Can Dundee’s new Camperdown stadium boost the size of their home support?
If the Dark Blues get the planning nod, it will offer them the chance to re-build their support base which, in recent times, has hovered frustratingly around the 4,500 to 5,000 mark.
There might be only a couple of hundred metres between Dens and Tannadice but neighbours United are currently miles ahead of their city rivals in attracting the crowds.
With just over 6,600 season-book holders, and walk up spectators often boosting that number to around the 8,000 mark, Jim Goodwin’s side are watched by many more home core fans than Tony Docherty’s side are pulling through the gates.
Historically, that wasn’t always the case but United have been top dogs attendance-wise for a long time now.
It started under Jim McLean and United’s glory years, and the tangerine side of the city has been steadily outstripping the dark blue half numerically ever since.
At present, United are by far the bigger draw with both the home core support being much larger and average attendances outgunning those at Dens.
United’s average attendance this season so far is the sixth highest in Scotland with 10,686 fans coming through the gates.
Dundee meantime, despite their great progress last season, are languishing far behind their rivals with an average of 6,492.
Four thousand fans fewer than their city rivals represents a big financial disparity and it leaves the Dens side as the ninth best supported outfit in the country, behind clubs like Kilmarnock and St Mirren.
However, when Dundee won promotion against Dumbarton under Paul Hartley, just 10 years ago, Dens was heaving, with almost 11,000 fans cramming in to witness the triumph.
Those missing supporters haven’t emigrated, so where have they gone?
Need to get ticket-pricing right
Whether through poor communication between board and fans, high ticket prices, yo-yo form, or all of those things together, Dundee have failed to build on a fan base which is potentially much bigger than they’re currently managing to tap into.
So might a new stadium attract back those missing Dundee fans who for whatever reason have stubbornly refused to turn out in bigger numbers, despite a Dundee side performing as well as its done in a long time?
If Camperdown goes ahead, the new state of the art facilities will offer families the prospect of watching football in comfortable, clean, modern surroundings, far removed from the tired out of date stadium that Dens has become.
Fans will be able to gather and socialise long before the match and eat and drink in comfort in a much more convivial atmosphere.
If Dundee get their ticket-pricing and communications right, and crucially the team continue to do well, then there’s no reason that latent support base can’t be reinvigorated.
Whether they can close the substantial gap that United have opened up on them is a moot point, but there’s a market there of disaffected fans who are waiting to be won back.
The new stadium could be the catalyst for a Dark Blue fan revival, ensuring that the gap between Dundee and rivals United doesn’t become a yawning chasm.
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