Craig 6700 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Massively disappointed the Stevie hasn't typed in a Brummie accent in this thread yet like. Tell me what you think of Stanley Collymore... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Massively disappointed the Stevie hasn't typed in a Brummie accent in this thread yet like. Tell me what you think of Stanley Collymore... Stanloi is considerabloi the beegest dogeeeng woife beetah in the owwwe cuntroi inneet. Bustin footballer thaawe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 We never fucked off 'when we were shit', nor did Leeds fans, yes attendances dropped, but not on a huge scale. We have great support, but that alone doesn't make you a 'big club', does it? Guess someone needs to define what a big club is. What 47000 to 27000 in 3 seasons I'd say that was fucking off. Leeds certainly did they were under 20,000 most weeks a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 To be honest 'big' or not, a lot of clubs are envious of the inherent allure Newcastle have, particularly certain Spurs fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneColdStephenIreland 74 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The geography of where clubs are based also has a big impact on how big a club is, a factor for us being a 'big club' is we don't have another club in our city to compete with us. If you look at Manchester they've got 2 clubs, Liverpool have 2 clubs also and London has a clusterfuck of teams all competing with each other in one city. Sunderland for me is the only other club that is a big club without being rivalled by another team in the same city. I think the only reason people class Villa as a 'big club' is because they're the best of a shyte bunch of brummie football teams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 What is a big club? Simples really. In order of importance. Ambition Trophy pedigree History Support A big club NEEDS all of those. We USED to be a big club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The geography of where clubs are based also has a big impact on how big a club is, a factor for us being a 'big club' is we don't have another club in our city to compete with us. If you look at Manchester they've got 2 clubs, Liverpool have 2 clubs also and London has a clusterfuck of teams all competing with each other in one city. Sunderland for me is the only other club that is a big club without being rivalled by another team in the same city. I think the only reason people class Villa as a 'big club' is because they're the best of a shyte bunch of brummie football teams That's a void argument though. Newcastle is not a big city. If you class Tyne & Wear as one city, it's still smaller than Merseyside 1.1m to 1.5m iirc. Yet we get more in than Liverpool, and the mackems get a good few in more than Everton. Big catchment area is null and void, big population area is a better argument. Leeds is bigger than the whole of Tyneside, and they're shit, we don't have an outstanding catchment population by any means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeazesMag 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership You should probably rephrase that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasepud 59 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. I honestly cannot see what people would have seen this season to make them come rushing back next? On the alternative theres 8 lads I know (and the mates they go with) who are seriously contemplating not renewing, they've not taken up the cheaper offer and are waiting to see what happens. Many people are looking to jack in the ST and pay game by game. I reckon we'll see our first sub 40k Premiership game next season. In fact I'll stick my neck on the line and predict we'll get as low as 35k in at least 2 games. *All that is on the basis we're actually in the Prem of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 22185 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 the whole big debate is quite tedious. at the end of the day, we are a big club, whether fans of other clubs with poorer support bases like it or not. but ultimately i think we'd all rather we were a successful club with lower attendances than a big club with zero success in most of our collective lifetimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. I honestly cannot see what people would have seen this season to make them come rushing back next? On the alternative theres 8 lads I know (and the mates they go with) who are seriously contemplating not renewing, they've not taken up the cheaper offer and are waiting to see what happens. Many people are looking to jack in the ST and pay game by game. I reckon we'll see our first sub 40k Premiership game next season. In fact I'll stick my neck on the line and predict we'll get as low as 35k in at least 2 games. *All that is on the basis we're actually in the Prem of course The greatest come back of our lives (well some of us ) The greatest derby game of our lives Six goal annihilation of Aston Villa Five goal annihilation of West Ham Three goal win against Liverpool Unbeaten at home to the big 5 Exciting games Great come backs even Wigan was a good come back More home