Smallest Support In SPFL

[DG.Roma]

8 hours ago, Aberdeen Cowden said:

Annan don’t have much of an away support considering how well they are now playing. Only saw a handful at CP on Saturday.

 

5 hours ago, cowdenbeath said:

9 on Saturday there are the lowest away crowd every season can't blame folk mind you expensive travelling all over Scotland every fortnight. Annan have just been in the league for 11 years so perhaps there was never a culture of fans going to away games when they were non league.

If anyone could ever be arsed I'd be interested to see an average attendance per population kinda table. Annan and Stranraer wouldn't look so bad then.

I think the short term existence as a league team does come into play for Annan. They "share" a number of fans with QoS and Carlisle. So when Annan are away, some home fans will be at Palmerston or Brunton Park. 

If Stranraer get relegated I could see their attendances being scarily low.

[tamthebam]

Can't beat a good crowdw*nk, eh folks? 

Popularity doesn't necessarily guarantee quality. Look at Greggs v the local bakers whose pies you used to love but have shut down now. More power to the City hipsters who eschew the tawdry common football available at other grounds in Edinburgh.. 

[PELE]

1 hour ago, DG.Roma said:

 

If anyone could ever be arsed I'd be interested to see an average attendance per population kinda table. Annan and Stranraer wouldn't look so bad then.

I think the short term existence as a league team does come into play for Annan. They "share" a number of fans with QoS and Carlisle. So when Annan are away, some home fans will be at Palmerston or Brunton Park. 

If Stranraer get relegated I could see their attendances being scarily low.

Sure the attendance per population was on another thread not so long ago and Cowden were one of the best supported.

[dumfriesblue]

2 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

1. Edinburgh City

2. Albion Rovers

3. Stenny

4. Stranraer

5. Berwick

6. Annan

7. Montrose

8. Cowdenbeath

9. Queen of the South

10. Brechin 

qosfc have way bigger crowds than brechin city

[Marshmallo]

7 hours ago, tamthebam said:

 

Popularity doesn't necessarily guarantee quality. 

Agreed, it's usually a combo of cash and a good manager. 

5 hours ago, dumfriesblue said:

qosfc have way bigger crowds than brechin city

In terms of proper, hardcore fans it must be pretty close. Just IMO of course. 

[Hampden Diehard]

Where exactly did the Queens Park support go? When did it start to drift away?

A substantial number went over the top at the Somme to save you!!!!!

I suppose the drop out of the top division for so long did for us. I think we were still getting 20000+ in the 1930s which was good going then by any standards. By the late 60s, 1200 was a decent crowd. Now, no one's really interested in lower league football. Charging £12-£14 for it doesn't help but the people that complain are quite happy to spend more than that watching sky sports in the pub all afternoon.

[cmontheloknow]

15 hours ago, cowdenbeath said:

9 on Saturday there are the lowest away crowd every season can't blame folk mind you expensive travelling all over Scotland every fortnight. Annan have just been in the league for 11 years so perhaps there was never a culture of fans going to away games when they were non league.

Elgin, Peterhead and Stranraer always bring not too bad a number although I think they have a few fans in the central belt.

I went to Edinburgh City v Annan in early 1999 at Meadowbank, crowd was 55 and there was a mini bus of Annan fans, v low double figures.

[an86]

21 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said:

A substantial number went over the top at the Somme to save you!!!!!

I suppose the drop out of the top division for so long did for us. I think we were still getting 20000+ in the 1930s which was good going then by any standards. By the late 60s, 1200 was a decent crowd. Now, no one's really interested in lower league football. Charging £12-£14 for it doesn't help but the people that complain are quite happy to spend more than that watching sky sports in the pub all afternoon.

I felt we lost a few when we moved to Airdrie and we didn't get them back. Quite easy to fall out of the habit, I'd imagine. I bang on about it a lot, but I think the club has to do more in the local area. I've given ideas, but it's like talking to a brick wall. It's at the point where I actually get the impression that we're not even that bothered about attracting more supporters to games. 

