Prostituted

[Ben_86UK]

Why is Bristol Sport a problem? I really don't get it? Money going in, redevelopment a whole city interest in all sports. A nice tv good initiative. Promoting us to more people. With out the churlish attitude where is the problem?

[RedYoshi]

But beyond that, I just think this season has been one of the best times to be a Bristol City fan in a long time.

 

I agree with basically everything I've cut out of your post, and I also agree with the above.

 

However, I'm not sure it's relevant - other than to say it gives us even more reason to engage in discussion about how we can continue to keep making it even better.

 

Fans being worried about things needs to be addressed, whether we're doing well or otherwise, and discussions to work it out can be useful.

 

Suggesting it's not worth discussing because we're doing well on the pitch is just a little bit of a straw man argument.

 

Other than that, spot on.

[cidered abroad]

[Ben_86UK]

Agree with the above.

[RedRock]

^ unfortunately, the traditional football club has disappeared from the Premiership and increasingly so from the Championship.

Our choice is life drifting around the lower leagues or embracing a new football club experience with the hope we can elbow our way back to playing with the big boys.

Most will opt for the new experience. Inevitably, this will result in some staunch traditionalists becoming alienated, others cynical at what's going on and at the first sign of the dream not becoming reality, very agitated.

It's not going to be a smooth transition and the Club really do need to ensure that most of the City faithful remain on-side. BubbleGate just shows the sort of problems an out-of-touch administration can cause. Ideally, you don't have an out-of-touch administration but we are where we are. In these circumstances and at our stage of evolution it is critical for effective two-way communication. While Dave does an admirable job, increasingly, it seems he's become a mouthpiece of the Club rather than someone who represents the supporters and is a force to influence what BS do.

Where am I? Well, on the traditionalist side but acknowledging a need for some change. Comfortable with the Bristol Sport initiative as a way of achieving a football club that can mix it at the top - apart from any blue being seen from any public space in the stadium. I'm extremely appreciative of SL/JL for the money, time, effort they're put into our Club. That said, even if legal documentation says otherwise, Ashton Gate is our ground, Bristol City our Club. BS need us, we need them to be successful and to sustain that success in the long term.

Onwards and upwards together ....... but BS don't take the football fans as fools and get your 'change management' strategy sorted.

[Phileas Fogg]

[LondonBristolian]

I agree with basically everything I've cut out of your post, and I also agree with the above.

 

However, I'm not sure it's relevant - other than to say it gives us even more reason to engage in discussion about how we can continue to keep making it even better.

 

Fans being worried about things needs to be addressed, whether we're doing well or otherwise, and discussions to work it out can be useful.

 

Suggesting it's not worth discussing because we're doing well on the pitch is just a little bit of a straw man argument.

 

Other than that, spot on.

 

Fair point and one which I'll concede.  I just feel a bit frustrated that, whilst there are wider issues that are worth being discussed, someone has come home from a game where we've given a brilliant account of ourselves against a very good Premier League team and picked up on a small logo on one side of a scarf as the main thing worth talking about.

 

I suppose the only wider point from my comment about how great this season has been is that the board have taken a lot of flak in recent years and made decisions that few on these boards, including myself, supported or understood - not least the decision to appoint a manager widely regarded as a hoofball merchant who had a pretty unremarkable CV and was massively unpopular in his two previous jobs at Forest and Pompey.  I don't remember anyone who really wanted him as first choice and I remember plenty, including me, who thought it was an awful decision that might see us crash into League Two.  The point being that, for all we criticise the board and the decisions they make, one of the reasons why this season has gone so well is because they've actually made some decisions that were far better than we as fans appreciated at the time.  

[Cowshed]

This is all getting depressing McCarthyist. I could easily (and honestly) say that I've no link whatsoever to Bristol Sport but, to be honest, I think the assumption that anyone agrees with the OP is somehow affiliated with 'the enemy' who , according to this thread, are apparently spying on the message boards is sufficiently paranoid to not deserve a serious response.

You took that out of context. The Bristol Sport identity is not that of all fans.

Read the OP's posts. Fans initiatives are subjected to scrutiny, health and safety and can fail due to policies the club make up.

Bristol Sport are not open to the same scrutiny. No fan would place a huge blue banner in the Dolman for instance as BS have. The BS identity is an imposition, a growing imposition unwelcome or welcome depending on view, but an imposition it is.

[RedYoshi]

If you pull back the right bed sheets you would note there have been fan initiatives every season till recently.

Then BS arrived.

