I do. People are finding they have other things to do, as you say. It's all very well for the apologists to keep ranting on about "stayaways" "boycotters" etc, but none of us are professional full-time fans, we all have lives to live outside of football, and make our individual decisions about how to spend our time and money. Football clubs have to compete with other attractions in life, and Charlton is becoming less and less successful, not that Roland cares one iota.
I get up at 5am every day to pay for football on a Saturday. I do not have a life outside of football on a Saturday.
Despite our differences with the current ownership, I was not happy to learn this event was so poorly attended. I thought that a decent number of fans and ex-fans might want to see some of our respected players and managers from the past all together - perhaps for the last time. If I had been in the area on Sunday I would have been there. I don't know what some of those personalities from our past thought about what they saw in the stands on Sunday. Quite a few of them will be aware of the situation since Duchatelet took over I guess, but others maybe were not so knowledgeable. Under any of our previous owners (and most others we might have had) I think this event would have been much better attended. But the good will has gone now. There is no more trust, and the very bond that keeps fans coming has been broken. The longer it stays broken, the more fans (even previously life-long fans) the Club will lose forever.
The event would have been better attended in the lead up to the new season when anticipation is high and fans want an excuse to get down to the Valley.
The pro-Roland faction say feck the stay-aways. We/the club don't want them. Even ban them. We/the club are better off without them.
From S.W. London and Tottenham taxi-drivers? Oh, that's been tried. Where from then? We would be the first club in history to increase attendances by going down and staying down.
Since I had more than a little success at growing courgettes this year, I think this qualifies me to give some observations on how to grow a fan-base. All you have to do is give the plants the conditions they like and you get your reward, same with the fan-base. In the case of the plants, you need a sunny spot, good soil and good smelly liquid fertilizer. In the case of the fan-base, you need good players, a good manager with integrity, the backing of the owner and hey presto! watch the fan-base grow as the team plays good winning football.
I might add that I failed to grow runner beans successfully because I planted them in a site which sheltered them from the sun and rain they needed. I tried talking to them, and told them that if they did not bear fruit they were not true bean plants. Surprisingly this tactic was unsuccessful.