wild dog wrote:Crowds started suffering IMO when I noticed a large drop off in the younger supporters while we were still dominating. Coincided with the pressure being placed on the club to clear out those wascally webels. In reality the problem was there in most other clubs, not just ours, and it was merely a way of bringing us back to the pack. We did ourselves no favours during the initial popularity of the night matches, not allowing all and sundry back to the club. There is no doubt as is normally the case with lower socioeconomic areas, the GFC created huge problems.
Add to that the dilution of the competition to reserves status and we have a perfect storm.
I know amongst my friends a lot of the casuaul (home game supporters) tended to drop off in the mid 2000's when we were smashing teams at home by 6 plus goals every week. They got real complacent would only go to the big home games ala Port, Norwood etc and finals, and then it became just finals and now its not at all.
This also coincided with the likes of Eastern Park, Elizabeth, Brahma Lodge all rising through the division of the amateur league as well.
The price increase definatly dropped off a lot of supporters who will now just watch a ammo game for cheaper.
I have also noticed a huge drop off of the soccer supporters at the northern end hill. This has concided with the Northern suburbs now dominating both div1 and div2. A lot of these soccer clubs like the Downs are also having much bigger home game crowds and adding things such as bands after the game on a Sunday afternoon as well.
It wouldn't have helped that supporter comfort hasn't changed at Elizabeth since the 90's with the only addition being a new toilet block, a new hotdog and beer van and stuff all else.