Written by oldcherrygit
Now it seems likely AFC Bournemouth will be going down to the Championship unless by some slim chance we win the next few games. What have we achieved and lost over the last few years?
Firstly we stayed in the Premier League and had worldwide coverage, seen some first-rate matches and won against the top six, been on live TV, Match of the day every week, gained sponsorship deals, the players have been well paid, but what has the club achieved from all of that?
Firstly I do believe that Bournemouth, Poole and the catchment area of supporters is one of the biggest in England, plus one of the nicest areas to live and for attracting players. The catchment area is from west of Weymouth in an acre 50 miles round to East of the New Forest plus, how do I know this, as I was the manager of the Winter Gardens for over 11 years then the BIC and that was the minimum.
I have to say the club has now it seems lost out, I was always taught bums on seats make money from, programme sales, car park and catering sales all make money, plus all the advertising rights.
Take St Mary’s stadium they make money from concerts out of season ie Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and so on what have we got nothing just paying rent for a league One stadium with reduced capacity for the media who do not pay for tickets just so they can write there piece for the Sunday papers.
We now somehow have to learn from our mistakes, sort out the ground, training ground and most importantly bring in the young fans, the support for the club is always been there just look at how many people turned up on the parade and at Cardiff and Wembley and how many fans saved the club.
I have not posted before, but have been a fan for over 60 years, funny it is only when we went in the Premier League I struggled to buy a ticket, in fact never managed to see a live game but never missed a match on the radio or tv.
I just hope that we sort out the ground issue and keep Eddie Howe, learn and onwards and upwards.
Your say…
dragonm8 wrote…
The Premier League is the Panthea of football from a football perspective, but it comes at a high cost.
The exorbitant wages that players command have to be paid by clubs to remain competitive.
This romantic notion that programme sales, catering, and car park receipts go anyway to funding £100k a week players that play for Rangers is wide of the mark.
Yes, we should have built a new stadium, but from an owners perspective, they would much rather spend that £20 million on a player that might keep a team-up.
The return on investment on a stadium is almost nil from a business perspective for a team like ours.
Our fans have been historically fickle, and we would look like right muppets if we had a shiny new 25k capacity stadium, got relegated and struggled to fill it with 12k, which is what would happen.
Disappointing, yes it is.
But it’s not our money we are spending, and Maxim Denim is a businessman, who makes business decisions.
Hence why he was (reportedly) trying to sell recently. – Join the conversation, click here.
