Someone just told me were a small club.. So i thought who last season finished above us with a smaller catchment area. I can think of maybe blackpool but been a good away day it gets money from that. Most teams with towns our size maybe rotherham,
not sure but would say these 5 are no bigger towns than us. Blackburn Bolton Burnley Peterborough Wigan as I say I am not certain but cannot think they are any bigger places than us.
Re: not sure but would say these 5 are no bigger towns than us. But to add some balance they all, excluding Peterborough, had a significantly bigger budget than us and although they were in a higher league two were relegated.
Re: not sure but would say these 5 are no bigger towns than us. Key difference with all those is that they've had massive, massive investment pumped in from local multi millionaires. Granted we have Cryne but he's not pumped as much in as say Whelan.
but are the FA/FL bringing in new rules about that but I guess there will be ways around them even if they do.
Populations recent estimates; Barnsley Borough 227,600 Blackpool Borough 140,000 Blackburn Borough 140,000 Bolton Borough 262,400 Peterborough metropolitan area 196,000 Wigan Borough 300,000, Wigan Urban area 166,840
We seem to have this debate every two weeks or so. Barnsley has about 230,000..........BUT........its more or less surrounded by other towns and villages were people from those areas go to Barnsley For example: Midgely Denby Dale Flockton Hemsworth South Kirkby South Elmsall Ryhill Mexborough West Melton Wath Brampton Thorpe Hesley Chapeltown All of which have Barnsley fans in them..........which must bring the catchment area to over 300,000
Yes but.........Swansea hasn't got the 4th and 5th biggest cities in the country either side of it In some ways that is an advantage........but in our history that has been a HUGE disadvantage because the owners of Barnsley have traditionally had a mind set that is similar to the fans from those cities....i.e. Barnsley is a small club and cannot compete with those clubs Dave Bassett said in his book something on the lines of .........Barnsley will always be a small club because the owners (John Dennis) beleive it is a small club Nothing has changed since PC took over
Yes but they DO have Cardiff just 30 miles or so along the M4,the Capitol City. and more of the Welsh Mining Valleys funnel down to Cardiff transportwise that is.
these places also (as well as town area) have a large proportion of nearby clubs also, wendys , leeds hudds etc so swings and roundabouts really on that one.
Hence the double entry for Wigan. This was 2 minutes on Wiki. All towns have an extended catchment area that could increase their support. Trick is to have something worth supporting over the other teams that overlap that catchment area, be it entertainment, pricing, success or whatever.
most teams getting in the premier lge would increase their crowd with glory hunters, neutrals, other teams fans coming to watching top opposition etc. but in the lower lges its very hard eg i wouldn't stop going to't well just cos wendy's or leeds were in premier. it takes years to form an alliance as proved at bumhole lane look how there crowds have gone down, never got close to wendys catchment, my bet is to atract families, catch em young mek it so its not overly expensive, oh and a decent football team would help a bit .
Attract Families..ABSOLUTELY with you there mate we could make the Family ticket lots lower and very attractive. I know I know I know full paying guys will howl at this , but think it through. What if Dad payed a full price ST then Mum a Half price then Kid 1 free then subsequent kids £25. Give them a really good part of the stadium with decent snack bars , entertainment pre- match and half time. it could be a winner. I can now hear the guys who pay full wack beginning to grind teeth etc. But to them I say think it out. We are now not "sweating the assets" , to coin a phrase from a previous benefactor.But We would be sweating the assets of our catchment area if you think about it.Or we can leave it as it is , and have the ground less than half full every or most game. We could also perhaps offer up blocks of seating to schools/homes etc again it would be on the cheap and the full paying passengers again may object. But what it would do is fill the ground, build atmosphere and perhaps grab solid fans for the future. Or we could remain as it is and have a less than half full atmosphere clean ground for most games.Some of it is indeed a gamble, but I reckon its one worth taking.
