With today's crowd going below 3000 for the first time in a while, it got me thinking as to when the last time the crowd had gone below 3000 in a competitive match at Home...

The last time was in fact a Cup Match back on 5th Feb 2011

The last League game to encounter a crowd less than 3000 was a 4-0 win over Airdrie in march 2010.

In the SPL, however, was actually at Pittodrie in December 2004, a 1-1 draw against Hearts...

The means NEVER BEFORE TODAY has the crowd at TCS, for an SPL fixture, been below 3000...

I confess that was my first game of the season, but does this not go to show that our club does not benefit from Sunday games because of the televised matches???

Is today's attendance the lowest ever for a weekend SPL game?

Is today's attendance the lowest ever for a weekend SPL game?

No we held the record for a game v Dunfermline for a while then the Gretna v ICT game @ Fir Park with about 800 people took the top spot.

Here is a graph of our average attendance so far this season. It's actually gone up a wee bit but obviously we haven't had a full round of fixtures at home and we've had three games (Celtic, Ross County and Aberdeen) which have traditionally inflated our figures anyway.

Edited November 18, 201213 yr by RiG

Is it any wonder when they would have to watch that today, unless things improve, the attendance will drop dramatically!

Yesterdays attendance disappointed me just about as much as the result did.

Yesterdays attendance disappointed me just about as much as the result did.

More than that Don it was soooo quiet. Felt quite surreal at times. Even the players seemed quiet although we could hear Terry shouting over in the North stand! Did hear Ritchies tirades at times tho!

I watched this one on TV. It was reminiscent to watching a pre-season match in terms of the atmosphere / noise. Hats off to the stewards though in recent weeks. They've been doing a sterling job in driving people away.

Asuming this is part Ken Thomson's remit he has a lot of work to do if the "Match Day Experience" is to improve and it won't be helped by inept displays like this one.

St Johnstone had about 70 more than us on Saturday. That's without TV or early kickoff, or the Kirk, etc etc. I'm assuming 3-400 of that was County fans, a good bit more than Well brought anyway.

Is it any wonder when they would have to watch that today, unless things improve, the attendance will drop dramatically!

but surely if performance = attendence we shouldve had more at the game yesterday than less. yesterday was pish but unless half of inverness is psychic they wouldnt have known that would happen, so surely on recent performance they shouldve turned up for this game and then not for the next after a dismal performance. there was nothing to indicate that the team wouldnt perform.

you surely cant blame performance on the poor attendance?

it isnt performance based as we should be gaining higher attendances if it was. I think alot of the problem is the matchday experience. It is expensive to go and alot of people i think would like to see more than just the football and then there the atmosphere yesterday was poor but it has been poor for years why cant a group of people make a din like we do away from home. We do have an established section for people to sing and try and pump atmosphere and energy into the crowd but it isnt happening

What I can't understand is, about a month and a half ago, about 4,500 ICT "fans" were at the Highland Derby. Did 2,000 of these people not enjoy themselves? The match was one of the most exciting we've had for years and the atmosphere was what we've always wanted it to be. Did these people not notice this? Did they find it boring? Did they find the atmosphere rubbish? It didn't seem like that at the time. I know some are still feeling disillusioned by the rubbish served up last season, while tougher economic times are also playing a part.

I think the real problem is that the town doesn't love the club. County seem to have been able to market themselves quite well to their catchment area, but ICT haven't. And I don't know why that is.

I think we need to accept that our core fanbase is around three thousand. The only times we see more than that in the home stands is when Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen or County come to town. If this was a saturday 3pm game I'd have expected to see four or five hundred Motherwell fans. As it was, with crap sunday service public transport, an early kick off and a long and expensive day in a freezing wintery stadium only a handful travelled.

Secondly I think over the years our figures have been false in that a good few Invernessians who came to TCS are now frequenting their first love County. Finally we need to remember that ICT are not only fighting County for fans but also Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen. Until we can break into the minds of those fans we will always be a low fanbase team. St Johnstone experience the same problems as will County if they stay up and when the novelty wears off.

that is a good point really. 4,500 came to the derby the two away games will be sell outs and im guessing the last home game will be close to the same attendance maybe more if we continue to do well and stay high in the table. Why just those games i am gutted im missing this season after being a st holder for 6 years. But i cant do it as im now down in england and cant go to hardly any home matches at all. The people who have stayed away because of last season i cant understand why they continue to if that is there reason. Yesterday apart we have played some really attractive football where we have created chances and have had 54 goals scored in our matches. (not all for us obviously) but we are top scorers in the league and again yesterday apart we have been fairly solid at the back in the last 5 or 6 matches.

What I can't understand is, about a month and a half ago, about 4,500 ICT "fans" were at the Highland Derby. Did 2,000 of these people not enjoy themselves? The match was one of the most exciting we've had for years and the atmosphere was what we've always wanted it to be. Did these people not notice this? Did they find it boring? Did they find the atmosphere rubbish? It didn't seem like that at the time. I know some are still feeling disillusioned by the rubbish served up last season, while tougher economic times are also playing a part.

