Where would we like to see the Club in (say) 5 and 10 year's time?.......

.....and I don't just mean the ground!

What ambitions could/should Watford F.C. have in the short to medium term?

Premier League?
Premier League Division 2?
Yo-yo club?
Comfortable Championship existence?
Survival in the Championship?

 

Somewhere in between a yo-yo club and comfortable Championship existence would work for me. If I said I could guarantee that over the next five years, Watford will not be relegated to League One, and spend one season in the Premier League, I'm sure most people would take that. We can start talking about raising expectations when the ground is finished and paid for (or when we have survived in the Premier League, in the unlikely event that that happens first).

But I do think a literal interpretation of your question is important, and to say I would "like" to see us at the Vic in five or ten year's time is an understatement. I don't want to go as far as saying that being at the Vic is a condition of my support, but my feelings aren't a long way off of that.

 

I have been thinking about this for a while!

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Watford FC being a comfortable Chamionship, with occasional periods that surprise and astonish, while supplying quality youngsters from the academy.

I love the small, unassuming image that is associated with the club and I would like to keep it that way.

I love the fact that when you are on holiday in an exotic country and you see someone in a Watford shirt, it makes the holiday worthwhile.

I love the fact Vicarage Road is a bit of a state and most opposing fans use this to take a swipe.

I love the fact we have an international superstar in the Elton John so closely associated with the club, and man like Graham Taylor who is so willing to go the extra mile for the benefit of the club and fans.

In other words, I love the club as it is, hovering around below the best league in the world, with sporadic attempts at promotion, and this is where I want it to be in 10 years.

 

On the pitch:

First thing I'd say is a top-30 club - be that the odd season in the Premiership or season-on-season pushing for around the play-offs.

A steady stream of Academy players coming through Harefield

A settled squad of players where we do not need to break them up every year, playing entertaining football

Off the pitch:

Following on from the last one - to be self-sufficient, not needing to sell to break-even.

Would be great to make a profit to re-invest in new players, but suspect this will always have to be done by player sales

Now the obvious ones... a new East Stand, SW Corner all done, a lush pitch to play our free-flowing football on

I guess the key word for all this is stability!!

Obvioulsly

 

I just want to be around for more moments like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjunL7v7lNc

Watch it and tell me it doesn't make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and fill your heart with joy! Makes me so proud to support this club and everything it stands for!

 

Goose bumps, smiles, joy, happiness all of the above. What a day and watching that brought back some the feeling of being there

 

I would like to see us not drop to League 1, to have at least one playoff finish, the fourth side of the ground developed, the Academy continuing to produce quality players and relative financial stability restored.

A season in the Prem would be icing on the cake.

 

Watford will always have to sell players - we dont have the fanbase of, say, Norwich or Leeds, where self-sufficiency is possible due to gate receipts. But i do think its possible for us to get into a situation where we maybe only need one high profile departure a season to break even. Of course promotion to the Premiership changes everything - assuming we're relegated after one season, we could possibly be self-sufficient for at least 5 further seasons, if the club is prudent in their dealings.

Personally im just happy to support Watford, whatever division we may be in, but from a business point of view we all know that Championship football is vital. A play-off campaign in the next 5 years would be fantastic, and since there would be little pressure due to low expectation, i wouldnt back against us going all the way. Blackpool have given hope to every team in this division, as well as us from our own 05-06 campaign

 

i'd like to see us not going into administration, have a decent pitch and a fourth side...whatever division we're in, i'll still be proud to support and scream for my team...but it'd be nice to be comfy in the Championship with perhaps a promotion or two now and then

 

Have to echo the sentiments above, avoid relegation with the odd foray into playoffs/premiership and financially stable, 4th side to the ground would also be nice

 

Top half Championship pushing for the play-offs, the odd foray into Premiership. More important I feel is stablity on and off the pitch, we shall always be a selling club unless we come into a sugar daddy/mummy with Watford in his/her heart. Where we can hold onto the players for a few seasons and be succesful(ish) for a club our size. I don't want us to be a massive club though as that is not the Watford way!

 

Challenging Championship club
Financial Stability and a club run by people who love this club as much as I do
Tidy Ground at Vicarage Road
Academy developing a stream of players that we use and sell
Still many leagues above the tramps up the M1!

 

I endorse all these eminently sensible & realistic hopes. It just worries me that even when (not if) we 'finish off' the ground by building the new East Stand, we still will get virtually no income from outside gate revenue (and selling replica kit etc.).

The vast majority of the 'ambitious' clubs in this league have other revenue streams, (restaurants, hotels, conference facilities etc. - even car parks) to complement gate money. Over the long term it will become increasingly difficult to be remotely competitive with the likes of Coventry, Leicester, Birmingham, Leeds, Boro, Southampton even Brighton without developing these facilities.

The idea that we can somehow stand still in the middle of the Championship, developing players through the Academy and then selling them to survive, I believe will not be sustainable. In business companies either seek to expand or they die over time. The analogy may not fit football exactly, but it's close.

I suggest that this means moving away from Vicarage Road and developing a new stadium with these facilities - heresy, I know, to many. Otherwise I'm afraid that we will return from whence we came i.e. League 1 or League 2, maybe not next year or in 5 years time but thereafter.......?

 

As above, this looks like a thread of harmony so its more of the same, ocasional flirts with the prem and sufficient players being produced to enable a surplus without affecting the core of the team. It may be useful to have some additional revenue streams so that we're not obliged to sell to break even, what these would be no idea, well I have but not for here. Finishing 2 divisions above cardiff, reading, swansea, qpr, man city and chelsea would be nice too. Would be nice to have a four sided ground with about 26,000 capacity filled every week, where those extra fans can come from? For Watford to be a very popular side overseas somewhere to bring in a significant revenue stream without any additional expectation or change in ethos.

 

Having been a small lad who suddenly found that next season I would not have a club to follow was really desperate. The club had to apply for re-election to the FL and fortunately they continued.

To be at the first game we ever played in the top league in England was sheer joy, not only the fact that we were there, but the way that we had come up through the divisions to achieve it.

Many years between those two events, when I had seen the good, bad and indifferent. Today I am pleased to have my club despite all of it's failings.

I do agree with vic-rijrode about income being the key to where we might be in 5 or 10 years time. In 1975-6 the average attendance was a paltry 4,608 and even when we were in Division 1 in 1987-8 it was only 14,529. On these numbers we will never be a sustainable football club. All of the clubs mentioned are from cities, I think, and have a larger population to draw on. I do worry that there will be years when the youngsters coming through will not be good enough to command large fees and what do we do then?

My hope is still the same as I had when a lad. Survival.

 

For me, staying in the highest league we can reasonably hope to compete in, i.e where we are now. I'd love the occasional excursion to the Prem but we can't expect to stay there like we managed for a while in the 80's. We'll never have the financial clout, and I wonder whether deep down I'd be happy if we were ever to be bankrolled to that degree.
I want stability, and the continuation of all the things that make us proud of our club, that 'Watford way'.

I know the OP said 'beside the ground' but for me I would dearly love to see the work done, dusted and paid for without breaking us financially.
Seems to echo what a lot of people have already said, really.

 

i'm still doing the lottery Al

 

wise words and very prophetic! I believe this to be true ,crying shame we cant afford to revamp the red lion and turn it into another revenue stream ,failing that, look at the Ricoh ,Pride park ,the mad stad ,they all have shops , in them many business conference facilities ,hotels, etc,Unfortunately this is the way forward!

 

Keep doing it mon cher!

 

oh i will, one day i will own WFC! mmwahahahahaaaaa!