Cash flow hit by stay-away fans

THE effect of the recession is biting hard at Boundary Park where Athletic’s home attendances are down by almost 15-per-cent.


Club officials are not commenting publicly on the issue, but privately they are worried about cash flow.

The tough economic conditions and Athletic’s poor start to the campaign are the two main reasons for the large fall in paying customers.

At this time last year, Athletic were top of Coca-Cola League One, whereas this time they have been languishing in the lower reaches of the table.

But club officials are hoping back-to-back wins against Carlisle and Southend will provide a feelgood factor and woo some of the stayaway fans back to Boundary Park.

When you compare the attendances for the first four home games of the campaign, they show a fall of 3,344 on the same fixtures last season.

The four games against Stockport, Swindon, Hartlepool and Carlisle last season attracted 22,773 fans, while this time the figure is 19,429.

That equates to 836 fewer paying customers coming through the gate for each game and possibly a £50,000 fall in income over the four matches.

Replicate that over a full season, and gate receipts could be down by around £300,000.

Athletic will be watching with interest the turn-out for tonight’s home match against Milton Keynes Dons in League One.

It is the first Tuesday night home league game of the campaign and for midweek matches the attendance is usually lower than for a weekend fixture.

There is no chance of it matching last season’s attendance of 5,530 for a Saturday fixture.

For this season’s matches at Boundary Park, there has been a sharp fall compared to last term.

And for the last home game against Carlisle, the home following dipped below 3,500.

Athletic kicked off their campaign against Stockport where the crowd held up well, with home fans numbering 5,250 compared to 5,412 last season. The overall gate was 6,918 compared to 7,605 in January for their previous meeting.

Since then, there has been a downward spiral.

Home fans fell below the 4,000 mark for the visit of Swindon, when there were 3,983 locals compared to 4,455 last season.

It was a similar story against Hartlepool when the home following of 3,746 was down on last season’s 4,090.

The Carlisle game produced the biggest fall, with 3,477 home fans compared to 5,200 last season.

That said, last season’s fixture came during the Christmas period when gates are larger than usual.

In addition, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie against Accrington Stanley attracted a gate of 1,448, of which 1,287 were home fans.

That is believed to be the lowest attendance ever for a competitive match at Boundary Park, certainly for the last 30 years. The previous low in that period was 1,841 for a Simod Cup tie against West Brom in 1987.

Athletic’s away following is also well down on last season, which is not surprising given the vast amount of travelling involved.

The highest total for an away fixture was 297 at Leyton Orient while the lowest was 163 for the midweek match at Millwall. The average for the six away games is 214 per match.