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The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23


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I think attendances will go up when Aberdeen first move to their new ground. But the key is keeping the attendances up. Of course having a great football team with fan favourites is important, but the club have got to think of other ways. I think they could really learn from the US and Oz. Soccer games over there are like a mini carnival. They have lots of family orientated activities going on like penalty shoot outs for prizes, selling food and merchandise, music and more. I think it's pretty good.

Solid transport links also cannot be stressed enough. There has to be shuttle buses and they have to be reliable. Grounds I've been to abroad have rail links which are super fast. The club should be running buses and the local council should also be putting buses on. It's not difficult yet in Scotland we seem to utterly fail at providing apt transport options for football.


There's a pretty detailed transport plan on the planning application. The club will be running 20+ shuttle buses from park and ride sights and the city centre for run of the mill league games and even more for when bigger crowds are anticipated. There's space for 100 private coaches as well (including away fans) and they're going to increase the number of service buses on match days, alter the route slightly and create a new stop for the ground. A railway station would be the icing on the cake but I don't see it happening.

The plans also include a supporters bar, cafe, bigger club shop and ticket office, museum, memorial garden and a outdoor "fan zone" (not sure what that'll involve exactly). I'd imagine they'll ramp up the offering for kids and families too with better facilities.

The planning application on the council website is worth a look for a fellow stadium nerd (and Dons man) such as yourself. A lot to sift through but some interesting stuff on there.
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Finally a player with a bit of sense. Could have gone down south and probably got more money but he could quite easily have flipped down there and come to nothing.

He's guaranteed a start every week at Aberdeen and the fans love him. Fantastic bit of business by Aberdeen but shows that Hayes has a bit of sense as well.

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On 06/02/2017 at 15:13, Kneetrembler said:

There is an excellent book called "Soccernomics " that gives a lot of detailed information on why people attend football matches. It was recommended on another thread by one of the Fermers. It's a very interesting read.

Aberdeen are the only club whose fans beat themselves up about their own attendances. Some folk I know attended Gothenburg, travelled all over Europe etc, but don't even go to home games now. Their lives have changed and now Saturday is for golf, or shopping or spending time with kids or grandkids. Priorities change and some spectators are lost whilst others come back or are introduced. I went to games with a group of about 8 to 10 lads in the eighties, now I'm the only one going regularly. The rest of them are still Dons fans, but they will only come out for big games. No matter how well the team are doing. They just have other priorities for their time.

Many folk would love to be like Milners or Bucksburn Dandy, going to every game, home and away, but they can't spare the time or money. Hard core devotees are rare and are a small minority in all clubs. I can see myself going less. I feel the cold more now, it's tiring going to midweek games with work early next day and away days take up so much time. It's nothing to do with how the team perform, it's just that things change.

We can fill Pittodrie for important matches and have a great atmosphere there. However, run of the mill games the place is half full and very quiet. It was the exact same in the eighties.

As for moaning Dons fans, some of the worst for berating the team are also the most devoted. Some folk who sit near me shout abuse at our players almost non stop when we're not winning. Yet they are there every week season after season and I usually see them at away games. When I asked an old friend why he wouldn't come back to the games again, he replied " because most Aberdeen fans are p***ks". Its not the first time I heard it.

Good news is Kingford is likely to increase gates. The number one factor the book mentioned in motivating people to go to football is the quality of the stadium. Comfort and ease of access will improve dramatically and this should get more people coming.

SF**
 

I've been thinking about that. Are there any other teams whose crowds fluctuate as wildly over a league season? We can get 18,000 home fans for games against Celtic/Rangers on a Saturday, and then 9,000 against Hamilton/Ross County a week later. That's a huge variation.

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34 minutes ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

I've been thinking about that. Are there any other teams whose crowds fluctuate as wildly over a league season? We can get 18,000 home fans for games against Celtic/Rangers on a Saturday, and then 9,000 against Hamilton/Ross County a week later. That's a huge variation.

Pretty much every other team in the league (apart from Hearts), but that's because they whore out their grounds to the bigots, not because more of their own fans are turning out.

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1 minute ago, lubo_blaha said:

Pretty much every other team in the league (apart from Hearts), but that's because they whore out their grounds to the bigots, not because more of their own fans are turning out.

That's what I mean though. Motherwell/St Johnstone/Killie might get double the crowd for a game against Rangers or Celtic, but that's because of the away fans. The number of home fans we get can double or halve from week to week. I can't think of another club where that happens (maybe Celtic under Deila).

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4 minutes ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

That's what I mean though. Motherwell/St Johnstone/Killie might get double the crowd for a game against Rangers or Celtic, but that's because of the away fans. The number of home fans we get can double or halve from week to week. I can't think of another club where that happens (maybe Celtic under Deila).

Ah yeah, just saw you said home fans. If anything, most clubs get fewer home fans than normal when they play Celtic (will probably be the same against rangers when the novelty of the circus wears off). Even used to be the case with us to some extent.

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2 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:


The planning application on the council website is worth a look for a fellow stadium nerd (and Dons man) such as yourself. A lot to sift through but some interesting stuff on there.

 

Only a mere 3200 documents to sift through!

Regarding Hayes, it's fantastic that Aberdeen are able to hold onto their top players without the lure of money down south. Says a lot about the spirit around the club there appears to be at the moment.

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