nzlatic

I've brought this up before and I think it has some merit. It's a little bit selfish for it to be dismissed because a handful of fans would miss out on southern away trips, or exiled fans would have less games on their doorsteps. Don't get me wrong, the fans willing to travel the distances are the hardcore and the lifeblood of the club so they shouldn't be ignored. But, we're not talking about ways to attract those fans to games, they're already there. It's about attracting MORE fans to games. And travelling less distances would lead to an increase in away crowds. Less travel would also reduce club costs. The major stumbling blocks are the deterioration in quality and the promotion/relegation places. In the early days there would be a drop in overall quality, but this may level out over a few seasons. There would be a big problem getting the Championship to agree to more relegation places. But if it could be worked out I think the idea is worth looking in to.

I think they've gone a little bit Morecombe and Wise. They have all the right players, but not necessarily in the right order. At least I hope for our sake they have. Gregan on the wing?? GK Brill DL Taylor DC Gilbert DC Hazell DR Holdsworth ML Gregan MC :censored: MC Furman MC Worthington MR Parker AC Abbott

Fantastic. I'm one of those sorts who like to read about/watch games without knowing the score when I can't see them live. So logging on to the official site this morning here in new zealand I was able to read the half time and full time reports without knowing the score or being told it in the headline of the page. Good stuff! A good read too. Our webmonkey youth academy seems to produce a lot of talent. We could have another big money mover on our hands.

You're being deliberately selective here to try and back up your incessant argument. The question and subsequent answer that led to the mention of 3000 crowds was: Q's: What if the new stadium does not happen, would TTA leave the club in administration? A's: SC - We would not leave the club in administration, we would work the budgets down so that the club can be self-sufficient with the level of income it is attracting. If that means working on an attendance of 3000, the club may get relegated but we cannot afford to continue subsidising the club to the tune of £40k per month. So they aren't "anticipating" crowds of 3000, they are talking about a scaling down of budgets if a move to a facility with potential for bringing in non-match day income doesn't happen. Do you prefer the sort of owner that will walk through the crowd slapping everyone on the back boasting "premier league in 5 years fellas!" rather than ones that make apparantly more realistic plans? Building oversized stadia and talking a good game doesn't make it happen automatically. You seem intelligent enough to realise this which makes me think your constant posting of the same opinion is more mischief making that actually suggesting anything worthwhile.

It's a real bugbear of mine that the ball is kicked out at the first sign of a player hitting the deck thus stopping the game for what is normally nothing at all. It should be the ref's call - if it's a head injury and the guy isn't moving then stop the game. Otherwise the onus shouldn't be on the other team to stop the game for the injured player. It could be stopped by stricter refereeing. Add this to the annoying lack of any action on play acting/diving etc. This could easily be stamped out also by incidents being reviewed post match and bans given out to someone faking or cheating. But it won't. Sepp Blatter is too concerned with trying to get women footballers to play in skimpier outfits.

Latics 3 - 2 Stockport Parker 6159

To suggest they wouldn't read this board is a little bit like suggesting a restaurant owner wouldn't read their reviews. As the fans are the customers of the club I really hope they do read it. On the flip side I would hope the playing side of the club don't!

I hope not to be honest. The TTA will read this board and know that there is a lot of support. I'm fairly positive about the move but I'd much rather the forum be about people voicing their concerns and the TTA answering with facts, figures and proposals. I'd also hope that too much time isn't spent arguing about post codes etc. If we are to move away from BP I'd want to hear about the stadium, income streams, capacity and future scope for development.

Hang on, who has resigned themseleves to this idea? I don't recall reading many, if any, posts saying this. Feel free to quote and prove me wrong. The posters accepting the stadium capacity of 12000 all seem to expect provisions to be made for the capacity to be increased if necessary, preferrably in a close season so no games are played under reduced capacity. If the owners aren't planning for future increase then there will be a lot more people agreeing with you. You talk about seeing who gets proved right or wrong. How about you approach the owners and ask them this question directly? Whilst you're at it, ask them whether the 16000 development of BP had plans for increased capacity. Until we know for fact one way or the other it's just one opinion vs another.

After 24 pages of reading I may as well dip my toe in as well. First of all, it amuses me how people dismiss the opinions of those who question spending extra millions on seats that will rarely get used because they are apparantly making the figures up to suit their arguments or using "fag packet maths". These same people then go on to say with utter certainty that 12,000 seats would not be enough should we make the Championship. Based on what exactly? Feck all, that's what. After cup runs, a league title and 2 seasons in the top flight were rarely sold out at home in the premier league. So all of a sudden we need a minimum of 16,000 if we go into the champ? Rubbish. Taking last years average attendances in the champ only Doncaster, Blackpool and Plymouth were under 12000 and finished 14th, 16th and 21st. Plymouth being the lowest have been in that division for a while now. So you can survive on those crowds. Then there's the Corp who's answer to the suggestion that it makes sense to build within our means but allow for a close season upgrade if required is something along the lines of "it won't happen". Brilliant. This then gets repeated to every person who mentions upgrading in the future (probably about 30 unnecessary posts). I'm not saying the upgrade argument shouldn't be contradicted, but just with something a little more substantiated than "it won't happen". I've been of the opinion for some time now that football is going to disappear up it's own ar5e eventually to some extent with the amount of money flying around that could all disappear overnight if the arabs find something else to play with. It might even come down to a scaled down restructure of the leagues or something like that. If this does happen then I would much rather have a club that has a modern, appropriately-sized ground and is financially self sufficient rather than one struggling to meet interest payments on loans used to buy a quarter-full-fancypants stadium. One might suggest we all have huge wangs and are shooting for the stars, but the other will probably have a better chance as continuing as a professional footballl club.

