Words Bill Waterson

ON Saturday August 31st, Altrincham FC host Oldham Athletic at The J.Davidson Stadium in the Vanarama National League. This is the fourth time in two years that we have hosted the Latics, and it is the latest in a number of high-profile games at the ground in recent years.

Alty are on a journey – aiming to reach heights we have never scaled before by becoming a Football League club for the first time in our history. Needless to say, this is not a straightforward mission by any means – we have seen well-established Football League clubs fail to regain their former status year after year. And we have had to come a very long way to even get close to being able to attempt this step up.

It’s less than seven years since we were playing a home league game in front of fewer than 500 supporters, and last season we had our best ever average attendance in the National League. And we are truly grateful for your backing in getting us to this unprecedented level.

But August is not a good month for home support. Many of our regular supporters are away on holiday. We saw this last season, with two of our poorest Saturday home crowds in August, and even the visit of Chesterfield saw a disappointing attendance.

You will understand that in order to reach the play-offs, as we did for the first time in our history last season, and to endeavour to emulate that feat this season, we are spending money like never before.

Our football budget is higher than it has ever been, and this by an order of magnitude. And off the field, a game of such high profile has significant additional costs – from the road closure on Moss Lane to the police presence inside the ground and the significant additional stewarding costs.

The revenue that a game like this generates is a critical part of our annual budget – to cover the additional costs of hosting the game and to support the level of expenditure of our football budget. Which brings us to the specifics of the ground allocation for Saturday’s fixture.

But first let me state a principle – the number of tickets given to away fans is first and foremost driven by the expected number of HOME supporters. If we can fill the ground and at the same time give the visitors the Chequers End and a bit of the Family Stand only, we will do so. This is what we did for FC Halifax Town in the FA Trophy semi-final, and it is what we did for Oldham Athletic on Easter Monday last season. Therefore, the number of tickets we looked to give Oldham for Saturday’s game was dependent on the number of home tickets we anticipated selling. 

We planned for another capacity home crowd – which is why we have triggered the process of selling tickets by section of the ground for home fans. But we flagged from the very beginning that if tickets were not selling in desired volumes, we would have to consider giving our visitors further tickets.

Unfortunately, this has proven to be the case, with home ticket sales still at a level lower than being close to selling out. Home ticket sales are stronger than both Woking and Eastleigh games, so hopefully we will see a good home turn-out at the weekend. It is also a possibility that we will allow free movement of home spectators on Saturday, depending on the achieved attendance. More news on this will follow between now and the weekend.

There are not even a handful of games in a National League season where the question of away support is even an issue. And our default position will always be to base our matchday planning around expected HOME attendances.

Thank you for your terrific support, and we are sure that you will all be behind the team on Saturday as you always are. Saturday is a symptom of our success, and as we continue to progress, we will certainly see further changes, some beneficial but some will be a shift from what many of us have grown up with at The J. Davidson Stadium.

This is a fact of life, but we are sure that you all would prefer Alty challenging again this season in the National League, for us to look to push on further, despite any inconveniences this may cause in the short term.

Thank you for your support – see you Saturday.