REMEMBER the days when you would go and watch your team play, then afterwards battle for a spot close enough to the box in the corner of the clubhouse waiting to see the results come in on Final Score?
Or for the Teletext page that flicked over before you'd had chance to digest, unless someone had the remote control and their senses about them to hit the pause button?
When I read the theories of Bridlington Town chairman Peter Smurthwaite this week on why his club's gates have dropped below 100 for the first time in his memory, despite battling for Northern Counties East League promotion, I had reminiscences of that not-so-bygone era.
Saturday evenings from 1996-2000 spent in a packed bar at Arnold Town, where the £10 I got in a brown envelope was ploughed back into the Eagles' coffers over the Gedling Road bar. The same went during the rest of my playing days at Sutton United, Bracknell, Hitchin Town and Ware.
Supporters would spend their night at their local club having watched their heroes pick up three points that wouldn't guarantee a place in Europe, or Premier League status to land a slice of a £8billion TV deal, but would bring them unbridled joy and pride at moving up a place or two at their level.
Smurthwaite reckons that out of the 97 who watched his side's game against Brigg Town, only 70 were paying spectators.
“That just about covers the cost of paying three officials and your electric and gas bills for the day,” says the Queensgate chief, explaining that gates are down by ten per cent this season and “perhaps 100 per cent over the last ten years”.
Smurthwaite cites falling attendances at his club's tenants, Scarborough Athletic, and the fact other local clubs, North Ferriby United and Hull City, had just 353 for a clash with promotion rivals and fail to make the top six average attendances for their division respectively. He lays the blame firmly at the door of TV.
“The main reason for the demise is televised football, especially by Sky and BT and the special offers by pubs when games are on,” says Smurthwaite.
“We had next to no fans watching the Arsenal versus Hull City game last Saturday lunchtime. I bet Wetherspoons in Bridlington was busy for that game with their cheap beer and food offers, so why come to watch Town afterwards and pay £6 to get in?
Explosion
“You can switch your television on seven nights a week now and see live games from all over the world. Why go to Queensgate?”
The rise of the internet and, in particular, the explosion of social media coverage of Non-League matches also gets his goat.
“I personally don't think social media is helping attendances at Non-League clubs,” he adds. “You don't have to go to games to find out what is happening during that two-hour period the games are on.
“You only need to look at the NCEL twitter feed in the comfort of your armchair with a few cans of lager and you can see the team sheets before kick-off, the teams shaking hands and get a visual commentary of games with photographs attached for the next two hours.
“I think the league should put a ban on their Twitter feed for two hours on a Saturday and evenings during the games.”
It's certainly a point worthy of debate. We use Twitter and Facebook to promote The NLP, and clubs do the same for upcoming games. What we don't do is publish our full features on there for the two days the paper is still on sale. We'd have no product to sell in the shops if we did.
Matches aren't broadcast live on Twitter, of course, but you can follow the action in words and still images without actually turning up. I've tried tweeting updates from matches I've been at, including most recently when I attended the Bolton Wanderers v Eastleigh FA Cup third round replay.
The media information sheet handed out at the Macron Stadium that night contained a section advising that “to improve coverage of tonight's game across social platforms, we encourage all members of the media posting content to use the #BOLvEFC hashtag”.
Although it might generate interest on The NLP twitter account, it distracts me from watching all of the action as it's happening in front of me.
I can only agree with Smurthwaite. I don't like it, and I believe clubs and Press box personnel should only be allowed to tweet a score at half-time and full-time, with a link to a report on their website to follow after the final whistle.
You can't police supporters doing it on the terraces, but an official directive from leagues and the FA might help get more folk off their backsides and back to their local clubs to tap into some real action, rather than spending the afternoon swiping their smartphone screen.
