7,700? Have we been mugged?

Quote: orangeman "It would seem that announcing attendances is becoming a thing of the past, with AFC Wimbledon reticent to declare crowds. The 'opening day" thriller on their return to Plough Lane didn't sell out.....and Wimbledon don't appear to be declaring any gates unlike the rest of their division!
rlhttps://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-one/attendancesrl

This raises the question "How much do they need us"?.....or even "do we need them"?

We can safely assume that the CEO has convinced DH that his is a vital move if the club is to survive, but if the good folk of Merton aren't prepared to follow their local football club, risen from the ashes and back where they belong, then what exactly are the club expecting in terms of interest for an alien sport?

Have a look at the video on Youtube for the highlights of AFC V Portsmouth from early September. The far stand is empty, the terrace at one end is empty, the away fans at the other end is 1/4 full at best.....so even if the stand where the cameras are placed was full, they are looking at 3k maximum.

so, if only 2,700 Wimbledon fans can be bothered (I know it was a cup match) to see their side back at their spiritual home, how the hell are we going to get families from the borough to games?

£200,000 mate? That'll do nicely
I think you’ve taken some information and used in to support a pre decided agenda.

Try and get an AFC Wimbledon ticket. There is ONE available for the next home game and that doesn’t really exist as the flawed Ticket System has to hold one “ghost” ticket not to collapse. There were ten yesterday. That’s a big team; Sheffield Wednesday. But a smaller profile team today (Burton) had ten singles available yesterday; and they were returns going on late sale.

Capacity is 9,200. Every game has (I believe) been sold out in terms of you can’t buy a ticket. There are a few seats short of 1,000 in Hospitality. 1,465 Away fan designated. So less than 6,750 to the general fan. Since the Bolton game (test event) two sections of seating have been temporarily take out of use until some safety changes are applied (related to segregation). Match category level also impacts the seats made available.

It’s not lack of interest but the club screwing up on the ticketing system.

AFC Wimbledon’s new ticketing system has been a disaster. The club have lost money as they’ve been unable to sell empty seats. A number of seats are Debentures. Those fans have until five days before a match to purchase. Otherwise they go on general sale; except the club have been unable to get them on sale. Season Ticket holders unable to attend and informing the club are finding their seats have also gone unsold. There have been people on social media livid they have seen empty seats and have been unable to purchase as the matches are sold out. Followed by fans annoyed their returned (Debenture or Season Ticket) seats went unsold and unused.

A League 1 club just isn’t going to sell out Hospitality. It’s an investment. Burton brought less than 400 fans today; so over 1,000 seats empty in the Away section. Today’s attendance was 7,413, so 1,800 under capacity. Over a 1,000 were Burton unable to sell / Away seats that couldn’t be sold for safety reasons. Hospitality will account for much of the remainder.
I should point out everybody thought Bolton was a sellout. The match reports are published within 2 hours and I assume the reporter believed it was around 9,000; most fans did. He had no access to the (secret) reality.
I anticipate the Sheffield Wednesday match being over 8,000. They will sell every Away Seat they are allowed (currently capped at 1,000 so nearly 500 seats lost there).

Why choose Portsmouth of all the matches on You Tube? Take a look at Oxford before or Plymouth after perhaps. Only the Main Stand was made available (3,300ish plus 1,000 hospitality). The (limited that day) reduced hospitality sold out. The Main Stand was effectively full. The club underestimated the level of interest based on previous seasons. We gave up trying to eat before or at half time as the queues were huge. My estimate on the day was 4,000+. There were significantly more than 300 Portsmouth supporters by the way. Two blocks to the left can’t be seen by the camera’s and tend to be well populated by the less vociferous away supporters. I reckoned 800 on the night. The You Tube video you watched says 800. Portsmouth themselves claim 835.

Now context. If I’m right, then that is possibly a top three attendance in the competition so far this year. Sheffield Wednesday had 6,500 (average 22,500 league) and Ipswich 4,200 (average 19,500 league). Something I learnt is “hardcore” fans hate the competition and a lot boycott it. The AFC Wimbledon attendance was heavily non hardcore. Portsmouth by the way had home attendances of 2,011 against Gillingham in their group stage, and 3,313 against Peterborough in the next round in 2018-2019. Then 3,784 and 2,413 in their equivalent 2019-2020 matches. They did up it to 14,735 for the Semi Final against Exeter to reach Wembley!

AFC Wimbledon fans have been scathing about the non-available seats and the failure to publish attendances. The view is the club don’t know. They certainly don’t know how many people enter the ground (last match they gave up trying to scan our tickets and waved us through). They do know what they’ve sold (you hope). It’s not clear whether published attendances are sold tickets (consensus is yes) or those in the ground. The two published attendances were slyly added to the website a fortnight late. I suspect the club are under pressure to sort out the accuracy including for legal reasons.
I believe for the vast majority of matches there will be no tickets available come match day.

I think Broncos have over payed for being a tenant by the way based on their likely income. With the recent changes for the Broncos I wouldn't rule out AFC Wimbledon reaching a compromise based on crowd sizes though.