goals than any other team in the Prem apart from Man Utd I'll stick my neck on the line also and say the average THIS season will be over 48,000, and next possibly 49 or 50k. We had all these doom and gloom merchants in the CCC, 25-30k average gate, I was the only one who said 44-45k, who was right? I know about these things Edited March 22, 2011 by McFaul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Ugly Mackems said there would be no difference in crowd too, for the record. I didn't believe him like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Your Name Here Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. I honestly cannot see what people would have seen this season to make them come rushing back next? On the alternative theres 8 lads I know (and the mates they go with) who are seriously contemplating not renewing, they've not taken up the cheaper offer and are waiting to see what happens. Many people are looking to jack in the ST and pay game by game. I reckon we'll see our first sub 40k Premiership game next season. In fact I'll stick my neck on the line and predict we'll get as low as 35k in at least 2 games. *All that is on the basis we're actually in the Prem of course The greatest come back of our lives (well some of us ) The greatest derby game of our lives Six goal annihilation of Aston Villa Five goal annihilation of West Ham Three goal win against Liverpool Unbeaten at home to the big 5 Exciting games Great come backs even Wigan was a good come back More home goals than any other team in the Prem apart from Man Utd I'll stick my neck on the line also and say the average THIS season will be over 48,000, and next possibly 49 or 50k. We had all these doom and gloom merchants in the CCC, 25-30k average gate, I was the only one who said 44-45k, who was right? I know about these things Might have been different if we’d finished mid table. As I think LM mentioned, we’re not immune from voting with our feet. In the early 80’s crowds around the 10k mark weren’t unknown. It just takes more shit for longer to grind us down. NUFC are a well supported club and on the whole our supporters are more likely to stick with it when the going gets tough than most clubs. The size of our support is big club, our acceptance of year on year shit isn’t. Supporters at big clubs don’t tolerate sustained failure, and this is the catalyst for their clubs to keep pushing on. Our loyalty should be the security on which the owner speculates on serious progression; all too often it breeds complacency and contempt in the boardroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. I honestly cannot see what people would have seen this season to make them come rushing back next? On the alternative theres 8 lads I know (and the mates they go with) who are seriously contemplating not renewing, they've not taken up the cheaper offer and are waiting to see what happens. Many people are looking to jack in the ST and pay game by game. I reckon we'll see our first sub 40k Premiership game next season. In fact I'll stick my neck on the line and predict we'll get as low as 35k in at least 2 games. *All that is on the basis we're actually in the Prem of course The greatest come back of our lives (well some of us ) The greatest derby game of our lives Six goal annihilation of Aston Villa Five goal annihilation of West Ham Three goal win against Liverpool Unbeaten at home to the big 5 Exciting games Great come backs even Wigan was a good come back More home goals than any other team in the Prem apart from Man Utd I'll stick my neck on the line also and say the average THIS season will be over 48,000, and next possibly 49 or 50k. We had all these doom and gloom merchants in the CCC, 25-30k average gate, I was the only one who said 44-45k, who was right? I know about these things Might have been different if we’d finished mid table. As I think LM mentioned, we’re not immune from voting with our feet. In the early 80’s crowds around the 10k mark weren’t unknown. It just takes more shit for longer to grind us down. NUFC are a well supported club and on the whole our supporters are more likely to stick with it when the going gets tough than most clubs. The size of our support is big club, our acceptance of year on year shit isn’t. Supporters at big clubs don’t tolerate sustained failure, and this is the catalyst for their clubs to keep pushing on. Our loyalty should be the security on which the owner speculates on serious progression; all too often it breeds complacency and contempt in the boardroom. Three gates in our post-war league history under 11,000 yes they weren't unknown, the same as a 4,000 gate at Celtic, Rangers and Arsenal was not unknown in the last 35 years, same as 15 gates under 12,000 at Spurs in the last 25 years were not unknown, same as Man Utd gates under 20,000 were not unknown. Pathetic even to mention that to be honest. As for if we'd been midtable I think the gates could've been even higher tbh. People were getting bored of winning 4 and 5-0 every week. Indeed when we had our dodgy spell losing to Blackpool, Scunthorpe and Forest in the space of a few weeks, the next home game there was nearly 45,000 against Doncaster fucking Rovers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffidae 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. You are right but there was 26,000 at the abandoned game. Aye re Thompson. Keegan got rid right after that game, he never played again. Right in front of me that was in the East Stand benches that night. Edited March 22, 2011 by McFaul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffidae 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. You are right but there was 26,000 at the abandoned game. Aye re Thompson. Keegan got rid right after that game, he never played again. Right in front of me that was in the East Stand benches that night. didn’t know it was 26,000, I thought it was a lot less. Ardiles was the manager at the time and said he would never play Thompson again after that. 