Bromley 4-4-2

[SudburyBee]

https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/br ... -edg-79984

Worth a go

[Tuesds]

The increase in attendances that Bromley have achieved over the last few years is incredible. They’ve made a huge effort in all sorts of ways including pricing (eg all u12 free with a paying adult), offers (eg £96 adult season ticket to celebrate their FA Trophy win), fan experience (eg new fan zone, new sports bar etc.) and they’ve been amazingly successful; in six years their average crowd has gone from 1,113 to 2,585 (all while playing at the same level). So if they’ve got a new initiative to increase their crowds even further, we should indeed take note.

I don’t know how heavily bankrolled they are, but the fact that their average attendances are firmly in the top half of the league while ours are down at the bottom makes it easier for them to keep buying - yes, buying - new strikers in-season to make them even stronger as they seek to beat us and the rest to promotion. In the last few months, despite being up at the top and already having a number of strikers including Michael Cheek, they’ve gone out and bought Wealdstone’s top scorer (Olomola) and the hottest property in the NL South, Maidstone striker Levi Amantchi.

[ricardobee]

Bromley do have the advantage of playing their home fixtures in Bromley!

[beew]

It's been a while since we've last had an offer. The TV game on Saturday was an ideal opportunity to offer a BOGOF for another upcoming fixture. We also have 9 home games left and it would be good to hear of something similar to the Bromley initiative.

[Tuesds]

Bromley do have the advantage of playing their home fixtures in Bromley!

Yes, and their ground has four sides! And you can choose to sit or stand! But even with those relative advantages they don’t rest on their laurels and seem to pull out all the stops to increase their support. And that’s the surest way to deliver success - and promotions - sustainably over time.

Brennan is doing wonders with what I would guess is at best a mid-table budget. But while our crowds are so low we’re probably on borrowed time at the upper end of this league (Brennan will move on at some point!). It’s only with more fans coming through the gate that we’ll make promotion and then sustainability & safety in the EFL over the longer term a likelihood; you can only beat the odds for so long!

[CrawleyBee]

It needs sustained promotion not half hearted efforts which doesn’t yeald any results. Low crowds really do hold us back, shows what such a great job DB and the boys have done.

[jerroll]

i wouldn't mind us trying 4-4-2 as a change from 3-1-5-1 !

[Berlinbee]

It needs sustained promotion not half hearted efforts which doesn’t yeald any results. Low crowds really do hold us back, shows what such a great job DB and the boys have done.

Completely agree with this. Every promotion seems like it’s either hashed out last minute or without a real sense of consideration. There needs to be a 3-5 season plan at least.

[hoofer2]

Our offers are doomed to failure most of the time as more often than not very short notice - most will already have alternative plans - and narrow promotion via social media

In my opinion need 4 weeks notice for a promotion to be effective.

The ideas are fine, but not the execution.

Also I think attendance incentives for those who have attended a game. Voucher to get money off at bar / tea hut / shop / money off next game

[Berlinbee]

Back in 2018, Stevenage FC did this door to door campaign to encourage local support and it worked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-45574731

Ideas like this as well as what Bromley are doing should be given a go. The SA, wider supporters and the club should sit down and have a consultation and devise a plan going forward. It would be good to hear some sort of a plan from the club anyway

[Beereasonable]

The understanding that we have at best a mid table budget is incorrect. We have a top end budget. Chesterfield, Eastleigh and York all have bigger, but not many more clubs spend more. As for our attendances, these have never recovered from the end of the Flashman era. We had a season average of over 3800 in the early 90s but people got disillusioned by the goings on at the club and over 1500 fans disappeared. Add to that the move to the Hive when we lost even more of our support. Clearly not enough has been done to attract new fans or to bring the old fans back. We have proved that for a big game like Gateshead or Brentford, we still have people willing to come to the Hive but it's getting these people in on a more regular basis. Bromley are now where we were in the late 80s to early 90s so they can attract more fans as they get higher up the league. I'm not sure how we would attract more fans. If we offered a £5 ticket for the next 9 home games I doubt we would get more than 1800- 2000 home fans. Something needs to be tried though.

[markobee]

Last season, the Club offered (and I bought) a half-season ticket, for the period from 1 January onwards.
I have been waiting for the same offer to be made this season, my credit card poised for action. But thus far the offer hasn't been made.

[Reckless]

i wouldn't mind us trying 4-4-2 as a change from 3-1-5-1 !

2-3-5 is the way.

[PBBee]

We seem to have given up on things like this, (I know we apparently target local schools etc & would say there are more kids attending nowadays tbf) - I was very surprised we didn’t use the international break to do any deals for the Gateshead & Oldham games.

We are also at home vs Dorking on Non-League day in March, England kick off vs Brazil at 7pm as well so a big opportunity to get some extra bums on sears. Whether we do anything about it however…..

[hoofer2]

Even after a good win, Legends is empty post match as most fans head to exits as quickly as possible - including me. Other clubs at our level seem able to entice fans back into "Clubhouse".

That is the nub of the issue here. The original Hive Bar felt like a clubhouse before the messing around with partitioning and making it a multipupose place.

Legends is more like an outdoor concourse with a roof.

How can Legends be made to feel like a clubhouse?