BS are making their territory with huge BLUE banners. Taking away unreserved seating. The BS bottom bum print and more blue is behind the goal not fan colour ...

 

Agreed, there is currently a lot of blue.

 

There is not any blue on anything Bristol City, though. There is a distinction between Bristol Sport and Bristol City, and long may that continue - we could have a big blue Adidas sign in the stadium and it wouldn't cause as much of a fuss. Bristol Sport are genuinely playing the same role as someone like Adidas, and more.

 

Also, that blue is currently:

 

a) On the building site, which will be no more when the redevelopment is complete (and, bear in mind, if it weren't Bristol Sport overseeing it, it would have been another company, who could well have had blue livery). Also on this building site is one of our players, and an equal amount of red.

 

b) Draped over seats which are being demolished. Again, this will no longer be there when the redevelopment is complete, but will be replaced with red seats. Interestingly, the Bristol Sport banner in this position was primarily red - it was the Ashton Gate Stadium one that was blue. Small quibbles, but I do believe Ashton Gate Stadium is a separate company (correct me if I'm wrong), and yet they are not feared in the same way.

 

Furthermore, and more importantly in terms of the point you're trying to make, the colour blue does not stop fan initiatives.

 

 

Taking away unreserved seating - yes, that will have an impact, and yes, fans need to push to ensure that it is included in the final redevelopment (which is happening, fortunately). Hopefully Bristol Sport will listen.

 

At the moment, though, it hasn't disappeared. It will next season, and hopefully that will be the only period.

 

Sure, it's not necessarily placed in the best place, and it's not been handled perfectly, but there needs to be some slack given the reduced capacity.

 

Pressure is being put on for it to be included properly in the final stadium, and it is the reaction to that which is important - but that cannot be judged yet.

 

 

The "BS bottom bum print" is not really a point, just an opinion on aesthetics. I don't really like the Umbro logo, and hated the TFG on the shirts, but it didn't affect any Bristol City logos. Nor does the "BS bottom bum print".

 

 

What have Bristol Sport actively done to stop fan initiatives?

 

And that's genuine - I'm not able to attend regularly, so may well have missed things.

[Chivs]

****ing Bristol Sport and their ****ing free scarves.

 

If they make me take anything more free, I'm going to blow my top.

 

It won't like that back in the day.  When fans all sang together, and the players loved us, and the atmosphere was so spontaneously good....

[Dave]

I also don't like High Ho Silver Lining song, but this was played at Wembley a few years ago, as "our song". Long before Bristol Sport were on the scene.

I am not sure if I have been in a crowd of 30k at Ashton Gate, or what was being implied by that statement.

Today, was a day when our Club was portrayed in a positive light on National TV, the aim of which I am sure was to attract more supporters to our redeveloped stadium.

So although we lost, I enjoyed my day.

[RedYoshi]

Slightly unrelated, but just as an interesting point: the name "Bristol Sport" has further benefits in terms of today's "internet age".

 

Search for "sport in Manchester", and you get the university sport department, a tourism page, and a Wikipedia article.

 

Search for "sport in Birmingham", and you get much the same.

 

Cardiff, London, Nottingham - all the same.

 

 

Search for "sport in Bristol", and you get a first place map listing of Bristol City Football Club, and the Bristol Sport homepage.

 

 

Also, an image search is a sea of red.

[NickJ]

I suppose the only wider point from my comment about how great this season has been is that the board have taken a lot of flak in recent years and made decisions that few on these boards, including myself, supported or understood - not least the decision to appoint a manager widely regarded as a hoofball merchant who had a pretty unremarkable CV and was massively unpopular in his two previous jobs at Forest and Pompey.  I don't remember anyone who really wanted him as first choice and I remember plenty, including me, who thought it was an awful decision that might see us crash into League Two.

I endorsed Coterrll's appointment and the board's decision in making it, on here vocally and consistently from day one so I guess I get some brownie points for that.

The scarf most obviously wasn't the main talking point from today, but it was what I wanted to talk about. Bristol Sport have pissed me this weekend and the club have off the field for several seasons. 

 

I am not sure if I have been in a crowd of 30k at Ashton Gate, or what was being implied by that statement.

What was implied is I think you have been watching Bristol City for far less time than I have and therefore you may not relate to my views very easily.

