THE PLASTICS

Huddersfield are a lot bigger club and have been for a long time . -take in the catchment area etc==not a very good comparison

Quoted from golfer

Huddersfield are a lot bigger club and have been for a long time . -take in the catchment area etc==not a very good comparison

Clearly, they are now and they have a splendid history. But in the mid 70s you couldn't really tell, they were getting 4k gates in Div 3 and 4. What if they hadn't moved from Leeds Road - still in a decaying "victorian" stadium totally unsuited for adaption to all-seater, booted out the league for 6 years and still no prospect of a new stadium...?

The John Smiths was built in an open area not in the centre of a dump- a lot of our problems lie with the "best council nomination" council so it's no good the USUAL people knocking JSF at every opportunity

Odd thread by the title of plastics..
No different to any other club.

Town support is pretty good really we could easily do a Barnsley. 10 -12000 at home and a big away end to capitalise on large away support.

The best way to increase support is a) bring a friend or family member who doesn't normally come, b) rather than slagging occasional supporters off for being plastics chat to them and try and make them welcome. Football support is a tribal thing and someone is more likely to come back as much for the rapport they feel with the people around them than for the results on the pitch.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

Spot on IMHO. It's a while ago but, I recall that once Huddersfield got planning permission for their new ground for the last two seasons at Leeds Road they offered cut-price season tickets, doubled their crowds and then saw them increase again once in their new home - they created exactly what you have said above. They've never really looked back since. Before that, one would have said they were a similar sized club to Town!

Huddersfield are spending their 25th season at what is now called the John Smith's Stadium. Their first season there they were promoted from what is now League One to the Championship. Overall they have had:-

2 seasons in the Premier League
11 seasons in the Championship
11 season in League One
1 season in League Two

In 74 (completed) league seasons at Leeds Road they were only out of the top 2 divisions for 16 of those seasons. 11 season in the old old Division Three & 5 seasons in the old old Division Four. The remaining 57 seasons were split 30-27 in favour of top flight football.

Huddersfield aren't a great example of a new stadium having a clear impact on a football club.

Quoted from Yoda

Town support is pretty good really we could easily do a Barnsley. 10 -12000 at home and a big away end to capitalise on large away support.

Clubs that have done a new stadium right (Scunny are an exception), or impressively refurbished their existing one, have, with a bit on field success seen a return of support to a level not seen since the 60s - Hull, Rotherham, Donny and Barnsley. All of those experienced terrible attendances in their old or unrefurbed grounds in the last 30 years. In the mid to late 60s Town's gates were falling rapidly as the team were dropping down the leagues but looking in the History of GTFC at the early 60's, an average of 10-12k at Championship level would look achievable. OK the town is relatively less prosperous and the population is older and falling, but to counter that away support levels will be higher. At League 1 level - a 7-8k average should be the target, similar to 1964/5 when we finished 10th in Div 3. However, in those days there would have been good levels of support from the rural county areas, as I said on the Takeover thread, we cannot fall too far behind Lincoln otherwise there will be a permanent shift - they will be the big club in Lincs...

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Huddersfield are spending their 25th season at what is now called the John Smith's Stadium. Their first season there they were promoted from what is now League One to the Championship. Overall they have had:-

2 seasons in the Premier League
11 seasons in the Championship
11 season in League One
1 season in League Two

In 74 (completed) league seasons at Leeds Road they were only out of the top 2 divisions for 16 of those seasons. 11 season in the old old Division Three & 5 seasons in the old old Division Four. The remaining 57 seasons were split 30-27 in favour of top flight football.

Huddersfield aren't a great example of a new stadium having a clear impact on a football club.

Thanks for the research, but don't agree with your conclusion. The key question is where would they be if they hadn't got a new stadium. One could equally argue the new stadium has helped maintain their historic status within the football hierarchy. Leeds Road was a bigger version of Blundell Park -  a very large proportion of the capacity was terracing. The away end was a crumbling terrace similar to Bloomfield Road. How it would have converted to all-seater - with difficulty and probably... with a huge % cut in capacity - like Blundell Park.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Thought this was going to be a verbal assault on the multitude of fans who left their seats when Macclesfield scored their second goal which I found very disappointing.

To be fair the majority returned second half & got behind the team but personally thought the numbers that left their seats in the first half sent a very poor message out to the players. In reality the players need the support at these moments more than when we are 2-0 up so IMO not only the team failed to perform yesterday.

In my defence i always go down to the catering on 33 mins to avoid the queues....whilst stood there yesterday Mitch gave the 2nd goal away.
I imagine quite a few in the Upper Smiths do similar as they can glimpse the game on the monitors downstairs whilst also trying to avoid the ridiculous queues that build up.