You just have to admire Norwich (1 Viewer)

[AFCCOVENTRY]

Just watching their game against Wigan and you have to say what a well managed club they have been in the last few years.

They got relegated to L1 but came storming back all the way to the Prem.

Their are very good models to look at if we end up in L1 for our first season there. All hinges big time on what type of backing the club gets. Will it be SISU? Will it be SISU with a partner or a new owner?

Our biggest issue is Norwich owns carrow rd and we don't own the Ricoh.

If SISU stay will they fund the manager to buy signings? Doubt it.

But Norwich and Saints all did one thing when relegated. By a star striker in L1 who knows the league and will get you goals.

Additional factor is the manager. Regardless of who owns us, does Thorn have it in him to get us promoted?

This summer is going to be a very critical point in our club either way.

Let's pray whichever league we are in we have some backing to bounce back from this awful season we are enduring.

 

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[stupot07]

I thinks it's important to note that they were able to bring in 14 permanent players (inc Holt £500k - not far off our entire transfer budget this season) and 6 loan players in during their League One promotion season.

Last season when they got promoted from the championship they were able to build on their promotion and bring in 10 permanent signings and 6 loan signings (inc Lansbury).

If/when we go down and if Sisu are still here we won't be doing Norwich in league one.

Lamberts a good manager though.

 

[Marty]

We'll be playing league two football long before with get back to the championship unless some serious change happens, both at the top and within the squad, we are going to struggle at the wrong end of League one.

 

[CovKingChris]

Plus, they were in £60million debt whilst in the Championship.

 

[The CableGuy]

You just have to admire Norwich

...and their 20,000+ season ticket holders.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

One of my least favourite clubs without question-though for non footballing reasons It's important to note that Norwich is the only league club in Norfolk, and for a good 40 miles around it. Coventry is surrounded by Birmingham/Villa/WBA/Leicester within 20. Until Crawley came up, Brighton were the only league side in the whole of Sussex, and can draw upon a much broader fan base accordingly.

 

[AFCCOVENTRY]

I agree. ... if sisu are still here we will free fall out of L1 double time.

With sisu here we will not even get 5000 season ticket holders next season.

We don't have a stake in the stadium either.

Critical times for the club.

 

[tommydazzle]

And they know when to shift players past their best - Clingan and Bell spring to mind.......

and have bought well in the past - Huckerby and Dublin spring to mind ........both became legends for Norwich fans.

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Norwich cant help the geographical position the argument is lost with the likes of Plymouth

I like the club to be honest and no harm really

FAIR PLAY TO THEM

 

[SkyBlue]

Disliked them after last seasons game when they spent more time rolling around on the floor then playing football. Grant Holt is a thug too.

 

[ron obvious]

Plus, they were in £60million debt whilst in the Championship.

NCFC max. debt was £22.9m in 2009, reducing since.

I think you may have been misled by the proposed (alleged) takeover by Peter Cullum, a source of much salivation by certain fans, when the board asserted it would need £60m for a takeover; £20m to buy the shares, £20m to pay the debt & £20m for investment.

 

[Yorkshire SB]

Argument isn't lost by stating Plymouth, much smaller population in the west of the country, and an area more commonly associated with rugby. Plus the fact plymouth had very little success until a few years ago and are now in absolute disarray. Norwich and Ipswich are huge rivals are are over an hours drive away from one another. The sphere of influence is a term used to refer to how much a place (town, city) influences the surrounding population, e.g. do the people living in a village 10 miles away from coventry go there to shop, for example. This model is absolutely appropriate to football clubs. The issue with Coventry is that we haven't finished in the top 6 of any division in over 40 years, essentially meaning we've had 40 years of mediocre to poor levels of success (bar '87) and that will result in young fans turning their nose up at supporting the club and instead glory hunting.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Norwich cant help the geographical position the argument is lost with the likes of Plymouth

I like the club to be honest and no harm really

FAIR PLAY TO THEM

Nor can we. To be completely honest, my dislike of the club and the region is down to personal reasons-I have no issue with them from a football standpoint.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Argument isn't lost by stating Plymouth, much smaller population in the west of the country, and an area more commonly associated with rugby. Plus the fact plymouth had very little success until a few years ago and are now in absolute disarray. Norwich and Ipswich are huge rivals are are over an hours drive away from one another. The sphere of influence is a term used to refer to how much a place (town, city) influences the surrounding population, e.g. do the people living in a village 10 miles away from coventry go there to shop, for example. This model is absolutely appropriate to football clubs. The issue with Coventry is that we haven't finished in the top 6 of any division in over 40 years, essentially meaning we've had 40 years of mediocre to poor levels of success (bar '87) and that will result in young fans turning their nose up at supporting the club and instead glory hunting.

