zohak
Season Ticket Holder
Posts: 131 
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Post by zohak on Mar 31, 2023 5:03:19 GMT
I have been lucky enough to have been an expat for the last 15yrs, having worked in Kuwait, Singapore and the last 7yrs Dubai. prior to this nomadic life I was a season ticket holder and went to at least 70% of away games every season.
Charlton was my 2nd life and every trip back to the UK coincided with at least 1 or 2 games at the Valley.
However over the last 2-3yrs with all the rubbish that has gone on, I feel that hold over me has nearly broken.
As an expat we are lucky to have Charlton TV but more and more I can't be bothered to login and watch the games. Indeed more often than not I am turning off the games when we concede and watching one of the many premiership games instead.
When TS came in, I hoped that this may retrigger my enthusiasm and at the start it did, but like many false dawns its just made it worse. All this talk now about takeovers, chancers and bullsh!tters has probably done it.
We are on the move again in June, moving onto the delights of Bangkok. my son and I have decided to go and spend our Saturdays/Sundays watching the Thai premier league and supporting Port Fc (even if their colours are palace ).
Maybe these feelings are temporally, maybe a takeover and an upward trend will bring back my love. I will still buy Charlton TV but that's in hope rather expectation.
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Post by kings hill addick on Mar 31, 2023 7:17:14 GMT
This will be Sandgaard’s legacy. This will be how history remembers him. The chap who ran the club so badly that fans gave up and walked away, in some cases for ever.
It will take, almost, unlimited success to get the fans that have lost interest under Sandgaard to start attending games like they did before he arrived.
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Post by aaronaldo on Mar 31, 2023 7:45:15 GMT
This will be Sandgaard’s legacy. This will be how history remembers him. The chap who ran the club so badly that fans gave up and walked away, in some cases for ever. It will take, almost, unlimited success to get the fans that have lost interest under Sandgaard to start attending games like they did before he arrived. I'm more optimistic than this. If we built a squad in the summer who play attractive football and it puts us in the fight for promotion then I think fans will be drawn back quite quickly. I don't want to consider what a disastrous summer and start to the season might do for us though. |
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Post by Mundell on Mar 31, 2023 8:25:36 GMT
We all have our own life’s journey during which our interests and our passions ebb and flow and I have every respect for how others are experiencing Charlton’s current travails. I’ve lost a lot of interest myself. Whether my emotional intensity will return I simply don’t know.
However, the narrative connecting ‘bad owner’ to ‘fan malaise’ to ‘club in decline’ is a case of nostalgic pessimism. It’s all about results and, very closely related to that, entertainment value.
I haven’t done a scientific study, but my guess is that attendances in the Premier League, the Championship, Leagues One and Two and the National League are higher than they’ve been since the immediate post war period. And there is a huge amount of live football on TV. Inevitably, crowds are up where clubs are currently enjoying success and down where they’re struggling, but here too there’s an ebb and flow and a cycle.
Life time support, in the sense of truly supporting a club through think and thin (in the sense of attending matches) is a myth. While many fans do that, the majority do not. Their interest wanes when ‘their’ club is struggling. Most return when fortunes change and those that don’t are replaced by new entrants who repeat the cycle.
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Post by jonkool on Mar 31, 2023 9:20:48 GMT
Wembley May 2019 and Old Trafford Jan 2023 back up the notion that there’s a huge swathe of more passive fans who identify with CAFC but have many competing interests as far as actually turning up for games.
I totally agree with the above comments that many will return if the club challenges for promotion and play a good brand of football.
DH is a gaffer that the fans can identify with and so the $64 is whether ownership will provide him with the funds to build a sway as that can challenge.
Nothing changes!
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Post by earlpurple on Mar 31, 2023 10:57:18 GMT
I turned up to 3 games this season, midweek home games against Plymouth (brilliant), Forest Green Rovers (dire) and MK Dons (even worse).
I like to go to live games, and Charlton are my club.
When Sandgaard came in it was more that we were a club in dire need of rescue so he was welcomed. We'd seen what happened to Bury and nearly to Bolton and thought it might have happened to us. It was the middle of COVID and no fans in grounds so clubs were going to make big losses, yet he came in anyway, we signed some players and won 6 in a row with a very tight defence being the strong foundation rather than attacking football.
An injury to Inniss though and we didn't have enough in reserve and were conceding 2 goals a game, a run of games where were the 17th best club in the division, and then Bowyer gave up and left.
Bring in Nigel Adkins and he turned things around, we went on another run and just missed the playoffs on goal-difference, with 74 points.
So we were hopeful - a full season, maybe we'd build a decent squad? But no, we had Ged Roddy trying to "play clever" and wait for the last minute players with no club to go to who would join us in desperation of needing somewhere. So all the best available players were taken by other clubs, we started the season in relegation form with Adkins probably feeling so shafted he couldn't get it up to motivate the players we had. Fortunately Johnnie Jackson showed that the squad we had was enough to at least be mid-table if nothing better.
Then comes Garner-ball. Let's play attractive football - get someone in from the division below with the kind of playing stats that looks attractive, bring in a few of their players too... Ok we started brightly, but maybe teams just knew what to do to beat us - they do their homework you know - and I recall the Cambridge manager talking through his strategy of what to do after we'd thrashed Plymouth and it got them a draw, and other teams too.
Finally, new senior management board brought in - new manager too who like Johnnie Jackson will work with what he has. A slight turnaround in form, hopeful of a takeover with a well-run club. But no, Thomas Sandgaard pulls the plug on the deal, and here we are.
