I have just been looking at a article on BBC Sport about Mansfield FC... as they are desperate to find an investor! As the chairman is paying some of the bills out of his own pocket because the gates are low.. he said that they need to be 4500 every week just to balance the books! But that aside, they are still above us in the league... That got me thinking! Rovers must be on average 5800 so why the hell are in the position we are i.e No new players and sinking fast!! If clubs can manage on 3000 gates a week why do we struggle every year? just look at clubs like Crawley, which average 3200.. Something is not right!! FANS ARE BEING TAKEN FOR GRANTED and if they are served up another few more weeks of complete C##P without any new players i feel that even the die hard gas head will not bother spending there hard earned cash.. which brings me to the point if the gates were to fall below 4000 what state would Higgs & co be in then?? The board need to take a good look at the situation and understand that even the most loyal fans will turn there backs eventually!! So a message for the Board, Get some new players in before the fans loose all faith and show with there feet!!
Quite frankly I'm amazed that we still muster an average of almost 6k for home games after the turgid crap served up this season. Especially after the promise of the 2nd half of last season, just to watch yet another crashing disappointment so far this. As I've mentioned in previous posts, teams like Bury who get about 2500 through the gates manage to sign proven strikers (Nardiello) at this level and teams like Burton who get even less are flying high. Take a look at L1 - we get higher average gates than half of that league! There's something desperately wrong at Rovers, indeed Bristol football in general. I think Bristol's been cursed by some vindictive football witch!
There are times when any business, and football is a business like every other one, need to take a major look at why their efforts are failing. Some of the looks at themselves in the mirror include... 1. Are they selling the right product?..... is the football on display good enough for the fan's to pay good money for? 2. Is the product of adequate quality.........are the players good enough? 3. Could we improve how we sell the product.... are we employing the best tactics? 4. Could our management team change their approach?...... same difference!! 5. Should we make major changes to our management structure to improve how we handle the company? .... Your choice!!!!
I don't remember where I heard/saw it but my understanding is that we need gates of 7/8,000 to 'break even'. I suspect our financial situation is pretty dire, though no-one is going to say that. Our directors are richer than all/most of us, but are financial minnows compared to SL.
It's not just about gate size, it's also sponsorship fee's. Who wants to sponsor clubs in Bristol at the moment?
