We had a glimmer of a chance. We went from 5,000 to 20,000 pretty quickly. When the new stadium was spoken of in the 1990s, my non-City supporting friends used to mock the idea of City having, or filling, a stadium bigger than 20,000.
We had a glorious decade or so when pretty much the whole region supported City. It felt that way anyway. When I was at school - Fifth Ave, Endike, Cooper - in the 1980s you knew the other City fans. We stood out. We were lost in a sea of Manchester United and Liverpool fans. Football was in the primacy at those schools back then, but the city's football club didn't really matter. This was when we had a half-decent team too. God knows what it was like in the 1990s.
Then we got Adam Pearson, the KC, Peter Taylor and the rest. I remember my cousin - who was going to Longcroft in Beverley at the time - telling me about her new boyfriend in about 2010. I asked her which football team. She looked shocked that I'd asked. "City" she replied, adding: "everyone at school supports City". I could have cried. It was everything I'd ever wanted for the club. I'd always slightly envied the likes of Derby and Sunderland who get huge attendances from relatively small cities/catchment areas. I saw that we had something approaching that in reach. It was tangible. You saw it in the city centres, on Newland Ave, Hessle Road, Holderness Road, Bransholme centre, everywhere. City shirts outnumbering all the other shirts combined, including the rugby teams. When there was a home game on, it was unmistakable. None of the gaggle of regulars barely filling the 23 as it made its way through North Hull Estate and Orchard Park. We were getting crowds in the late teens and early 20s, but if we could just hold on to it... If we could just create a situation where every mum and dad in Hull would take their son or daughter to games as a matter of course. Where the civic pride that so many talk of would involve ditching the Manchester United and Liverpool shirts and buying one coloured black and amber. If we could do that, then not immediately, but eventually, 30,000, even 35,000 might be realistic.
Then came the Allams.
Of all the things they've done, the alienation of some many diehards and the hurdles they've put in front of kids wanting to support City have been the hardest to take. All that progress was stopped in its tracks, all because of stupid egos, crass ideas and sheer contempt for the fans. There's been a bit of talk about forgiving and forgetting when it comes to issues with the Allams on Twitter recently. And I get why. But there are some things that will always grate with me. We had a glimmer of a chance of City moving up to something ridiculously special with regards to the club's standing in the region. And now it's gone. THAT is the Allams' legacy.