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peasepud 59 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. Glenn Hoddle persuading Waddle to do "Diamond Lights" has to be up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. You are right but there was 26,000 at the abandoned game. Aye re Thompson. Keegan got rid right after that game, he never played again. Right in front of me that was in the East Stand benches that night. didn’t know it was 26,000, I thought it was a lot less. Ardiles was the manager at the time and said he would never play Thompson again after that. Aye but Keegan was at the game, he was working in a PR capacity if you remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffidae 0 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. You are right but there was 26,000 at the abandoned game. Aye re Thompson. Keegan got rid right after that game, he never played again. Right in front of me that was in the East Stand benches that night. didn’t know it was 26,000, I thought it was a lot less. Ardiles was the manager at the time and said he would never play Thompson again after that. Aye but Keegan was at the game, he was working in a PR capacity if you remember. nope, never knew that either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Obviously support comes into it, but having thousands of people watching teams win nothing isn't going to make the club bigger is it? I can see this becoming difficult. How do you define it ? There is an obvious link between acting big and becoming successful, attracting supporters back, and being seen to be big by others as a result. The problem is, if a club acts like a small club [like we are doing], does it mean they aren't a big club anymore ? Or is it just that you are a big club being run badly ? That's the thing though, people not going to matches isn't just about success on the field Lots of our fans have stopped going because they aren't happy with how the club is being run, sick of having to get by and then there was the 2 failed stadium moves (1 of which none of us wanted) I think we'll get less season ticket sales next season because people seeing that we are being left behind if we don't get investment so are boycotting Newcastle are obviously a big club and have a fantastic support, you could see that with the protests etc but I don't think support equals everything I have to disagree with your first comment. Success on the pitch is everything. Win and your crowds go up, at any level of the game, at NUFC a winning team is a full house. 2nd sentence - most people have forgotten about those stadium moves now. Personally, I think we should have moved to Leazes Park and forced the issue more. We will get less season ticket renewals next season because the team is struggling on the pitch and there is little optimism for improvement. 3rd sentence - I don't think any club would fill a 52000 stadium anywhere in the world having put up with what we have for so long to be honest, although it is going down now, it will still hover between 30-40,000 even when the damage inflicted by Mike Ashley increases, and no club in the world would get that either, especially when even a few wins in a lower league will send it back near 50,000 again. Just my opinions of course. Disagree with that like. There are more than enough dafties like me to keep going. We averaged 44,000 in the Championship playing the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe every week. The next few years we will come out of the recession and people will have more money. We were in the bottom half of the table largely from 2004 to 2009 and 90% of home games sold out. I think economic conditions are having an impact, but we're still averaging nearly 48,000 fans, and how many times have we been on live telly?? A fuckin lot. We will never go under 40,000 in the Premiership, and even if Ashley is here the next five years, sadly it will have no impact on attendances. This season the games have been fucking great you don't know what will happen, the gates have been going up all season, and we'll have even more season ticket holders next season, particularly if there's a few decent signings in the summer. Don't underestimate how daft NUFC fans are. There isn't a parallel to Newcastle United's support in world sport, anyone that says Man City is a mug, they all fucked off under Pearce, we stayed and faced the Championship music. As for big club. Course we're a big club. I find it insulting to be compared to