I enjoyed my day, never said I didn't. Till I realized what I'd been wearing. :laugh:

[Spike]

I live in Cardiff, have done for 23 years now and I've never once called myself anything other than a Bristol City fan, I love the club, I love my memories and I look forward to my little girl going to Ashton Gate for the first time (as she's already asked to go) and then I come on these forums and a few really do make me think "Do I want my daughter around that?". What do I mean by this? I mean the negativity of some of our fans and the s*** all or nothing attitude!

 

We've just lost 0-1 to a Premier League team who are having one of their best seasons in a hell of a long time, who currently sit 7th above Liverpool and Everton and we controlled the match, we had them on the back foot and for the best part of 70 minutes had the better game than them. To add to that we're in a Semi final with a 1st leg 4-2 away advantage and we're 2nd in the League by only a single goal difference and a game in hand and we have a young squad with a lot of talent. All of that and we've got fans moaning about a ****king scarf that was FREE just because it's a Bristol Sport scarf rather than a Bristol City one?!

Honestly this club may still have issues with tickets and still get the odd thing wrong but when you look at what Lansdown is doing for the club and the city how the hell can you complain?! The guy has pretty much shelled out for the stadium to have a massive rebuild, is working to make us self sufficient financially and has given us kits that we all wanted for years without going through Adidas, Puma, Nike etc Now you can say "Oh but we're corporate now" but I assure you that there are different types of corporate, there is doing the best for the city and people involved corporate, the type that is doing things for the right reasons and then there is what I live surrounded by..... sell out corporate, like Cardiff City. The Cardiff City fans would kill for a chairman like ours, one who gives a damn about where we came from, one who puts money in and asks for very little to nothing back out, instead they get Tan who changes their colours, ignores what they want and only invests if he can make changes that only he feels are important.

For all of those b****ing and moaning that we've sold out in some way or another I say grow the **** up! Football is a passion for the fans but it's also a business and Lansdown and Bristol Sport is a great foundation for bringing the club into the future without sacrificing our past. I don't get this whole mentality of "We (Bristol City) should do it by by ourselves!", why? So many clubs try and do it by themselves and for every club you can name who have done it there are probably 10-15 clubs who haven't.

 

Bristol is a big city with a lot of potential and when I read these fans complaining that it's changing and they don't like it all I can think is how selfish an attitude it is, they essentially don't want the club to change from what they are used to and like, instead of seeing it grow for the next generation. I know kids won't have my experience of Ashton Gate or Bristol City but if they come away smiling, wearing a Bristol City shirt instead of a Cardiff City one then I'll be a happy man, especially if they get to see Bristol City in the Premiership, wearing red, still at Ashton Gate, still the Robins and continuing to grow.

[PHILINFRANCE]

Then they put Hi Ho Silver Lining on the tannoy and killed the atmosphere.

 

I remember the same thing against Stoke at Wembley - from pride and pleasure to extreme disappointment in a matter of seconds.

[jambodinho]

[WTFiGO!?!]

I also don't like High Ho Silver Lining song, but this was played at Wembley a few years ago, as "our song". Long before Bristol Sport were on the scene.

I am not sure if I have been in a crowd of 30k at Ashton Gate, or what was being implied by that statement.

Today, was a day when our Club was portrayed in a positive light on National TV, the aim of which I am sure was to attract more supporters to our redeveloped stadium.

So although we lost, I enjoyed my day.

Get rid of that hi-ho silver lining, change the word 'sport' to 'City', maybe cater a bit more to what 'that lot' want (stop being bell ends and lying about 10% decrease in capicity for unreserved seating/inviting opponents to bring their thing - bubbles machines on this occasion) - no doubt Steven ******* Gerrard singing YNWA on OUR ******* centre circle when we play Liverpool for the league title in years to come... GET THEIR DUMB ASS SKULLS around our culture and pride and one we want preserving - and maybe then everyone can be friends.

I appreciate SL overall but a slight tweak in terms of his understanding of us difficult ***** would go a long, long way to ensuring everyone's happy.

That's all I'm saying.

[RedYoshi]

What have Bristol Sport actively done to stop fan initiatives?

 

And that's genuine - I'm not able to attend regularly, so may well have missed things.

 

http://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?/topic/167350-dave-lloyd-please-explain/

 

Hmm. Sad to see.

 

Will wait to see Dave's response, but still a shame.

 

That said, not necessarily any better or worse than pre-Bristol Sport.

[WTFiGO!?!]

[PHILINFRANCE]

http://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?/topic/167350-dave-lloyd-please-explain/

 

Hmm. Sad to see.

 

Will wait to see Dave's response, but still a shame.

 

That said, not necessarily any better or worse than pre-Bristol Sport.