[Marshmallo]

1 minute ago, an86 said:

I felt we lost a few when we moved to Airdrie and we didn't get them back. Quite easy to fall out of the habit, I'd imagine. I bang on about it a lot, but I think the club has to do more in the local area. I've given ideas, but it's like talking to a brick wall. It's at the point where I actually get the impression that we're not even that bothered about attracting more supporters to games. 

Pollok being on your doorstep in a brilliant tight stadium, cheap entry and plenty options for a drink can't help you, but I agree more needs to be done to get people to head down to QP. A move to Lesser Hampden could be a good opportunity to reach out.

[BinoBalls]

Tonight’s Cowden v Albion Rovers game could threaten to get a sub 200 crowd. It’s midweek at same time as Liverpool v Bayern, featuring 2 teams who aren’t having great seasons ( Cowden doing okish, AR very much not). And it’s going to rain.

Crowd prediction 216 — all of them as hardcore as they come. 

[Bring Your Own Socks]

3 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Pollok being on your doorstep in a brilliant tight stadium, cheap entry and plenty options for a drink can't help you, but I agree more needs to be done to get people to head down to QP. A move to Lesser Hampden could be a good opportunity to reach out.

It's very emotional for many, especially those at the club that battled for a near decade to get the thing rebuilt  20-30 years ago. As a matchday experience though it's soulless and the atmosphere that 20-odd diehards can create on the road is never matched at our home ground. I'm hopeful we''ll do better from that experience at Lesser but like every other club, if the team is playing well They will come. Our home has been defined for us but there's bigger changes needed if we are to ever see crowds of a thousand plus again, regularly.

BTW, Latapy visited my house once. Smashing bloke. 

[cmontheloknow]

6 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

It's very emotional for many, especially those at the club that battled for a near decade to get the thing rebuilt  20-30 years ago. As a matchday experience though it's soulless and the atmosphere that 20-odd diehards can create on the road is never matched at our home ground. I'm hopeful we''ll do better from that experience at Lesser but like every other club, if the team is playing well They will come. Our home has been defined for us but there's bigger changes needed if we are to ever see crowds of a thousand plus again, regularly.

BTW, Latapy visited my house once. Smashing bloke. 

I went to QP v Airdrie last season and perhaps the baltic conditions didn't help but I won't be rushing back. I don't live in the area so I was 'just visiting' but yeah the experience was a novelty as much as anything else. Maybe it was a one off but not going through a turnstile was a bit odd too.

[Spidersmad]

QP's crowds really crashed in the late 1950s following relegation from the top tier. This was followed by a plunge towards the bottom of the Second Division - crowds were well under 2,000 and frequently even smaller. When I started going in the late '60s attendances were usually around the 1,000 - 1,200 mark. Attendances continued to drop through the 70s with crowds very rarely reaching 1,000. Promotion under Eddie Hunter in the early 80s didn't bring an increase in support and it's been a continuous slow decline since then. I reckon there are probably less than 500 diehards now. Agree with An86 and others that the club doesn't do enough to get more support in from the local community. QP are surrounded by densely populated areas like Mount Florida, Crosshill, Cathcart and Battlefield but to most of the local population we might as well not exist.

If you think there's a lack of atmosphere at Hampden just now, you should have seen it back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s with the entire South Stand and North Enclosure open and maybe 700- 1,000 people sprinkled around the vast open spaces.

[RandomGuy.]

13 hours ago, BinoBalls said:

Tonight’s Cowden v Albion Rovers game could threaten to get a sub 200 crowd. It’s midweek at same time as Liverpool v Bayern, featuring 2 teams who aren’t having great seasons ( Cowden doing okish, AR very much not). And it’s going to rain.

Crowd prediction 216 — all of them as hardcore as they come. 

Announced as 254, not a bad prediction at all.

