An interesting article about attendances (maybe?)

[Birdman]

https://www.thelinnets.co.uk/turnstile.php?s=2023

[IanShots]

You have to wonder why Dulwich are soooooo poor!

[Weybourne Shot]

Macclesfield's attendances are much improved on years gone by when they were getting 1200 odd

[Tazzle]

My local club is Axminster Town. This season they finished bottom of The South West Peninsula League with an impressive 11 points from 30 games and a goal difference of -71! The average attendance is 99, so they'd make it onto this table in position 331! Apparently TW is thinking of signing their CB and goalkeeper!

[brian bloomfield]

Surprised Truro City only increased their attendances by only 668%

[supershots]

My local club is Axminster Town. This season they finished bottom of The South West Peninsula League with an impressive 11 points from 30 games and a goal difference of -71! The average attendance is 99, so they'd make it onto this table in position 331! Apparently TW is thinking of signing their CB and goalkeeper!

Strange they had a good team the previous season, I was at the final match against Bridport.

[lowerbourneshot]

Surprised Truro City only increased their attendances by only 668%

Makes a difference when you're not travelling 190 miles to a home game

[brian bloomfield]

Surprised Truro City only increased their attendances by only 668%

Makes a difference when you're not travelling 190 miles to a home game

140 miles but what's 50 miles between friends. Didn't realise they were playing a Plymouth Parkways ground.

[Josh]

Interesting. We have the 10th largest average attendance but a bottom 8 budget. Still paying the price for the Waddock era, presumably

[Peter macdonald]

Interesting. We have the 10th largest average attendance but a bottom 8 budget. Still paying the price for the Waddock era, presumably

We seem to have had a bottom 8 budget as long as Everton have been in the top flight,extremely irritating!

[lowerbourneshot]

Surprised Truro City only increased their attendances by only 668%

Makes a difference when you're not travelling 190 miles to a home game

140 miles but what's 50 miles between friends. Didn't realise they were playing a Plymouth Parkways ground.

Actually at Gloucester

[Roger D]

You have to wonder why Dulwich are soooooo poor!

Hamlet fan here. We got player recruitment badly wrong and had pretty much all of them under contract, so were lumped with them. I don't expect many to stay.

What I will say is we aren't as wealthy compared to others in our league as you'd expect. We have a policy of refusing to be bankrolled - believing it's in the best long term interests of the club not to run up debts. I'm a shareholder (very small holding) so have access to privileged information but think I'm ok to say we believe we were just above half way in terms of our budget in the league this season.

Put simply we under performed spectacularly (again) but were also blown out of the water by bankrolled teams. We strongly believe some teams in our league were running double our wage bill. A key pre-season target we wanted to build a team around, who lives near Hamlet, signed for a club a very long way away and barely played all season. Presumably he likes to be by the seaside on Saturdays....

Security is also a major cost at Hamlet compared to most in step three. We are very close to areas which have seen appalling incidents and lots of minds are focused on the fact lots of people can be predicted to be close together in an enclosed space every other Saturday. Some of that is regulatory requirements, other bits are simply common sense

[hepcat]

You have to wonder why Dulwich are soooooo poor!

A Dulwich supporter has posted as to why-it's pretty much the same with FC United of Manchester which is fan owned,though I've read that FCUM spend a hell of a lot of their time and energy squabbling amongst themselves over what their constitution is/allows and squabbles over sponsorship etc. The set up may be a Utopian ideal-but as with all Utopian ideals/dogmas-be they left right or centre-they always fall to pieces when reality rears its ugly head. Can a FCUM/Dulwich model that gets large fan stakeholders ever progress further than the 2nd n/l tier? (FCUM have only a couple of seasons in the NLN to boast about) It would seem you need solid outside cash/sponsorship backing things up . The fan owned no big cash owner model would seem to allow only a limited amount of progress. I would think FCUM with a class of 92 type cash backing would easily go further than Salford ,but that would break every one of their Utopian rules. Says quite a bit about Football/fans these days. We can't really demand success without selling part of our souls.

[Roger D]

I can only speak for Dulwich but Step One long term is impossible due to the ground. We'd fail ground grading and get booted out after one season. Given the restrictions on building around there, that realistically won't change

In reality it would also be impossible to sustain due to the finances, unless we abandoned our no sugar daddy stance. We crunched the numbers when on the verge of the Tier Two playoff race a few years ago. The figures were horrendous, income crashed - beer sales in sight of the pitch are (in)famously high at Hamlet - and expenditure on playing staff, buses, hotels etc. went through the roof.

For now, there is little debate at the club. Most people are comfortable with the business model, though the odd fan does suggest we spend more. Crucially the controlling shareholder is comfortable and has turned down numerous offers to buy in and bankroll the club.

We had an approach from an American consortium at the same time the deal was done to buy Wrexham. We don't know who from as we told the person fronting the bid we had no interest in being bankrolled and wouldn't sign the NDA they demanded before they would reveal who was funding the bid.

[willberto02]

I feel to consistently compete for play offs in this league, you need at least 2 or 3 of the following:

- A chairman/board to bankroll the club, for the club to massively overspend and create debt, or to use parachute payments.
- A modern ground, able to generate considerable non-match day income, whether that be hospitality, gym, or a 3G pitch.
- A large supporter base. Probably average gates 3,000 +
- Employ the right staff. A very good manager with a good recruitment team.

Recent promoted teams:
2023-24: Chesterfield - average crowed 7,893.
2023-24: Bromley - recently renovated ground (i.e. within last 10 years). 3G pitch
2022-23: Wrexham - average crowd 9,973 and bank rolled by Hollywood owners.
2022-23: Notts County - average crowd 8,303.
2021-22: Stockport County - average crowd 7,126
2021-22: Grimsby Town - average crowed 5,704
2020-21: Sutton United - 3G Pitch, Covid year.
2020-21: Harlepool United - Covid year

I don't know clubs budgets, but Barrow (2019-20) and Macclesfield Town (2017-18) would seem the recent exceptions to the rule.

It took Wrexham 15 years to get out of this league, and even then it was with Hollywood cash.
Chesterfield took 6 years.
Stockport were out of the football league for 11 years.
Notts County 4 years.