Are we really a sleeping giant?

I have always felt that the potential at City is enormous and if fulfilled, we could become one of the top ten clubs in England.
We have an appetising tie with West Ham, a team that looks like it ius bound for promotion this season and we could be off to Wembley for the JPT final.
Yet as of yesterday we still have 2,000 tickets unsold which means that a not inconsiderable number of season ticket holders have decided not to go. I know of two, who will watch both games on TV, not because they are hard up or working but simply because it is easier to stay at home.
Sad!

 

Stay home & watch on the box, whatever next, how anyone would rather watch the game on tv amazes me, nothing like being at the game...I have gone to away games that has been on tv.

 

Personally I would rather watch every game live - I'll be there on Sunday and Thursday - and I live 60 miles away

As for your original question - we have certainly been sleeping for 30+ years - not sure about "giant"

 

We are the second biggest club in our league after Sheff Utd - at least IMO.

In the Championship we would be an also ran compared to the potential pulling power of the likes of (dirty) Leeds, but the size of a club and its fan base is no respector of what league you play in when you consider I've seen the likes of Wolves be as low as division 4, and Man City and Sunderland languishing in our division a few short years ago.

I've also seen Man U, Chelsea and Spurs in the second tier in my lifetime, and then there are always the yo-yo clubs such as Sunderland, WBA, Norwich and Leicester that spend equal times in the top 2 leagues.

We competed for a few seasons in the very top league in the mid to late 70's and in our first season (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe we were averaging around 27,000 per home game. There is no reason to think we couldn't do it again.

The sad fact is that we are never going to compete with the Manchester teams or Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc but clubs of our size that are well run such as Fulham, Wigan, Southampton, Hull, Swansea have proved that they aren't one season wonders when they play at the top level and I guess that's the best we can aim for.

It's debateable whether it's more exciting supporting a team like WBA that usually struggle in the Prem but that you know even if they are relegated that it's just a question of not if they'll get promoted again but when, compared to the likes of Newcastle, Everton and Villa who in recent seasons are frankly just making up the numbers.
Personally I'd prefer to support the rollercoaster that is WBA where it's always going to be exciting whether its battling relegation or winning promotion from the Championship rather than be a stale Premiership club like Everton that still cant compete with the very biggest despite their relative size.

 

we badly need to sustain a few years of relative success to awaken our club. We've filled Ashton gate when the games have been right and the potential I saw when we were in the play off final was massive. loads of lads who play on a Saturday were telling me they were getting a season ticket if we got promoted. Glory hunters? maybe, but all clubs are the same, history and tradition fuelled by recent success.

 

No. City are small time. Look at the size of Bristol V gates. Yeovil do a better as a % of population of the town. Bristols a great place to live with a lot of better things to do for most than football.

 

We're a provincial club at best. The "sleeping giant" moniker is nonsense. Hopefully the new stadium will bring some net new fans as the match day experience will be better - look at Brighton in their new ground. Of course the transport and parking issues around the Gate will always cause some fans to stay away.

As for watching on TV vs. being there, no real comparison but I am thrilled to say that I will be watching the game live on Sunday morning as it's being shown on cable TV in the USA. Can't wait!

 

Tampa, you are allowed to watch the game on TV.
The point of my thread was that I find it amazing that two long standing season ticket holders who are not short of money, don't have any other reason not to go, are perfectly content to sit in front the TV rather than travel ten miles to watch their club test itself against a top half Prem team.

 

We could be averaging much higher crowds if we weren't doing the necessary redevelopment works, there are too many glory supporters in today's day and age but we have the potential to be a good championship club getting in the Prem every now and then.

 

Newcastle- Population approx. 220,000 Attendance 52,000. Yes, it is a one team town, but Gateshead is the other side of the river and Sunderland is not that far away.

 

No we are not a sleeping giant. We've never been a force in football so how can we be classed as a giant just because we support a club from a big city.

Also in the championship we averaged 14k, higher when we was there for the first season.

I work with some Cardiff fans and always considered us a better supported (figures) club. But the other day we done an excercise of the attendance home and away when we was both in this league. They was better than us, and even had more fans attending Ninian Park in the play off semi final than we did in the return leg at AG.

So we might think we've got a big support, and it will get better next season. As people wanted to see us this year and will come in our first season back. All sing CTID then a few months later if it's not going well say "**** this ****, I ain't wasting money down here"

But we've never been a waken giant in terms of a club to be considerd asleep now.

 

Just another point.
On the Gillingham prediction thread we are all predicting between 6-8k fans but yet if we win we will sell near on 40k tickets. Think this shows the amount that only go for the good times.

 

This is a realistic view IMHO
We are neither sleeping NOR a giant.

Yes Bristol is a large city with a huge catchment area, but if size mattered then USA and China would contest every World Cup final

 

We have the catchment area to be HUGE - but whilst there are indeed lots of us who come out of the woodwork on big occasions (like a day out at Wembley) the 'hard core' only number approx 15k.
To break the stayaway habits we would have to spend at least 20 years in the top flight - and not just struggling either.
We haven't even managed 20 SECONDS since the early 80s.

 

I'll be there at AG for the Fleetwood game BTW - but will watch West Ham game on TV.

 

I guarantee that if we were in the Prem with a 30,000 stadium that we would average over 25,000 per home game across the 19 home matches of a season.

The likes of Hull, Stoke and co are unlikely to be sell out games but we would have full houses for the really big teams and probably in excess of 20,000 ST holders.

 

Sleeping - yes, Giant - No chance, we simply do not and never really have in my lifetime (40+ years) had the support to be considered a giant.
I do think though that if we did ever get to the Prem we would sustain quite large crowds for the really big teams when they visit purely on the size of the population means there are plenty who wouldn't mind going to a local game "as a Bristolian" against the big teams, look at a Rovers at Wembley, about 40,000 for a one off game but I doubt have had an average of over 10,000 in the last 20 years.
If, and a big if, we held our own in the Premier and may be even get into Europe, would be a City that people want to come to, I say that as Newcastle fit the giant bill, large stadium great fan base, rich owner, yet as someone else said are no more than a makepiece in the Prem