Untrue Fans. (1 Viewer)

Hi Chris,

I am still a little bit pissed off about that Chelsea game. Although it was good to fill the Ricoh a lot of the "City Fans" were only there to see Drogba and Lampard and couldn't name any of the City Players and just stood about moaning about the Cashless System which had been there for a good season so if they had been up before they would have known about it and could have prepared.

I think it is a bit petty for people to refuse to support a team because of one player, players come and go but a team is for life

I don't think it's anything to be displeased about that the Ricoh can't be filled week in week out but can be against Chelsea. I only really get the chance to go to the Ricoh a few times a year; being at uni in London during term time, which is generally the only time i have any significant income, makes it hard. And so a 'bigger' game where we have the chance to beat a big power team is going to have more of a draw for someone like me who can only manage to get to a few games a year, than, say, going to watch us play out a draw with Plymouth (a game i did actually ended up at last year, ha).
I didn't go to the Chelsea game (but i was the solitary Cov shirt in our student union watching the game - the uni's nearest stadium is Stamford Bridge!), but i did make the effort to get on a train and come up to Coventry exclusively to see the Blackburn game.

I'm not saying all cases are like mine but i don't necessarily think it's a case of "untrue fans". For a lot of people it's a matter of opportunity cost more than anything.

People will always want to watch the big clubs. Yes it is disappointed that we don't sell out the Ricoh each week but it is hardly surprising given our track record in recent years.

I think that in most cases it is just that lots and lots of people in coventry are just "glory fans" the same as in most citys accross england. And that they do not see the attraction of going to watch a typical championship game. Which means that we are not going to be able to advance dramatically as a club because we are not recieving much needed revenue for tickets from people that are not willing to turn up and support our team.

Obviously there is exceptions, such as you Jimthor

When i have more money in the next few month si plan to fly over to as many home games as i can it cost me alot but i wanna see my team play no matter what ill support them where ever i am. Ive a car show again this weekend in cublin its a 2 hour drive but im going to watch the match on sky sports first before i leave ill be glued to my seat.

CovKingChris said:

:wave:Hi guy's. This is my first EVER, so please dont judge. What I wanted to discuss was the little number of fans at the Ricoh, week in week out. We saw that the 32000 seater stadium could be filled on 7th March 2009 against Chelsea. But that game proved that we have glory supporters, which I for one do not care for one bit. We need supporters at the ground every game to cheer on the side.

We also see the lack of support in the Marlon King saga. People claiming that if a deal is signed for Marlon King, that they we no longer be supporting the club, which i think is utterly pathetic. One player does not change a club and what he has done does not change the way he is going to play. I fo one will support Marlon King in whatever decision he makes for the future of his career and I wouldlove to see him pull on a Coventry City shirt this season and score some goals.

I would love to hear your opinions on this discussion. Thank You.

CovKingChris

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Your right there ... if we had that kind of support every week then that could spur the team on and maybe next year we could be playin the chelsea's, man utd's, liverpool's.

I think Marlon King would be a brilliant signing for us. He is proven at our level and he has served his time for crimes committed. Proven player and would bang in the goals at championship level. Gives us more options up front as well then.

I've been supporting Coventry for 47 years, during that time I've held season tickets, stood on The West End, got to every ground in Division1, and attended friendlies and youth matches.

Now I only go to half a dozen games a year. I work shifts, for a start so last time I had a season ticket 3 seasons ago, I missed loads of matches because they switched the games for television. Last year I went to a few home games, and Leicester away, this year will probably be about the same.

Am I less a supporter than someone who currently goes to every game ?

Don't know ~ don't care.

As for King - if you truley believe that this man's past behaviour is mitigated because he happens to be able to kick a football, then I would suggest that you have such a narrow life view that your opinion of other people's views is worthless.

Disorganised1 said:

I've been supporting Coventry for 47 years, during that time I've held season tickets, stood on The West End, got to every ground in Division1, and attended friendlies and youth matches.

Now I only go to half a dozen games a year. I work shifts, for a start so last time I had a season ticket 3 seasons ago, I missed loads of matches because they switched the games for television. Last year I went to a few home games, and Leicester away, this year will probably be about the same.

Am I less a supporter than someoen who currently goes to every game ?

Don't know ~ don't care.

As for King - if you truley believe that this man's past behaviour is mitigated because he happens to be able to kick a football, then I would suggest that you have such a narrow life view that your opinion of other people's views is worthless.

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I wouldn't class you are not a fan. It was the people who turned up to the Chelsea game who had no interest in CCFC at all and just wanted to see Drogba.

With someone like Ranson in charge if we could pull in 28k+ a week to watch our games we would have a much stronger squad and a more realistic chance of getting out of the league. As it stands at the moment our only hope is to just have a 'Blackpool' season because we certainly can't buy our way out because for starters not enough fans are turning up. It's just amazing how I nearly didn't get to go to the Chelsea game and the queues went on for hours around the Ricoh and yet week in week out I see loads of empty seats. It's obviously frustrating but at the same time you have to respect people's work commitments and the fact some fans may live far away or have started a family. Having said that with a population of over 300k you would expect to be able to scrape up at least 25k from that to come and watch football especially when we're in the league we're in - the Championship IS a very good league - one of the best in the world. A lot of people moan about prices and to be fair some people are having financial difficulties at the moment but at the same time you can guarantee the gates would increase massively if we got to the Premier League next season despite tickets costing even more than they do now. Fancy Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool or Arsenal away anyone? Well expect to fork out massive sums if you do! You know, the sums that no-one seems to have when we're playing Barnsley, S****horpe, Preston or Bristol away

In my opinion the only way we can increase the attendances is by pushing up the table and hope that by March we are still in contention with the playoffs. This will increase the attendances and the image of the club which i believe is very important and will help attract new fans and encourage existing ones to turn up to the games. Simple to say however hard to execute especially with limited funds.

