Remarkable turnaround in the last few years promotion back to the championship and a job well done in some very difficult times – However the concerning side of things 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest city in Uk and one of the lowest football budgets in the championship - Worried about selling our best payers rather than adding to what we already have - Surly the target should be the premiership and not at all costs, but the budget and thought process needs to be upped considerably for a big city club – The self-sufficient works to a degree but time for or a change of thought – Danger is losing the likes of the management team, our best players and many fans, and then the slide backwards down the leagues
What’s the relevance of 9th largest city? In the latest table going round we’re the 30th best supported club in England this season
It's true we are a big City but that doesn't necessarily translate into attendances or season ticket sales. And there are the small matters of not owning our stadium, lack of revenue therefrom, and being owned by a mercenary hedge fund.
yes it’s irrelevant. What isn’t of course is the attendance figures. The real alarming thing is the way the club structures itself we are a loss making model already and it’s getting worse
not owning the stadium is probably a Godsend tbh I’d have tied up a 50 year sub lease the minute wasps started to talk about needing the club back
The size of city is probably has a strong correlation to supporter base which in turn influences budget.
The biggest factor clearly though is the policies and reserves of SISU.
Size of city used to be very important but much less so now and its down to owners wealth and their urge to spend/priorities.
The biggest factor clearly though is the policies and reserves of SISU.
Size of city used to be very important but much less so now and its down to owners wealth and their urge to spend/priorities.
A city of our size should be getting attendances on a par with Derby or Nottingham. But from where we have come from being 30th in that table is incredible really…… I don’t know why we have had a 20k ceiling but if we are to challenge we need to break through that…. Leaving the fact aside that we have owners who show little ambition and retain us on some sort of life support machine model.
We have 8th highest average attendance in the Championship, above the likes of QPR, Blackburn, Luton, Bournemouth who are all doing better than us.
Even if we were in the Premier league we couldn't get higher than bottom 6 in attendances due to the ground capacity.
Even if we were in the Premier league we couldn't get higher than bottom 6 in attendances due to the ground capacity.
Leyton Orient are from the biggest city in the UK yet are sat in League 2, worrying times
The simple fact is that the "owners" are who they are and what they are, and no amount of criticism or protest has changed that to any significant degree.
Unless there is a total change of attitude, and there is no evidence of that being likely,
they are not going to "speculate to accumulate"
they are not going to put any money in to improve the squad, on the odd-chance of play-offs
they will only put money in, such as bridging loans to cover negative cash flow, to protect their original investment.
There is no point going on about what might be, it's not going to happen without regime change.
We can support the club, but that doesn't mean we have to like the ownership model.
We can refuse to support the club but NOPM didn't work.
There's just no point in going on about what might have been. We are where we are.
Sorry if that offends
Unless there is a total change of attitude, and there is no evidence of that being likely,
they are not going to "speculate to accumulate"
they are not going to put any money in to improve the squad, on the odd-chance of play-offs
they will only put money in, such as bridging loans to cover negative cash flow, to protect their original investment.
There is no point going on about what might be, it's not going to happen without regime change.
We can support the club, but that doesn't mean we have to like the ownership model.
We can refuse to support the club but NOPM didn't work.
There's just no point in going on about what might have been. We are where we are.
Sorry if that offends
We've had a 20k ceiling for 40 years from when we went all seater under Jimmy Hill
OP Maybe take a browse through this thread and think back what happened to us, the fans over the past 15-20 years?
The Administration Thread - Page 1175 - Derby County Forum - DCFC Fans
The Administration Thread - Page 1175 - Derby County Forum - DCFC Fans
But we've never hardly gone over the 20k ceiling for home fans at the Ricoh so what's your point
And there is a strong case for saying we will be here for some time. Floundering in the Prem means we will become a Norwich or Fulham, It may serve SISU well but the fans will need to adjust to it. Truth is we lasted 34 years in the top league with only a handful of seasons where we could enjoy the football. But being a strong Championship team is probably better for the fans.
Yet we could argue all the antics employed in getting to this point have led to season tickets being discounted by at least £100 over a season.
If we were top 10 in the championship for the next 5 years I would like to think I would still enjoy it, we play good football, big away crowds and aiming for the play offs and promotion, but I suppose there will come a time when fans will want more.
It wasn't 40 years which was a point you made. And to me, it is better to have a capacity above the average and have a few games a season when we pull in the extra fans.
A poxy 20k Stadium over in Canley would be a backward step as it would lack ambition in my view.
Maybe, just maybe, it's to do with what's happened to this football club in the last 15 years?
It 41 years then, what I said was when we went all seater our crowds dropped and we never replaced them
I suspect we'll very soon hit a ceiling whereby we won't be able to grow turnover and we won't be able to push the boat out any further with regards to spending more than the club earns - so will therefore rely on first team player sales to subsequently cover losses and pay back interest on loans as well as the loans themselves.
We can only have 4 CBs because we've used the money to get a new head of ticketing.
Without interested owners our growth will stop.
Without interested owners our growth will stop.
There’s a chance this season is as good it will get without further investment.
And unless something changes we will not achieve sufficient returns compared to other teams also on this model.
Fair point. Conceded. In terms of crowds the 1980’s were poor everywhere Chelsea played in front of 11k for some games. The recession hit. Then hooliganism and a failure to put a decent team out. But 87 is a different thing. A stadium like in the 70s would have been filled to 40k. It happened. So put a good product out and you will get 30k. one of this by SISU disenfranchising the fans but Post 2005 the stadium capacity has been 90 % full on occasions. Gillingham West Ham etc.
Exactly. You'd hope that the club is not relying on matching or beating the ST sales of this season as I think that would be a very tall order.
Unless we maximise commercial opportunities I think we'll very much struggle to best the turnover of this season without the sale of players.
Rather than asking pointless questions that won't ever be answered the guys on here should've really asked Boddy at the supporters forum how he plans on going about that.
Making a return to L1 more and more probable. They need to sell the club now. (or rather we need them to)
Very true
but I've watched a few Orient games on ifollow this season and the reason there in League 2 is because they are cr@p
We've been in administration despite not ever really going for broke on anything, administration after finishing 17th a few times!
Such cognitive dissonance between this and the "we need to sell a player this summer" stuff he'll say in the same programme notes
