EXETER City will have to survive on a non-league club's playing budget next season, according to manager Paul Tisdale.

The Grecians are already operating on one of the smallest purses in npower League One.

But Tisdale says falling crowds mean that picture will look even bleaker next season as he expects the 2012/13 playing budget to be half of what it was last term.

The St James's Park chief even hinted the amount of cash made available to him could be as little as £800,000 – the same amount rivals Bournemouth paid for striker Matt Tubbs last week – highlighting the gulf in spending power between the haves and have nots in the third tier of English football.

Tisdale said: "Next year the playing budget will be somewhere near what it was when we were in the Conference.

"If you look at our average crowd three or four years ago and where it is now, it's about the same, so the budget will be about the same as it was in my second year here.

"I'm not judging anyone, that's the reality. Times are tough and people are becoming familiar with League One, it's our league now I suppose.

"Times are tough, people are losing jobs and they have to be careful with their money, but from the perspective of our budget, next year it will be half of last year, and we were in the bottom three (in the league in terms of playing budget size) then anyway.

"It so happens that they (Bournemouth) can spend on one player (Tubbs) what we can spend on our entire squad next season."

City's home crowds this term have not quite sunk to the levels of the 2007/08 season – that year they pulled in a home average of 3,705 on their way to securing promotion from the Conference via the play-offs.

This season, after 19 home games, the Grecians have attracted an average home gate of 4,375. However that is still 625 down on the 5,000-strong crowd Tisdale says his club budgeted for at the beginning of the campaign.

The current season's figures are about 1,000 down on the average crowd attending City games last season, and roughly 1,500 lower than the average attendance during the 2009/10 campaign.

As a result, the City manager believes his club should readjust their crowd expectations for the coming campaign and admits he will have to alter his own outlook.

Tisdale said: "Every time we hit the target on our attendances we hit the targets for our budget, and we haven't hit our targets this year.

"Every time we are under (an attendance of) 5,000, you times how much we are under by the average ticket price and that's how much we are below breaking even.

"It's the responsibility of the fans to keep coming, they are the lifeblood of the club. Yes I think we should reevaluate our targets for next season.

"If the crowds drop at other clubs the investor makes up the difference. Our investor is the trust but it's the smallest investor in our league.

"I have to re-evaluate my expectations for next year. It doesn't take too much to work out how difficult this year and next year will be."

However, the Grecians are hoping their new season ticket prices will help to encourage more supporters through the St James's Park turnstiles next season.