Once again, gates suffered at the hands of the televised Champions League ties.
Faced with the choice of a rainy terrace or Barcelona-Chelsea on terrestrial TV, a Stonebridge Road season low 618 attended the Gravesend-Bulls match. It was the third lowest attendance in the Conference this season, the lowest Gravesend attendance since they returned to the Conference in 2002, and the ninth worst all time gate to watch the Bulls in Conference action.
In fact, every home side last night recorded their worst gate of the season. Cambridge recording their first sub-2000 Conference gate, Aldershot were 700 fans below their average and 200 below their previous worst, and Dagenham recorded their first sub-1000 gate in two years since the game after they were beaten 9-0 by the Bulls, and their worst gate since September 2000. All four home sides entertained teams from the top 6.
It could easily be estimated that the four host clubs last night, basing loss of attendance on average gates, lost at least £25,000 between them. It certainly offers a good case, with terrestrial TV showing European games on a Tuesday, to switch games to Wednesdays if not different midweeks altogether.