SE Dons – By The Numbers
If you haven’t heard of SE Dons by now then you should have. The South London based football team is the brainchild of grime artist Don Strapzy and midfield dynamo, turned manager, Ryan Palmer. The Dons combine the authentic spirit of Sunday League football with the passion and vibrancy of UK rap culture.
It’s that authenticity and the characters that come with it that regularly inspire fans to not only watch their videos but also travel to see The Dons play on a Sunday morning from all over the country, writes the Kitlocker Blog.
The team are young and ambitious with big plans for the future. Who knows? They might even follow the Hashtag United route of joining the semi-pro pyramid.
They are now one of the biggest names in Sunday league football and are achieving all kinds of numbers both on and off the pitch. This is SE Dons by numbers:
115k Subscribers
The Dons always put their fans at the heart of everything they do. So in May, to mark soaring past 100k subs in style, Don Strapzy put on a sold out “100k show” at the O2 Academy Islington. This gave the fans and players the chance to celebrate their achievements together.
Many of the players made appearances on stage including striker and fellow rapper Young Mad B. The show was hosted by two of the biggest characters from the squad, goalkeeper/skipper Big G and “Sunday League’s Best Dressed” Coach Flips.
The achievement really hits home when you consider that this Sunday League team have more subscribers than 12 of the current Premier League sides. But then again this is no ordinary Sunday League team.
27 Million Views
In total, since kicking off their YouTube journey, The Dons have amassed a total of over 27 million views across all of their uploads. Their recent cup final exploits brought in almost ¼ of a million views per video.
Comparing the Dons to the Premier League again, they currently have more total views than most top tier sides. This includes former champions Leicester City (17.2m), Europa League qualifiers Wolves (14m) and fellow South Londoners Crystal Palace (19m).
4700 Tickets Sold for Cup Finals
The Dons performances on the pitch this season led them to two cup final victories. The Paul Picard Cup attracted 2,500 fans with 2,200 attending the Kent Cup Final. Raucous scenes followed the final whistles in both games as fans flooded onto the pitch to join the celebrations.
Granted that these matches were cup finals, but these figures are higher than last season’s average attendance for Salford City, who won promotion to the football league. It makes you wonder what kind of numbers the Dons could get if they had their own stadium . . .
The SE Dons community is highly active across all forms of social media, not just YouTube. Fans keep up to date with all things Dons in between videos by following them on Instagram.
Over 1200 Match Kit & Trainingwear Items Sold & Counting…
What do you mean you haven’t got your Donwear yet? Thanks to their dedicated fan base, SE Dons have generated numbers that some professional teams would be proud of.
Dons Merchandise can be purchased from Kitlocker here