Spot on fella.

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Argument isn't lost by stating Plymouth, much smaller population in the west of the country, and an area more commonly associated with rugby. Plus the fact plymouth had very little success until a few years ago and are now in absolute disarray. Norwich and Ipswich are huge rivals are are over an hours drive away from one another. The sphere of influence is a term used to refer to how much a place (town, city) influences the surrounding population, e.g. do the people living in a village 10 miles away from coventry go there to shop, for example. This model is absolutely appropriate to football clubs. The issue with Coventry is that we haven't finished in the top 6 of any division in over 40 years, essentially meaning we've had 40 years of mediocre to poor levels of success (bar '87) and that will result in young fans turning their nose up at supporting the club and instead glory hunting.

Are you saying the population of Plymouth and surrounding 40 miles is less than Norwich ??

Can you name the rugby club so famous in the near area of 40 miles

Plymouth had a small stadium which when i went was quite full 14000 av on a 20K gate

carry on ........

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Spot on fella.

You can answer too if you like ........

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Are you saying the population of Plymouth and surrounding 40 miles is less than Norwich ??

Can you name the rugby club so famous in the near area of 40 miles

Plymouth had a small stadium which when i went was quite full 14000 av on a 20K gate

carry on ........

Cornish Pirates, currently near the top of rugby's 2nd tier. Plymouth have not been in the top flight for a very long time either, unlike Norwich who have been there on a semi-regular basis to boost crowds. Give any club the decades of non achievement that Coventry City have had, couple it with 4 similar or bigger clubs within 20 miles, and the crowds would be essentially the same. Difficult to tell though, because no other club has done nothing for so long.

 

[Grendel]

Argument isn't lost by stating Plymouth, much smaller population in the west of the country, and an area more commonly associated with rugby. Plus the fact plymouth had very little success until a few years ago and are now in absolute disarray. Norwich and Ipswich are huge rivals are are over an hours drive away from one another. The sphere of influence is a term used to refer to how much a place (town, city) influences the surrounding population, e.g. do the people living in a village 10 miles away from coventry go there to shop, for example. This model is absolutely appropriate to football clubs. The issue with Coventry is that we haven't finished in the top 6 of any division in over 40 years, essentially meaning we've had 40 years of mediocre to poor levels of success (bar '87) and that will result in young fans turning their nose up at supporting the club and instead glory hunting.

Norwich though are an excellent model for "smaller" clubs. Well run and very intrinsic in the local community. They historically lived in Ipswich's shadow for many years attracting an average of 16,000 fans in the 1980's. Fanbase has grown since 2000 through excellent marketing in the local community growing from just over 20,000 in 2001 to 24,000 in the relegation year. Their support is unlikely to decline. They had some league and European success but in truth have achieved no more than Coventry. It is true that they have a pull on other Norfolk towns with no significant sporting rivals but it is unfair to attribute the success solely to that. Also they had the nerve to act swiftly and ruthlessly when a managerial change was needed and got the right man.

 

[Grendel]

Cornish Pirates, currently near the top of rugby's 2nd tier. Plymouth have not been in the top flight for a very long time either, unlike Norwich who have been there on a semi-regular basis to boost crowds. Give any club the decades of non achievement that Coventry City have had, couple it with 4 similar or bigger clubs within 20 miles, and the crowds would be essentially the same. Difficult to tell though, because no other club has done nothing for so long.

In the 1980's Coventry had large attendences (albeit marginally) even when we were in the same division.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I think you're slightly misinterpreting my point Duffy-I'm not saying that geography is the only reason behind Norwich's resurgance. The reason for big attendances in the '80s could simply be put down to top flight football combined with the cup success and , bar 3 consecutive last day escapes, a stable league position.

