Nothing will ever be the same again

That’s the thing though. They’re wanting to make the football club a bigger fish.

I am not from Barnsley, I’ve never lived there and my only affinity to the town is the football club. I started going to games with my then step-father who was a fan. He wasn’t from Barnsley either, he was from Wakefield, but his dad before him was from Barnsley and used to work at the club in some capacity I think.

Anyway, the bug stuck and I stayed on as a supporter well after he had been and gone from our family. My son is now a st holder with me. He knows nothing about Barnsley other than the club and the Stairfoot Roundabout song. So we do have fans from outside ‘tarn’. Some like me attend (and spend) regularly.

But we are a minority. We have fans all over I guess, but I don’t think we have all that many that have never lived in the borough of Barnsley.

If the new owners want to cast their nets wider, great. There’s no reason we can’t get fans from the donny and Rotherham areas, Sheffield, Wakefield, ponty, (even Hemsworth...) etc now. But we aren’t a particularly obvious attraction further afield.

A bit of sensible investment in the team, some clever marketing in different markets and with some ground and overall experience improvements, there is no reason we can’t massively increase the fan base and attendances, and so revenue. More people would then lead to being a more attractive sponsorship prospect, so more revenue again.

Being locally owned was unique and quite pleasant, but let’s not get all league of gentleman about it. We are not a local club for local people, and there is something for the likes of them here.

And summat about a new road...