Aston Villa. The muddy area of what a big club comes when you're comparing sizes. To me it's fanbase. You can't pin it all down to history. Man Utd are 10 times bigger than Liverpool in my eyes, but have slightly fewer trophies, and I can think of parallel examples with certain clubs and us. If you don't have more fans able and willing to go to support the team than Newcastle, you're not a bigger club than us, and only Man Utd and Arsenal have, Liverpool have many more when they're doing well. All of the rest well it's just muddy water. A debate no one can ever win, but I think we're an important club which the Premiership can't do without. There are only a few clubs you can say that about. Not one person would miss Villa, even if they were gone 10 years you'd just think so fuck. Everyone missed us, even if they don't admit it, they did, BBC certainly did. Stevie.......before Keegan came back to Newcastle, our crowds were around 20,000 and for periods prior to that, sub 20,000. I know things were different then, but a prolonged period of apathy [which will happen if Ashley stays long term IMO] and the crowds and interest that have been generated will ebb away to low levels again, maybe not as low as this, but around 30,000 or less on occasions, however the team only needs to win a few games in any division and it would hit close to the 40,000 mark even for a temp period. We will see. I do agree with you about us being unique in sport, because we are. But no club would even get those gates above, time has shown it, everybody in football who knows anything about the game knows NUFC are the sleeping giant of world football. The Keegan years showed it, if we had had a 70,000 stadium like the Millenium we would fill it with local support alone. Anyway, as you say its a debate nobody can win and hopefully he will sell to somebody who understands football business before things get much worse. I went to games from 1985 onwards. Between 1976 and 1993 we finished in the top half of the table once, and spent 10 of those seasons in the second tier. I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. Before Keegan came league wise there was an official boycot by the USFC, I remember one game against Oxford there were as many outside as inside. Our average in 1990 was 22,000 in D2, 17,000 in 1991 at the height of the boycot, and 21,000 in 92 when we finished TWENTY FIRST IN DIVISION TWO. All this at a time when football wasn't fashionable at all, our gates near the bottom of D2 were still among the best in the country. Since 93 and especially Euro 96 football became cool, a lot more OC's go to games, far, far, far more women, you even get ethnic minorities going so the fanbase has changed in terms of profile slightly and not only that probably doubled. I will pay £100 to a charity of your choice should we ever get a gate under 40,000 in the Premiership, it's just not going to happen. I don't know one person who is jacking it next season, but I know plenty who are coming back. NB. that Bournemouth game got an inflated gate because the first game was abandoned by fog and because they wouldn’t refund our money they made the re-arranged game half price — iirc, which bumped the attendance. wasn’t that the game where Alan Thompson got sent off for that disgraceful 2 footed stamp? — which is one of the worst things I’ve seen a footballer do to another player. You are right but there was 26,000 at the abandoned game. Aye re Thompson. Keegan got rid right after that game, he never played again. Right in front of me that was in the East Stand benches that night. didn’t know it was 26,000, I thought it was a lot less. Ardiles was the manager at the time and said he would never play Thompson again after that. Aye but Keegan was at the game, he was working in a PR capacity if you remember. nope, never knew that either. Well has was, which is why it felt a bit cloak and dagger at the time, especially as after that Oxford mauling SJH took OA and his wife out for some scran with no hint of what was to come. Cup gates were always higher as well mate the year before we had 30000 in against Forest, we chucked a 2 goal lead away, and lost the replay down there, Keane scored and ran up to the toon fans after his goal and went "you fuckin geordie wankers". I've always said I'm not anti-Irish by I guarantee if Keane wasn't a footballer he'd be a provo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig 6700 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. I was there Only time I ever stood in the Leazes end. What a fucking depressing evening that was. Didn't Kevin Bond score for them that night too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I remember the game before Keegan came actually was a FA Cup Replay at home to Bournemouth and there were 27,000 people there, and yes we fuckin lost, on pens, O'Brien nearly smashing the Scoreboard with his. I was there Only time I ever stood in the Leazes end. What a fucking depressing evening that was. Didn't Kevin Bond score for them that night too? Can't remember but he played for them. I remember Efan Ekoku being fast as fuck and giving our defence a torrid time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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