Chairman's statement

[beew]

This is all on the assumption that the old cricket club land is currently used exclusively as the school’s playing field. Is that correct?

It would be good to get this clarified - looking at pictures / google maps it appears that the school site ends roughly where Underhill Stadium did, at Priory Grove. Happy to be corrected if that's wrong though!

This was covered earlier in the thread. Under the terms of the agreement between the GLA and the school, the cricket club grounds were meant to be redeveloped into a multi function sports hall with pitches floodlights, basket ball facilities outbuildings etc for school and community use. This hasn't happened, so they could be in breach, and maybe our offer will help them achieve compliance.

S27 is the clause to look at.

[thebeekeeper]

This is all on the assumption that the old cricket club land is currently used exclusively as the school’s playing field. Is that correct?

It would be good to get this clarified - looking at pictures / google maps it appears that the school site ends roughly where Underhill Stadium did, at Priory Grove. Happy to be corrected if that's wrong though!

This was covered earlier in the thread. Under the terms of the agreement between the GLA and the school, the cricket club grounds were meant to be redeveloped into a multi function sports hall with pitches floodlights, basket ball facilities outbuildings etc for school and community use. This hasn't happened, so they could be in breach, and maybe our offer will help them achieve compliance.

S27 is the clause to look at.

Thanks beew, completely missed that.

[Tuesds]

This is all on the assumption that the old cricket club land is currently used exclusively as the school’s playing field. Is that correct?

It would be good to get this clarified - looking at pictures / google maps it appears that the school site ends roughly where Underhill Stadium did, at Priory Grove. Happy to be corrected if that's wrong though!

This was covered earlier in the thread. Under the terms of the agreement between the GLA and the school, the cricket club grounds were meant to be redeveloped into a multi function sports hall with pitches floodlights, basket ball facilities outbuildings etc for school and community use. This hasn't happened, so they could be in breach, and maybe our offer will help them achieve compliance.

S27 is the clause to look at.

That’s not an agreement between the GLA and the school. It’s an officer report on the planning application, and what paragraph 27 says about the cricket ground is that “The existing unused playing fields in the southern part of the site will also be brought back into use to provide football and cricket pitches. All of these facilities will be used by pupils of the school but will also be made available to the local community, including sports groups, for use outside of the standard school hours (evenings and weekends).”

…i.e. the fields will remain as sports fields for exclusive use by the school during school hours.

The sports hall referred to is part of ‘internal sports facilities’ planned for the main development on the old Underhill stadium site.

To know if the school was in breach of anything we’d need to see the planning permission itself, but based on this report the plans were for the fields to remain as fields, namely school playing fields. They’re no expected, and certainly not required (it appears) to build anything on the fields.

Hopefully we’ve got the school on-side for building over their fields, because even with their support it may be a very difficult element of these plans.

[wearebees]

A feature from City News, featuring Bees Pod and Daniel Martin.

[BeesKnees99]

A feature from City News, featuring Bees Pod and Daniel Martin.

Sounds like the club are fairly unfazed by the Council’s statement. They seem to think it’s in good hands.


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[Milkfloat]

http://www.downhillsecondhalf.co.uk/Mob ... ances.aspx

It is an enduring myth that attendances at the Hive are significantly lower than when we were at Underhill. It is forgotten that we were relegated the season before the move to the Hive so attendances were always going to drop. Look at 2001 to 2005, which is a more realistic comparison. Attendances at Underhill for these years were a lot lower than what we are currently getting at the Hive. Don't get me wrong - I would be very happy if we moved back but let's not get carried away.

[Mikel Bee]

Our attendances are up on 5 years ago.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/YpKzyhDrrubQKVr8/

[Tuesds]

http://www.downhillsecondhalf.co.uk/Mob ... ances.aspx

It is an enduring myth that attendances at the Hive are significantly lower than when we were at Underhill. It is forgotten that we were relegated the season before the move to the Hive so attendances were always going to drop. Look at 2001 to 2005, which is a more realistic comparison. Attendances at Underhill for these years were a lot lower than what we are currently getting at the Hive. Don't get me wrong - I would be very happy if we moved back but let's not get carried away.

