I wonder how many season ticket holders there are now? ...& whether from a club perspective they want to increase this number or if it is more beneficial to increase non season ticket sales by more now? 

I think the new fan zone has potential to improve the fan experience and if people become more familiar with this better experience, it may increase revenue and also the return supporter rate ..so maybe some more fan zone promotions such as 'happy hours' & 'food deals' may encourage or help? 

Also, a reduced ticket rate for online advance tickets is always welcome and may mean the more casual supporter wont change plans on the day if they have purchased an advance ticket 

Just some thoughts ... 

I think that is a very decent figure and compares well with many other NL clubs.

We do seem to attract quite a few 'floating' supporters when conditions allow (international break etc) so maybe the focus needs to be on how to get more people to turn away from following Premier League/Championship clubs not in the Dorking catchment area and get them over to Meadowbank to see their local side...

Average for the first 12 games last season was 1,835 so we're ever so slightly up compared to last season which is good to see. We hadn't had Woking, Oldham, Southend and Torquay visit by this point last season but we did have Wrexham, Notts, Chesterfield and Yeovil all bring good crowds by this point. That very small Maidstone game crowd does bring the average down for last season though.

I agree that an advance online discount would be a good idea as most other clubs do that. I would also like to see those "Four4U" deals come back where you could get any 4 matches bundled for a discounted price. My girlfriend won't come to matches unless that offer is available! 🤣  

Obviously longer term plan should be to develop the ground more. I think you would see much better crowds if the viewing experience was improved (mostly on that North side with the dugouts).

Posted by: @calvertskans

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Obviously longer term plan should be to develop the ground more. I think you would see much better crowds if the viewing experience was improved (mostly on that North side with the dugouts).

Agreed - think Borehamwood would be a great model to replicate, although terraces rather than seats along the dugout side. So a long terrace, maybe 10 steps deep, steep enough for a good view and a roof would be great. 

Next step I'd try and improve the away terrace somehow, I think getting a better gradient is more important than a roof where that's concerned (for now). 

And then the really big changes - I'd demolish the Stonegate stand and all the buildings next to it, and put in one large seated stand, holding enough to be EFL compliant, and big enough to hold any away fans that want seats too. And then extend the Bank all the way along, getting rid of the seated area.

Doing all the above, the away terrace could be permanently given over to away fans, with permanent segregation fencing. 

There. Done. Capacity around 6-7,000 with 2,000 seats. Great atmosphere guaranteed. 

They are all good ideas @AdeB.  In the short term there are promotional things with schools and National League Day etc that can have a good impact on the day. 

in the longer term, the big improvement to come would be to the north side, with some terracing there.  The new fanzone has plenty of scope for improvement, with a range of varying outlets.  A roof for the away fans seems reasonable too.  

A roof for the away terrace has already got planning permission, challenge is raising the funds to pay for it (possibly why next seasons shirt is available to pre-order already?). Hope that happens. Agree the gradient is the issue, however I stood on the top step of the new away terrace during the building works BEFORE the back fence was installed and it's surprising how high it is there compared to the houses behind the trees. Increasing the height of the top step isn't an option.

I wonder if long term that shallow away end has more potential to be converted to seats, where the rake isn't such a big deal? The terrace steps themselves are very deep - ideal for seating.

OR Potentially if in the future the pitch is to be ripped up and replaced with grass then the whole ground layout could be significantly altered - you could actually shorten the depth of the away end by half (ie move the pitch towards the away end by a couple of metres) and so still have 5 standing steps there, but each step could be half as deep, which in turn makes the rake (angle) steeper.

I'd go as far as saying make the away as as narrow as you can get away with (making it as steep as possible) and the metres you gain benefit the home end where extra capacity can be built in the 'gained' space.

You'd then have more room at the home end to move the stands forward and increase capacity behind them.

On the Main Stand side it'd be lovely to have a stand like at Worthing where there are bars and changing rooms under the stand, and so the seated stand itself above can run the whole length of the pitch.

On the north side, the big challenge is that whatever you do the dugouts block a lot of the view. Unless you go quite 'high'. Or actually make the dugouts partially underground!

But I guess this is turning into fantasy football ground designer! And we don't have a millionaire at the club AFAIK!

I do think though more seats at the ground would really help attract and retain families, even one of those temporary stands put on the flat space next to the Stonegate stand would be a good improvement 

I also think some sort of food and drink hut (or mobile van) in the NW corner would be popular and increase spend

Below is my back-of-a-fag-packet illustration of my suggestion as to how to improve the away end

Obviously it could only be implemented at the same time as the pitch is ripped up and replaced (so that the pitch can move a few metres westwards towards the trees!)

The logic is that the top,back step is no higher than it is currently (keeping the planners happy, as the neighbouring homes don't suffer any increased height of the terrace)

But each new step is half as deep and twice as high - so they are 'normal' steps, with normal good views.

Of course such an alteration would massively reduce the capacity of the away end (and we need every single bit of capacity to comply with minimum capacity regs)

So the moving of the pitch towards the away end by 2-3 metres then gives that additional depth to the stands at the home end. These are prefabricated metal stands, which can be moved forwards, and then extra rows added to the rear of them to re-increase capacity of the whole ground back to the number that we need to reach.

Basically make the away (west) end as small as we are allowed to get away with (3 terrace steps probably counts as an end as long as its behind a barrier) and replace the lost capacity at the home end

Average home league attendance is now 1933 

I think that is pretty good considering the on field success rate at home

Hopefully a good cup run generates additional excitement around the club

Average was 1885 after the same amount of games last season so good to see an increase.

Still got Chesterfield to visit who you imagine will bring a large following. I expect the Hartlepool game at the end of the season to have a decent crowd as well.

I think attendances are excellent considering the age of the club, the home form and size of town. Dorking get higher attendances than ex league clubs such as  Barnet and Dagenham. Attendances will also be affected by proximity to London and other clubs.

I am a Crawley Season Ticket Holder so only get to a few games but if performances and results improve, I think some of the less regular fans like me will come more often.

A roof on the away end will also help away fans come back, and I feel cheaper deals for concessions and children would help improve attendances.

Average attendance is still marginally higher than last season at this point, however we will need a crowd of 2,800+ for the Hartlepool game in order for it to stay higher than last season.

Season average 1954

I think average will be well down next season mainly due to much lower number of away fans most weeks

@dorking-eagle That's an incredibly high average given we've been relegated and struggling pretty much all season. Not to mention the size of the town, how quickly we've progressed etc.

Gives great hope for future potential tbh. Yes, average will of course be down next season, but many, many will be back, and I think our away support will remain decent too. 

Roll on next season and, hopefully a Boxing/New Years Day derby vs. Farnborough.

1,952 this season vs 1,962 last season.

A very slight drop but probably expected with the likes of Wrexham, Notts County, Torquay and Yeovil not in the league this season. Fylde, Kidderminster and Oxford all with smaller away followings to bring the average down.

In terms of team v team comparison, only 7 matches had a smaller crowd than the previous year:

Maidenhead United (-329) - Summer holidays match this year

York City (-420) - Summer holidays match this year

Eastleigh (-646) - Summer holidays match this year and Boxing Day last year

Wealdstone (-27) - Midweek fixture this year and rainy conditions

Dagenham (-93) - The match was moved from a midweek slot which may have impacted the crowd

Woking (-1115) - Easter Bank Holiday last season with bigger away following and a Summer holiday slot this year

Altrincham (-260) - This was the only direct comparison as both matches were the same gameweek. Recent performances/relegation would have impacted some of the crowds later in the season.