I think the real problem is that the town doesn't love the club. County seem to have been able to market themselves quite well to their catchment area, but ICT haven't. And I don't know why that is.

I think we need to accept that our core fanbase is around three thousand. The only times we see more than that in the home stands is when Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen or County come to town. If this was a saturday 3pm game I'd have expected to see four or five hundred Motherwell fans. As it was, with crap sunday service public transport, an early kick off and a long and expensive day in a freezing wintery stadium only a handful travelled.

Secondly I think over the years our figures have been false in that a good few Invernessians who came to TCS are now frequenting their first love County. Finally we need to remember that ICT are not only fighting County for fans but also Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen. Until we can break into the minds of those fans we will always be a low fanbase team. St Johnstone experience the same problems as will County if they stay up and when the novelty wears off.

I think both these posts seem to nail what is happening, attendance wise bang on the head. As Renegade says, the town doesn't appear to lve the club. Why that is, I don't know but maybe I can give an example. Yesterday, 2 rows back from where I was sitting, there was one loud fan who started moaning from the first minute. After 10 minutes, I had to turn round to say him, why do you bother supporting ICT when all you have done is moan and some of my fellow fans then started to back me up. I know yesterday was a poor performance, can't remember the last time I felt so let down by the performance, but that incident is typical of a lot of fans whose negativity knows no bounds and I am sur ewere down fans who are more positive.

If you have a finite amount of disposable income you are going to spend what little cash you have on what you feel are the most neccessary purchases. In terms of watching ICT, fans will pick games v Ross County and Celtic and turn up for them but shun the likes of St. Mirren etc.

With the rightful demise of Rangers, its just as well that our neighbours across the bridge got promoted, otherwise our average home attendance would be even lower than its current pathetic level.

I just can't understand the apathy in Inverness towards ICT and SPL football.

I can't believe that it harps back to the 'merger'.

Someone on here hinted that Inverness doesn't deserve an SPL team. I'm beginning to think that has got more than a grain of truth in it. After all the trauma of the merger in the early 90s and the brilliant performance working our way up through the leagues in about 10 years, it is an absolute travesty that the bulk of the indiginous support apparently couldn't care less.

Could it not be that 'the indiginous support' couldn't care less about football.

We are the Wigan of the SPL.

I hear the service is smashing in the club shop :S

Some interesting thoughts here but whilst one or two have obviously got a handle on why we have a low fan base, I don't think anyone has explained why crowds appear to worse than last year when we are generally playing some pretty good stuff. On the face of we should have had a really good crowd against Motherwell given our league position, the quality of football we've played, the number of goals we've scored and the fact that it was a nice day. Instead we got our lowest home SPL crowd ever at TCS.

Was this simply the fact that the game was on TV and folk simply saved their pennies by not going? After all, it's not as though the atmosphere at TCS makes it more attractive to actually be there.

That may explain Sunday's crowd but the concern is the general poor level of support. There is simply no tradition of supporting the club in the City. The population is also very mobile with many youngsters having moved away whilst the City is full of incomes who have alleigences to other clubs and may just go to the odd match if they've nothing else to do. The core support is very low and it is going to have to be nurtured every inch of the way.

If the club moans about the fans all that will do is to allienate the few who go. What is needed is a concerted long term effort of working in the community, improving the match day experience, continuing to play atractive football, making the most of the big occasions, maximising the non football side of the business. To be fair, the club has been doing a lot of this over the years but it needs to keep soldiering on. Over a period of many years the club may slowly but surely win increasing numbers of followers if the profile is maintained, but on the other hand, there may be a further drop. What is certain is that without trying to maintain a high profile in all these ways attendances will fall further and that will impact on the players we can bring in.

Without wishing to go over old ground (too much ) the main reason we cannot sustain crowds is that there is no atmosphere and the main reason there is no atmosphere is the design of the stadium. I know we have what we have and there is absolutely no chance of financial planning to improve things at the moment, but IMHO we do need to keep this on the back burner. If some benefactor ever comes in with serious money we absolutely would not want to burn it buying short term success, what is needed is to get rid of our apology of a ground and build a nice compact stadium that enclosed the pitch and contained the sound.

But I doubt it will ever happen in my lifetime. Meanwhile I'll continue to support my team and shout "great ball" to the dolphins.

here is interesting thought - Do people think that if the league reconstruction came about whether people would turn up more?

Edited November 19, 201213 yr by gingerjaggy

Maybe everyone was at church?

It's time the majority on here realised that most Invernessians are not ICT fans and in my experience there are quite a number out there who take great pleasure when we get beat or are in a poor run of form

If it wasn't for the many incomers that have settled in Inverness in the last twenty years with cash to burn attendances would be a lot worse

I can't think of any other town or city in Scotland who's locals are so against their local team

ICT had NO fan base when it started so I think they are actually punching well above their weight to get 3000 odd home fans through the turnstiles for run of the mill games

Dougal

Very good post DD I agree with much of what you say

Poor Dougal, nobody is stupid enough to take the bait. You really must do better.