Oliver's Christmas Message

[Deleted]

I think,deep down in your heart,you know the answer to that.

[Deleted]

I fear that isn't going to happen. The first time round the attendance didn't crash as badly as we'd already survived two seasons, so there was still hope. And also, for most fans, it was a unique experience, so they didn't know what to expect

But, this time round expectations were higher, so the disappointment has been greater. Apart from the eternal optimists, I think most fans are resigned already to relegation - or at best, a dreadful half season and bare survival. Who the hell wants to watch that?

I will be there, and the other 1500+ core support, but the 1000+ newbies will stay away. And it's their money we need.

This is why I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we need a new manager. Hak has had time to prove what he can do, and nothing I've seen gives me much hope, I'm afraid.

We can, of course, loyally stay with Hak and hope that he can turn things around - after all, a new manager is a hell of a gamble. But what if he can't and doesn't? What sort of gates will we be getting in March and April? But if we get someone else in, it could work, and just the hope of a new man making a difference will get the fans back, at least for a while.

Looked at realistically, this isn't a question of loyalty, it's a question of what's bast for the club. And another half season like the one we've just had is not the answer.

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2022 15:28:32 GMT @61666 said:

Fairly obvious - poor recruitment over the summer and too many players now, meaning we can't afford to get better ones.
Will we offload in the New Year? Get rid of ten players and recruit two or three of genuine quality, with holding midfielder an absolute must.

The thing is our budget really isn't as bad as people make out, going by what Oliver said in the summer and a few months ago our player budget is at least 750 thousand. Why I'm not expecting miracles (top half finish) with that budget it certainly won't be the worst in the league.....heck its well known that Wealdstone aren't spending close to that.

Yet you would think we had a Ryman league budget by the way some people talk on here and social media.

The problem was Hak wasted it in the summer, re-signing pretty much the whole National South squad and then signing a load of players who just aren't good enough.

Surely the budget could have been spent better by going with a smaller squad (18-20 players) of actual National League quality players, instead of ending up with a squad of over 30 players with very little quality.

[Deleted]

I know this sounds very basic and trivial,but every time we go down a league our ticket and season ticket prices stay the same,when we go up,our prices go up,but when we go down,they stay the same again...

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2022 16:43:21 GMT rollingstone said:

I know this sounds very basic and trivial,but every time we go down a league our ticket and season ticket prices stay the same,when we go up,our prices go up,but when we go down,they stay the same again...

Well the club is in for a shock if they think lots of people would pay £19 to stand or £22 for a seat to watch National South football.

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2022 16:58:01 GMT Raymondo316 said:

Dec 21, 2022 16:43:21 GMT rollingstone said:

I know this sounds very basic and trivial,but every time we go down a league our ticket and season ticket prices stay the same,when we go up,our prices go up,but when we go down,they stay the same again...

Well the club is in for a shock if they think lots of people would pay £19 to stand or £22 for a seat to watch National South football.

I begrudge paying it now🤬

[Deleted]

I’d pay more.

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2022 18:13:10 GMT Benny said:

I’d pay more.

Please dont suggest it☹

[Deleted]

You can get a ticket (seat) at Ewood Park to watch Blackburn vs Middlesbrough on Thursday for £20. Thats a team pushing for promotion in to the Premier League.

To get a seat at one of the worst clubs in the National League (Maidstone) costs MORE !!!

It really is ridiculous. According to Google, Maidstone has a population of 175,000. Blackburn is at 154,000.

Does this mean if Maidstone were in the Championship with a bigger stadium and had ticket prices at around £20, we would be pulling in 14,000 fans like Rovers do? With Maidstone being a larger town, you'd like to think so. Plus Blackburn is only a few miles from Burnley, Blackpool, Preston, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale and Accrington so has plenty of local clubs to compete and share fans. We have next to nothing in comparison so maybe 20,000 fans would be possible.

A cash boost is the only way to grow at this stage. The current owners have reached their full potential it seems.

Also another thought, with the club being back for 10yrs now, surely there will be a constant flow of new fans now. Both my Children are interested and have been to the Gallagher, aged 4 and 6. So surely this happens more and more, 1 fan makes 2 or 3 fans and so on. With the club being back in the town for a decade, there must be a lot of new fans turning up as the months go by.

[Deleted]

Dec 24, 2022 14:14:35 GMT @grovergreenstone said:

You can get a ticket (seat) at Ewood Park to watch Blackburn vs Middlesbrough on Thursday for £20. Thats a team pushing for promotion in to the Premier League.

To get a seat at one of the worst clubs in the National League (Maidstone) costs MORE !!!

It really is ridiculous. According to Google, Maidstone has a population of 175,000. Blackburn is at 154,000.

Does this mean if Maidstone were in the Championship with a bigger stadium and had ticket prices at around £20, we would be pulling in 14,000 fans like Rovers do? With Maidstone being a larger town, you'd like to think so. Plus Blackburn is only a few miles from Burnley, Blackpool, Preston, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale and Accrington so has plenty of local clubs to compete and share fans. We have next to nothing in comparison so maybe 20,000 fans would be possible.

