Some reality finally kicking in on POL ........
New "A ground that holds less than 21k. No really decent or any proper corporate facilities. Training facilities quite basic and not even owned by the club, a significant debt, no signed squad. As for the best fans......Afraid not. We keep on saying we are but even when in the top flight we couldn't consistantly fill a small stadium. Even in the premiership there wasn't a waiting list of fans who couldn't get season tickets was there? So there are not twenty thousand Pompey fans wanting to see their team in the top flight with players that a just a few years before we could only dream of. I'm not knocking the fans, after all i'm one of them, but think of the so called Pompey fans who filled Wembley or the 250k who cheered the open top bus ride, where were they when the season was under way?
People talk about the catchment area that PFC has but I don't think even acounting for the glory hunters or prawn sarny brigade we could fill a shiney new 30k seater stadium. Forget the rivalry forget the bias or scum hating emotions, it will be interesting to see how many season tickets have been sold down the road now that they are in the Premiership and have a nice new stadium; after all our catchment area is near enough the same as thiers surely?
The hard core Pompey fans are passionate are noisey but that hard core is not that big. Many of those fans that cheered and clapped Mr Henry did not bother to buy a season ticket. I don't know what our prices were compared to other Premiership clubs but everyone across the nation were affected by the economic downturn so can we simply put it down to cost?
So IMHO we are not a good buy and even though it was not the fans fault, Portsmouth Football Club's name since this whole debacle began has been tarnished and that may also influence some potential buyers. There must be other clubs out there with potential, good facilities, a good fan base but without the baggage we have and who is investing millions in them?
There is no white knight, our best bet is something like the Trust to bring us back to being an honest club, a family club, a community club, a passionate club, a decent club, but not a big one.
