i think yobg has put his finger on it, in the 60,s bristol had a large number of craft and manuel workers, individual factories had their own downs league teams.in the 1980's onwards much of bristol,s industries were closed and replaced by bank and insurance workers who may or probably were not football followers. so both clubs must work hard to build up their fan bases, as 6k at home matches for the gas must be at least 10k to make the club a financial success, likewise city need a bigger fanbase. new stadium and facilities have worked for the shrews with poor attendance but excellent facilities. let us hope both clubs stadiums go ahead soon in bristol
Now i am starting to see young kids wearing Man city shirts! disgrace if you ask me! both football clubs need to look after our young generation, because they are the future fans. That's why both clubs need new stadiums, good facilities and most of all, good football!
So, the consensus is: 1, Crap local political leadership. 2, Decline of our industrial base 3, Lack of ambition from successive boards 4, Political correctness 5, Inadequate investment 6, Glory hunting residents 7, Too much weed smoking Although I strongly believe that number 7 is probably the most important factor please log in to view this image I think that there could also be another factor at play. Although I'm a Bristolian born and bred, I know a hell of a lot of people who have come to Bristol later in life, either for university or for work, and have liked it so much they've stayed. Bristol has more incomers than virtually any other city apart from London. These incomers are hardly likely support either of our homegrown teams and nor are their kids. Therefore, the potential (devoted) fanbase just isn't there. Just a theory, I could be wrong.
i think number 3 is harsh in citys case. they have shown the right ambition with their bid for their new stadium but the council let them down! if the council gets in the way of our stadium plans (and i wouldnt be suprised if they did after what we have witnessed over the last 20 years or so getting done by the council over and over again) then i can see neither side getting any real help from number 5 in the list. what sugar daddy will want to come to either bristol side to put bristol on the map when they know a new stadium would be needed and will never get it due to the council? although we do have a high population figure in bristol, we also have a large amount of foreign nationals who may not like the sport for what ever reason or only know of the high profile teams such as the big clubs like man utd etc and not bothered by city/rovers. there is a large student population too in bristol who may not have an interest in football or interest in the local sides due to loyalties to other clubs where they come from. also we will have those only interested in rugby or cricket for example. and we have one of the highest if not the highest amount of people who play football for a team at the downs etc on a saturday meaning they cant attend games. these all will have an impact to the population of bristol percentage of those who actually attend games. also last season and this season, i know plenty of people who dont go to games now due to cost. times are hard and there is talk of another recession coming. wages freeze but cost of living is going up and rovers still want to charge people £18 to stand to watch the crap they are serving to watch league 2 standard when they were charging that to watch a better standard of football (from the opposition of course) in league 1. last season people voted with their feet and this season they havent come back and it aint as if they been inspired to come back either. looking at citys attendance drop too shows they been voting with their feet too. things will never change though. both bristol clubs, along with many football clubs, are stuck in a vicious circle. clubs need money to survive and to invest and to be able to improve the team and standard of football to stand a chance of suceeding. however as current both bristol sides are not peforming, we vote with our feet as the standard of football is shocking and we want changes. therefore the attendance drops meaning less money for the club meaning we both continue to buy average players instead of the quality needed to improve the standard and get promotion. less money means wages cant be paid so reduce the squad numbers and then get in cheaper and non quality standard in to replace. this has always been the case and will always be the case im afraid unless both sides join together and merge and get a big gamble with investment and the council on side and get the people of bristol wanting it. will never happen though.
funniest thing ive read in ages, I now have a degree in the political and social history of bristol..nothing to to with the club and team being shight? you sell yourselves short...bristonians are far too clever to waste their hard earned money on watching dross year in and year out..you did miss the obvious though...sunspot activity has unduly affected the mind set of the people of bristol..no doubt about it...otherwise 40,000 every home game.
Funniest thing I've read in ages (apart from reports of last week's Labour conference) is Wednesday 17th August 2011 Leicester City 1 - 2 Bristol City. I've been to Leicester a few times and it has to be said that if someone ever dropped napalm on it they'd cause £50 of improvements.
It has been touched on a few times through this thread that we are a rich city,but we don't have many individuals with wealth most of it is banking,and insurance companies.These sometimes do a bit of sponsoring or corporate,but no real investment.The two people mentioned Harry Dolman ,and Steve Lansdowne both offered their services to the Gas before being rejected and coming to us.This is a major reason for us being top dogs,but whereas Harry continued through his life, and after through his lovely wife Marina, it maybe that Steve is slowly withdrawing ,which could be a disaster.
your summary of 7 subjects was good but ignored the daily television of football .and during city's glory days was this when the late robert hobbs was chairman. of course when city are further up the league they still will be in their glory days
Yet, the prat who used to be john fallen, people from both the red and blue sides of Bristol celebrate daily that we don't hail from or live in the dire dump that is Leicester. Enjoy your Championship football, John, it's all you've got. Give me Nottingham any day of the week.