A cash boost is the only way to grow at this stage. The current owners have reached their full potential it seems.

Also another thought, with the club being back for 10yrs now, surely there will be a constant flow of new fans now. Both my Children are interested and have been to the Gallagher, aged 4 and 6. So surely this happens more and more, 1 fan makes 2 or 3 fans and so on. With the club being back in the town for a decade, there must be a lot of new fans turning up as the months go by.

And the population of Maidstone is expanding very rapidly at the moment. Our gates should be expanding at roughly the same rate, but, if you look back at the attendances, the pattern is clear. As the club progressed, its gates increased. Then, as it went through cycles of success and (ahem) not so successful, gates rose and fell - with very little real-term increase. The club needs to do some pretty active PR to get new people in - leafletting, advertising, special prices, etc. But none of this will work if the new people turn up and see the sort of crap we're dishing up at the moment. My first game was a dour, but hard-fought draw with Gillingham - I was used to 1st Division football at UP, but I was impressed enough with Maidstone to try a league game the following Saturday - and I'm still here 42 years later. But what if we'd played like a bunch of school boys and been stuffed by Gillingham 0-3?

As for seats - never mind the cost, they're are next to impossible to get on match days! We'd help our future gates a lot if we could offer people seats. This isn't the 70s, people expect not only to be entertained (Google that word if you've only watched us this season), but also to be able to sit in comfort while being entertained. The club's first non-playing priority should be to get that riverside stand built.

And I believe Blacburn is also fairly close to that other place where they have a couple of decent teams. What's it called? Machester? Something like that...

[Dan]

At least we've had some sort of Christmas miracle.
Those silly posts claiming Hak only had until Boxing Day to turn the corner with results or he was a goner.
Well here we are on xmas eve, still in the mire, and its all gone very quiet on the 'SACK HAK' front.
Quite right too imo.
The nonsense of demanding his dismissal has about as much chance of succeeding as nurses and paramedics getting paid what their worth.

[Deleted]

Tbh Dan it showed how ungrateful certain supporters can be.
Disappointing and sad the lack of faith and support shown in Hak.
At least he knows that there are still plenty of us behind him and the team

[Deleted]

Decent review of the season so far from HH in kmonline.
No question its going to take a mighty effort to stay in the National League.
At best I feel our chances are no better than 50/50.
It still needs an upturn in performances and results but not by much.
But of course the same applies to another 3 or 4 teams in the zone.

[jackster]

Just read the injury list review.
Still looks for bad reading.
Gavin Hoyte out for months !
Seems like the worst season ever for injuries.
Joan Luque back in Spain.
Will we ever see him again ?

[jdh80]

Dec 24, 2022 14:14:35 GMT @grovergreenstone said:

You can get a ticket (seat) at Ewood Park to watch Blackburn vs Middlesbrough on Thursday for £20. Thats a team pushing for promotion in to the Premier League.

To get a seat at one of the worst clubs in the National League (Maidstone) costs MORE !!!

It really is ridiculous. According to Google, Maidstone has a population of 175,000. Blackburn is at 154,000.

Does this mean if Maidstone were in the Championship with a bigger stadium and had ticket prices at around £20, we would be pulling in 14,000 fans like Rovers do? With Maidstone being a larger town, you'd like to think so. Plus Blackburn is only a few miles from Burnley, Blackpool, Preston, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale and Accrington so has plenty of local clubs to compete and share fans. We have next to nothing in comparison so maybe 20,000 fans would be possible.

A cash boost is the only way to grow at this stage. The current owners have reached their full potential it seems.

Also another thought, with the club being back for 10yrs now, surely there will be a constant flow of new fans now. Both my Children are interested and have been to the Gallagher, aged 4 and 6. So surely this happens more and more, 1 fan makes 2 or 3 fans and so on. With the club being back in the town for a decade, there must be a lot of new fans turning up as the months go by.

So you want to compare us to Blackburn, a team that has been in the top two tiers of the football league for most of their history, one of the biggest clubs in the land back in the 50's and were also premier league champions back in the 90's off the back of Jacks millions, when we were playing YOUTH football under the name Maidstone Invicta.

The reason why they can put prices for fans at £20 is because they get a sh!t tonne, sackful, massive hand out, called TV money, they also have the luxury of having a nice big stadium that can hold over 30,000 fans.

We had to fully reset in 1992 and build the team up through the leagues then and then when we moved back to the town in 2012, we still have to build it up as we all know it is not ideal at the moment.

Gillingham got attendances of around 9000+ when they were in the championship but that has petered out as they have dropped down the league, when they were in the championship could they have had bigger crowds (Possibly with a bigger stadium to allow for more away fans), you said Blackburn get 14,000 fans well if they got promoted they'd be getting 30,000 plus every week as people want to see successful teams (Wrexham fans being a case in point, with a few sell outs this season).