 

[Grendel]

I think you're slightly misinterpreting my point Duffy-I'm not saying that geography is the only reason behind Norwich's resurgance. The reason for big attendances in the '80s could simply be put down to top flight football combined with the cup success and , bar 3 consecutive last day escapes, a stable league position.

I'm not disagreeing but I do think if you want to look at a relatively small club and how to succeed they as a business model is up there. When we were relegated we were operating at a similar support level to them (16,500 us vs. 18,000 to them). They have increased sharply and we now are back to the 14,000 levels we were in 2002.

 

[stupot07]

1979-80 - 19,318 (19th of 22) - Norwich 17,225 (21st of 22)
1980-81 - 16,904 (20th of 22) - Norwich 17,140(19th of 22)
1981-82 - 13,100 (21st of 22) - Norwich in Div 2
1982-83 - 10,552 (21st of 22) - Norwich 16,862 (14th of 22)
1983-84 - 12,572 (19th of 22) - Norwich 15,695 (13th of 22)
1984-85 - 12,848 (20th of 22) - Norwich 15,100 (16th of 22)
1985-86 - 11,590 (19th of 22) - Norwich in Div 2
1986-87 - 16,120 (14th of 22) - Norwich 17,568 (13th of 22)
1987-88 - 17,509 (11th of 21) - Norwich 15,942 (13th of 21)
1988-89 - 16,061 (14th of 20). - Norwich 16,783 (13th of 20)

Only 2 seasons did we have a better average attendance than Norwich in the 1980's in Div 1.

 

[Grendel]

1979-80 - 19,318 (19th of 22) - Norwich 17,225 (21st of 22)
1980-81 - 16,904 (20th of 22) - Norwich 17,140(19th of 22)
1981-82 - 13,100 (21st of 22) - Norwich in Div 2
1982-83 - 10,552 (21st of 22) - Norwich 16,862 (14th of 22)
1983-84 - 12,572 (19th of 22) - Norwich 15,695 (13th of 22)
1984-85 - 12,848 (20th of 22) - Norwich 15,100 (16th of 22)
1985-86 - 11,590 (19th of 22) - Norwich in Div 2
1986-87 - 16,120 (14th of 22) - Norwich 17,568 (13th of 22)
1987-88 - 17,509 (11th of 21) - Norwich 15,942 (13th of 21)
1988-89 - 16,061 (14th of 20). - Norwich 16,783 (13th of 20)

Only 2 seasons did we have a better average attendance than Norwich in the 1980's in Div 1.

I said they averaged around 1,500 more an us and the early 80's you can discount as our average attendance was restricted by ground issues. It was still similar at the turn of this century. They have always had a ground capacity of 25,000 plus and it is only in the last few years their gates have reached full capacity.

 

[stupot07]

I said they averaged around 1,500 more an us and the early 80's you can discount as our average attendance was restricted by ground issues. It was still similar at the turn of this century. They have always had a ground capacity of 25,000 plus and it is only in the last few years their gates have reached full capacity.

In 1981 Highfield Road was converted into England's first ever all-seater stadium with a capacity of around 24,500.

 

[Grendel]

In 1981 Highfield Road was converted into England's first ever all-seater stadium with a capacity of around 24,500.

I do accept you as the stats expert on here but that cannot be right, I sat in the Kop in the 1981 season and 80% of it was shut. The capacity was much lower than that.

 

[stupot07]

I do accept you as the stats expert on here but that cannot be right, I sat in the Kop in the 1981 season and 80% of it was shut. The capacity was much lower than that.

Got it from wiki, so is probably wrong! I suppose the point was, for a city our size and if you include Warwickshire that's a catchment area of about 800k. We are and have been for a while now a poorly followed side.

 

[Grendel]

Got it from wiki, so is probably wrong! I suppose the point was, for a city our size and if you include Warwickshire that's a catchment area of about 800k. We are and have been for a while now a poorly followed side.

Agreed - the only thing I can find other than Wiki is the ground was reduced in capacity by 16,000. I don't know if you were around then but it was awful the kop was reduced to a seating area of about 8 rows deep. Leeds then came and found a novel way of creating standing room by ripping the seats out.

By the way do you know if any team in the last 10 years has not won an away game in the Championship? Can't seem to find the stats - thought you might know!