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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread


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Just now, eez-eh said:

There was discussion a week or two ago with folk trying to claim Raith Rovers didn’t have a bigger core support than us.

They had over 3,000 at their game with Morton yesterday.

“People tried to claim” here means people posted an average attendance based on the entirety of last season which showed we had a higher support over the season. 

Raith are engaging really well with their support this season, set a target for yesterday and have managed to drum up a huge amount of enthusiasm in the close season - if that continues and we continue at our current low ebb I imagine their attendances will be higher than us this year. 

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6 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

“People tried to claim” here means people posted an average attendance based on the entirety of last season which showed we had a higher support over the season. 

Raith are engaging really well with their support this season, set a target for yesterday and have managed to drum up a huge amount of enthusiasm in the close season - if that continues and we continue at our current low ebb I imagine their attendances will be higher than us this year. 

Which they usually are, save for the anomaly of the last two seasons.

I’m not trying to be a dick, I just think our support is a lot more fair-weather than people might want to acknowledge. Lose a couple of games and the crowd drops quite significantly. It’s not a quick fix.

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1 minute ago, eez-eh said:

Which they usually are, save for the anomaly of the last two seasons.

I’m not trying to be a dick, I just think our support is a lot more fair-weather than people might want to acknowledge. Lose a couple of games and the crowd drops quite significantly. It’s not a quick fix.

Subject casual supporters to the dross we have been serving up at home for two seasons and its no wonder its a hard sell. It's been absolutely insipid. 

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40 minutes ago, North Terrace Gazza said:

Personally I didn’t get all the panic over getting a replacement for Reading. Yes he had a poor season last year compared to the one before but I always felt he could get back to those levels again. Nice to see I’m being proved correct. 

Talk about premature, you are on course to be the new jinx. Paddy is bricking it.

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1 hour ago, itzdrk said:

Just want to go out of my way to mention that Paddy Reading was very good in yesterday's association football match.  Possibly the man of the match.  

Likewise, he was one of my three positives from yesterday. Longstaff is a decent winger at this level and by and large Paddy dealt with him about as well as expected. He was also very vocal about being left exposed 2 v 1 on number of occasions. I was down at the corner of the SRE at the Main Stand so saw him first hand in the first half. He did well.

Wee Smith was my man of the match though.

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6 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Subject casual supporters to the dross we have been serving up at home for two seasons and its no wonder its a hard sell. It's been absolutely insipid. 

Agree, it wasn’t mean as a jibe or anything like that (I don’t make it to every game). Just pointing it out.

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4 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Likewise, he was one of my three positives from yesterday. Longstaff is a decent winger at this level and by and large Paddy dealt with him about as well as expected. He was also very vocal about being left exposed 2 v 1 on number of occasions. I was down at the corner of the SRE at the Main Stand so saw him first hand in the first half. He did well.

Wee Smith was my man of the match though.

Agreed. I was around the same area and you're right about him being more vocal. He looked a lot more comfortable and composed than he has previously. Long may that continue, was great to see. Smith probably edged it for me too.

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10 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

Which they usually are, save for the anomaly of the last two seasons.

I’m not trying to be a dick, I just think our support is a lot more fair-weather than people might want to acknowledge. Lose a couple of games and the crowd drops quite significantly. It’s not a quick fix.

Possibly - the side we had out yesterday isn’t going to drum up any sort of enthusiasm from anyone though. Literally zero quality on display.

Compare that to Raith who had Stanton, Vaughan, Smith, Mullin, Easton and Hamilton all starting. 

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2 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

Agree, it wasn’t mean as a jibe or anything like that (I don’t make it to every game). Just pointing it out.

I get that, there is a correlation between entertainment and attendance. We have a core support that would turn up if we had 11 junior plodders scrapping for every ball and being utterly outclassed. Most of us lived through that with the two Rabs.

