Link Below http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11688/7852170/Kuwaitis-close-on-Forest We need a significant investment by a consortium to propel city to the top end of the championship. SL has done a fantastic job at Ashton Gate but apart from the club moving out of the League 1 after eight years, and one brilliant season in the first year of championship football,plus a credible 10th the following season it has been all down hill at Ashton Gate of late. Yes money seems to have been wasted on poor signings by the club over the years,but Bristol City FC has huge potential for a investor or investors. SL obviously has said he will back city to the best of his ability,however if another party was to show its hand and invest into the club alongside SL then take off could happen. The vast amount of flouting fans in and around Bristol is massive,A team plying it's trade in the premiership would see Ashton Gate full to the rafters week in,week out. If the Ashton Vale site was built the prospect of 30000 fans week in, week out, would be a reality. Many clubs seemingly have willing investors to pump huge amounts of money into them,yet nobody can see the huge potential in the west country. Bristol has the potential to become a very well supported club,it is just a shame major investment cannot be found to propel the club to that level.
The ground is held in a seperate company owned by Steve Lansdown, most of the board are employees and do not put cash into BCFC, so is a club that is haemorraging money season upon season an attractive investment? My basic understanding is that Ashton Vale again would again be in seperate ownership. Would people invest in the football club, or in a stadium holding company?
I cant quite see how building a stadium which holds 30000 would secure that amount per week as has been suggested. Call me Susan if I'm wrong, but the area is not of sufficient football bedrock to attract that amount as a matter of course. It would take 5 years of sustained success a'top the premiership to even begin to attract that much interest in the club from our cricket/rugby loving locale. Where is the logic in assuming that we would automatically fill our new stadium week in-week out ? Having said that, I would still say that we can only move forwards as a football club if we have the stadium, but we would still need serious financial backing to progress the team and evolve
When you look at clubs like Wolves, Wigan and Middlesborough who when in the prem were not sell outs every week, we live in a age where it's easier to watch football on tv on Sundays whilst playing in a amateur game on the downs or elsewhere on a Saturday. I'm in the camp where, I have been to Coventry saw the empty seats only for the attendance to be read out which then happens to be more than what we average at AG. If you want to see a nice stadium which is too big for the support I suggest you have a trip there sometime or Middlesborough. If we build a new stadium do it the Swansea way build to your support, but have potential to increase if needed. To say we are a massive catchment is not true as within the area you would have more glory hunters to City and Rovers combined. To fill a 30k stadium would be only achievable in the first year in the prem, then the crowds would dwindle as most of the fans coming would only be there to see the other teams. You would need to be successful in the prem to have it full every week. I'm a season ticket holder so I follow the team through thick or thin, and there ain't many of us. Also back to the thread of getting some investors, where do you suggest we get these people from?
Nottingham Forest have won the european cup, top league, cups. They have a admirable history which makes them attractive. Bristol City are well known in Kuwait mind!! Need to get City on an even keel first then somebody else might put money into it but is that what is all about? Do fans all fans just want the super rich sticking money in or a club that does not just buy success? Do we really want a club owned by an arab oil baron who knows next to nothing about the club or Bristol?
We averaged 28,000 or thereabouts in our first season when we were last in the top flight. With general support and the corporate side (hospitaliy/prawn sandwich brigade) at a new stadium in the Premiership, I've no reason to think we wouldnt get those attendances again or better. The likes of Wigan, Fulham, Blackburn, Bolton, Swansea and co can only dream of such gates, and yes I know Bolton and Blackburn are no longer in the Prem
Citys average gates in the top division were 23000 mate. Lot less than that sometimes, lot more on occassions. It is not much of a comparison really,, season ticket holders were rare roll up on the day at the last minute and it could be 50p to get in the EE, and there were loads of OAPS around the ground, those days are now gone. At present levels to get a gate of 23000 that would be a regular 20000 season ticket holders as pod has dropped off scale. In the championship the naming rights stadium would be a graveyard matchday. Bristol is not a football City, there is little passion for it here, bugger all history so the club should stop whining about this new ground and work at getting more in now.Time to get cuter and street savvy.
Well best of luck with that investment if it happens. Can I say though that with the swans is not lack of support but lack of space the stadium only holds 20.5k , and plans are in place to increase that upto 30k-35k.
I hate to use Cardiff City as an example but they cover two points. 1. They used to have similar size crowds to us, then built their stadium and with some weird ticketing practices and a modicum of success have much higher crowds than us!! that's the positive side. 2. They now have foreign investors are massively in debt to Sam the man, are leaking (can't spell heamoraging) money at a rate of knots and have now changed badge and colours at behest of owners search for profitability. I know of at least two supporters who have sent season tickets back. Not sure what help this is now, having written it. Yes to new stadium, put house in order (financially) and see where that gets us. Sod the big foreign investors!
