I FOUND myself replaying a conversation with Bury chairman Stewart Day in my mind at the sight of just 88 Dagenham and Redbridge fans in the away end at the JD Stadium last Saturday.

Attendances – specifically away attendances – had seemed to dominate the thoughts of the Shakers chief just a week earlier as we discussed the potential financial benefits of promotion to League One.

For Day, the figures seemed clear – breaking into the third tier would open up a whole new income stream, not just from increased ticket sales but also from the added extras, such as refreshment sales.

Bury recently enjoyed a spell in League One, when the then owners were forced to send out an SOS for financial aid after ending their second season with relegation.

Day answered the call, but feels, with his sharper business acumen, life could be very different for the JD outfit should they manage to reach those heights again.

Geography is key to his thinking.

Bury’s average attendance in all competitions this season is just under 3,250, including three gates of more than 4,000.

They were against local sides Burton and Tranmere, with fallen “giant” Portsmouth the third.

Day, like many Shakers owners before him, has worked hard to prick the interest of the local population, promising to take the club back to the Championship within five years.

To help pay for that, he hopes to increase the average gate above the 5,000 mark and playing local sides with a decent fanbase would provide a short-cut.

Accrington Stanley are Bury’s nearest neighbours in League Two. They are one of only nine teams, including Bury, based in the midlands or further north, compared with 15 in League One.

Promotion could see Bury pitting their wits against the likes of Preston, Sheffield United, Oldham, Rochdale, Bradford, Barnsley and Coventry.

Day is confident those matches would all attract at least 1,000 travelling fans.

The chairman argued that, to a club like Bury, the extra revenue, not to mention the reduced cost of travelling to away games, would have a significant impact.

Which got me thinking, is it not time to consider restructuring to a regional set-up, once again combining the third and fourth tiers into League One North and South?

That system used to be the norm, but was abandoned at the end of the 1957/58 season, when Bury finished fourth in the old Division Three North.

The top 12 in both divisions moved up into a national third tier, but after finishing the 57/58 campaign with an average gate of 11,779, the following season Bury dipped below 10,000 for the first time since the Second World War.

It seems only common sense, with average attendances now well below those of the 1950s, that the Football League at least considered such a step.