The empty feeling at Selhurst Park

Where have all the Wimbledon fans gone? Tuesday?s south London derby against Millwall attracted only 7,020 to Selhurst Park.

That is more than 10,000 down on the average home attendance just two seasons ago, when Wimbledon were in the Premiership.

So has all the talk about moving to Milton Keynes undermined the fan-base? No, our statistics show that it was relegation which drove fans away because attendances this season are not significantly down on last season?s figures. In fact, crowds at two of this season?s home games were bigger than for the identical fixtures last season.

The biggest crowd this season, 9,142 against Birmingham, included about 1,000 people who were given free tickets in a community scheme, however, but there was a special factor which kept people away on Tuesday: the game was all-ticket because of the fear of crowd trouble.

Chairman Charles Koppel said: ?The number of season ticket holders we have got, about 3,500, has gone down slightly but our gates only really vary according to the size of the away support.

?We expected more away fans against Millwall because they took about 6,000 to Selhurst Park when they played Crystal Palace. But I do not accept that the fact that the game was all-ticket made much difference to the attendance because the ticket arrangements were well advertised.?