Wurzel Loyal #8 If you were around in the First Division days of the seventies, you would know that the attendance figures issued by the club were considered to be a total joke by all regular supporters. Published attendances were at least 10% below the actual and even as high as 25% under. The highest published gate for any of the four home games with Man U was 28783 and lowest 24784 - yet it was almost impossible to move of one's own free will (only crowd movement) anywhere inside the ground. And the same for Liverpool with high 38688 and low 27187. All of these figures were manipulated downwards by the club to save on policing costs and VAT. I do know what I'm talking about as I was in a 42500 crowd for the Blackpool FA Cup tie in 1959 without the Dolman stand, when the correct number was declared because it was all ticket! It is impossible at this time to predict what gate levels would be if we got to the Premier, except that at the current Ashton Gate, it would be 19,500 MAX. with minimal corporate hospitality. Bristol is not considered a "football" city because we've never had more than the odd season of success followed by ten years in the wilderness til the next good one. Give us three or four years in the top six of the Championship and good cup runs in a new stadium and the attendances will probably double on last seasons 13,000. A new stadium will attract extra support simply because of the modern toilet and refreshment facilities. I for one would not take my children to sit in Wedlock(built 1931), Williams (1952), or Dolman (1969) queing all half time for the toilet and then not getting a drink! It is an antiquated shambles that sums up how little we have progressed off the pitch! What is the alternative? Stay where we are bouncing up and down between Championship and League One!
I was there in the seventies mate and at times in the top division we did not have close to 20000 in the stadium. I know about jibbing from fans which went on and club scams, but v clubs like Norwich gates were verly low. I can remember Newcastle [3-1] bringing next to no fans, rose tinted specs sometimes looking back at it. Forget three four years down the line. The club need to shape up now, PR is poor, ticketing remains poor, marketing around town/South Bristol non existent, community links are improving via the community trust, but need to be much better, ticketing and spread of prices keener and the club needs to get itself seen, the club is ****ing nowhere in its backyard. At Q&A club officials can't wait to get away from fans. Club has made a mess of the EE, Gows testimonial, open day, Atyeo family section, while assets like fans bodies are hardly used to glean information from those who know all about being fans. There is a lack of passion about too many down there and that rubs off. Too many excuses used for poor performance.
Nail on the head Wurzel. I find it amazing that SL pours his money in season after season but the same old lethargic attitude seems to pervade around Ashton Gate throughout staff and players. Will DMc be able to change this on the playing front? I wonder if SL has ever talked to Dave Whelan about how he managed to get a tiny 4th Division club, playing in a village park as a stadium, up into the Premiership and above all keep them there for seven years and still counting. We have to thank SL for keeping us afloat or plugging the hole down the sink, but no-one ever seems to be able to seriously raise our performance levels to achieve anything like a Wigan or a Swansea. Hope at 69 I live long enough to see a miracle but somehow doubt it.
I was there in our first division days,the ground was packed,you could not move a inch in the east end or park end. The figures were defiantly false,there were games when their was no space or seats avaliable yet the crowd announced was no where near correct. I really do believe Bristol City has massive potential.the sleeping giant tag is defiantly right.
Highest average was 23000 lowest 18000. Interestingly Citys gates at times were higher than Coventry, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Stoke, Southampton and QPR. When it went badly it went badly and gates dropped significantly to the low double figures.
I'm not sure how you can say that Bristol is not a footballing city when both sides are capable of taking 40,000 plus to Wembly cup finals, the slightest hint of success will bring the fans back. Look at our first season back in the NPC, the season tickets were limited to around 14,000 just so that there was room for a couple of thousand walks ups so no one could complain that they couldn't get in... You also have to remember that it wasn't just Bristol folk going to the games, back in the 1st division days, dozens of coaches used to come from a 30/40 mile radius to boost the crowd. Having been there, I also agree that our official figures back in the late 70's were on many occasions, laughable...
Bristol is not a football City. There is little noticeable passion for football here away from BS3. Nobody in my workplace in BS8 watches City or Rovers. Football is not even a topic. My sons sunday football team its chelsea who are the team of choice, is that a football City?. Lots of those potential "fans" would have seen Rovers as well as the rugby when Bristol were half decent. I was there in the 70's and have a disturbing image of Sam Allardyce waddling around for Bolton at Ashton Gate, looks fitter now.
I still maintain that City in the Prem would get in excess of 25,000 as an average gate, especially when the big teams will bring big numbers of supporters. It's not many years ago that Reading were in Division 4 at the old Elm Park, with gates of around 3,000 (and still beating us!!). Now look at them, back in the Prem for the second time, great stadium, great chairman, good support and all the rest of it. SL has the money to put us on the same road. I know he's poured millions into us already, and the new stadium is a pain in the arse, but unless he wants to die a multi-millionaire having never seen the dream of seeing us play (and survive!) in the Prem materialise its time to get serious. Reading is also much less of a footballing town than Bristol
Maybe if SL had put his millions into creating a Spanish run youth academy like I have repeatedly suggested, we would now have a team capable of putting us in a place where we could attract 25K per game. Instead we spent a fortune on sh_te loans and OAP Scotish internationals to keep our short sighted manager and supporters happy