Or anywhere that is a much of a ****ing hole as Leicester is. And as YeOldebluegas says, you are a **** of the highest order, aside from the fact that most ****s are useful but I'll make an exception in your case as you clearly don't know any better. ****.
There seems to be a lack of passionate football fans in Bristol. Most are only interested in the big days out as we both experience when we make it to the big games. Also, we have a city that is so diverse with so many things to do in and around the town centre that people are spoilt for choice.
Atcham is spot on- Compare Bristol to Manchester, Tyneside, The Midlands, Yorkshire, Merseyside and even parts of London. Bristol isn't working class enough or poor enough, never has been, never will be. Football is a working mans game and these days the city's core economic base is in service industries. The only thing that will kickstart a football revolution in our fair city is unprecedented investment in sporting infrastructure- and billions in cold hard cash. Which aint gonna happen I'm afraid.
I have been a supporter of sport in Bristol for over sixty years. I have no wish to travel nearly one hundred miles to watch a Premiership match between two clubs I couldn’t care less about. Will I ever see one in Bristol? Probably not. Many of the comments made on this thread hit the mark. Can we change the dire situation we find ourselves in? We could if we all pulled together. We have always had an introverted set of Council leaders who have constantly not come up to the plate when the necessary decisions were there to be made. We must be the largest city in the land without a ring road! We have an airport accessed by minor country lanes when a major airfield sits pretty much redundant, attached to the City and an inch away from the junction of two major motorways. The docks fiasco, the spine road fiasco.. I could go on. How Isambard Kingdom Brunel managed to site his railway station in the centre of the city beggars belief! I hear (from insiders) that the council have already decided to block the Sainsbury bid at the Mem. Ashton Vale seems no longer exciting to the council now that the World Cup bid went AWOL. Anyway like golf if you play a bad shot you must play the next one from where you are. Trying to hack the ball back to where you ought to be is a recipe for disaster. So where are we? Two crap football teams. No athletics track. No rugby. Cricket…..Need I go on. The city has developed a culture where most people accept the status quo. There is a need for something to spark the interest which ignites the fuse to set off a bomb(not literally). My head was turned towards the Rovers when they walloped the Busby Babes four nil in the FA cup. Its events like this which start balls rolling. For many years I supported both clubs at home matches. What would you do on a Saturday otherwise? If a discussion could be put in motion for amalgamation of our two great clubs with perhaps a major sports stadium built on the old railway works along the Spine road. Who knows what might happen? As I have said before on these boards, supporters will come if the occasion is right. We can all dream!! Br1STol
Yes - Actually you need to add in that there's no speedway team in Bristol any more, bearing in mind that when the Bulldogs were at Eastville in the late 70's they were regularly getting crowds of more than 10,000. The locals and the council put paid to that......... Plus we have no modern or worthy concert venues, our traffic is now officially the worst in the country and anyone unluckly enough to have to regularly drive on any of our traffic light/roundabout infested roads will certainly testify to, but most importantly of all maybe in terms of just football, is that neither club has the real heritage or large swell of passionate local support that the great industrial centres of England used to have, with thousands of manual labourers whose wives used to kick them out of the house on a Saturday afternoon. The likes of Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, and London have all maintained huge football clubs and sustained followings down through the generations. Despite our appearance in an FA Cup final some 101 years ago (that we lost!), an all too brief stay in Division 1 in the 1970's, and a play off final defeat to Hull a few years ago, there is nothing much else to talk about. 2 League Cup semi-finals wow.....! And if you're a blue nose then you've even less to report and that's not having a go, it's the truth. Some say that the lack of success of our teams is because it's a relatively rich city with plenty of diversions away from The Gate or The Mem every other weekend. Others point to how big rugby is in the area as to why we don't have a football team in the Premiership, but FFS this is a city with a population of over 500,000. I love Bristol, it's my home and I'm proud of it, but parts of its infrastucture and it's small minded and wet councillors continue to be a joke, and they have hampered things in generations past and for generations to come with their 'can't do that' attitude, which is partly why we have no decent or cost effective transport systems. I believe that a successful Bristol City, and by successful it's all relative because I merely mean us being a competing and surviving Premiership team, (not by being a top 3 or 4 Man United) would attract around 30,000 people per home game, but I pity them all on the drive home as and if this ever happens.
'with thousands of manual labourers whose wives used to kick them out of the house on a Saturday afternoon." now half my mates got a job to get permission to get out of the house on a saturday afternoon. I know its a widely used excuse these days but football is just too expensive to watch, not many people can afford a £100 afternoon out withs the kids every saturday.
True football is too expensive to watch but fans in say places like Liverpool seemed to be able to afford an afternoon out with the kids and they have to pay more to watch a game and alot em probably don't have jobs (no offence) .