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Post by seriouslyred on Mar 31, 2023 11:46:13 GMT
This will be Sandgaard’s legacy. This will be how history remembers him. The chap who ran the club so badly that fans gave up and walked away, in some cases for ever. It will take, almost, unlimited success to get the fans that have lost interest under Sandgaard to start attending games like they did before he arrived. Murray and the rest of the ex-directors took us to the EPL, rebuilt the Valley (sold out every week) but also failed once relegated... CAFC BVI (Jiminez & Cash) took us back to the Championship with the likes of Dale Stephens (just retired) but we were nearly relegated as they ran out of money. Crowds recovered a little Duchatelet was "different" but at least we had Wembley in 2019. But ESI and now Sandgaard have set us back a long way. As several have stated, it won't take much to resolve and convert the current squad into promotion hopefuls. But the losses are eye-wartering unless one can secure a return to the EPL. Challenging for promotion back to the Championship will inject life into our club again. |
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Post by weststandfruitloop on Mar 31, 2023 11:53:02 GMT
Sandgaard is just the most recent nail in the coffin. Half of our fan base stopped going under Duchatelet and have never returned. That includes myself - apart from the Play Off Final (couldn't resist Wembley, sorry) I haven't been to a Charlton men's game in seven seasons, having had a season ticket for most of the prior 30-ish years.
The same goes for the mates I got to know through games. Most of them had been ST holders far longer than me and one actually lives in Floyd Road, yet they similarly haven't set foot in The Valley since 2016. Instead we meet up every month or so at a random non-league game in an interesting town with great pubs (eg Hastings, Bath, St Albans recently). None of us miss Charlton at all.
I'm astonished that there are people mulling over the idea of a boycott now. Astonished by the fact that there is anyone still going at all. Most of us have been boycotting for years now. This club under Duchatelet, ESI and Sandgaard isn't Charlton and anyone paying money to support it isn't a Charlton fan imho.
There have been too many false dawns to imagine TS leaving will improve things. It might just as easily make things worse. I will continue to check Charlton's results online (out of morbid fascination as much as anything) but I will continue staying away until we have new owners WHO HAVE RUN THE CLUB PROPERLY FOR AT LEAST A SEASON. That's the minimum required personally for some trust to return. I suspect many of my mates will not return at all.
I genuinely don't understand why people still attend. Is it Stockholm syndrome? Is it force of habit? Are they masochists? The argument often used is "I go to meet my mates". Why not find somewhere else to go? There are tens of thousands of other football clubs, sports teams, pubs, towns, etc you could meet your mates at.
Saturday afternoons don't cease to exist if you stop going to Charlton. In fact they become a whole lot more pleasant!
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Post by roburwash on Mar 31, 2023 18:34:27 GMT
Frankly. I'm getting fed up with all the people who come on here boasting that they don't go to games and can hardly be bothered to check results now. What are we supposed to do, applaud and bow down to your superiority? But coming on here and telling us that we're not Charlton fans if we do go, just about takes the biscuit. Without us you won't even have a club to come back to if you so deign to do one day.
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Post by kings hill addick on Apr 1, 2023 13:55:04 GMT
Frankly. I'm getting fed up with all the people who come on here boasting that they don't go to games and can hardly be bothered to check results now. What are we supposed to do, applaud and bow down to your superiority? But coming on here and telling us that we're not Charlton fans if we do go, just about takes the biscuit. Without us you won't even have a club to come back to if you so deign to do one day. I don’t remember anyone on here making accusations of those going. Maybe you’re getting confused with another message board? |
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Post by tonaddick on Apr 1, 2023 16:32:50 GMT
Frankly. I'm getting fed up with all the people who come on here boasting that they don't go to games and can hardly be bothered to check results now. What are we supposed to do, applaud and bow down to your superiority? But coming on here and telling us that we're not Charlton fans if we do go, just about takes the biscuit. Without us you won't even have a club to come back to if you so deign to do one day. I don’t remember anyone on here making accusations of those going. Maybe you’re getting confused with another message board? Much as I disagree with roburwash's birthday card whinging, he is right that weststandfruitloop did accuse those going of not being real fans. It's not for others to make that accusation. FWIW I had a lovely afternoon watching Cray Valley PM as they inch closer to the play offs to the Isthmian Premier. |
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Post by hongkongaddick on Apr 1, 2023 19:10:38 GMT
I have been lucky enough to have been an expat for the last 15yrs, having worked in Kuwait, Singapore and the last 7yrs Dubai. prior to this nomadic life I was a season ticket holder and went to at least 70% of away games every season. Charlton was my 2nd life and every trip back to the UK coincided with at least 1 or 2 games at the Valley. However over the last 2-3yrs with all the rubbish that has gone on, I feel that hold over me has nearly broken. As an expat we are lucky to have Charlton TV but more and more I can't be bothered to login and watch the games. Indeed more often than not I am turning off the games when we concede and watching one of the many premiership games instead. When TS came in, I hoped that this may retrigger my enthusiasm and at the start it did, but like many false dawns its just made it worse. All this talk now about takeovers, chancers and bullsh!tters has probably done it. We are on the move again in June, moving onto the delights of Bangkok. my son and I have decided to go and spend our Saturdays/Sundays watching the Thai premier league and supporting Port Fc (even if their colours are palace ). Maybe these feelings are temporally, maybe a takeover and an upward trend will bring back my love. I will still buy Charlton TV but that's in hope rather expectation. Like you mate, I wish the quality of the stuff on the pitch matched the superb Charlton TV product. It did today, mind you! Also like you, I don’t watch every game despite having the ST. Albeit that’s more about timings than not being arsed. You’ll love BKK - truly one of the great cities of the world. A gulf (sorry…) away from the Middle East, although there’s plenty of Arabs there on medical tourism & shopping trips. |
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