PUSB

Yeah, I agree that doing very well during the course of the season will encourage people to come to the Ricoh, but we have to keep the momentum going- after the Cardiff game, and subsequent stuttering results, people decided to stay away once again.

I have one other theory: notice how many West Midlands teams there are in the Championship...there's only one, that's Coventry!

We got the biggest crowds last season for the derby games against Leicester (yeah, they're not West Midlands, I know...) and WBA, with Newcastle another well-attended game due to just how big that club is. This season, it can't really be said that there are many great big clubs in the Championship- yes, there's some interest in watching Burnley, Hull and Pompey (what was the attendance?) and other big sides like Leeds with a fantastic history behind them, but apart from that, you have to be very dedicated to be able to get enthused about seeing Cov play the likes of Doncaster Rovers (e.g.)...if we were playing, say, Birmingham, Wolves, WBA on a regular basis, then the Ricoh would at least be seeing 20,000 + people there each time...

Also Championship football, in a way, isn't all that great- it's the equivalent of Get Carter- the Michael Caine version: gritty as hell and very few people are left happy at the conclusion of the film/season.

I think that some people have a habit of blindly picking out one point without looking at the surrounding picture. How in the world can we expect over 20,000 fans to turn up to the Ricoh each week when we're a side that finished 21st and 19th in our last 2 seasons. If anything, we're a bloody loyal bunch. Yes we can sell out against Chelsea, but don't think for one minute we're the only club that has mediocre turn-outs week in week out then a sell-out against a top4 side. It's the same at virtually ANY club around the country. We have a cracking core of fans, about 10,000 who have stuck by this side no matter what, and they are a credit to this club.

Just look at it. In 08/09, we finished 21st, nearly relegated. Yet we averaged 17,400 fans per game, the 13th highest total in the championship for that season. Last year, we came 19th, one of the most up and down seasons i can remember as a Coventry fan (please note i'm only 18...) yet 17,300 people turned up each game on average. Considering the recession etc hitting hard that's not bad. It was even good enough to see us rise up to 12th in the average attendances for that season. Compare that to some other teams....Bristol City went down from 16,800 fans in 08/09 to 14,600 last season, a drop of over 2 thousand!! Palace went from 15,100 to 14,700, a drop of 400. Doncaster went from 12,000 to 11,000. Our 100 drop doesn't look so bad now does it.

With regards to the King saga, i've made my opinion very clear, i'm against it. He's a common criminal. Served his time in jail or not, he's still commited 14 crimes (and that's just ones he's been convicted of....who knows if there were more!!). If he was to go for an office job somewhere now he'd be refused. The only job he'd be doing anytime soon would be mopping floors in McDonalds, so why should he be allowed to step straight back into football like nothings happened. I'll support the club no matter what, but again i'm looking at the bigger picture. I'm looking at the image of this club, the reputation we as Coventry fans would have to put up with for signing the guy. The OP poster said 1 player doesn't make a club did he not?? So why in the world are some City fans banking on him firing us into the Premiership!!! They guy hasn't kicked a football competitively for over a year, hell, he's only scored 8 goals in the last 3 years!!! What a crackin scoring record!! Sorry to not be all for this but hardly any goals and a bad reputation joining us? Sounds just brill doesn't it?? No, didn't think so either.

Some people really need to stop with the tunnel vision and look at the bigger picture of some of these things. Sorry if i've sounded blunt, i just feel as though some people don't quite see the importance of this yet.

Fair points made gouldberg

CovKingChris said:

There's pep ou there now claiming we should get rid of Aidy. What a oad of bollocks. We have lost 1 game... All these fans saying that must have manic depression or something. One game doesnt mean anythings. I could maybe undertandAidyout if e were on like a 15 match losingstreak, ut were not, we have got 7 points in 4 games and to me thats quite good.

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Some fans are pretty pathetic to be honest, I think Aidy is doing a great job. It wasn't in his game plan for Baker to get sent off and then to concede a penalty but these things happen when it just isn't your day and some fans don't understand how difficult it is getting points away from home for any team. They think we should play like Brazil everywhere we go and win the league outright.

SkyBluesAndy said:

Some fans are pretty pathetic to be honest, I think Aidy is doing a great job. It wasn't in his game plan for Baker to get sent off and then to concede a penalty but these things happen when it just isn't your day and some fans don't understand how difficult it is getting points away from home for any team. They think we should play like Brazil everywhere we go and win the league outright.

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F**k Me they must have forgotten we are in the Championship, not the Champions League.....

Anyone that claims that they are going to refuse to go to games simply because of signing one player should be automatically banned from going to any coventry matches ever again. We dont need sad, pathetic pesimists.

PUSB

What a great way to attract fans - ban anyone who says something you disagree with ! :slap:

haha, im saying. Why would you claim to not go to matches because of one player if you were serious about supporting our club?

Disorganised1 said:

What a great way to attract fans - ban anyone who says something you disagree with ! :slap:

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What about trying to attract new female fans and children by playing a man on the sex offenders list .

oldhead76 said:

What about trying to attract new female fans and children by playing a man on the sex offenders list .

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How about attracting fans with a team that wins games of football?