue here is not that everyone has walked away, but once a few in a group decide they're stopping, others' enthusiasm wanes. Suddenly, when no one else wants to go, it becomes a lot of effort (especially when the football has been poor) and questioning starts on the best use of one's time, perhaps. For what it’s worth, we are currently getting some of us (the non-proper fans) back. That won’t be the case for everyone and it has to be respected. We’ve highlighted here what credit is due to those of you that have had the grit to stay aboard during the choppiest of waters following the move. The ones who really deserve the current enjoyment for showing such sticking power.
Acceptance that supporting a football club is whatever you make it is important here. For some, they felt and continue to feel they can’t do it. In a lot of cases, the book is closed for them and Barnet stopped being a thing when we stopped playing in Barnet. Some still might come back in time, but it’s not them that we need to focus on in terms of actively looking to try and get more through the gates.
Marketing
I remember, amidst much piss-taking, taking a poster advertising Barnet v Chester City into school back in 2004 and asking people to put them up in their shop windows. This was a novel idea from the club at the time, with supporters doing the leg work. Nineteen years on, we were told in the summer minutes from the chairman that we need to be encouraging people to come and that offers don’t work. One can’t help but feel this appraisal of the scenario really needed some reconsideration. And in light of Tuesday's announcement, maybe it actually has been.
I would describe it almost as a pleasing relief when seeing the club's offer for Altrincham at home this weekend. £5 entry for season ticket holder's of any other London club. There is an international break and we are top of the league playing beautiful football. It would have been criminal not to try and do something to bump up the crowd.
Arguably a game like this is ripe for a ‘friend for a fiver,’ or the introduction of a ‘September Special - 3 for £30’ given the close proximity of upcoming home ties. However, tapping into the 'finding a new second team' market is not a bad idea and one that I hope will be successful. It will be very interesting to see the gate figure come Saturday evening.
The big thing here is that you don’t just want someone coming as a one off. However, given the way the team are playing, you are much more likely to grab someone’s attention than ‘football for a fiver’ against Kings Lynn Town on a Tuesday night in February when we were near the bottom eighteen months ago. Now’s the time to do it! It does feel like there's some strategy. With another home game on an international weekend in November, you'd hope plans are already afoot for that one, too.
Either way, any new people on the database from Saturday can't just be allowed to sit there. I can't be the only one who has bought tickets at a random club for one reason or another and still gets emails from them on an almost weekly basis? No, I don't want to attend the Rotherham United player of the year awards, stop contacting me! The club have started to produce some decent match previews on the website and postings via social media. A weekly, 'what's the buzz?' type newsletter email with ticket details for upcoming games and perhaps promotion of online merchandise wouldn't be that hard to co-ordinate.
A trick that’s undoubtedly currently being missed is the lack of a membership tier below the season ticket. Many of my generation of supporter got into going thanks to the membership offer and cheap game by game entry with the booklet in the late nineties. On the back of a day like Saturday, where you hope to pull in a few new fans, how handy would it be to have something like that for people to sign up to upon an excited departure from the ground?
The lack of in-between from season ticket to nothing certainly does more harm than good. The chairman was unhappy about the two for one season tickets not selling as he'd hoped last year, but as alluded to previously here, who is going to commit to a season ticket from their first visit to a new club? At the time, a club on the back of two nightmare seasons, too. Some sort of promotion this summer may have been met with more enthusiasm.
Finally, some thought on a clear target audience and even a very streamlined campaign would be worth a shot. We’ve seen the emergence of the Amber Battalion in the past year. Anecdotally, I’m told most of them go to the same secondary school. The domino effect of one or two getting into it can be massive. Get out to other local secondary schools with a well produced promo video to stick on in an assembly, showing the Battalion in full flow. Singing, flag waving, featuring in those player post-match selfies. That's the kind of thing youngsters want to 'bee part of.' Barnet will never be cool - but try and make it look that way.
Primary school tickets are an obvious one, too. The currently sorry looking Bumble's Family Zone should have kids and families in there on a freebie every week. Do a ticket drop to two schools each game and let 10 kids from each side have a penalty competition against each other on the pitch at half time. How hard is that to organise? The only drawback on how starstruck taking a penalty on a real pitch would make the youngster's feel is the lack of stand behind the goal...
Experience
Ultimately, if the key product (the actual football) is decent, that is the biggest draw for people to come back again. However, thought to the wider 'experience' of attending a match has to be given and undoubtedly often is not at Barnet Football Club. A friend I brought to a game last year described a trip to The Hive as "Non-League, but without the charm."
This is something raised in the aforementioned OnlyBarnet thread and how the club lacks the 'non-league experience.' What this actually is, is not always tangible (which appeared to cause some crossed wires) - but vitally important. What makes watching games at Barnet different to anywhere else? What stands out as something unique to take away, or use as a selling point to friends? Answers to this are key to making it an attractive proposition in a time where people are having to really consider how they spend their money. When comparing to costs at other clubs, I'm not going to moan about the £22 fee for a seat - but do more to make it worth it!
Of course, having a cheaper alternative in the form of standing behind the goal would be helpful. The decision to do away with the terrace doesn't get any more sensical as time passes. As a stop gap, could we not pay homage to the South Stand circa 1995 - 2007 (of varying size depending on which league) and stick some uncovered temporary seats behind that goal? It would look better than nothing in the short-term and could certainly be a lower price point than the current single offer. Long term, some serious consideration of what's most appropriate there really should be taken.
And for the regulars, keep things engaging. Legends Stand - really? Why not have it as a different 'legend' each season? Give a range of options and season ticket holders/BFCSA members/whoever votes for their choice of who the stand is named after and whose bar it is for that season. Provided they're living legends, they could then be invited to a game, 'open' the stand, do something with the fans beforehand and be celebrated. Downhill Second Half very much volunteers any help in talking old times with Barnet legends pre-game!
The wrap around experience of the football day is something several other clubs have really gone for. Fan zones of varying size and perhaps quality exist at the likes of Bromley, Dorking and Wycombe Wanderers. Looking at collaborations with street food vendors, locally produced beers or even things like musicians performing in some sort of pre-match set up are all things that would add to the day and perhaps make it a more appealing venue to get to early. Given the layout of the site, there isn't really competition with any other establishments for food and drink - every effort should be being made to reel as many in as possible. Nothing wrong with a gimmick for the greater good.
There's a fair chance this could be interpreted as a moan. It really isn't this time. Things are good at the moment - and now is the time to be going all out to drag as many along with us as possible, to help keep the good times going!
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