Middlesbrough Women v Stockport County - at the Riverside

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Scan this for tickets for this historic first ever match for Boro Women at the Riverside.

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I hope Boro win obviously, but I'm not too bothered. A bit like the U18s or U21s I suppose. Without the hope of the next superstar emerging for the first team.
Stress caused by one Boro team is enough. Got to draw the line somewhere.

What sort of crowd is expected?
Could be quite low for such an historic occasion don't you think?
I suppose a lot will depend on how many thousands Stockport bring.
 
Will_Graham said:
I hope Boro win obviously, but I'm not too bothered. A bit like the U18s or U21s I suppose. Without the hope of the next superstar emerging for the first team.
Stress caused by one Boro team is enough. Got to draw the line somewhere.

What sort of crowd is expected?
Could be quite low for such an historic occasion don't you think?
I suppose a lot will depend on how many thousands Stockport bring.
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Hola, Senor Rubiales.

Seriously, the first reply had to be sarcastic.
 
birkbeck_dj said:
Hola, Senor Rubiales.

Seriously, the first reply had to be sarcastic.
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Only the last bit was sarcastic.
I meant it when I said I hope they win.
I meant it when I said I'm not really that bothered.
I meant it when I said for me it is similar to looking out for the U18 or U21 results.
I meant it when I said I don't want the stress of following another team.
I am genuinely interested in what sort of crowd is expected and what would be considered decent.
I don't however think Stockport will bring many fans.

What of those things puts me on a par with Rubiales?
 
There was a crowd of 700 for the first home game of the season, that was the biggest attendance in the division. Now this will be a first start at the Riverside Stadium and a chance to build on that crowd but also to build on the foundations of England and BG women's games at the home of Boro.
 
Obviously the league Boro women play in will be a factor, you're not looking at WSL attendances, there might be a thousand there if lucky.

But it's a great step forward for our women, playing at the Riverside for the first time and I hope they cap it off with a win.

700 is an incredibly decent figure though...for comparison Avro FC, a semi-professional men's team (who are famous for serving top quality food at their ground) have an all time record home attendance of 688, and they play in the Northern Premier League Division One West.
 
Juninhoburger said:
Obviously the league Boro women play in will be a factor, you're not looking at WSL attendances, there might be a thousand there if lucky.

But it's a great step forward for our women, playing at the Riverside for the first time and I hope they cap it off with a win.

700 is an incredibly decent figure though...for comparison Avro FC, a semi-professional men's team (who are famous for serving top quality food at their ground) have an all time record home attendance of 688, and they play in the Northern Premier League Division One West.
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It'd be nice to get over 1,000 but yeah it's the fourth tier of women's football. It'll take gradual time for the attendances to build up. Sheffield United Women had their first matches at Brammall Lane around 2 years ago and had around 4,000 attending. And they're in the second tier, and that was a record for the Championship. The following season they beat that record with 5,000 in and last season they had over 10,000 attend. I would like to see more than 1,000 in, I think we should be getting significantly more in than at Stockton.

As much as I'd like to see the ground packaged, I'm glad we're not just charging a couple of pounds a ticket to get one big crowd in that see it as a novelty.

I wonder whether it's worthwhile having a Boro women thread for anyone who has an interest... Unless it's just me. They're drawing 1-1 away at Hull at the moment. It's a shame there's no way for them to stream the away games!
 
The Geordie lasses had a crowd of 22k+ last year for their first game at St.James, against Alnwick.

Boro lasses have a few derbies this season, Norton, Durham Cestrians and Chester le Street.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
The Geordie lasses had a crowd of 22k+ last year for their first game at St.James, against Alnwick.

Boro lasses have a few derbies this season, Norton, Durham Cestrians and Chester le Street.
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They did, but they built it to be a novelty and charged very low ticket prices. They haven't carried any larger attendances across to their games away from St James Park as far as I've seen. We're clearly looking to build a sustainable fan base like Sheffield United are trying to do.

Durham Cestria is on Thursday night in Redcar, not sure why the home game has been moved there. But it'll be a good game, they're a good side but we've signed a few of their better players. Doncaster Rovers Belles are in the same division as well which will be a big game.
 
rbmfc1985 said:
They did, but they built it to be a novelty and charged very low ticket prices. They haven't carried any larger attendances across to their games away from St James Park as far as I've seen. We're clearly looking to build a sustainable fan base like Sheffield United are trying to do.

