Shrewsbury pushing for bigger crowds at Montgomery Waters Meadow

Salop are currently averaging attendances of around 6,000 for home League One fixtures – their highest has been 7,867 against Derby County, and the lowest has been 4,803 against Exeter City.

And Salop chief executive Brian Caldwell believes the club have the potential to get more supporters through the door.

He said: “I think there is so much potential in the area.

“We are the only club in the county – the closest club is 30-odd miles away being Wolves.

“While our average crowd has grown in the last few years we need to try and move that forward.

“I look at the likes of Lincoln and Oxford, for example, who have probably got 8,000 as an average, and we are always trying to push to get that on a regular basis to get more people along.”

The Salop chief says there is lots of work going into trying to attract new fans to the Meadow to increase the average attendance.

“You know there is so much work going on from our charity foundation,” he continued. “They are trying to engage with all age groups to get people to come along. We are always looking at new ideas to try and get fans to come to the ground.”

The EFL is still recovering from the effects of Covid-19 – which forced games to be played behind closed doors.

Shrewsbury lost around £2.5 million during the pandemic, but Caldwell says attendances have bounced back well.

He said: “I look at the first half of the season to the second half, people were tentative about coming back into a crowd situation.

“The average crowd was dramatically up in the second half which is good because people are returning.”

The club are also targeting an increase in season ticket sales.

The cost of living crisis has meant people across the country have had to tighten their purse strings. And going to watch football is a hobby more than a necessity for people.

The club have managed to sell roughly 3,200 season tickets, but are still hoping they could sell a few more.

And Caldwell said there are various things they are doing to try and get fans to buy season tickets.

“We started doing under-12s free, which encouraged parents and families to come along,” the chief said. “While there might not be an income for the under-12s, when they turn 13 you start to take a slow income.

“We price it so it is 13-17-year-olds, and then it is a gradual increase to try and keep that longevity of people coming consistently to watch Shrewsbury Town for the future.

“Again, I think we could do more.

“If we can get our season ticket take up to 3,500 for example.”

However, fans have struggled to get into the ground at times this season – and have ended up in long queues.

Some have even missed the start of games as they have been stuck outside the ground.

Caldwell says they are working hard to fix the problem to make it easier for the supporters to get into the ground.

“We are still trying to rectify this,” he said. “It is still not perfect if I am honest with you.

“There is not a company out there who does both ticketing and access control.

“The ticketing system has gone down well it has been well-received and easy to use, you can get tickets on your phone or by email.

“It comes in a QR code or a barcode.

“We are not quite happy yet with how the access control is working.

“It has been a little bit erratic at times.

“To slow for my liking. But we are back analysing every bit of data we can.

“The Derby game was probably the worst it was going to be, but then a night game always is. “We are trying to work really closely to get it as quick as possible.

“It is a new system, there are always going to be teething problems no matter what.

“We just don’t feel that some of the readers are operating as quickly as they should be.

“It is just one of those things, we are speaking to them about issues and hopefully, we can rectify that and it is better for all going forward.”