Attendances at both football clubs in Dundee have been steadily falling over the years, with armchair supporters becoming more reliant on television coverage…
(Article written by Tactful Sheik)
Attendances at both football clubs in Dundee have been steadily falling over the years – with armchair supporters becoming more reliant on television coverage and less likely to spend the £20-£25 gate price to sit in the miserable Scottish weather, watching poor unentertaining matches.
The introduction of internet football is unlikely to help, because even though clubs do take a percentage of money made from supporters purchasing events over the internet, its still not as much as would be made if they paid to watch it from a seat in the stand.
This season, several Dundee United matches have been shown over the internet, with only non-UK based fans are able to watch the game live, but UK based fans are still able to watch a full replay of the match anytime after midnight on the same day.
It might work out more expensive than waiting to watch the highlights on Scotsport on a Monday night, but some supporter think its worth it, rather than waiting for 2 days to see the pathetic 30seconds worth of coverage given to non-Old Firm matches on ITVs SPL show.
The BBCs excellent live radio coverage of SPL matches is also persuading football supporters to stay at home, with all the matches not covered on Radio Scotland, still available over the internet from the BBCs website.
Then there is live text coverage of Scottish football matches, with Sporting Life and the BBC just 2 of the websites giving play-by-play reviews as they happen, including who took each throw-in and % of possession for each side.
This season, Dundees average league attendance has been a lowly 3,990 per 1st division match at Dens Park.
SPL side Dundee United are averaging a few more, with around 7,424 in the league, but thats to be expected with some of the countries bigger sides (Rangers, Celtic, etc) bringing larger away supports than 1st division clubs like Clyde and Brechin City.
With the news that several businesses in Dundee are set for closure, and money becoming even tighter within the city, those attendances are unlikely to improve any time soon.
NCR, Michelin and now Dundee University seem to have the press reporting more and more job losses in the city every week, which could mean several more Dundee or Dundee United fans out of work and unable to afford to attend either Dens or Tannadice on a regular basis.
Dundee FC have now said they are safely out of administration, which is great news for future derbies, but the club still have debts reported to be around £8million, whilst Dundee United arent much better off.
United chairman Eddie Thompson has been subsiding the club since his appointment to the board a few years back, but that cant go on forever, because even the former managing director of ‘Morning. Noon & Night doesnt have a bottomless pit of money at his disposal.
Former manager Craig Brewster tried to reduce the Tannadice wage bill by kicking out several of the clubs highest earners, including Derek McInnes, Russell Latapy, Grant Brebner and Jim McIntyre.
This has allowed current manager Craig Levein a bit more space to breath when it comes to new signings, but even after telling defender David McCracken he has no further future at the club, Levein will still have to get rid of a few more players before he can afford to bring more new faces to Tannadice.
The introduction of Uniteds new ArabZone website sounds like a great way of bringing some additional revenue into the club, with supporters likely to pay around £1 a week to access more up-to-date news, interviews and match related footage.
The club say they are ‘Very excited about ArabZONE’, but Dundee United have never had a huge fan base and how many of those with internet access could afford an extra £50 a year for such a service?
At least they are making an effort to find new ways of making money, but with TV revenue and advertising income limited, both Dundee clubs are facing an uncertain future and a difficult struggle to stay afloat.
Dundee’s average in 4085 (From memory but it is over the 4000 mark and 45 or over.)
That might include cup games, I worked out the average myself, using ALL the attendances from Dundee home league matches and it worked out at 3,990.
3990 still sounds like far too many
AJ, Including cup games it would probably be lower (lmao) the programme got the figure.
Work it out yourself if you dont believe me!