This is your real problem, we used to be just Bristol City FC, we played at Ashton Gate football ground, that was it lock, stock and barrel, now we are jus an affiliated member of the Bristol Sport group, we have lost ownership of our indentity, we have lost our culture, we have lost ownership of our ground, we have not got a clue how the business is ran, just look at the suits that have now got their noses in our trough, take time to look through the links and see the different structures, corporate arms clawing their percentages out of the pie. Bristol City FC is the jewell in the crown but we have to share it with all of our other equal affiliated members, we have lost it or is it just a part of my imagination? About Bristol Sport Using the collective power of our sporting group to drive sustainable success. We are the team behind the team. A commercially focused company driving the off-field success of our clubs and venues. Our goal is to be champions in all that we do, elevating Bristol as a dynamic, exciting fixture on the global sport and entertainment map. Bristol Sport also promotes access to professional sport and participation in sport across all age and capability ranges through the work of our Bristol Sport Foundation and associated charities. It is part of a group of sports companies owned by Stephen Lansdown CBE. Bristol Sport is based at Ashton Gate Stadium and oversees the business, commercial and operational interests of its affiliated clubs which include Bristol City Football Club, Bristol Bears Rugby Club, Bristol Flyers Basketball, Bristol City Women's Football, Bristol Bears Women and Ashton Gate Stadium. The Team BOARD Chairman: Jon Lansdown Directors: Mark Kelly & Gavin Marshall EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT Ashton Gate Managing Director: Mark Kelly Group CFO: Gavin Marshall Group Head of Communications: Lisa Knights MANAGEMENT Head of Ticketing: Jenny Hutchinson Head of HR: Catherine Dean Head of Marketing: Charlie Lincoln Head of Retail & Wholesale: Jess Berry Head of Communications: Tom Tainton ASHTON GATE STADIUM MANAGEMENT Head of Venue & Events: Jenny Hutchinson Executive Head Chef: George Opondo Catering Operations Manager: Mike Keeling Ashton Gate Projects & Asset Manager: Peter Smith Head of Safety & Security: Dave Storr General Manager: Ross Wormald BRISTOL SPORT FOUNDATION Chief Community Officer: Ben Breeze Corporate Partnerships Manager: Paul Glanville Head of Operations: Rob Webber Ashton Gate Stadium Chairman: Martin Griffiths Managing Director: Mark Kelly Chief Media Officer: Lisa Knights Stadium General Manager: Ross Wormald Head of Safety: David Storr Head of Grounds: Dan Sparks https://www.bcfc.co.uk/ https://www.bristolbearsrugby.com/ https://www.bristolflyers.co.uk/ https://www.bcfc.co.uk/bristol-city-women/ https://www.bristolbearsrugby.com/teams/bristol-bears-women/ https://www.bristol-sport.co.uk/
Steve Lansdown speaks out as pressure mounts on Dean Holden at Bristol City Head coach may not survive the week if he is unable to pick up points against Reading or Barnsley at home in the next two games. A pivotal week for Dean Holden began on Monday with the 41-year-old giving his reaction from the weekend and discussing his future after Bristol City's worst defeat since a 0-6 loss to Cardiff City back in 2010. Pressure is mounting on the head coach to arrest a slide that has seen the club lose the last five games in a row and nine of the last 12 games in the Championship. The club expects to be competing for the top six rather than spiralling into a relegation battle, with the Robins on the same points as Hull City were after 29 games last season, with worse league form than the Tigers showed then. And Holden must deliver or changes will come. "I'm not shying away from anything. We're in a bad run of form," the head coach told Bristol Live at the pre-Royals press conference held on Monday afternoon. "We're in a terrible situation as a country. You can look at everything and think why should we carry on. Why do this? Because it's in my blood. It's a job I love. It's a group of players that I care about. We'll find a way through this. "Put on Sky Sports News: one minute it's Steve Bruce spending four days talking about him getting the sack, then is Ole Solskjaer then it's Arteta. I don't know whose turn it is this week. "I fully accept that. I have no problem whatsoever with people questioning where we are at the moment because we're in a run of bad results. "But I know if we stick together we'll come through this and we'll be all the better for it." Asked by Bristol Live if he is still the man to lead the club forward, Holden replied "100 per cent" and insisted that it would be a 'weak mentality' to fear for his job. He explained that his decisions are made to better the club, not for his own self-preservation. A problem area at left-back must be addressed however, with six of the last 10 goals coming from down that flank. Bristol Live understands that CEO Mark Ashton suggested three solutions across the January transfer window - believed to be Greg Cunningham, Ryan Manning and Kristian Pedersen - but that the Bristol City board decided to not pursue another signing, despite five injuries to that specific position that Holden says he has never known a situation like. "We've lost five recognised players from that position which I've never seen in any other season ever," he explained on Monday. With Jon Lansdown overseas in the Caribbean currently, pursuing personal interests, father and majority shareholder Steve Lansdown gave an interview to BBC Radio Bristol on Monday evening to speak on the gravity of the situation. Holden must be under no illusions. The club must find a way to remedy the problems down its left flank and more importantly return to winning ways. With two home games up next, the chance arises to get back to winning ways. Anything else will almost certainly lead to the chop. "Dean is the head coach of Bristol City and he's tasked with the team performing at its highest level. Now on Saturday, it didn't do that," explained Lansdown senior. "We've all had heart-to-heart discussions since then and he knows what needs to happen and he knows the pressure he is under. "At this stage, all we can do - and all the supporters can do - is get fully behind him, and the players," said Lansdown. The Bristol Sport owner said he had a 'good hard look' at the situation, referenced a team's worth of players on the treatment table and the difficult situation surrounding COVID-19 conspiring against the Robins. "Who knows whether [Dean] will come through that [the difficult period] and be successful? We're going to work hard with him to help him try and come through it," added Lansdown. "We're slipping towards the bottom half of the table at the moment. That's got to stop. We've got to get ourselves sorted out." https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...ws/steve-lansdown-speaks-out-pressure-5007850
TBF it is great for Bristol and I don't think anyone would knock SL for trying to up the anti and help Sport here in Bristol, it has been in the doldrums compared to other major Cities. The problem we all have is we are football fans of Bristol City FC, which still seems to be lagging behind regarding team affairs. The infrastructure is in place, it now needs an almighty push to get us all where we want to be......I believe it will happen, just the big question is when.
