 What future for the fans? The true face of BFC.Written by Curryman on Monday, 13th Oct 2014 16:04 Why do increasing numbers not want to go to Bloomfield Road anymore, is it because the club is dying? It's a question those leaving are more than ready to answer. The problem is, those who hold the purse strings are not listening to the peaceful but increasingly noisy protests of the fans, and a lot of the remonstrations are about a fair crack of the whip i.e. the money gained from our Premier League sojourn and that, of course, is the problem. Some, although an ever decreasing number of, people would say the club is not dying... yes, it seems to be in a transition... but transitioning is not the same as dying. Really? What cartoons have they been watching? Clearly, the club is dying or at least regressing. Those who maintain it is all down to transition should do their research. Just take a look at the gates this season. Well down on last season and they were in turn down on the previous season. In other words, more and more past supporters are finding more fulfilling things to do on weekends, and once they are lost to the club, they are going to take some getting back. Seriously though, Blackpool FC isn’t dying, well not quite anyway? Blackpool FC will always be here. We, the fans, are Blackpool FC, not the owners although it is their business. But you can be sure, BFC are going through more than a mere "transition." Study these things carefully. I'll offer several explanations of where I feel things have been or are going wrong and look at best practices that, as I see it, might reverse the trends contributing to the decline or regression, take your pick which word you use. Trends impacting on our decline: 1. The flirtation with the big boys in the Premier League: Totally against all expectations, poor little Blackpool made it to the pinnacle of the leagues, as we all know, and for a breath-taking couple of hours after our opening game were actually top of the League. Who, in their right mind, could have forecast that? I would argue no-one. Our second game, away at Arsenal, brought us back down to earth with a bump, but, did we care? We just kept on singing even after the 6 – 0 thumping, scenes that the on looking Arsenal fans had probably never seen before or since. Now any owner in their right minds would at this stage have been looking further ahead, planning how to market this phenomenon in Tangerine which the whole country seemed to be embracing and the fans were certainly generating along with the players, but even as results started to go against us, it appears that purse strings were kept extremely tight. Opportunities to sign decent players such as Mehdi Banatia were missed, because he would have cost around £100k, this guy has just been sold for a reputed £21 million. Instead we went for the cheap option, the bargain basement players who were either too old or unfit, not of the standard required for such a high quality of football or a combination of the three. Many reasons have been given for our exit back to the Championship, we didn’t at times have the rub of the green or the backing of the ref, it must be said, but it could so easily have been avoided with some forward planning and a little bit of speculation. 2. The match experience: Consider, for a moment, the experience fans were having during the halcyon days of the Premiership, visiting grounds of the big boys where money appeared to be of little object to making match day an unforgettable experience. It wouldn’t be fair to say that all grounds were great. There were some less than comfortable places, Villa, with its narrow corridors and seats beyond the corner flag; Wolves, where it seemed fair game for away fans to be treated like prisoners on a day out; West Ham, where it was literally impossible to see the game from below the ground level due to Police and Stewards standing in the way. But on the whole, the match day experience was excellent and our facilities were usually decent. Contrast that with our own ground, away fans seated in a temporary stand that had to be hastily built before the season, no alcohol for them, porta type toilets with, I understand, only two for the females. Surely this is now a game where the fairer sex are welcomed. OK we also had our overflow in the same east stand, but at least they were able to take advantage of better toilet facilities and so on. As I said though in section 1, ‘who, in their right mind, could have forecast that we would have been in the Premier League,’ so some leeway has to be given here on the ‘temporary’ stand. Was the lesson learnt? I would say no, we still have that same stand, we still have the same toilet conditions and no alcohol for away fans, we can still only accommodate a couple of thousand away fans when some of the larger clubs could perhaps fill both ends! Once again forward planning seems to be a concept that is alien to our owners. It would not have been unreasonable to expect the temporary stand to be replaced by a permanent stand with an increased section for the away fans, thus generating more money for team strengthening in order to reach the premier league again and in turn generate more income. 