01-02-2015, 12:59
You are right Pooch. Yeovil is roughly half the size of Chesterfield and found the Championship twice as much of a problem.
Cold January day, post-recession Christmas in not the wealthiest part of the country, with gate prices anywhere difficult to afford ........... How many could we expect? How many can we ever get? Regularly?
It would be lovely if an idealist like Matt were right and Derbyshire could be behind us, but with Derby County gunning for the Premier League, Sheffield City and its clubs encroaching into Derbyshire, Forest easy to reach and Manchester and even Stoke as close as us to the Peak our potential fan base has to be limited. Unfortunately picking up the potential fan base of surrounding areas isn't easy. Plymouth is an example, large but not wealthy population itself, the whole of the South West without a Premiership club ........ and it has never attracted the fan base that would get it to the top division.
Luckily gate receipts are not the only income of modern clubs, but smallish crowds do send out a message. Who could blame Mr Allen if he thinks the town is saying sell Eoin Doyle? Unfortunately I think we have to develop our team and the club in ways that grow our fan base as a result of success, not alongside it. Pooch, like me, remembers the days of Arthur Cox, the last time our team was doing this well. There were always rumours that the club didn't want to go up. Certainly with a bit of tinkering the team could have easily functioned in the old Division 2, but neither the crowd, nor our infrastructure quite matched an excellent team to watch.
Cold January day, post-recession Christmas in not the wealthiest part of the country, with gate prices anywhere difficult to afford ........... How many could we expect? How many can we ever get? Regularly?
It would be lovely if an idealist like Matt were right and Derbyshire could be behind us, but with Derby County gunning for the Premier League, Sheffield City and its clubs encroaching into Derbyshire, Forest easy to reach and Manchester and even Stoke as close as us to the Peak our potential fan base has to be limited. Unfortunately picking up the potential fan base of surrounding areas isn't easy. Plymouth is an example, large but not wealthy population itself, the whole of the South West without a Premiership club ........ and it has never attracted the fan base that would get it to the top division.
Luckily gate receipts are not the only income of modern clubs, but smallish crowds do send out a message. Who could blame Mr Allen if he thinks the town is saying sell Eoin Doyle? Unfortunately I think we have to develop our team and the club in ways that grow our fan base as a result of success, not alongside it. Pooch, like me, remembers the days of Arthur Cox, the last time our team was doing this well. There were always rumours that the club didn't want to go up. Certainly with a bit of tinkering the team could have easily functioned in the old Division 2, but neither the crowd, nor our infrastructure quite matched an excellent team to watch.