I don't entirely blame Bristol Sport for our lack of sporting success - after all, we were managing NOT to get to the Premiership, and NOT to win a major trophy quite well, before Bristol Sport was even first imagined. In fact, getting to the second tier was our dream for most of my supporting life - and I'm 54. Things certainly HAVE changed; I miss the terraces in the old East End and the 'surge' forward whenever a goal was scored, but Bristol Sport can't really be blamed for the introduction of seating - that was government policy. Besides, we were in tier 3 or 4 for most of those days, playing the likes of Mansfield Town, Wrexham and Newport County. There ARE positives; a fantastic new stadium, financial stability, second tier football (for now), better catering and refreshment facilities and I certainly feel that our profile has been raised in the footballing world, higher than it has ever been since the Alan Dicks days. The biggest negative for me is the lack of communication with the fans. I honestly don't know if it's always been this bad - I can't remember what it was like back in the 1980s, but I suspect not. Reading about major events affecting our club in the press, or on social media, long before the club makes an official statement is unacceptable and really REALLY p!55es me off. As a fan I feel marginalised and undervalued - a bit like the customer of a utility company or a bank, where they have you by the b@lls and therefore don't need to court your custom. It's not as if we would get so p!55ed off we would all go and support Rovers instead - and the club knows it. Steve Lansdown is going about running Bristol City the only way he knows best - like running his finance company - and it doesn't work, because a football club is a completely different animal. His financial clients don't go to him because they love Hargreaves Lansdown and have invested with them all their lives since they were of primary school age. His financial customers won't stick with him through thick and thin, even when his stock is underperforming whilst rival firms are doing well. There's very little loyalty amongst customers in finance - or any other business for that matter, but a football club is part of one's soul and there is now a definite 'disconnect' between the fans and the BCFC board. The relationship is important but Steve Lansdown seems to think it doesn't matter, otherwise he would fix it. As a fan I feel marginalised and irrelevant, and that shouldn't be the case at all. I don't know if I'll bother going back to the gate as often as I used to when lockdown is lifted - I haven't been regularly since moving to Swindon, but I'd always make the effort to go about half a dozen games and it would be a special occasion. I honestly don't think I would look forward to it any more - certainly right now. I even think hard about spending a tenner on watching the game on TV let alone spending £100+ on a day out in Bristol!!!
It's an easy stick to batter SL with, but all of these things that we associate with Bristol Sport - the investment, the corporate BS, the new stadium - for the most part it's all stuff that we as a club desperately needed to progress. As much as we are playing awfully right now and none of us are happy with where we are, without any of that investment, there is no way we'd be an established upper-half Championship side at this moment in time. So when some of us blame Bristol Sport for our problems, I'm not sure that's fair. In fact, without it, we'd most likely be a fair bit lower down the leagues. And alongside that comes our perceived loss of identity, but again, is that a consequence of the Bristol Sport structure, or is it simply a consequence of the fact that we've now modernised as a club and caught up (off the pitch at least) with other Championship sides, who have been like this since the early 2000's? It's not nice and I definitely feel further disconnected from my club than I did when I was a kid, but I'd say that's an inevitability of modern football, and it will most likely get even worse if we somehow did make it to the Premier League. The single best thing SL can do now is get an established, experienced name in as our manager, if/when Dean Holden goes. We continually go for managers who are either underwhelming at best, or in the learning process of a manager, or both! But we can't afford to be a stepping stone in a manager's learning curve now. We're past that, and getting an experienced name in would restore so much confidence with the fans. It's just what we're crying out for - we've spent millions in every other aspect of the football club and yet we continually go for inexperienced men to run it all. What's the point in spending a fortune on the best ingredients if you're just going to take the kids to McDonald's anyway?