I am very hopeful that with the new stand and the improvements made in the "matchday experience" that we will see the club actively work on getting more through the door next season. At the minute with the North Terrace out of commission and the product on the pitch it is not an easy sell.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be trying to get more in but there are many compromises at the minute with the North Terrace being out of bounds that don't enhance the experience. It's one of the reasons I hummed and hawed about renewing my season ticket. I don't like being in the SRE because I can see f**k all when the ball is at the railway end and the seating in the main stand makes me feel like a pretzel. I know I'm a moaning b*****d but still...

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4 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Compare that to Raith who had Stanton, Vaughan, Smith, Mullin, Easton and Hamilton all starting. 

I’d say over the piece Raith , Morton, Inverness and Ayr have roughly the same numbers crowd wise . Arbroath and Airdrie a little less and the farce that is Queens Park a lot less . That’s is why Dundee United , Thistle and the Pars may occupy three of the four play off slots . 

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3 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

So, new contract for Reading then? 

My my how the turn tables... 

Its not that people were wrong. He was very poor. 

A combination of trying to get cover/replacement for him and the fact he's out of contract and probably heading for league one means he needs a good season. 

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3 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

I get that, there is a correlation between entertainment and attendance. We have a core support that would turn up if we had 11 junior plodders scrapping for every ball and being utterly outclassed. Most of us lived through that with the two Rabs.

I am very hopeful that with the new stand and the improvements made in the "matchday experience" that we will see the club actively work on getting more through the door next season. At the minute with the North Terrace out of commission and the product on the pitch it is not an easy sell.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be trying to get more in but there are many compromises at the minute with the North Terrace being out of bounds that don't enhance the experience. It's one of the reasons I hummed and hawed about renewing my season ticket. I don't like being in the SRE because I can see f**k all when the ball is at the railway end and the seating in the main stand makes me feel like a pretzel. I know I'm a moaning b*****d but still...

There was very little space in the stand yesterday and the Somerset Road end looked busy too. If that was with a 2000 attendance we'll struggle to fit in many more people without opening more areas.

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Could probably fit a good few hundred more in the SRE. In games against sides who will bring small crowds, i.e. ICT yesterday, then no reason we can't use the railway end for home fans. Just without the option of switching ends.

Edited by AuAl
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The 2018/19 season with Shankland, Forrest and Moffat saw us have an average home attendance of 2074 (apparently.)

For people claiming it's a big part about the entertainment it probably didn't get much better in recent memory than this squad and that's the average figure who saw fit to turn up every 2nd week.

You don't just grow a fanbase overnight, for your core support it's generational, historical factors going back decades that decide where you are at any given time. Figures will then rise and fall based on occasional visitors.

Through the Barr and Cameron era was there enough done to retain and increase the home support? A resounding no for me, for a variety of reasons, ranging from too much money with no plan to treading water to survive being the only plan.

Do we have a support that votes with their feet more readily and easily than the likes of Partick, Dunfermline or Falkirk? I think the answer to that has over the past 30 or 40 years has been a resounding yes. You don't get these people back in the numbers we'd all hope for, if at all.

You only have to look on here as a snapshot of fans attitudes towards the club generally. It would be foolish to say that isn't representative in a wider scale locally throughout the county and that isn't having a go whatsoever.

Its got to be more of a two way thing, the club engaging fans more regularly and fans ultimately buying into the plan.

It can be done but it's not easy and nothing happens overnight.

 

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44 minutes ago, NoAmarteyNoParty said:

There was very little space in the stand yesterday and the Somerset Road end looked busy too. If that was with a 2000 attendance we'll struggle to fit in many more people without opening more areas.

Loads of room in the SRE yesterday. 

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I think the onus is on the club to grow the fan base. Complaining about the public failing to support the local team is no answer. Other towns with similar or smaller populations have bigger supports, such as Dunfermline and Falkirk, the latter after a number of seasons in L1.

I don't know the answer but it's not up to me come up with solutions. The club have enough staff who should be tasked with this.

 

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