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You are a billionaire and want to take a lower league club through the leagues

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DrillingCobbler
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« on: November 23, 2021, 09:19:43 am »

This is topical given the long standing 'ownership' debate that has been going on...

Put your neutral hats on. Which 5 lower league clubs or non league clubs would you consider buying (assuming debt free so equal platform), factoring in potential support, catchment area, location etc etc. I often consider Northampton to be in that bracket, be interesting to see what others think.

Here's mine..

Plymouth
Carlisle
Cobblers
Bradford
Notts County



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« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2021, 10:25:45 am »

If you are talking billionaire you could choose many different clubs but (div 2, non league) I'd go for Bradford but would much rather buy Sunderland or Sheff Weds in League 1. Even better, Brum or Forest in the Championship. Much easier to start where you know the fans are and clubs with history. Still not sure how well we'd be followed up the leagues. We could certainly do a 'Brentford'. Hopefully it's a question we'll have answered one day, or our grandkids will!
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« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2021, 10:36:40 am »

If you are talking billionaire you could choose many different clubs but (div 2, non league) I'd go for Bradford but would much rather buy Sunderland or Sheff Weds in League 1. Even better, Brum or Forest in the Championship. Much easier to start where you know the fans are and clubs with history. Still not sure how well we'd be followed up the leagues. We could certainly do a 'Brentford'. Hopefully it's a question we'll have answered one day, or our grandkids will!
I think if Cobbs were in the Championship we would get between 8000 and 10000 home fans depending on opponents.
Add into that most clubs would bring between 2000 to 5000 away fans.
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« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2021, 10:40:00 am »

In L2 Bristol Rovers, Carlisle and Bradford.
In L1 Charlton or Plymouth.
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DrillingCobbler
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« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2021, 11:03:44 am »

I think if Cobbs were in the Championship we would get between 8000 and 10000 home fans depending on opponents.
Add into that most clubs would bring between 2000 to 5000 away fans.

True if we stumbled up to the championship lie Wycombe, Yeovil or Burton did...

BUT. If there was huge ambition attached, that in itself generates a massive buzz and crowds turn up. Look at Wrexham, getting 10,000 every home game!

I think if we had a 20,000 capacity stadium and a billionaire at the helm citing premiership ambition and chucking £ around, I think we'd easily fill it in the championship!
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« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2021, 11:31:13 am »

I tend to agree with your last post Drilling but it is a particular irritation of mine that those splashing the cash seem to go for non league clubs with a small support base, Perhaps Diamonds were the start of the trend and since we have Crawley, Forest Green, Fleetwood and Salford. A couple of seasons ago Fylde, stuck in a field in the middle of nowhere, nearly made it.

It's probably because the result of the financial input has more of an instant effect, but the way things seem to go a local billionaire would be more likely to choose Brackley than the Cobblers!
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« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2021, 11:52:11 am »

True if we stumbled up to the championship lie Wycombe, Yeovil or Burton did...

BUT. If there was huge ambition attached, that in itself generates a massive buzz and crowds turn up. Look at Wrexham, getting 10,000 every home game!

I think if we had a 20,000 capacity stadium and a billionaire at the helm citing premiership ambition and chucking £ around, I think we'd easily fill it in the championship!

I generally agree with your synopsis as we have done it before and but for Fulham might have stayed for another season! We have history as they say on here. We attracted decent attendances in both the Championship and even in League One or two when Bowen was at the helm.
If we can build a decent team and start to get better and consistent results the fans will follow - they have done it before and will again.
There are some on here who dismiss our history and also happy to dismiss or ignore our potential.  You can see them on other threads with debilitating negative rhetoric. Talk about get a life Roll Eyes
« Last Edit: November 23, 2021, 12:28:21 pm by everbrite » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2021, 12:11:28 pm »

I think the Cobblers have tremendous potential. The town is now close to 250,000 , over twice the size of Burnley. The ground is situated close to the M1 so easily accessible to London and the South, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Midlands where most of the big clubs are situated.

We used to get crowds of over 10,000 regularly in the glory years at the County Ground, 24,000 against Fulham (I was there) and I am sure we could muster close to that with a successful Championship side playing in a state of the art stadium. It wouldn't happen overnight of course, even with a billionaire owner but there is no reason why we couldn't get there.

Frankly I have never understood why no one with money has ever been interested in buying the club. Let's be honest we have more to offer than the Forest Greens, and Salfords (who the hell needs another team in Lancashire) of this world who even with money struggle to attract more than 2-3000 people.
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« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2021, 12:14:49 pm »

Everbrite, a perfectly civilised thread so why on earth for once can you not just state your views without feeling it necessary to have a pop at others?
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« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2021, 12:25:50 pm »

In L2 Bristol Rovers, Carlisle and Bradford.
In L1 Charlton or Plymouth.


Carlisle, Bradford, Charlton (have made the old First Div and/or Premier. The rest are non starters. We are not Grin
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« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2021, 12:51:31 pm »

Everbrite, a perfectly civilised thread so why on earth for once can you not just state your views without feeling it necessary to have a pop at others?

If the hat fits so be it Roll Eyes
Not sure about civilized comments when you make a patronizing and provocative opinion thus failing to subscribe to your own Left of Centre Liberal point of view. This is merely my opinion; as you are entitled to yours.
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« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2021, 13:25:28 pm »

And the answer to my question is?
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« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2021, 13:32:09 pm »

I think the Cobblers have tremendous potential. The town is now close to 250,000 , over twice the size of Burnley. The ground is situated close to the M1 so easily accessible to London and the South, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Midlands where most of the big clubs are situated.

