The subject title says it all and I agree pretty much with the comments and with Heman's location of the club's true position.  Not really much more to be said.  It's not a smooth progression in attendances but a yawning gulf between the "tops of the bottom" like RUFC at 8-11000 and a whole raft of city clubs regularly getting 20000+.  Can't see how the circle can be squared and you can't even build a team of promising youngsters because as soon as they are half-decent agents whisper and they want to be off.

derbymiller wrote:

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Bristol City are about to sign dwight Gayle from Palace for £6m with a further £4m, that is £10m for one player. The championship is fast becoming Premier League 2 for rich clubs and clubs from big cities or with a large catchment area. Our board and chairman have done an amazing job with what money they can put in, but we can't compete with the money from the far east or russia or the parachute payments from the premier league. We will never get 20,000 fans from Rotherham watching week in week out. Sheffield clubs, Leeds and the Premier league will suck away too many. The only way is to aim for big crowds but at a lower per head expenditure so something like Bradford have done.
If we are to stay a championship club with a dream of a season in the premier league we need money investing from outside or accept that we are really a League 1 club that may get 1 or 2 seasons in the Championship every 12 years. Our entire set up is that of a League 1 club, our manager is a lower league manager that has over achieved as well. We don't have a proper training ground, our academy hasn't been built and hasn't produced a single player in years.
Don't take this as negative I love this club and hope we can beat the odds again this season, but every season in this league we will be fighting a relegation battle. How much have we spent on transfers this summer? Our biggest transfer ever was £350k.
I thank TS and SE for what they have done and I will continue to support what they are doing, but when only 4,000 can be bothered to watch us at home for only £13 a ticket what chance do they have.

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Agree for the most part in fact right upto the last paragraph. Not all of us can make mid week games, I for example was busy being bored to death on the M62 yesterday. Even then many are not going to go to mid week round 1 cup games when we have 3 league games in the month no mater what the prices are set at :(

Exetermiller wrote:

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The whole setup of football, and indeed in nearly all cases, those with the most money will succeed. What is worse year on year and like our society as a whole is the inequality gap. The jump from league to league as we know is now absolutely massive, whereas even 15 years ago it was possible to do what we did at lets face it, a L2 infrastructure in an appalling mess of a stadium. This seems utterly impossible. When we talk to our kids about Wimbledon, they cannot even fathom the great game of football we once had in this country. It is now a capitalism influenced plastic disaster that one day will implode. Hopefully then we'll learn the mistakes, return football to the masses (who actually go and watch), most players are from local roots and profit / mass loss making is banned.

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 Agree 100% with the sentiment, agree with quite a lot of the diagnosis but feel the prognosis is optimistic.  Returning football to the masses?  I think not.