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Pauly's Page |
Paul Nicholas is a bank manager who is best known on this site for his frequent missives to the press - usually pulling them up on one point or another.
Like many Swans fans, Paul caught the fever in the First Division 70's and after a prolonged spell with no symptoms, thought he was cured.
But then along came Molby and the disease resurfaced.
In his own words ... "and now I got it bad again doctor."
Tuesday 27th August 2002Not too much to talk about this week, so for a change, I thought I'd pick up on a current thread that is doing the rounds, which is the Friday vs. Saturday fixture debate, that Nick, the Wales on Sunday, and previously Tony Santore have covered. As far as the success rates on results from playing on a Saturday afternoon or Friday night are concerned, all the statistics have been disclosed, and there would appear to be merit in the club investing in a cover slightly larger than that required to keep the pitch playable, throwing it over the entire ground each Saturday and switching the floodlights on, as we have, over the years it seems, performed better under the National Grid's version of 'let there be light'. Certainly, I have always preferred the whole atmosphere of a game on a Friday night or during midweek for that matter, to the traditional Saturday 3pm kick off. Indeed, I am almost certain, even though it was a Sunday, that the QPR FA Cup game last season would have been less of a spectacle had that been played during the waking hours. There has always been an inexplicable difference at a night game, and nothing has changed in 34 years of me going to the Vetch. The arguments for a move to Friday evening games now are generally around the Swansea senior and junior leagues participants' inability to attend Saturday games at the Vetch, a point which really has long been debated. However, back in the late 60s and early 70s there were far more instances of Friday night games for all number of reasons. Any clash with a local Rugby match (not just international fixtures) deemed the moving of a game to a Friday night essential. Now that is nothing to do with the fact that local league players would then be able to attend, but entirely down to the fact that with a choice of sports and teams (in the decades I am talking about), a good local rugby match would have drawn all but the die-hard fans from the Vetch to St Helens. That, historically, has been far more damaging to the gates at Vetch Field, than any local league issue. It is something that the club have had to contend with over the years, but in more recent times, possibly coinciding with the demise of Rugby's status, and maybe appeal, the perceived need for this move has diminished. To try to illustrate a point here, I have done some crude statistical research around the attendances for Saturdays, Fridays and other midweek dates, for 5 seasons at random. I have excluded all types of Cup games, which dependant on opponents could heavily distort these figures, and have therefore concentrated on the league fixtures. These have been extracted from the last available programme data for the seasons in question, and even though there may have been a couple of games remaining, the likelihood of major change was minimal.
OK I accept that statistics are just that, and there are all manner of underlying reasons why certain games might have attracted higher or lower than normal crowds. A Bank Holiday Monday, Easter Weekend, Boxing Day etc etc, but it does seem that the argument, at least in the seasons highlighted, that Fridays will draw significantly bigger crowds (and 1,000 projected extra turnstile clicks is a big increase on a recent average gate of less than 4,000) is a little optimistic. As Clive Hughes has rightly pointed out in his Guestbook posting (26/8), what brings bigger crowds is success, and not necessarily success achieved on the back of attractive football. The 1,502 attendance drop from a 6,327 opening gate against Rushden and Diamonds, to 4,825 against Bournemouth last Saturday was only to be expected really, as no matter how exciting the two away games might have been, we had secured one point, and anyone listening to or reading the reports on the Bury game particularly, and who had any possible alternative thing to do last Saturday would have chosen their other option. Again I agree that it is a question of economics, and I have no doubt that a few wins of the type we saw on Saturday would see people more prepared to hand their cash over to the Swans, as opposed to some other leisure organisation, and if performances continue, others may be drawn in through the gates. The local leagues may be an issue, but I know a lot of people who have played in the leagues in the past, and now have no active involvement, but do they grace the Vetch at each opportunity? No they do not, for whatever reason. Reflecting back on a previous column I wrote about Pentredwr Rovers, I see very few of those players in the ground, but all love the game and the club. We have a hardcore of 3,500 most would agree. At times in the 70s that number was nearer 1,500 so we are making progress. The glory days of the late 70s and early 80s brought some big attendances, but looking back on the figures there was incredible volatility dependant on the opponents. Lower division football does not have that factor to contend with on influencing crowd sizes, and it is, in the end, down to the performances, the success, and the appetite of the local people to want to go to support the team. To think that any changes in the local league structure would result in a significant rise in numbers on a regular basis is too optimistic I think, and as much as I would welcome the reversion to regular Friday night fixtures, I do not think that the economic reasons would have great influence on any decision made. I have no idea how accommodating the Football League would be towards any such request by the club, but maybe some market research by someone associated with the marketing/commercial department would be a worthwhile exercise at some stage to enable the board to consider the merits of the idea. If anyone has any feedback to give me, I'd love to hear from you at pauly@scfc.co.uk You can comment on this article by visiting the guestbook Previous articles:
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