West Ham United have already sold over 50,000 tickets for their first season in the taxpayer paid for and subsidised Olympic Stadium. I am guessing that this must be something like double the sales for this season, an impressive achievement indeed. But it got me to thinking closer to home, so close that I can actually walk there: the UWE stadium.
In recent weeks, Bristol Rovers have been selling out their ramshackle Memorial Stadium as the club has surged to promotion to League One. The optimism generated by a fine team, an excellent young manager and new billionaire owners has been wonderful to behold but, as we all know, there is no sustainable future in Horfield.
For a short period of success, people will not mind forking out to watch football in a ground largely unfit for purpose. The elderly terraces, inadequate catering, abysmal toilet facilities, chronic PA system and rugby club type bars are not in themselves a basis for the future. The Memorial Stadium in itself will not generate the income which will be needed in the long term to take the club to another level. It is true that the new owners have more money than God, but they will not want to see their involvement to be merely that of subsidising a business that is losing money hand over fist.
I am not making a direct comparison between West Ham and Bristol Rovers but the fact that the former have dramatically increased season ticket sales by moving to a modern, state of the art facility will not have been lost on Wael Al-Qadi and the new owners.
There is, of course, a correlation between the size of crowds and football clubs and success on the pitch. That is how it works. When Rovers were struggling some years ago, gates dipped below 6000 but with a winning team last year, many people returned to the fold. On top of that, there are tens of thousands of people in the city who call themselves Rovers, the sort of people who will attend a Wembley final or even a vital promotion game, but no more than that. But perhaps no more than that at the Memorial Stadium. At a new stadium things could, as West Ham have shown, be very different.
For instance, the family terrace at the Memorial Stadium is pitiful. You get a terrible view and are left to feel distinctly second, or even third, class as the more affluent supporters pass behind to reach the corporate hospitality facilities. Don’t get me wrong: I have no issue with corporate facilities if they bring in income to the club but not at the expense of supporters who are almost treated as a lower life form. Give supporters decent facilities and a decent price and they will come. Incentivise people, make them feel welcome, give them a good and varied experience and what has happened at West Ham can and will happen at Bristol Rovers.
I don’t want to go down the “We’re a big club” line because that’s just boring. You’re only as big as the league you are playing in, but the truth is Bristol Rovers does have enormous potential. Under new ownership, Gasheads can now dare to dream. This is not the secretive, we know best so mind your own business attitude of the past. The club is today run by people of ambition and vision and from speaking to people who know the new guard the club has really got to them in a very positive way.
The club may well sell 5000 season tickets next season which is impressive but it is not the end. Like the Olympic Stadium for West Ham, the UWE stadium, or something similar, will be the key to the future. The Hammers may not be blowing bubbles anymore, but at least we won’t be Ragbag Rovers, a badge of dishonour Gasheads have been forced to wear for far too long.
