2018/19 was the season we were relegated down into this division - alongside Bradford (I note our comparable increase is larger than theirs).
Some of the teams with increases bigger than ours were down in the National League at that time, so some of their improvements could be down to playing in a higher division?
Charlton, Coventry, Portsmouth and Sunderland in the League 1 that season. Perhaps boosted the average attendances, particularly for the Franchise?
Think that was 2017/18 with the Coventry and Portsmouth games being about 15K each?
In 2018/19 though there were 2 big games at the end of the season.
Lincoln with 15K and Mansfield with 20K.
The increases for Carlisle and Morecambe are interesting.
As suspected, the growth of the Chesterfield fanbase is a biggy. I’m meeting their Community Trust soon, so I’ll ask them a bit about how they achieved this.
They were getting 6.5K - 7K when they were in League One back in 14/15 and 15/16.
That had dropped to about 4.5K the first year (18/19) they were in the National League after 2 relegations. So a large chunk of their increase appears to be fans returning and playing against bigger away sides. Their increase is probably closer to 1.5-2K rather than the 4K stated.
What were they getting before then Steve? I’m sure in their Saltergate days it was typically 4k to 5k, no?
I think Chestyfeels were another club which gained support following a ground move (did they go up in the first season or have I misremembered?). It sometimes seems as though only one club failed to capitalise on a move. 
I would say in the Saltergate years they were usually about the same as us, attendance wise, maybe 10% or so between us either way, with a bigger difference in promotion or relegation seasons for either of us. And we’ve had a few years at Championship level, which they haven’t in my lifetime.
I don’t know as I haven’t worked it out, but I feel we were similar, with support going up or down depending on success/failure, but broadly the same.
It breaks my heart every home game we have atm with half the ground empty. The atmosphere we generate at times is brilliant, think what it would be like if we could fill the place every game. We’re top of the league with better players, scoring plenty of goals, we’ve improved so much as a club, and it feels so much better to be part of this now, and it feels like something we have’nt had for quite a few years, just a pity the people of Walsall are’nt turning up more in numbers.
What ever it takes ( and we know they have been ) the club should be advertising and plugging the club to the max to get that turnstile spinning.
I’m a season ticket holder and don’t even care if special deals are thrown about out there to get people in the stadium, we need the place full every home game.
Winkleman bailed out aswell the other year so the dream he sold the inhabitants of MK pretty 20 years ago is over.
Should drop into non league and climb the pyramid the way it should’ve happened for them.
One of the surprises to me there is Colchester having an increase of over 1k. Pretty sure they’ve been stuck in league two mid table the whole time and everytime I see their ground with large banks of empty seats it reminds me of Wigan having to net off rows in their stands so interesting what they’ve done to attract more fans.
Hopefully things will pick up from March as promotion draws nearer.
Did someone say there’s going to be another ticket offer game in the run in? Given there’s nothing scheduled at home on international breaks now the best game would be home to Wimbledon on March 29th as that’s FA cup QF game so no premier league fixtures so limited local games.
Or perhaps Harrogate on Good Friday as could potentially get nearly 9k fans squeezed in if similar offer to Gillingham?
Think if there serious about try to increase gates then they need to come up with them for big games on a Saturday most of the offers are on midweek games with competition from sky as there televised midweek games, in winter cold weather not the best time to try an entice lost fans back me thinks . Big game on a Saturday 3 o’clock kick fans can make a it a good day out Sunday off next day for most . It’s a no brainer much more attractive.
Winkleman has been getting crap from Franchise fans for much of the last 8-9 years when they were relegated from the Championship. He got a reprieve when they just missed out in the playoffs to get back in the Championship 2 seasons back.
But then getting relegated down to League Two and missing out on going straight back up in yet another playoff failure, I think he’d just had enough.
Southend United averaging 7,054 in non league. A rise of 7%
Its crazy how many former league clubs go down and end up with thousands more fans.
Fear of losing their club perhaps.
Could also be why attendances peaked after COVID, and why Sky have payed to get in on the ifollow action… Either to make money or destroy the EFL success in favour of the super league concept…
Interesting figures but would be interesting to see it as a % increase or decrease which would be more revealing.
What was the attendance last night?
It’s ok I’ve got it
6229
Considering that it was cold, a Tuesday night game and our form has dipped six thousand plus was not too bad. If we carry on playing below par numbers may start to fall.