WhiteBallProject / First Five Attendances 1994-2025 - Are they falling?

**Posted by WhiteBallProject** 04/9/2025 11:19 AM

**Posted by WhiteBallProject** 19/9/2025 12:20 PM

In the last post I tried to to compare Ilkeston's gate this season with past years and the stats did suggest that the gates are still comparing well. However Tuesdays gate against Cleethorpes Town was the lowest gate for a league game at the NMG since the club reformed as Ilkeston Town in 2017. Apart from winning more games can anyone suggest ways of getting more bodies through the turnstiles?

**Posted by Matchman** 19/9/2025 3:13 PM

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Interesting that in the 2017-18 season after we dropped 3 steps to the Midland Football League, attendances shot up by 50% in the first 5 matches ie from 355 to 557 then the following season by another 20% to 663.

The 2017-18 season was a new era filled with hope following liquidation the previous season. The fact that we had dropped by 3 levels didn’t seem to matter. People still came to watch.

The season after (2018-19) there was even more support. This lends support to the argument that many people like to watch a winning side.

Fortunately there is always a level of support from the diehards who support the club no matter what but unfortunately many supporters are fickle and will only go to matches when the club is doing well.

So non league football clubs face a dilemma. If the team get promoted and they struggle in the higher league then gates will fall. Conversely if the club do a Basford or Matlock and get relegated then they can look forward to higher gates the following season.

Probably the ideal is to find the level the team do well at and then make sure you don’t win promotion.
It’s all about survival.

**Posted by plymrob** 19/9/2025 4:34 PM

No need for stats. This is stating the obvious....

"The season after (2018-19) there was even more support. This lends support to the argument that many people like to watch a winning side.

Fortunately there is always a level of support from the diehards who support the club no matter what but unfortunately many supporters are fickle and will only go to matches when the club is doing well."

Always was, always will be....! The post-revival season was because of that unique event. There was a differnet reason to start optimistic... That all said, a bit of more optimism in the results just now would surely help turn the home gates in the right direction!