I don't know what the answer is regarding the Shay and our attendances, so many posts above make valid points regarding the reasons why people are not coming through the gates. I do think a lot of it is down to the Shay itself and that seems to tie in with what has been said above, even when we have had succesful teams at the Shay we have never really seen an increase in attendances.
I feel like we missed out on generations of fans over the years for whatever reason and now it feels like a total disconnect with the community and its really only this season and last that a lot of work seems to be going in to trying to engage in a serious fashion with the people of the area. I just don't know how you justify to a floating fan that the standard that we play at is worth 20 odd quid per game and that is always what I come back to.
Regards the Town forum as many know I do like to engage on there and there are some good posters on there but like anything you still have people who go on about 1998 like it were yesterday when theres actually such a small percentage of people that post on there that were even going back then and anything that is said is taken as gospel. When you gently remind them that Town have struggled a lot more than Fax over the years with finances than Fax have its made out like its a lie but I know people that were supporting them back to the 50's and 60's that remember them going from one crisis to the next. A lot of Town fans will simply forget that they were racking up debts in the early and mid 90's long before Fax ever thought of moving to the Shay.
Yes the rent arrears is not a great look and we do seem to be in a bit of trouble but Town have had more money written off by the council over the last 6 or 7 decades than Fax ever will have and have screwed more local businesses over than anyone will ever remember but some on that forum will still have you believe that it is all Fax's fault.
I really feel when it comes to the stadium it needs to be some sort of joint venture but Fax have kind of shot themselves in the foot if they had aspirations of that happening but I trust neither side to run the stadium on their own and feel like it would be a total disaster although I will admit to thinking it were funny if someone from Fax did end up with their hands on the stadium just because it would be worth seeing Hoodie, ShayTrev and Flea's melt down reaction.