We used to get crowds of over 10,000 regularly in the glory years at the County Ground, 24,000 against Fulham (I was there) and I am sure we could muster close to that with a successful Championship side playing in a state of the art stadium. It wouldn't happen overnight of course, even with a billionaire owner but there is no reason why we couldn't get there.

Frankly I have never understood why no one with money has ever been interested in buying the club. Let's be honest we have more to offer than the Forest Greens, and Salfords (who the hell needs another team in Lancashire) of this world who even with money struggle to attract more than 2-3000 people.
So do I. If the Saints can get 15,000 then I think we'd easily match that once away fans were included if we ever made it to the Championship. The ground wouldn't have to be special or state of the art, just capable of holding 20,000+
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« Reply #13 on: November 23, 2021, 14:07:09 pm »

I think the Cobblers have tremendous potential. The town is now close to 250,000 , over twice the size of Burnley. The ground is situated close to the M1 so easily accessible to London and the South, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Midlands where most of the big clubs are situated.

We used to get crowds of over 10,000 regularly in the glory years at the County Ground, 24,000 against Fulham (I was there) and I am sure we could muster close to that with a successful Championship side playing in a state of the art stadium. It wouldn't happen overnight of course, even with a billionaire owner but there is no reason why we couldn't get there.

Frankly I have never understood why no one with money has ever been interested in buying the club. Let's be honest we have more to offer than the Forest Greens, and Salfords (who the hell needs another team in Lancashire) of this world who even with money struggle to attract more than 2-3000 people.

Back in the day when Griggs was 'building R&D' I spent a good 2 hours interviewing him both on the phone and in person about his aspirations there. It was very interesting...

The reason why he said he never chose NTFC to 'invest in' was that they didn't own the ground/any land. It was that simple, for him. I think our days at the county ground sharing with NCCC was a huge obstacle for someone chucking cash at us. Of course, when we moved into Sixfields we had much of the same issue, the council owned the stadium and we just rented it from them. That changed when DC took over the lease on a (125 year?) gig, which in turn ended up costing the club circa 500k a year which is what the council were losing on sixfields. BUT we owned it, or effectively owned it. Of course since that day, the club has been the pawn in a land deal, and we've had two sets of owners who have tried to develop things with that in mind. I'm not getting political here by the way, but there has been no real chance for us of such an individual or group of individuals buying the club to take us through the leagues simply because the custodians at the helm have or had plans to generate funds out of the land.

My hope is that once NTFC is released from the land saga, and it simply owns the stadium (albeit on a very lengthy lease) then it *might* just attract rich 'investors' who have the funds, passion, ego (!) etc to 'give it a go'. That's why personally I will support any efforts to get this agreement with the council signed off, East Stand sorted etc because at that point the club will own an asset that is clear of any other bullsh1t  and the path will be clear for us to find someone/group that is willing to take us on a upwards journey.

It is hope, that is all. But you've gotta dream, eh! We've got massive potential but in order for the club to fulfil that potential it would need massive investment and it wouldn't make money along the way. I think that's where my views differ from many people who continue to debate the issue of ownership, the ground/land saga etc. I simply do not buy into, that the club could get any higher than top10 in league1 (sustainably). I reckon 30million quid plus would be needed for us to make the leap into the unknown, and stay there!
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« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2021, 14:22:40 pm »

MK Dons
Peterborough

Ooops

Portsmouth
Plymouth
Cobblers
Swindon
Ipswich

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« Reply #15 on: November 23, 2021, 14:23:08 pm »

And the answer to my question is?

It will more than likely be met with a question in return  
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« Reply #16 on: November 23, 2021, 14:53:51 pm »

We have indeed got massive potential and as around the 20th largest city/town in England statistically the top reaches of the Championship and occasional foray into the Prem should not be beyond us.

People tend to underestimated the size of the town and the census figures leading with Administrative areas often adds to the confusion but the relationship between population and potential is unfortunately not straightforward.

I can remember seeing a forum where Burnley fans couldn't quite understand where their support actually came from!

History seems to matter, I doubt if anyone would disagree that if The Cobblers were level in The Championship with Huddersfield their crowds would still be bigger than ours, despite being a considerably smaller town.

Having said that there is still an obvious amount of potential and I agree with most of what has been said.
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« Reply #17 on: November 23, 2021, 15:01:59 pm »

Agree with all this, except I don't see why we wouldn't at least equal Huddersfield's attendance.
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« Reply #18 on: November 23, 2021, 15:20:17 pm »

You can double that catchment area because of the sizeable towns like Wellingborough, Daventry, Kettering and a lot of Cobblers fans live in the MK postcode!

A 15K stadium would be required in the Championship.

NTFC has always been the County Team.
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« Reply #19 on: November 23, 2021, 15:23:55 pm »

Had to do a bit of research to back up what was just a gut feeling!

Season 2008/9 in Division 1 we were relegated in 21st place with an average of 5,200, Huddersfield finished 9th with an average of 13,298.

That must have been the season the wind blew advertising down from the east stand and the match was abandoned. Think we were winning and then lost when replayed. Doesn't seem 13 years ago...
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