Quote: headhunter "As for the lack of player numbers, are you serious? How could you possibly suggest that players would be willing to turn out to play on icy mudbaths with the majority of games being called off, train on poorly lit corners of fields or local parks in the freezing cold, and that they would stop in the summer? Player numbers will double. Within 18 months we'll be able to look back and laugh at posts like yours, and the idea of playing in winter will seem ridiculous.'"
Completely agree. Just to throw some stats in there from my own club:
In total we have 52 lads signed on, running two teams.
We started pre-season training at the end of July. The sessions were brilliant, and we'd often train for approx 90mins then have a game at the end. At that time, we had probably 35+ lads attending, often split into four groups, each with it's own coach.
Comparing that to our most recent training session on Tuesday (Thursday got called off). We had 13 lads attending. We had to use a small patch of land roughly from the goal line to the 20m line and not much further accross - that's all our lights will light up*. It was freezing cold, we trained for around 40mins, then had a 'game' of touch & pass on the tiny patch of land.
Quite how someone thinks that playing in Summer will see numbers dwindle is baffling.
*We are in the process of saving for some more lights / generators - a cost that could be spent much better elsewhere.