Staying Away

The question has been asked on more than one occasion: why are Towns attendances a little on the low side? On the face of it, thats quite a good question. Despite the scintillating home form which has seen a relentless barrage of wins, some of them really quite exciting, attendances have been dropping. Barnsley made it two home games on the trot where the attendance was below 20,000. Why?

Well, speaking for myself, I can think of several reasons. The first is the eye-watering expense of going to a football match nowadays. The age range of the 'average' football fan is so vast - that it is difficult to quantify just how expensive 90 minutes of football in the second division has become. To a teenager the cost of a match might be measured in pints of beer. A pensioner might be thinking more in terms of three weeks' food.

When you get to my age, you sort of compare football to other hobbies, in my case golf or fishing. A season ticket at Portman Road is now more expensive than a season ticket at my local golf club - and also a season ticket on any (or all) of the Anglian Water trout reservoirs. In short, watching football at Portman Road has never, ever been so expensive. So I put it to you, even if you are not remotely interested in golf or fishing... what seems better value for money... 23 games of football, some of which you won't be able to see because of the daft kick off times - or the chance to indulge your other hobby 365 days of the year for less money?

And that's just the cost of getting in. Don't get me started on the cost of transport, the greatly decreased parking opportunities and bizarre bus lanes that make getting to and from every single match an increasingly unpleasant experience each year.

Another perfectly valid reason not to go to Portman Road is that there are better things to do. You might have a family for instance - which can be quite a time (and money) consuming exercise. None of my sons for example were particularly interested in going to every match - and I was really quite pleased about that. You see - they played football instead, which to my mind is more healthy than watching it. And if you've got kids that play football, you soon find out that they need taxis - and linesmen - which means that you won't be going to many matches at Portman Road.

If you haven't been a linesman in a kid's league - I urge you to try it. Firstly, you'll instantly appreciate that it is physically impossible to look one way to see who kicked a ball when whilst simultaneously looking the other way to see if somebody was level or not. Suddenly you won't feel so cross any more if the linesmen at Portman Road appear to get their guesses wrong - for the simple reason it is physically impossible to be right. You'll also find out what true hostility is as you suffer the antics of angry, obsessive and deluded parents. This too is excellent therapy for the angst of watching footy.

Having better things to do is an excellent reason for staying away. So are excuses. For example it's often a tad chilly or damp at this time of year. I for one wouldn't want to get drenched at Portman Road, though surprisingly, some people appear not to mind at all. Also there is the curse of the 'obstructed view' where you might be invited to pay £20 to be squeezed behind a pillar.

Topically, Christmas shopping duties beckon - which traditionally lower attendances at this time of year. Also (and this is purely a personal opinion) I think a large proportion of supporters feel somewhat disenfranchised by recent events - and don't feel the same urge to go to Portman Road quite so often.

But the main reason people don't go to Portman Road any more is the impact of season tickets. For generations, going to football was something you did when you felt like it. You didn't have to plan ahead. You just met up with your mates and stood (or sat) in your chosen area. That is no longer possible.

All-seater Portman Road with its reduced capacity has put the kybosh on spontaneous footy decisions. Now attendances have to be planned like a military operation - and booked weeks in advance. When Town went up under Burley, people rushed in to buy season tickets who had never had them before. Virtually nobody else could get in , so thousands and thousands of Town fans were effectively excluded - and most people ended up sitting miles from their mates . I thought at the time it was madness - and I still do.

The age of the casual fan is over - which I think is a great pity. It's a total misconception that Town have say 24,000 who go to every game. Yes there is a hard core who do indeed go to every game - but there are just as many who go when it suits them - or when they can.

These 'casual fans' are the ones who need to be lured back. Personally I don't think it's everybody's solemn duty to go to every match. It seems perfectly reasonable to go if you want to - and not if you don't want to. The question is - how to get more of these floating voters in. - and the answer is that you have to make it easier. To the club's credit, they have made buying tickets increasingly easier in recent years - but the Council seem to delight in making it harder to get anywhere near the ground and impossible to get away afterwards.

I don't think small reductions in outrageously expensive tickets is the answer. Town's second year in the Premier League under Burley was so abject - and the fall out the following year even worse that fans began to drift away. If the players didn't care - why should the supporters?

Maybe it is just me - but there has been a certain amount of venom festering in the crowd at Portman Road in recent years that wasn't quite so obvious in previous happier times. Maybe Town's fans think the club owes them something. In a way they are right. After all it is season ticket holders, not shareholders, who kept the club afloat long enough for Marcus Evans' minions to step in.

So there are all manner of reasons for Town's missing fans - stretching from economic reality, which tends to bite hardest at Christmas, through to the fact that the high season ticket base has eroded away a generation of supporters.

I have a certain sympathy with Town's stay away fans - I'm occasionally one myself. I didn't go to the Southampton game because I can't get to evening games. I didn't go to the Barnsley game either because I had better things to do. That doesn't necessarily make me a bad person - I just live in the real world.