[silverbaggie]

On the other hand, them going down (and staying down) would give us a fair chance at asserting regional dominance, increasing our fanbase locally and also marketing ourselves as the only historic West Midlands football club in the Prem.  Not exactly earth-shaking stuff, but it would be a small victory.

I too would like to see us as the Midlands club with the biggest fanbase but, that doesn't help the Club's finances unless there are extra seats available for these hoped for additional fans.
In recent years the ground capacity has got ever smaller; in part because of Premiership requirement that stadiums be all seater.
The ground capacity is what 27,000 now and how many season ticket holders are there?
Not too many seats available for all these hoped for new fans.

Some years ago admittedly but I can remember being in crowds of 40,000 and our highest ever gate was , I believe, in excess of 60,000.

Perhaps unsustainable now with unemployment being a serious factor in the area but, on the other hand, you are much more likely to get a full house for games against other local clubs.

I think that we have just got to accept that the Nationwide interest in Midlands football is regarded as just so much small change.
Unless JP can find a rich 'sugar daddy' from somewhere we will just have to settle for playing 'a bit part' as far as the EPL goes.