Sparks Out

Love this!!!

 

As a serious question how do you think the club could move forward from 18th in league 2 after what will probably be a sixth consecutive season in league 2? Apart from getting lucky like we did with Parky what does this club need to do to move up the divisions?

 

In any businss a bad appointment of a CEO will damage the business with poor decions and performance bringing decline or even closure. To think BCFC is any different is madness. We are a badly run club and are in danger until a competant CEO is appointed

 

My husband totally agrees with you. He started watching City in 1957, but it was interrupted for 12 years when we lived in Cardiff. We have had no fairy godmother remain permanently at VP.

 

Thing is l, if I hadn't lived through the Richmond years or watched us during the mid to late eighties, I could kinda get just turning up each week to watch crap football cos you've nothing better to do. But when you've had a taste of the good life you want more. Otherwise what's the point?

 

Only the hope that next week, next season, next decade will be better
I’ve seen us rise from L2 to the PL and back again so I live in hope (although I’m probably too old to see it all again)
If I really want to be optimistic I look at the final L2 table in 1996/7
Bottom 5 Swansea, Cardiff, Hull, Brighton and Doncaster
Since then 4 have reached the PL (Brighton still there) and Doncaster were in the Championship not long ago

 

If I knew the answer of how to run a successful EFL / PL club I’d be a lot richer than I am
I’m just a chap who lived on the trolleybus route to VP when I was old enough to go on my own (I was lucky not to be on the bus route to Canterbury Avenue)
Manchester City seem to have got it right as do their neighbours, Newcastle, a couple of teams in Liverpool and several in London do OK
A FOR SALE ad in the Saudi Times might do the trick other than that I doubt if my suggestions would move either Sparks or Rupp

 

Rhodes alone wasn’t great. He was actually poor. His loaning out of Dean Windass to balance the books was something of the sustainability ilk and cost us that year - we were relegated.

My post actually referenced his joint tenure with Lawn, which delivered cheap tickets and considerable success on the pitch - a promotion, two great cup runs (one of which will never be repeated by any other L2 club again).

It would be harsh not to give Julian any credit for that success when he was a joint owner with Lawn.

Every year they knew we wouldn’t have a mega budget to work with but they backed Parky when he wanted a player and without spending millions, they invested bits where they could, to improve the side.

They had some ambition but were honest when Lawn said he couldn’t finance us in the Championship so he was selling up. He had a presence and he gave a damn.

our current owner is absent and has no interest in doing much to benefit this club as per the Sparks Radio Leeds comments. Not actively looking to sell. Not looking to buy VP.
Happy to sit back, all the while we enter the final two years of the lease which, if Sparks signs, could hold us back for another 25 years.

this is a critical period for the club - we need them out - but don’t worry, just keep funding the club and being as passive as Rupp, happy to accept we belong in the cess pit division, trapped for eternity by crippling rent and maintenance costs because tea boy sparks was too busy blagging it on his CEO salary and acting in his own interests instead of walking away.

please don’t take it personally, there are thousands of others who are just as happy to sit back and let these chancers carry on ruining our club.

 

Its a good idea in principle but in practice it wouldn’t generate enough interest to generate the funds we need. People will pay what they have to for the ST but the donation pot will fall short. Do you trust this mob to invest the funds wisely when our recruitment is iffy and we hand our overly long contracts to ageing players like Derbyshire and McDonald?

 

To be honest, and this is not a criticism, if there are supporters who are happy to go regardless of the direction of the club or the quality of the football, that's fine.

But if the audience dwindles by any significant measure, the same attitude should still apply.

If 7,000 are turning up week in, week out and watching a cheaper side struggle on a lower budget, there won't be any reason to complain.

Which is absolutely fair enough.

It's not for me, but it's fair enough.

 

Not owning the ground is the only reason we have a club to support. (Thanks to Gibb)
Unfortunately I can’t see an alternative to signing a lease extension as any attempt to buy it back would bankrupt the club
Rupp could buy it - but Gibb was Chairman when he bought VP so I don’t see the difference
What City could invest in is decent training facilities because a flood plane and school at Apperley Bridge is not the answer
Finding out why our “marquee” signings always get injuries that last for months would also help

 

There are plenty of people in life with a minimalistic approach to life aren’t they. Happy to coast, and have no drive and ambition to progress.

I guess you can’t force people to change their personality, so that’s life, if their approach to following a football club is the same.

My anger with the current set up is the disinterest from the owner and the fact Sparks is a blagger, out of his depth. It feels like the club is neglected.

if we had some experience and presence at the club people find it easier to sympathise but as soon as those ST sales bomb - and they definitely will - Rupp just isn’t inclined to do anything.

its like with the players. We don’t expect to win the league, we just expect competent players to give it their all. Rupp puts no effort into the club and the bloke he’s trusted to (on the cheap) isn’t qualified to do so, with car crash appointment after another.

That wasted money on redesigning the club badge too, another highlight.

 

If i had the £5 million, i would do it, even halving the rent to the club and i am not suggesting that - but say £5000 per week x52 = £260,000 -25 years is £6.5 million less tax, so a return on my investment and i still own the stadium, and the lease can start all over again. The reduced rent might even help in moving the club forward, which is what we all want.
Fans complain about the current situation and this is just something i have suggested, i am open to other idea's. If the discontent is strong enough to actually do something, or will all this fizzle out with a few wins and possible trip to Wembley.

 

It may not be for you but if 2 or 3000 hadn’t been like me watching them in the 60s and 70s you wouldn’t have ever seen City do well in the 80s and 90s
As for the cheap tickets they help fill a stadium which will be pretty soulless when you and other glory hunters look for greener pastures

 

Well that turned into a personal attack pretty quick.

 

£1.5m on a £5m investment represents a return of about 1% pa (compounded)
I think if you had £5m you may look for a better return than that

 

We're always going to sign duff players. We're always going to lose games. We're always going to have bad seasons. We can expect to be a bit shit, it's what we're used to.

Clubs with good plans in place led by good people who have their fans best interests at heart don't just do well because they want to. Things go wrong, teams get injuries, key players get ruled out, managerial appointments don't work out, we all get it, it's football.

I'd never demand outright success, that's silly. But the bit in bold above? That's a bare minimum for me, and we haven't got that.

I'll never abandon Bradford City, but nor am I endlessly prepared to fund mediocrity dished out by people who don't give a shit what I or other fans think or feel. Which is exactly what we've got.

 

As you said this was not a criticism

 

You're the one complaining about being called a happy clapper, showing how you feel about name calling.

Then you call me a name, a 'glory supporter', an absolute equivalent to a happy clapper.

It's clear you don't like being called such names yourself, so it's obvious what your intent was when dishing that out.

Don't tell me it wasn't a criticism, I know what it was.

 

As a city fan, i would not be doing it for the money, that was just an example.
I want to make sure we have a football club for future generations, one that hopefully can win more than 5 home games a season.
I might be on my own, but i still have a sense of pride in where i come from and Bradford is no different to many places.