This is the crux of part of the reason for my change from Hull City is investable.
Part of the reason is the damage done by the name change debate. Actually from both sides. Owner vs Supporter not by the way Owner vs CTWD.
No matter what the truth is Assem Allam has done a Ratner.
But if he had bought and expanded the KC, developed West Park and Walton Street and still got us into the PL (with the help of Steve Bruce) the problem would just have moved on by around three or four years.
The row would have changed into what is and what is not a community asset for the stadium, imagine having bought your council house and putting an extension on it just to find that you can only sell it back to the council? Imagine putting in a plan to build a five star hotel and retail outlets and finding that you have to spend more on the infrastructure of the area than the site could ever be worth. Or worse still that another project that does not need the infrastructure spend is planned just a mile or so away.
The gamble of buying the club would have hit the buffers.
We cannot fill the stadium now, because football, Hull City or Assem Allam do not attract supporters in Hull unless its a big match.
The overseas market could be the one area that we can become attractive, but not in shirt sales or branding but in another innovative means of bringing investment in. Only trouble is that I don't think Assem Allam knows just what it is yet.
But regardless of all that, we still don't make enough money locally. Our crowds are tiny for the size of our catchment area. People like blaming our attendances on the local economy, school holidays etc but the fact is we don't have enough fans because we don't bring new fans in. The club don't market themselves to new fans. Only people who already follow the club on Twitter or go on the OWS see any of the club's news.