wattsville_boy wrote: October 25th, 2021, 4:01 pm If you are an ambitious club then you are looking to having success in order to increase your fan base (and ultimately increase revenues coming in). But what is success? Some might say that keeping a club in the EFL while having a lower half League 2 budget is success and to some degree they are correct. Others would suggest progressing in Cup competitions and beating Premier League and Championship teams along the way is success and certainly that has helped the bank balance and possibly increased the fan base over the past few years.

But real success comes with promotion. The cup runs have increased County's profile both locally and nationally and it is no surprise that revenues increased prior to the pandemic. It is difficult to assess attendances at this point but the average attendance seemed to be increasing year on year until restrictions arrived and probably would have seen some increase in the past two seasons had there been no pandemic. I feel County had stagnated in the last couple of years with poor signings, no obvious progression of the Academy and perhaps some lack of ambition.

If County want to progress then they have to get themselves promoted to League 1 and be able to stay there. From a playing point of view this means being defensively sound, competitive in midfield and able to break down opponents when in attack. There is work to be done in all three of these aspects this season. Attractive football is likely to increase attendances, though while Covid remains (and in record numbers) in the community and with Covid passports needed for admission to RP it is likely that attendance figures could start coming down again. Though most on here would like to see attractive football, we would all possibly forego that for a promotion place.

That is a short-term plan - promotion and then remain. Personally if the club were to divert all their available money (without going into debt) on that short-term plan I would have little issue with that. But the club does need a long-term plan and to communicate it to their supporters. I want to know that the club are looking into building decent training facilities, that they are improving the identification of Academy players with potential and tailoring their training to develop them better, that they have a plan to build a multi-purpose stadium that they can afford to run and maintain.

I want my club to tell me that they have ambitions, what those ambitions are and how they propose to achieve those ambitions. All we have is silence...

yourfinalanswer wrote: October 25th, 2021, 5:37 pm

wattsville_boy wrote: October 25th, 2021, 4:01 pm If you are an ambitious club then you are looking to having success in order to increase your fan base (and ultimately increase revenues coming in). But what is success? Some might say that keeping a club in the EFL while having a lower half League 2 budget is success and to some degree they are correct. Others would suggest progressing in Cup competitions and beating Premier League and Championship teams along the way is success and certainly that has helped the bank balance and possibly increased the fan base over the past few years.

But real success comes with promotion. The cup runs have increased County's profile both locally and nationally and it is no surprise that revenues increased prior to the pandemic. It is difficult to assess attendances at this point but the average attendance seemed to be increasing year on year until restrictions arrived and probably would have seen some increase in the past two seasons had there been no pandemic. I feel County had stagnated in the last couple of years with poor signings, no obvious progression of the Academy and perhaps some lack of ambition.

If County want to progress then they have to get themselves promoted to League 1 and be able to stay there. From a playing point of view this means being defensively sound, competitive in midfield and able to break down opponents when in attack. There is work to be done in all three of these aspects this season. Attractive football is likely to increase attendances, though while Covid remains (and in record numbers) in the community and with Covid passports needed for admission to RP it is likely that attendance figures could start coming down again. Though most on here would like to see attractive football, we would all possibly forego that for a promotion place.

That is a short-term plan - promotion and then remain. Personally if the club were to divert all their available money (without going into debt) on that short-term plan I would have little issue with that. But the club does need a long-term plan and to communicate it to their supporters. I want to know that the club are looking into building decent training facilities, that they are improving the identification of Academy players with potential and tailoring their training to develop them better, that they have a plan to build a multi-purpose stadium that they can afford to run and maintain.

I want my club to tell me that they have ambitions, what those ambitions are and how they propose to achieve those ambitions. All we have is silence...

Now, this is why I set this thread up. To get some positivity, not some playground Arguments. Come on now let's try and get some decent replies for once. Set your differences aside and help the club to increase attendance. That is one of the reasons that I set this thread up. Please Ladies and Gentlemen let us work together on this.

yourfinalanswer wrote: October 25th, 2021, 5:37 pm

wattsville_boy wrote: October 25th, 2021, 4:01 pm If you are an ambitious club then you are looking to having success in order to increase your fan base (and ultimately increase revenues coming in). But what is success? Some might say that keeping a club in the EFL while having a lower half League 2 budget is success and to some degree they are correct. Others would suggest progressing in Cup competitions and beating Premier League and Championship teams along the way is success and certainly that has helped the bank balance and possibly increased the fan base over the past few years.

But real success comes with promotion. The cup runs have increased County's profile both locally and nationally and it is no surprise that revenues increased prior to the pandemic. It is difficult to assess attendances at this point but the average attendance seemed to be increasing year on year until restrictions arrived and probably would have seen some increase in the past two seasons had there been no pandemic. I feel County had stagnated in the last couple of years with poor signings, no obvious progression of the Academy and perhaps some lack of ambition.

If County want to progress then they have to get themselves promoted to League 1 and be able to stay there. From a playing point of view this means being defensively sound, competitive in midfield and able to break down opponents when in attack. There is work to be done in all three of these aspects this season. Attractive football is likely to increase attendances, though while Covid remains (and in record numbers) in the community and with Covid passports needed for admission to RP it is likely that attendance figures could start coming down again. Though most on here would like to see attractive football, we would all possibly forego that for a promotion place.

That is a short-term plan - promotion and then remain. Personally if the club were to divert all their available money (without going into debt) on that short-term plan I would have little issue with that. But the club does need a long-term plan and to communicate it to their supporters. I want to know that the club are looking into building decent training facilities, that they are improving the identification of Academy players with potential and tailoring their training to develop them better, that they have a plan to build a multi-purpose stadium that they can afford to run and maintain.

I want my club to tell me that they have ambitions, what those ambitions are and how they propose to achieve those ambitions. All we have is silence...

Now, this is why I set this thread up. To get some positivity, not some playground Arguments. Come on now let's try and get some decent replies for once. Set your differences aside and help the club to increase attendance. That is one of the reasons that I set this thread up. Please Ladies and Gentlemen let us work together on this.