Jump to content
IGNORED

Are we a sleeping giant?


Desso

Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, Desso said:

Money men from across the Atlantic are reportedly looking to buy a Championship club. The club is regarded as a sleeping giant and could be available at the right price.  I wonder.......

 

Where abouts is this being reported?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Desso said:

Money men from across the Atlantic are reportedly looking to buy a Championship club. The club is regarded as a sleeping giant and could be available at the right price.  I wonder.......

 

Sun on Sunday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is clear is that for the size of Bristol and the catchment area we have a huge potential ( not now Rudolph). 
 

I believe that we are an interesting proposition for any Chinese consortium, Russian oligarchs or American billionaires looking for a plaything.

Therein lies the problem, I don’t believe that Uncle Steve would abandon the club to these type of candidates  and that leaves us with a very restricted buyer’s market. 
 

As I understand it SL would welcome outside investment but is reluctant to hand over control of the club.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Think you need to need be to have been a football giant at some point before you can be a sleeping giant. City haven't achieved anything of significance, so no they aren't a sleeping giant, not even nearly. What City do have though is very good potential - a decent ground in a major City, a good following and no Premier League competition within miles. A good investment prospect, but then there's a limit to how far that can get you under FFP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, Desso said:

Money men from across the Atlantic are reportedly looking to buy a Championship club. The club is regarded as a sleeping giant and could be available at the right price.  I wonder.......

 

Not for me are we a sleeping giant. Only 9 years in our 127 year history have played in the top flight. Never won a major trophy. 

Will always be my club and there is the potential to grow, but not a giant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Calculus said:

Think you need to need be to have been a football giant at some point before you can be a sleeping giant. City haven't achieved anything of significance, so no they aren't a sleeping giant, not even nearly. What City do have though is very good potential - a decent ground in a major City, a good following and no Premier League competition within miles. A good investment prospect, but then there's a limit to how far that can get you under FFP.

Your potential is huge and everything is in place to get into the premiership but I'm guessing they would be looking at Derby or Forest who both have a lot of history from years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Calculus said:

Think you need to need be to have been a football giant at some point before you can be a sleeping giant. City haven't achieved anything of significance, so no they aren't a sleeping giant, not even nearly. What City do have though is very good potential - a decent ground in a major City, a good following and no Premier League competition within miles. A good investment prospect, but then there's a limit to how far that can get you under FFP.

But we have a 27,000 capacity stadium, a state of the art training ground, a chairman who doesn’t seem up to it or isn't interested (reportedly wants out) and an owner who says he would sell if the right offer came in. The trouble is that with the Bears also using the facilities, it would not be a straightforward transaction, which might put a lot of potential buyers off. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The assumption behind the "sleeping giant" nonsense that persists still now, is that, given a top class team fulfilling this untapped "potential" the large "catchment area" around Bristol with no other (top class) club will flock to AG week after week and support a club they hitherto rarely take much interest in, other than for a day out at Wembley or a cup quarter or semi v Manchester. 

Whereas us reglers know that should we reach the Prem and struggle, you will be able to rock up on the day with all the family and find seats to watch Burnley, Watford, Southampton, Everton and the like.

There might be some enthusiasm the first season up, but that will swiftly give way to good old West Country cant-be-bloody-arsedism and general indifference.

It's all about the "catchment area" and the distance from the "glamour" clubs. Thing is, most football fans in the bleedin "catchment area" around here already "support" one of the bleedin "glamour" clubs. Most locals don't have the stomach for supporting a non "glamour" club.

I suppose some of them might go "half and half" : Chelsea and Bristol City, or Man/Bristol City.

 

To sum up, then: no, we're not a "sleeping giant."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Shaun Taylor said:

Last Friday was our second home game of the season and for the second time running our home attendance was the 3rd highest in the Championship behind Sheffield and Stoke. Bit of a pattern emerging there.

In answer to the OP, no, we aren’t a ‘sleeping giant’. We’ve never been a ‘giant’ for a start. 
However, that fact alone shows that our home support is pretty good. Even our away followings are acceptable considering our location and the fact that, unlike big clubs like Leeds, Weds, Derby etc, past glories don’t guarantee us large pockets of supporters all over the country ready to sell out every away end from Newcastle to Plymouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

What is clear is that for the size of Bristol and the catchment area we have a huge potential ( not now Rudolph). 
 

I believe that we are an interesting proposition for any Chinese consortium, Russian oligarchs or American billionaires looking for a plaything.

Therein lies the problem, I don’t believe that Uncle Steve would abandon the club to these type of candidates  and that leaves us with a very restricted buyer’s market. 
 

As I understand it SL would welcome outside investment but is reluctant to hand over control of the club.

 

Therein lies the problem. The sort of person / group who would be prepared to put in big money would want full control of the club. From an investment perspective it would be crazy to pump millions into Bristol City and then sit back and let SL make all the decisions 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Our fanbase is great considering our lack of success. 20k on Friday, check out the other attendances in the Champ this season.

If we were ever successful our fanbase would explode too

 

Don’t talk like a gas head. Even in the top flight we averaged mid twent thousands that’s with people coming over the bridge & up from the south west that disappeared as soon as we got relegated. 
There’s a lot of non bristolians living here now so we might pick a few of them. But explode is going over the top 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Desso said:

But we have a 27,000 capacity stadium, a state of the art training ground, a chairman who doesn’t seem up to it or isn't interested (reportedly wants out) and an owner who says he would sell if the right offer came in. The trouble is that with the Bears also using the facilities, it would not be a straightforward transaction, which might put a lot of potential buyers off. 

Perhaps that is why the training grounds are separate.

It pays both clubs to share the stadium costs. Bristol because they get a super stadium for a lot less than if they had to have a separate one.

And City have extra income toward FFP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Calculus said:

Think you need to need be to have been a football giant at some point before you can be a sleeping giant.

That's my thought. We've never achieved anything of note and so have never been a giant.

There's potential to grow and it's not ridiculous for a city the size of Bristol to aspire to have a Premier League club - City would be far more likely to do that than our closet local rivals (Forest Green Rovers). But I don't see it happening any time soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Don’t talk like a gas head. Even in the top flight we averaged mid twent thousands that’s with people coming over the bridge & up from the south west that disappeared as soon as we got relegated. 
There’s a lot of non bristolians living here now so we might pick a few of them. But explode is going over the top 

We averaged more than the gates announced by the club.

Fiddling by turnstile operators and much larger financial leakage at board level.

I've been in there when 35,000 announced as 27,000 and this happened all the time. If we go up and had the capacity, I believe we would fill 30,000 ourselves plus away fans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...