 

I saw that, but am unable to 'read' the flag and Google fails to provide a larger size.

 

Any link to a larger format?.

[RedYoshi]

I saw that, but am unable to 'read' the flag and Google fails to provide a larger size.

 

Any link to a larger format?.

 

East End Ultras spread across the red and black stripes, with BCFC and the crest on the white.

 

Nothing that warrants taking down on that basis.

 

That may have had nothing to do with why it was taken down, though, so await Dave's answer.

[PHILINFRANCE]

East End Ultras spread across the red and black stripes, with BCFC and the crest on the white.

 

Nothing that warrants taking down on that basis.

 

That may have had nothing to do with why it was taken down, though, so await Dave's answer.

 

OK and Thanks.

 

I thought that there might have been some mention of our Dutch friends and that this might have caused some concern.

[thatcham red]

I think the point being made here is not just about scarves, it is the wider picture of "re-branding by stealth".

 

The promotional pictures included a scarf with a Robin on either end. The actual scarf had the club name and Bristol Sport. No doubt it all looked good from a distance on the tv though.

[Mad Cyril]

The club really underestimated the likely fan revulsion at the idea of free scarves. It was obvious to anyone this was going to anger and antagonise the majority and spark mass protest.

I counted at least ten people not wearing their scarf at the game. That bloody showed Bristol Sport didn't it.

Next mission objective - halt the rebuild.

[Olé]

Like others I have no interest in rugby or basketball, but I have no problem with the principle of being a wide ranging sports club (and even less given that it's the owner who bankrolls the club and wants to invest in this wider strategy of promotion).

 

I understand the "Barcelona" model, it's common all over Europe with community oriented clubs, it was the same at Benfica where I grew up. Their full name is SL Benfica (so SLB to our BCFC) the first word being Sport, because it is a Sports club.

 

Where this all goes badly wrong however, is these other clubs play all sports under the same badge and name. Benfica's basketball team has the same crest and name and the football team. It's the same with every other sport they play too.

 

I think this is what really p*sses people off. Why on earth do we suddenly have to be "Bristol Sport" with accompanying tacky no-history-having logo? If we were really following the blueprint it would just be "Bristol City" with our usual crest in all sports.

 

The only reason of course, is the rugby team already plays under a different name, colour and badge (and the basketball team probably did too, I haven't got a clue). It's for this reason Steve L can't hoist the Bristol City identity on the other clubs.

 

So instead it feels like our club's identity is giving way to this "conglomerate" with a lady's wotsit for a logo, that no one asked for and no one supports. I really don't know why it's necessary, once it becomes a new logo, it's nothing more than a vanity project. 

 

If you asked the fans of Barcelona or Benfica to support a meaningless holding company with a new name and logo, they too will tell you to do one (normally involving ultras turning up at training ground stoning cars or setting fire to the club Presidents moustache).

 

So, I love our owners enthusiasm/vision for the club's promotion, but I suspect people's real problem is the typically naive/amateur execution is totally (and unavoidably) wrong since we failed to spot this identity robbing isn't how other clubs have or could ever do it.

 

Regarding the scarf, as others said, just wear it with the Bristol City bit showing. It wasn't half as corporate tat as I thought it might be, this would have put some of the real BCFC scarves they sold in the nineties (strips of flaky screen-printed polyester) to shame.

[JM91]

Arbitrarily deciding there's a correlation between opinions on unrelated topics is also pretty worthless. 

unless of course the point is to suggest a person may lack the intellectual capacity to form logical opinions.  

[Guest]

We are not Bristol Sport or Bristol anything else WE ARE BRISTOL CITY and no-one is going to change that, cause we will fight for evermore......right

[Sixtyseconds]

Agreed, there is currently a lot of blue.

There is not any blue on anything Bristol City, though. There a distinction between Bristol Sport and Bristol City,

What have Bristol Sport actively done to stop fan initiatives?

BS - BCFC the two is one or is part of one vision or summat.

Starting right behind the goal fans asked if they could make it red, fans red, the BS bods had already bagsied it.

Below the Dolman bagsied by BS.

Club scarves sponsored by BS partners.

BS have "steamed in" like hoolies and "taken" Bristol City fans manor.

[BRISTOL86]

[Fodbarmyarmy]

I am Bristolian therefore I want to see the city of my birth do well in everything it can.....sport / music / everything

 

I guess those of you who are not Bristolian may feel different ... I don't really care.... but fed up of those who constantly moan about people who are actually trying to achieve something for this great City .......