Club meeting Kassam - 28th May

[Sith Lord]

Darlington and Rushden & Diamonds both built it and they didn't come. Likewise, Notts Co have had a capacity of 20k for a long time (and from memory it was decent enough in the away end) but they have never got near that with their crowds.

Darlington and Rushden & Diamonds not quite got the catchment area, Darlington 27K was built by a dreamer only 11,200 turned up for the first match. Now Notts county are a different kettle of fish look at their attendance stats for season 2018 when they were pushing high...

I'm not saying it is a silver bullet, but we know we have the catchment area to be 20K+ it is upto the board to show their intentions and to innovate..

 

[Marked Ox]

Darlington and Rushden & Diamonds not quite got the catchment area, Darlington 27K was built by a dreamer only 11,200 turned up for the first match. Now Notts county are a different kettle of fish look at their attendance stats for season 2018 when they were pushing high...

I'm not saying it is a silver bullet, but we know we have the catchment area to be 20K+ it is upto the board to show their intentions and be innovate..

I don't disagree it could happen, just that it isn't a guarantee.

 

[Oxford57]

In the 1970s when I first started watching United crowds in excess of 10000 were the norm ,I cannot see that happening again even when we were in the first division there were games when it wasn’t full, too much competition for people’s leisure time so wanting a stadium that would cope with much bigger crowds isn’t vital

 

[AbbeyOx]

I'd rather see a smallish empty 4th stand than that bloody fence

 

[Deleted member 462]

I'd rather see a smallish empty 4th stand than that bloody fence

That sounds a wise use of money

 

[Ox4Eva]

Brighton built it and they did come.
Darlington and Rushden to be fair were never going to fill their grounds. At the time nobody seemed to really believe that Darlo would get anywhere near their capacity even had they been relatively successful

Brighton have a big fan base, we don't!

 

[werthersoriginal]

Brighton have a big fan base, we don't!

Brighton is a lot bigger and there’s not a lot of football down there, while we are surrounded by clubs. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t ever get more than we do now, of course. Interesting that Bournemouth’s ground is no bigger than ours

 

[Jerome'SAle]

Without being able to attract or accomodate 20k+ crowds there is no point getting promoted into the championship. We wont be able to compete.

Reading were getting 3k attendances at elm park back in the day, look at them now.

 

[Foley]

In the 1970s when I first started watching United crowds in excess of 10000 were the norm ,I cannot see that happening again even when we were in the first division there were games when it wasn’t full, too much competition for people’s leisure time so wanting a stadium that would cope with much bigger crowds isn’t vital

I think that we would easily get 10000 regularly if we were in the Championship.
The ground doesn't help though.

 

[Sarge]

Without being able to attract or accomodate 20k+ crowds there is no point getting promoted into the championship. We wont be able to compete.

Reading were getting 3k attendances at elm park back in the day, look at them now.

some of the plastics current fanbase couldve, maybe shouldve, been OUFC supporters.... hoovered up by Madjeski's spending and his paid for 'success' some years ago instead

 

[AbbeyOx]

That sounds a wise use of money

obviously would rather full stadium but at the moment that’s not happening. point being though i’m fed up with seeing that fecking fence

 

[LondonRoader]

It's not like popping out to Tesco! Then don't just look at possible sites and throw one in their trolley!!

It was stated last autumn that they were looking at a number of potential sites. It was then confirmed that they had employed a well regarded firm to look into each option. Then, at the end of the season with the whole gang together, a presentation was given on each of these options. Sounds like they're taking this pretty seriously to me!

It could still be several months before we hear anything formally, but that doesn't mean that things aren't happening.

After that meeting you mention, I believe they are still looking, so have the board got higher expectations than the people they employ or have the people they employ more realistic on what can be achieved.

 

[Deleted member 222]

Our fan base has never been massive. I had a look at defining seasons over the years and our average attendances that season.

95/96 (Promotion to what is now the Championship) - 5709
96/97 (Season after promotion) - 7505

09/10 (Conference promotion) - 5730
10/11 (First season back in the football league) - 7182

15/16 (League 2 promotion year) - 7289
16/17 (Highest the club have played since 2001) - 7403

Last game at the Manor - 7080

To think we would suddenly get over 10000 week in week out for home games in the league above is pushing it a bit. Unfortunately Oxfordshire isn't the most passionate football county in the country.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yes it was revealing how few came to last game at the Manor, which was midweek. Yet we do have a large and passionate away following, maybe a lot of our fans now live elsewhere

 

[holdsteady]

According to Wikipedia Oxford has a metropolitan area (the city and the surrounding towns and villages which are easily reachable) of around 250,000, even ignoring the rest of the county that is not a small number (certainly makes the comparison with Rushden and Diamonds look ridiculous).

Our biggest problem crowd wise is that when football came out of the doldrums and boomed we went on a journey with uncle Firoz to non league and an unfinished stadium. Every club had relatively poor crowds in the 80’s, pointless using those figures nowadays.

The potential is there, but it requires a decent ground at a decent playing level to give us the boost other clubs got.

 

[SteMerritt]

Yes it was revealing how few came to last game at the Manor, which was midweek. Yet we do have a large and passionate away following, maybe a lot of our fans now live elsewhere

To be fair, that was the worst Oxford team I have ever seen, including the Conference years, at the end of a season where we conceded over 100 goals. I think that probably had an effect.

 

[Foley]

Our fan base has never been massive. I had a look at defining seasons over the years and our average attendances that season.

95/96 (Promotion to what is now the Championship) - 5709
96/97 (Season after promotion) - 7505

09/10 (Conference promotion) - 5730
10/11 (First season back in the football league) - 7182

15/16 (League 2 promotion year) - 7289
16/17 (Highest the club have played since 2001) - 7403

Last game at the Manor - 7080

To think we would suddenly get over 10000 week in week out for home games in the league above is pushing it a bit. Unfortunately Oxfordshire isn't the most passionate football county in the country.

Even coming half way this season the average attendance was just over 7300.
So in the Championship the away crowds would average what 700 more?
I cant believe we wouldn't have at least 2000 more home supporters.
There are a lit of big attractive clubs in the Championship.
The ground would not be big enough for some games.

 

[holdsteady]

Even coming half way this season the average attendance was just over 7300.
So in the Championship the away crowds would average what 700 more?
I cant believe we wouldn't have at least 2000 more home supporters.
There are a lit of big attractive clubs in the Championship.
The ground would not be big enough for some games.

The second tier of English football has grown steadily more glamorous over the last few years, it’s one of the best attended leagues in Europe and has loads of high profile games on Sky. It’s now the real top level of English football as the premier league is an international one, the kudos of playing in it has grown and it easily outstrips a lot of the smaller European leagues like Scotland’s etc.

Our crowds would go up if we were at that level, get the ground sorted and the crowds would go up again.

 

[Deleted member 222]

Even coming half way this season the average attendance was just over 7300.
So in the Championship the away crowds would average what 700 more?
I cant believe we wouldn't have at least 2000 more home supporters.
There are a lit of big attractive clubs in the Championship.
The ground would not be big enough for some games.

Playing Derby might seem a big game for us fans that have followed the club through everything but would it really gain the interest of the fair weather fan? Probably not.

In fact I think there are actually only a couple of teams that would gain the interest of part time fans and those are likely to be against teams like Leeds.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

If Reading have a fanbase as they now do then I'm confident we would match it. Fairweather fans and larger away followings would comfortably get us to 15,000. Alk depends whats on offer