Compare and Contrast Exeter City 1994 to 2022

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

Wrexham will only succeed if their owners stay interested. I have my doubts. Brentford is certainly a good example of a club that seems to have benefited greatly from a shrewd owner.

A shrewd owner who is also a lifelong fan.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

If this is slightly off topic, fine to be told off.

This obsession around groud capacity being a major thing is really really odd. Bar the 50's and 60's, our entire existence has been on crowds of about 3,500.

If the worst were to happen and we slipped back down again, it'd basically be back to that again. I'm not disagreeing that if we were serious about being a sustainable championship club, one day we'd need a bigger ground. But we have spent half a season with our average crowd being 7,000. Half a season!!!! We have to give it time. If we remain in League One next year it will be interesting to see how much attendances already drop off. We've got to this very odd point in our history where we seem to be selling out an awful lot of home games. However, we absolutely know this will not last for too long. Long may it continue, but the reality paints a very different picture.

As eluded too earlier in the thread. Even if some big benefactor did build us a brand new stadium, it wouldn't suddenly mean we were a championship team. That's done on the pitch. A more likely scenario is we end up in a 20,000 seater playing in front of 4,000 fans in the basement tier. Doom and gloom yes. But let's be realistic.

It's interesting that, in our last foray into League One, during the first season after promotion (2009-2010), average attendances were 5,832 over the season. So far we are averaging 6,678. Whether that will be maintained is a matter for conjecture, but it bodes well. It's also worth mentioning that our average in our final season in L1 in that spell (2011-2012) WAS 4,474.

 

[grecian-near-hell]

A shrewd owner who is also a lifelong fan.

Unfortunately as is the scum's owner who has ploughed in £14m of his own money and raised a further £4m in a share issue, only for them to succeed on the back of some very impressive loan signings. Although he is talking sense in the way he wants the club to be run

 

[Grecian2K]

Unfortunately as is the scum's owner who has ploughed in £14m of his own money and raised a further £4m in a share issue, only for them to succeed on the back of some very impressive loan signings. Although he is talking sense in the way he wants the club to be run

I seem to recall a team in green on the opposite side of our county also managed to borrow a brief spell in Championship nirvana.
Where are they now?

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

It's interesting that, in our last foray into League One, during the first season after promotion (2009-2010), average attendances were 5,832 over the season. So far we are averaging 6,678. Whether that will be maintained is a matter for conjecture, but it bodes well. It's also worth mentioning that our average in our final season in L1 in that spell (2011-2012) WAS 4,474.

The first and last season's last time round we weren't particularly good.

 

[tonykellowfan]

I do think that being at the top end of L2 for a few seasons has helped to bring in some newer fans who are enjoying the experience.

Last time in L1 we had been in the conference only 2 seasons before and most fans were pretty die hard at that point.

 

[Grecian in Guzz]

Unfortunately as is the scum's owner who has ploughed in £14m of his own money and raised a further £4m in a share issue, only for them to succeed on the back of some very impressive loan signings. Although he is talking sense in the way he wants the club to be run

Sadly I fear he has been backing a past manager's ideas as well

Ryan Lowe: Argyle's academy on the way to being the best in Devon

Six academy graduates have already played for the Pilgrims in the first three weeks of the 2021/21 season

www.plymouthherald.co.uk

 

[Grecian2K]

The first and last season's last time round we weren't particularly good.

Yet the next two near record-breaking seasons in L1 attendances (when we reached 9th and 8th) only averaged 4,410 and 4,574 respectively).
Even our "golden boys" of 79-80 could only manage to drag an average of 4,575 through the turnstiles.

And they (arguably) as good and exciting as the current generation.

Even in our championship year the ave was only 4,858 in our most glorious year and figures plummeted to the low three thousands during our less successful and brief spell in the Level 3 promised land.

Average gates nudging above ever 5k levels are demonstrably unprecedented for over half a century - and that's allowing for the much lower prices and vastly greater ground capacity back then.

Even with "only" 7 and a bit thousand "sell outs" nowadays when is the last time we've consistently drawn such support?

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

Yet the next two near record-breaking seasons in L1 attendances (when we reached 9th and 8th) only averaged 4,410 and 4,574 respectively).
Even our "golden boys" of 79-80 could only manage to drag an average of 4,575 through the turnstiles.

And they (arguably) as good and exciting as the current generation.

Even in our championship year the ave was only 4,858 in our most glorious year and figures plummeted to the low three thousands during our less successful and brief spell in the Level 3 promised land.

Which presumably means that all the other work that's gone into improving supporter experience has improved the number of attendees?

 

[Grecian2K]

Which presumably means that all the other work that's gone into improving supporter experience has improved the number of attendees?

Well it certainly hasn't done any harm!