Losing identity is a consequence of Bristol Sport. Bristol Sport is not a backroom operation it is a brand. Martin Griffiths the head of Bristol Sport has stated Bristol City is part of the Bristol Sport brand. Bristol Sport control the identity of the club in infinite detail - Bristol Sport banned supporters flags in the Dolman stand for featuring words Bristol Sport did not like, supporters have had to submit flag designs to BS for approval. Bristol Sport controlled the design of the stadium and promised a consultation form fans, the consultation was meaningless ... Modern football does not have to mean homogenised gentrification. Liverpool or a Borussia Dortmund are modern clubs who have not lost their soul. There are always alternatives unless there is a domineering body that will not consider them like BS. Bristol City does not need Bristol sport, its league position is not related to Bristol Sport. Other clubs, all of them have no equivalent where what can be a separate operation to oversee commercial activity takes over an FC. A opinion can be it can be harmful to an FC to have individuals like Martin Griffiths who have no football experience and football qualifications involving themselves in footballing matters like the academy.
A hefty defeat today, and he's a goner is what I read from this, and definitely, a goner if we lose the next 2 home games!
Supcon… we are in very dark times ..although a light at the end of tunnel is but a glimmer in the distance .. the pressure is building up within people, families and socializing groups North and south of the border..... I have a group of about a dozen close friends north of the border and I can detect chinks in the armour …. on Mendip / closer to home a similar weakening of the resolve! Think what it may be like for our football team! … unless they have a dedicated person/team to help with the obvious isolation they are going through it has to be worse than what we are! When you get close to finishing / achieving something there is always a heightened sense of stress you may just collapse the whole house of cards … tension, like a rubber band affects us all as it gets tighter, then "ouch!" We need a couple of results maybe worse scenario 3 draws … or DWL … [ Don't Worry Lads! .. ]
Helped you out there. We already know how you feel about Bristol Sport. Pretty much every stick that people use to criticise BS and the idea of 'identity' is one that is true of all modernised clubs. Hefty ticket prices. A focus on the corporate experience. Sky-high wages. Very few players from the local area. None of this is unique to Bristol Sport. It's very easy to cite Liverpool and Dortmund as if they are in any way comparable. Enormous clubs, very recent league winners, recently going through relatively successful periods - you rarely hear any of this identity rhetoric when City do well. Yet even the fairytale story of Leicester resulted in fans complaining about plastics. Modern life is rubbish, so to speak. There are many sticks to justifiably beat Bristol Sport with (flags being one of them). Loss of identity - well they might not have helped themselves at times, but it is an undeniable consequence of the modernisation of football. And I can't see an example of a comparable club, that has gone through the same transition and not come out with the exact same problems.
You avoided the point about how clubs can modernise without having to create competing brands. I heard about a loss of identity when the clubs fans rep David Llyod and Andrew Billingham (BS) met supporters at the Three Lions. City were top at the time. The topic under discussion was the identity of the FC and how it could be protected after Bristol Sport ludicrously banned supporters flags for featuring the words (Eastend) Ultra and (Wurzel) Loyal, sold off space for advertising after fans spent £1200 - 1400 on flags for the space, BS copied fans artwork without consulting them and starting selling it ... And more. Challenges (your problems) at clubs are not all the same. Clubs do not all come through the same transition. Football clubs are regionally divergent. Some football clubs are more solution focussed than others. Bristol Sport is not an undeniable consequence of the modernisation of football. No other football club in the UK outsources their commercial activities to a third party and has the relationship BCFC does to Bristol Sport.
None of that is any different to any other club that has gone through the same process. Challenges differ but the point of identity is consistent. And you can't name an example of a comparable club that has gone through that process with it's 'identity' still intact. It doesn't exist - you either embrace modern football or you become a Bristol Rovers. Clearly SL has got under your skin and you can't see past it.
Lost it. City are tenants. Would have been better if it was Bristol City sport and everbody within it was Bristol City except maybe the rugby. Same as sports clubs abroad.
If other clubs have no third party like Bristol Sport the modernisation of those clubs cannot have gone through the same process.
Bollocks to the brand just pay attention to Bristol City because all these "corporate" statements are doing my head in every time I read them. Wake up to the expectations of the supporters and forget all of the other stuff. Poorly run football side of the equation will stay the same without change from the top, and I don't imagine the leopard will change it's spots. The ongoing rhetoric about how good we are going to be is starting to wear thin and has become extremely boring.
Same process of modernisation. As you well know, but when you lose you focus on a point completely off topic to disguise it. An uncanny ability to make every thread incredibly dull.
I do not know. Eight years ago Bristol Sport did not exist. I can think of no parallel at any other club so the process of modernisation cannot be the same.
