Barnsley

[74bus]

Is it time for a second tier debate again? Getting less and less relevant imo.

I know you won't let this go, Derek, so I'm opening a can of worms here. By the end of the season we may well have had a no. of sell outs, thus the average gate cannot be boosted by these. We will also have undersold games.
Question.  I am self employed, an owner operator. In Jan and Feb I am not so busy  but the rest of the year there are not enough hours for me to do all the work.
 Do I ,  a/ equip myself for Jan and Feb because to spend any more could be pointless?
Or,      b/ Equip myself as best I can to handle as much as I can and make myself as able as possible to handle any upsurge in work?
This subject has been done to death and the only thing that is clear is that some of us would like to expand, if only slightly, and some don't mind the gradual erosion of our capacity. I've always believed that if you are standing still, effectively, you are drifting backwards. Anyway, off to work now, got to bank it before the drought!

But we did invest as a club when we were making hay.

We brought in a level to sports science and rehabilitation that allowed us to have an enviable injury record (look how badly the likes of Arsenal and United struggle with injuries) and to get the best out of ageing/injury prone players.

We invested in an academy and youth structure which is now reaping real rewards - this hasn’t been an accident - it’s taken 5-10 years of speculative investment.

We’ve also transformed the club training and sporting facilities. Granted there is further room for expansion but compared to most clubs of our size, our training facilities are excellent.

The club has had the chance to increase capacity, but it has never been a pressing issue. We’ve invested in areas that were seen to be more crucial to our performance than another 5-000 seats.

Ultimately we’ve had very few outright sell outs in the last 5 years, and the Fact there were still tickets available for the Villa semi final until a few days before the game suggests our capacity isn’t for off where it should be. We have a large diaspora of fans around the U.K. as oppose to a nucleus of local fans in an entrapped catchment area...

Good post.

Yes, a good post and a well made argument apart from the reference to the availabilty of tickets for the Villa match, which was down to poor ticketing arrangements, rather than lack of interest.