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Re: Attendances

By Morgs13/9/2021 17:24Mon Sep 13 17:24:44 2021In response to Re: Attendances

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I haven't even glanced at overall attendance figures, though I've noticed some hugely impressive ones at this level. Worthing v. Bognor pulled 2,000+ on Bank Holiday Monday.

I expected the long lockdown to cull numbers significantly down here. TV coverage and the media hype machine has kept Premier League fans' underwear moist. Games at professional level have continued to be played.
Sadly, down here, it probably doesn't take too long without a Saturday "hit" of football for the habit of attending games to wear off for many semi-casual fans. Some may drift back in ones and twos as the season wears on. Others are likely to have found equally rewarding pastimes, from learning violin / cookery / pottery / Spanish to playing darts or bridge online. They may not be back. Without the media hype machine and peer pressure, falling out of love with football is quite easy to do.

Most fans I know in the "I'll never go to another game if my lot take the knee!" brigade have returned. I know at least three, including two non-renewing ex-long-term ST holders at pro clubs, who definitely haven't. I don't expect any of that trio to enter any football stadium for a long time.

As has been said, not since Alastair Campbell was Minister for Propaganda has a UK government been as successful with any public information campaign as this administration has been with their "Let's Scare The Bejayus Out Of The Elderly!" campaign during Covid-19. Precisely what the point of this has been is difficult to see.
I'm old enough - and from a rural enough area - to remember the days when almost any elderly relative or acquaintance who heard the word "cancer" from their doctor was convinced they were as good as dead the moment the c-word left the physician's lips. The diagnosis alone was enough to kill them. Instilling blind terror into the elderly has had far worse consequences than lowering attendances at Non-League football matches, but it must have played a part.

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