Some of US .... Think we will need to drop his wages.... offer a little more than he is getting now etc REALLY .. wrong mentality here we are supposed to be a building a championship side ... a WSC outfit 12/13 who dug the foundations in 13/14 put them in, in 14/15 and now in 15/16 have lost the plans, somewhere mislaid in the new entanglements of the refit, (probably used by the construction workers on their pallet tea table as a table cloth ... lol ) that state now "lay the first course of high density quality blocks" ...... THEM .. the local builders merchant does a good line in cheap blocks lets see what we can get for as little as possible .. I cannot envisage SL having this mind set in the slightest, a man who fostered PMA and VFM back when I casually had an acquaintance with him back in the early 80's ! Speculate to accumulate .. US we need to fill the gaps with whoever we can get ...loanee's CHEAP, but EXPENSIVE option... I can see the "need to stay up" and THEN THE NEXT COURSE IS well we spent a lot on wages and have no player left so lets try again ... and that is what we are embroiled in "lets T R Y again.... THEM WELL we have nearly got through the L I S T, so lets try to land something lets insult the minor leagues .. Now the U S amongst have already picked it up " tarnish BCFC with paltry offers, expose BCFC as a club desperate to buy someone "... ... .. 3 - 5 - 2, took about 3 games for the championship to pick up on this and they cashed in, "it will work we have to keep trying and it has got us 20 odd points " and the relegation zone soon derisory amounts will land a sub standard player frfom the national northern league as we build to try and win promotion to div 2.... left incomplete explanations for others to fill gaps ..
I think in a peculiar other worldly kind of way you've summed it up JGF2, and the bottom line is that Lansdown has always seen the football club and now Bristol Sport as a sort of game or as a gamble. rather than having the tunnel vision approach to succeed and get to the top like other owners have proved is possible over the last couple of decades. They've achieved this by having a blueprint, and by appointing the right people. As the saying goes, you can't polish a turd. In BS3 we'll always be a Second Hand Rose sort of club under Lansdown, exactly the same as we were before he appeared. We need an owner with a real plan, not someone who just farts words.
Don't agree it is the owner, totally, although he is the one at the top, delegation to "the subordinates" could maybe be the problem I think we have the PLAN but either, its lost, or more likely the people trying to read it have understanding problems. Top 10 teams in the premiership are on solid foundations, and built like sky scrapers, the next 10, and I don't mean by position in the league, are on solid foundations, not obtained skyscraper status, but adding the floors and the bottom four have the foundations in but are struggling to get up to, or more than a few floors past the damp course. The championship has no skyscrapers but a few on the way to getting the first floors in ... a few who have the foundations laid and ready to add the damp course, and the rest, well the inspector has been and the foundation is in order, but now they cant afford the next stage, or work out what block to choose .. the proper ones or .. indeed what exactly do we do now! you choose which category you think City is in ... O f course the other old adage ..... it could be you have spent a year or 2 building a canoe .. you launch it, it floats and you jump in and as the flow takes you down to the sea you realise you at least need a paddle ......
I do not like the concept and aspects of Bristol Sport, but could you explain why Bristol Sport x the redevelopment is not a real and costly plan?
Not sure I really understand your question, but if we are always going to be a Championship team, and I can see no reason why we'll ever be anything else but a second or third tier team, then it begs the question why, aside from drawing Man U in the FA Cup, or holding rock/pop concerts then the stadium is unlikely to be more than 66% full and considerably less so if we are in L1.
I would say that the creation of the Bristol Sport brand,, the FC's debts being turned into equity / restructured, the operating costs of the FC beingg slashed, the club conforming to FPPv former v ludicrous overspends, academy and training facilities being improved, board recruitment (again), the massive redevelopment turning Ashton Gate into a multi purpose facility go beyond insignificant plans and farting words. There are aspects of the above that epitomize things I dislike about modern football but it is very much a real and very evident plan.
As I said it will only bear fruit if Bristol Sport have successful sports teams and regular non football/rugby related events to make all the spend and redevelopment worthwhile. If the owner/management team continue on their correct course and trajectory then we will be back in L1 next season and football wise at least the stadium will be very underused. Aside from gate and other match day related revenues dropping if we are relegated we will also lose money from Sky. I like many on here, have grown tired of the same rhetoric being trotted out from above with nothing on the pitch to prove that we are anything than in decline once again. What has been allowed to happen between the end of last season and this one is nothing short of criminal.
It's not the same rhetoric. It cannot be. The relationship between FC - stadium and controlling interest of assets is entirely different to that of any in City's history. The board structure is also new. The redevelopment of Ashton Gate will still raise millions regardless of the results of the team. P This all goes beyond farting words. It is a real plan. A very very expensive one. Maybe we as fans should look beyond results and at the finer detail, and security of an FC that's owns barely any assets and question what happens post Lansdown. City are tenants.
As I've said elsewhere, the creation of Bristol Sport and the sharing of the stadium with a rugby club has merely diluted the football club to the sorry state we now find ourselves in. Will City ever be post the Lansdown regime is the question with junior waiting in the wings ?
A question that should be asked more frequently. People get blinded by good and bad results, but while parts of BCFC x BS are clear is the club and all its former home to be the property of one family for ever?
I don't think it's a healthy situation at all. But unless the Lansdown family wish to sell up, or are made an offer they cant refuse by a 3rd party, then I cant see anything changing.
