he actively chose to utilise the unused gem that is Greg Halford. Even using him in the position that I said I think he'd be best at. Smug mode: I was right.
2. Warlock's timing was lucky.
reason for his luck was Lee Frecklington being fit. The stats are incredible. The points per game without him in the side is something like 0.9 and with him I bet it's nearer1.9.
3. We've Benin incredibly unlucky before Warnock and lady luck is paying us back now. Wednesday onside goal being disallowed for example.
4. Eric Black out of the set up.
5. Blackwell being the number 2 that does a lot of the work in the week while Colin tends to his sick wife.
6.The Rotherham public are still not fully backing us with capacity crowds so if we stay up the stadium doesn't need expanding.
I'd agree with most of that Heman. Not excusing Halford's petulance but I think he is being played where he was promised he would be played when he was persuaded to sign. Warnock has had a lot of success in his career but has also had his bad times as a manager. I remember listening to Radio Sheff plenty of times when Blades fans were giving him dogs abuse. His record in his second spell at Palace was not good. But be does what he does and it can be successful and often is. Sometimes managers fit clubs and situations and it is working for him with us. We have had a bit of luck including with having key players fit again plus the rub of the green on the pitch. and I think we were due a bit to be honest and we have earned it. Long may it continue.
I said it before on another thread, but I think we should look at what Bradford have done and do it on a smaller scale. As things stand we get 12,000 fairly regularly in the Championship but sometimes will only get 9,000. It depends on the day of the week, the opposition and how well we are doing. It is a shame to not capitalise when we could get more in. At the same time I understand the risk of expanding and going down. The Keepmoat has been a soulless place in the last couple of seasons (I have been a few times).
Bradford already have a very big stadium especially for League 1, and I am not saying we should copy them exactly because the dynamic and economics are not the same. Just learn from what they have done.
I would expand now to 16,000 and look hard at pricing. £50 for a family of say one adult and two kids is a lot of money to ask casual supporters to pay. How are we going to get them engaged and grow the fan base for the future? My guess is that if you reduced season ticket prices and match day prices by a third you would get 2000 more season ticket holders immediately and a fair few more through the gate for one off games. I think in the Championship we would get 12,000 home fans there most weeks. We would probably still get a few sell out games every season. Bradford have shown that people will still turn up in numbers in League 1 if the price is right.
Benefits:- more merchandise and refreshments etc sold, better atmosphere at games, building the fan base for the future, better match day experience for fans and players alike, more chance of increased sponsorship revenue, not so likely to ever have to turn people away.
Negatives:- difficult to think of any. Revenue per head would be down, but the overall take should be very similar.
I would at least hope that the club have done some proper market research on this. I would be interested to know whether or not they have.
I'd agree with most of that Heman. Not excusing Halford's petulance but I think he is being played where he was promised he would be played when he was persuaded to sign. Warnock has had a lot of success in his career but has also had his bad times as a manager. I remember listening to Radio Sheff plenty of times when Blades fans were giving him dogs abuse. His record in his second spell at Palace was not good. But be does what he does and it can be successful and often is. Sometimes managers fit clubs and situations and it is working for him with us. We have had a bit of luck including with having key players fit again plus the rub of the green on the pitch. and I think we were due a bit to be honest and we have earned it. Long may it continue.