Durham Cestria is on Thursday night in Redcar, not sure why the home game has been moved there. But it'll be a good game, they're a good side but we've signed a few of their better players. Doncaster Rovers Belles are in the same division as well which will be a big game.
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Maybe the Geordie approach is the right one. Why shouldn't it be cheap to watch the women play if it brings crowds in and aren't Boro doing the same anyway, playing games away from the Riverside too?
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
Maybe the Geordie approach is the right one. Why shouldn't it be cheap to watch the women play if it brings crowds in and aren't Boro doing the same anyway, playing games away from the Riverside too?
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Because it's not sustainable. You get one or two buy crowds in and they only return if the tickets stay cheap.

Of course Boro are still playing games away from the Riverside. What I said is that the fans who turned up at St James' Park didn't carry over to their games away from there. Probably because they charge more at Kingston Park than they do at St James' Park. The whole point of playing a higher profile game at the Riverside should be to raise awareness and to build a following. What's the point of getting 20,000+ at the Riverside and none of the new fans going to watch them in Stockton? Surely it's better to get lower numbers in but fans who will continue to follow them afterwards?
 
I think its great for the women's squad and its great for the town in general that we place importance on the Women's team enough to host them at the Riverside. I hope the support grows.
 
rbmfc1985 said:
Because it's not sustainable. You get one or two buy crowds in and they only return if the tickets stay cheap.

Of course Boro are still playing games away from the Riverside. What I said is that the fans who turned up at St James' Park didn't carry over to their games away from there. Probably because they charge more at Kingston Park than they do at St James' Park. The whole point of playing a higher profile game at the Riverside should be to raise awareness and to build a following. What's the point of getting 20,000+ at the Riverside and none of the new fans going to watch them in Stockton? Surely it's better to get lower numbers in but fans who will continue to follow them afterwards?
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No, you want high numbers, the more that start to take an interest the better. It's a better experience for the team too. You'll still get your die hards when the game is back in Stockton or anywhere else. If it's worth watching people will turn up.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
No, you want high numbers, the more that start to take an interest the better. It's a better experience for the team too. You'll still get your die hards when the game is back in Stockton or anywhere else. If it's worth watching people will turn up.
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High numbers would be great, but not at the cost of devaluing the game. Most Northern League teams charge around £7 for games. Charging £10 for a game at the Riverside is more than reasonable. Like I said, Sheffield United started with 4,000 fans at their first game at Brammall Lane, that increased to 11,000 last season. It's better for Boro to follow that route, instead of following Newcastle's route which isn't sustainable when they start to increase prices.
 
rbmfc1985 said:
Because it's not sustainable. You get one or two buy crowds in and they only return if the tickets stay cheap.

Of course Boro are still playing games away from the Riverside. What I said is that the fans who turned up at St James' Park didn't carry over to their games away from there. Probably because they charge more at Kingston Park than they do at St James' Park. The whole point of playing a higher profile game at the Riverside should be to raise awareness and to build a following. What's the point of getting 20,000+ at the Riverside and none of the new fans going to watch them in Stockton? Surely it's better to get lower numbers in but fans who will continue to follow them afterwards?
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Spot on. It was £3 and £1 a ticket for these games and were during the international break and they give away a lot of free tickets to schools etc. Probably a good idea in the short term but rbmfc is right its not sustainable in the long term. Newcastle charge £6 and £3 normally with season ticket £50 and £10 for concessions. They average 2 and a half thousand, and that is skewed by 2 massive crowds the biggest team in their league is only averaging 400+. Ladies needs to take advantage of the bump in popularity and the it being subsidised by wads of cash sploshing around the mens premier league but its not sustainable economically at the this scale and cost in the long term.
 
rbmfc1985 said:
High numbers would be great, but not at the cost of devaluing the game. Most Northern League teams charge around £7 for games. Charging £10 for a game at the Riverside is more than reasonable. Like I said, Sheffield United started with 4,000 fans at their first game at Brammall Lane, that increased to 11,000 last season. It's better for Boro to follow that route, instead of following Newcastle's route which isn't sustainable when they start to increase prices.
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£10 for a far lower standard of football than the Northern League isn't reasonable at all.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
£10 for a far lower standard of football than the Northern League isn't reasonable at all.
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It's all subjective, but I go to see both levels fairly regularly (usually Thornaby for Northern League and Middlesbrough for WNL), and I'd put the WNL on a higher level than the Northern League. Especially today, the Northern League is nowhere near as strong as it was 10-15 years ago when sides would stay in that division rather than accepting promotion. While the WNL Div 1 North is full of sides who have recently been at higher levels (Middlesbrough, Hull and Doncaster were in the WNL Premier Division North within the last 5 years) and a lot of other good footballing sides like Leeds and Durham Cestria. It's a very competitive league as well with a lot of sides going for the one promotion spot.

Either way, would you be going to the game if it was lower priced? And if so, what's the maximum price would you pay to see the Middlesbrough Women's side? Personally, I'm more than happy to pay that price for me, my partner and our son.
 
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