This is true, although there were fewer away fans in those days.

Plus, and this is crucial, while our crowds are quite static, their relative size compared to that of other clubs at our level has fallen sharply. In 2002 average crowds of 1500-2000 made you a big Conference club. In 2024 the same attendances place you amongst the smallest National League clubs.

Whether it’s because of the Hive or a coincidence, we have completely missed out on the boom in lower league/non league attendances that has taken place over recent years.

[djhdjh]

Be interesting how that compares to the rest of our league and the one above. Attendances have gone up sharply since the pandemic overall.

[11bee717]

http://www.downhillsecondhalf.co.uk/Mob ... ances.aspx

It is an enduring myth that attendances at the Hive are significantly lower than when we were at Underhill. It is forgotten that we were relegated the season before the move to the Hive so attendances were always going to drop. Look at 2001 to 2005, which is a more realistic comparison. Attendances at Underhill for these years were a lot lower than what we are currently getting at the Hive. Don't get me wrong - I would be very happy if we moved back but let's not get carried away.

This is true, although there were fewer away fans in those days.

Plus, and this is crucial, while our crowds are relatively static, their relative size compared to that of other clubs at our level has fallen sharply. In 2002 average crowds of 1500-2000 made you a big Conference club. In 2024 the same attendances place you amongst the smallest National League clubs.

Whether it’s because of the Hive or a coincidence, we have completely missed out on the boom in lower league/non league attendances that has taken place over recent years.

Agree. A club like us with the boom in lower league attendances should be averaging 2500-3000, instead of 1800

[thebeekeeper]

http://www.downhillsecondhalf.co.uk/Mob ... ances.aspx

It is an enduring myth that attendances at the Hive are significantly lower than when we were at Underhill. It is forgotten that we were relegated the season before the move to the Hive so attendances were always going to drop. Look at 2001 to 2005, which is a more realistic comparison. Attendances at Underhill for these years were a lot lower than what we are currently getting at the Hive. Don't get me wrong - I would be very happy if we moved back but let's not get carried away.

You need to compare like for like to get an accurate picture of how attendances have declined at The Hive, rather than simply focusing on the years preceding and following the move. Looking exclusively at average home crowds:

National League title winning seasons

04/05 (Underhill): 2275
14/15 (The Hive): 1727

National League playoff campaigns

03/04 (Underhill): 1633
19/20 (The Hive, curtailed due to the pandemic): 985
22/23: (The Hive): 1583

League Two relegation seasons

12/13 (Underhill): 1945
17/18 (The Hive): 1529

First season following promotion

05/06 (Underhill): 2029
15/16 (The Hive): 1600

The difference varies from pretty marginal (-40) to quite significant (-548) over those example seasons, but it's certainly not a 'myth' that attendances at The Hive are significantly lower, as a percentage of our overall support.

And that's before you factor in the increase in lower league football crowds across the board in recent years!

[AidanGRH]

Thank you for that analysis. It didn't feel right that home crowds were not clearly down at The Hive.

There will always be variables, such as "big teams" and when they visit, promotional tickets, and how fixtures pan out, but I've never had the impression that the Hive has delivered close on average to the Underhill home support.

[Sam_BFC]

It is somewhat nuanced I think.

Yep using only this season as a reference to 5 years ago is a little limited because we we are presently into a second successful season in a row whereas in 2019 performances were uninspiring except for the FA Cup run.

Underhill in its final state was also in some ways an obstacle to attracting new fans.

[Norfolkbee]

Wasn't there one season with a few Saturday postponements, due to the poor state of the pitch? This meant extra night games, which generally draw lower crowds. Just a thought, but I could be wrong.

[iainb]

We did a fuller dive into attendance data a few months ago.

It's a complex picture but there are some quite worrying trends. Interestingly, relegation has not impacted upon the crowds at the likes of Oldham, Rochdale, Chesterfield, York etc - who in some cases have grown their attendances while falling from L1 to the National League.

https://beespod.substack.com/p/attendan ... he-problem