Are we like Morcambe? Yeovil? Macclesfield?

Quoted from Civvy at last

I think the discussion is about the size of the club and not what we have (not) achieved.

Just because we have languished in the lower (non) league does not mean we are not bigger than those mentioned.
It just means we have been very poorly run.  UTM  

If Manure got relegated they would still be the same size club.  Just not realising their potential.  

How do you define the size of a club?  If we're talking numbers then it has to be on the numbers coming through the gates, in which case we're 9th in League Two.  Upper mid-table.  Good but not quite good enough.  I'm not sure the population of the local area is an indication of how big a club we are.  Especially as in modern history we've never really captured the imagination of the local population on anything that remotely resembles a sustained period.  

I think how we're run is ultimately reflected in where the club is.  We're run badly and as a result we're in our natural position of lower mid-table.  Better running of the club would no doubt result in an improvement in our position and therefore our 'size'.

That's just my take on it.  But I'd be curious to know why anyone thinks we're a 'bigger' club than our league position states.

Don't forget that we're also a very impoverished area. That's bound to affect things if people don't have the money in their pockets to get to games. It's not just the size of the local population which matters.

Though we were a 2nd Division team for most of my formative years, we wouldn't be able to establish ourselves as a second tier team in this day and age where money (and therefore potential attendances) are the be all and end all of the game. I'd say that with our 'size', we ought to be a top half of League Two, bottom half of League One club. We're minnows in terms of attendances/stadia size compared to most of the Championship clubs these days and considerably smaller than half of those in League One.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be doing a bit better than we've seen since our return to the League. We've seen various managers come in and attempt to play different sorts of formations and none have ever really looked like working. Back in the days of Buckley when we were punching above our weight, you know how we were trying to play, even if it didn't work out all the time. Jolley, Slade and Bignot have all chopped and changed the formation and line-up so often that it's no surprise that we've not developed a set style or any partnerships between players. That's the biggest disappointment with Jolley for me. He obviously wants to play with 3 at the back which is fair enough and has attempted this quite a few times this season. However, there has been absolutely no continuity in the line-ups with defenders brought in one week and dropped the next and forwards and midfielders in and out of the team from week to week as well. Injuries obviously play a part but the one thing we did develop during the good run in at the end of last season was a clear plan, a mostly settled defence and continuity in the forwards, however limited they were.

It always struck me that Bignot was floundering around looking for something which just clicked by chance and it has seemed that Jolley is doing the same much of this season as well. I only hope that he finds the players he needs during the early part of the summer and can play them regularly during pre-season to start to develop partnerships.

Its all about potential isn't it?

Very few clubs drop into division 4 / 5 and retain big gates. But they have the potential to increase their gates again as they rise up the leagues.

We can all remember Hull, Swansea, Bournemouth, Huddersfield,Brighton and many more with very low attendances when they were in lower divisions.

If we have a unitary authority population of nearly 200k then clearly there is the potential there to get 10-12000 gates with the right set up.

We got pretty low attendances even in the second tier, so it would be a difficult thing to achieve. The only thing I know for sure is we will not achieve it under the present owner.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Its all about potential isn't it?

Very few clubs drop into division 4 / 5 and retain big gates. But they have the potential to increase their gates again as they rise up the leagues.

We can all remember Hull, Swansea, Bournemouth, Huddersfield,Brighton and many more with very low attendances when they were in lower divisions.

If we have a unitary authority population of nearly 200k then clearly there is the potential there to get 10-12000 gates with the right set up.

We got pretty low attendances even in the second tier, so it would be a difficult thing to achieve. The only thing I know for sure is we will not achieve it under the present owner.

It's under 160k so you can knock 20% off the potential too, so 8-10,000.

But we won't acheive that with the way the club is run. Maringer is right that relative poverty of NEL is a constraint. That makes it even more important to market the club well and be innovative.

Intereting topic.

Where I live in Swansea 1/3 Of children live in homes below the poverty line but the area sustained a premiership club for around a decade. Yes the catchment is a bit bigger but I remember going down the Vetch and there were only about 2k crowds there. Football is not even the primary sport in the area however the club have been successful in sucking away young fans from the regionalised WRU structure. They were also lucky with the council who effectively used the new stadium there to regenerate a very deprived area.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

It's under 160k so you can knock 20% off the potential too, so 8-10,000.

But we won't acheive that with the way the club is run. Maringer is right that relative poverty of NEL is a constraint. That makes it even more important to market the club well and be innovative.

The potential could be there but when you look at the last time we were at Championship Level - 1998/99 to 2002/03 our highest season average was 6681 and that was the first season after promotion. In fact you have to go back to 1981/82 when we last averaged over 8,000 for the season.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

Intereting topic.

Where I live in Swansea 1/3 Of children live in homes below the poverty line but the area sustained a premiership club for around a decade. Yes the catchment is a bit bigger but I remember going down the Vetch and there were only about 2k crowds there. Football is not even the primary sport in the area however the club have been successful in sucking away young fans from the regionalised WRU structure. They were also lucky with the council who effectively used the new stadium there to regenerate a very deprived area.

Exactly. Anything can be done witlh the willpower, the energy, the money the contacts and the ability to carry it out.

One of Mr. Fenty's mistakes is that he thought a new stadium would solve all the problems. Even that would be no good if the people with the same skills run it.

There are a whole host of towns, including Swansea, who have just as many problems as us, bit make a much better fist of it in terms of football.

Quoted from rancido

The potential could be there but when you look at the last time we were at Championship Level - 1998/99 to 2002/03 our highest season average was 6681 and that was the first season after promotion. In fact you have to go back to 1981/82 when we last averaged over 8,000 for the season.

Exactly my point