[vince sinclair]

Tonight’s Cowden v Albion Rovers game could threaten to get a sub 200 crowd. It’s midweek at same time as Liverpool v Bayern, featuring 2 teams who aren’t having great seasons ( Cowden doing okish, AR very much not). And it’s going to rain.
Crowd prediction 216 — all of them as hardcore as they come. 

The 248 in the stand only semi hardcore
The 6 on the terrace tonight - different level [emoji38]

[dreamteamer]

2 minutes ago, gogsy said:

Berwick supporters are really small , heres some with Johnny Harvey

 

Thats a bigger crowd than was at Central piggy sty tonight ...lol

[MAC THE KNIFE]

TAKE OUT ALL THE " GLORY HUNTERS " &  SEASON TICKET HOLDERS etc WHAT ARE THE REAL FIGURES AT MATCHES . HEADCOUNT MADE BY 3 PEOPLE AT GRETNA v SHIRE MATCH EARLIER THIS YEAR ( DONE PRE HALF TIME ) AVERAGE  COUNT CIRCA 110  OFFICIAL ATTENDANCE  89 ??

[Bring Your Own Socks]

12 hours ago, Spidersmad said:

QP's crowds really crashed in the late 1950s following relegation from the top tier. This was followed by a plunge towards the bottom of the Second Division - crowds were well under 2,000 and frequently even smaller. When I started going in the late '60s attendances were usually around the 1,000 - 1,200 mark. Attendances continued to drop through the 70s with crowds very rarely reaching 1,000. Promotion under Eddie Hunter in the early 80s didn't bring an increase in support and it's been a continuous slow decline since then. I reckon there are probably less than 500 diehards now. Agree with An86 and others that the club doesn't do enough to get more support in from the local community. QP are surrounded by densely populated areas like Mount Florida, Crosshill, Cathcart and Battlefield but to most of the local population we might as well not exist.

If you think there's a lack of atmosphere at Hampden just now, you should have seen it back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s with the entire South Stand and North Enclosure open and maybe 700- 1,000 people sprinkled around the vast open spaces.

The first sentence is really the thing, for lots of clubs. Lifestyles have changed much over the years and the seventies probably more than most. People were becoming wealthier, employment rights making life more stable and what was an old routine was invaded by more entertainment choices. I remember a front page headline/story (in the Daily Record, of course) that sounded the death knell of scottish football because Rangers had only a crowd of 7,000 for a midweek home game v Dunfermline.  It was also a time when many junior clubs were folding. The eighties accelerated that with more tv, videos, computers, sunday shopping, all-day drinking and a more family orientated household. 

It's also a fact that as the smaller clubs have declined, the bigger clubs have increased their gates by investing in their stadium facilities for a wider experience. And the global player market, that only seems to work one in one direction in Scotland, has raised the in-game experience too.

QP has the same challenges that most of Scottish football has. It probably looks worse because we play in a stadium that has 99% spare capacity most weeks. As for the club, it's reasonable to say that the Committee has had quite a bit of extra-curriculum on their list of recent times but that's also a bit of a smokescreen. The Articles give them paramount power but if the skillsets within that group are from a medical, legal and accountancy background it's not hard to understand why they can't reach out to the wider community. They also have the power to delegate authority and let others more capable implement a plan but I don't see that happening much on any subject. 

[Mick1867]

18 hours ago, cmontheloknow said:

. Maybe it was a one off but not going through a turnstile was a bit odd too.

Did you walk in the main entrance? Apart from that, the only way into the ground is through a turnstile

[Hampden Diehard]

The move from Hampden to a venue owned by the club and a potential source of income brings opportunities for Queen's Park. Mind you, they do have a great youth and community setup already; can they squeeze more out of it? However, things can always be improved and BYOS is correct in saying that some fresh ideas and focus should be a part of the post-Hampden agenda for Queen's. The current committee has had its hands full with a succession of challenges. Maybe time to bring interested and committed people on board.

 

Against that, Thistle's hardcore support as a top flight club doesn't top 2500 very often. And that's depressing. The scope for QP to increase its own crowds has to be viewed against a backdrop of Glasgow indifference to anything but the OF.