How did the team play as a whole? Style, effort, passing etc? Any major changes from last season?

I think this would be the perfect move for Owen and England. Any other club and he'd be the main striker and would likely get crocked again. At Man Utd he'd be a squad player, would get game time (and most likely goals) at the highest level which will hopefully bring him in to England contention. Granted, we've been doing well without him but it's all good and well Defoe and the like banging them in against Andorra and Kazhakbeijan or whoever. But Owen has World Cup goals against the likes of Brazil and the argies. I'd back him (if fit) over all England strikers except Rooney.

Bullet header from a set piece and a pen that the keeper should have saved. NZ have had 3 shots on target and have done the Italians on set pieces. 4-3 now though so the dream is over. Wellington Phoenix (NZ's team in aussie A League) are trying to sign Killen to partner the recently acquired Chris Greenacre(!) It looks unlikely as he has a year to go at Celtic. They're praising his committment to seeing out his Celtic contract though. I'd say it has more to do with the wedge he's probably on.

There are often threads asking for ideas of how to get more people through the gates and in my opinion this is the idea with the most chance of succeeding on a consistent basis. Average attendances will definitely increase with regionalised leagues IF the powers that be sort out the promotion/relegation issue. There needs to be enough incentive for promotion and a bit of a safety net at the bottom. I would suggest 2 up from each league with the next 4 from each playing off to find 1 more. A total of 5 to get promoted. This would mean 5 coming down. Maybe you'd need to increase the championship by a couple of teams to make it work. But at the moment 4 go down from league 1 so it's not a massive leap to have 5 from the league above. As for relegation I think it should be a similar thing - 1 from each definite with the next 2 from each playing off for the final relegation spot. You might even need a season or 2 of no relegation at first until the leagues settle. The idea in general may have flaws, but i'd rather look for solutions than just dismiss it out of hand without offering another suggestion. There's too much of that sort of attitude which doesn't help.

I was thinking about this the other day. I'd like to think that if I had a very long career at the highest level, winning many trophies and earning millions of pounds, I'd want to spend my last season or 2 playing for the team I supported. More than that, I wouldn't want to take a wage. Whether I would do that is another thing. And realistically, how many players actually do that anyway?

To be fair Windass and Kabba had great debuts according to a lot of those that went, Omerod had a proven record at this level and many were pleased with his signing. So what happened after they settled in? They all seemed to go to . Or was it the service? On paper, most of the loan strikers would have been welcome signings but none of them have fired. In fact the only strikers that do fire in our games are ones we've let go scoring against us.

Probably the funniest post I've read on here. Well played that man!

When did the question of fitness first come about? Obviously I don't get to see the games but I read this board regularly and can't remember it being an issue much this season. It only seems to have come about in the last few weeks, almost as another rod for Shez's back. Apart from valid grumbles about a lack of reserve team meaning squad players aren't match fit.

Some of my favourite away games have been down south as it's a weekend away. But I know I would have gone to more away games over the course of a season if there had been more local games. It's a time cost as well as the match ticket. And I would say that there would be a big increase on the away gate if you replace Brighton/Yeovil with Rochdale/Bury etc As for quality, granted there would be a big gap at first, but would this even out over the course of a few years? For me the biggest problem would be the promotion/relegation. How about increasing the Championship to 26 teams then having top 2 from league 1 north and south going up automatically and a play off in each league 1 div to find a 5th team. They could even play off against 5th bottom in the champ to decide that final team. There would be complaints from Championship teams over any suggestion that rocks their boat, but the FL is the FL and the bottom 3 leagues come under it so surely if something is good for the majority of those clubs it'd get some traction. There are 2 major problems that are going to finish off a few teams unless they are addressed - reducing costs and increasing revenue. Having a N/S league could help with both. But I agree, wages need to be addressed. And this has to happen from the top, which means it probably never will.

I mentioned this on the end of another thread but thought it'd be interesting to give it it's own topic to hear opinion on it... Having a League 1 North and South. We've had Bristol Rovers home and away midweek and now we're off to Cheltenham. There are plenty of other examples of lengthy trips throughout the lower leagues and in this day and age, with plenty of clubs are struggling moneywise, would this be a way of reducing costs and generating bigger crowds and more money? So is there any merit in returning to a similar set up to that of years ago? Another suggestion I'd put out there is a percentage of the premier league money being given out in grants to lower league clubs solely for set up and/or running of youth academies. Before anyone asks I am not a plant from the FL looking to gauge opinion and I definitely do live in NZ! I'm happy to provide a picture of me playing rugby and eating a kiwi (the fruit that is, not the endangered flightless national bird).

I wonder if we'll see a return to the 3rd div north/south again? How many of these Tuesday night games are against teams at the other end of the country? Guaranteed a maximum of about 150/200 away fans. Although it will disappoint OASIS, would having all your opponents closer by lead to a bit more money sloshing around? Just a thought...

I think we need to see a photocopy of the passport to sort this out. Same goes for the visitors from Tranmere. A copy of your ASBO will do.

That was the edited version? I'm not sure how the original could have made less sense but thanks for your input.

Was listening to the game in Auckland, about 11500 miles away? Set my alarm for the 4am kick off but was so excited I didn't sleep beforehand. So gutted I probably won't sleep much now either.

Snap! My dad always talks about the George Hardwick days, took 'em up on a shoe string, board didn't back him etc.