3. General ground and player facilities: We lost a number of games and a lot of our momentum due to the excessively cold weather that hit the coast during our Premier season by not having any under pitch heating system in place, or indeed it would seem any plans in place to cope with the kind of weather that was experienced. OK it was better that the winter of 1962/3 when Jimmy Armfield famously skated on the pitch in front of the Kop, but that was 50 years ago when our training ground was state of the art and not just a state like today! Our players were still training in an antiquated training ground, that remains in place today, leaking roof, lack of heating, poor shower facilities, no all-weather pitches and of course exposure to the cruel winds off the Irish Sea. I suppose though being a centre of exellAnce makes up for it in some ways and if it was good enough for Matthews and Mortenson, it should have been good enough for the then current crop of players. One thing we did gain were sprinklers, and we can now boldly boast that we have a Premier League legacy! Once again it all boils down to poor or lack of any forward planning by the powers that be. In all my years in management I was taught and was expected to show forward planning, it’s what’s known as planned expansion. We seem to have no expansion plans and panic measures in place when things don’t quite work out. 4. Leadership in Crisis: Volumes have been written about this in the past by people with varying, but quite often similar, views so I don’t intend to dwell on this subject for too long. But you can be sure, lack of backing for the managers leading to poor performances, leading to management changes followed by the alleged cover-ups by the owners, have been driving people away from Bloomfield Road and continue to drive people away, faster than any other causes combined. It seems that it is always someone else’s fault and that as far as our most esteemed owners are concerned everything is completely hunky dory. Mind you, I suppose that is why we have someone on such a large salary plus perks such as company car, to deflect any criticism or wrong doing downwards, sideways or at least away from the true perpetrators. Come clean, be honest with the fans for once in your life. You may not be liked any better but at least you will be appreciated. Forward plan and put this in your future agenda. 5. Competition. Lancashire probably has more clubs per capita than any other place in England although I am just surmising and could be proved wrong. With the emergence from the shadows of Fleetwood, it now gives the club one more headache. If Fleetwood do well and continue to progress at their present rate, how long will it be that we are looking up to them? I know that is pure speculation, but stranger things have happened. Whilst any self-respecting Blackpool fan could not support Preston North End, Blackburn or Burnley, would they have the same qualms about swapping their allegiance to the Cods? It would seem that a number have already defected so it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility that this trickle of disenchanted fans could gain momentum. Then there are other things to do on a Saturday afternoon, credit this to the social changes in the '60s, to the Internet, to the influx of immigrants and minorities, to whatever you'd like, but the fact is, people today meet other people of entirely different traditions and hobbies so, if they are discovering anything at all, it is that there are things such as golf, for those that like to spoil a good walk, taking up another hobby or just sitting and watching the telly that are a reasonable alternative to sitting watching a poor team try and play football.( No disrespect intended to our present players). Things have changed dramatically over the last ten or so years, and you can virtually do anything now with a little bit of research or even do things virtually, if that makes sense. Dare I mention forward planning again? Conclusion. As you will no doubt have observed, throughout this blog, I have frequently mentioned forward planning of which there seems to have been little or none. We only have to go back to the delay in the building of the Armfield stand to understand how the mind of our owners appear to be wired. ‘We don’t need an extra stand to accommodate the 17 people who are being locked out at matches’ was the frequent cry, and this in some way explains why things were not in place at the ground when, in fact, they should have been. I can’t personally remember any other club who have been so piecemeal about their development or had so little foresight when building a ground. Even the likes of Bournemouth, who are owned by the fans, updated their stadium whilst in the lower leagues thus looking for a better future, and look at them now. Rotherham who have been to hell and back now have a spanking new ground, Chesterfield with the famous open end again have a brand new ground, and dare I mention Plucky Little Wigan? All around us we see progress at other clubs, yet we have that very motto on our badge, a little bit of an oxymoron I would suggest. Could it be that I have got things completely wrong and that forward planning was there from the very start. Plans to use any monies received from the year in the Premier League to help prop up other family owned businesses; to buy other possible businesses; to build a hotel purporting it to be good for the club and employ a bit of nepotism by installing family to run these new businesses whether they had the back ground, the nous or the experience to do so. Now the latest ways to empty the ground have been found, banning orders for those who dare hold a placard or a sign which is not liked, has it not been realised that if one person is banned, it could lead to others not coming, I know of one man who has been banned and it has cost the club seven season tickets. Threats of court action for having the temerity to hold up a newspaper front page with a slight alteration. It’s probably as well that a moustache and glasses weren’t added to the picture as this would have really been a defamation of the person, and goodness knows how a seemingly dyslexic or maybe sloppy solicitor would have handled that one. Is there a way back? I would hazard a guess and say yes, but it would take one thing to start the ball rolling, one thing that the fans have been and still are, craving for. A change of ownership. However, if this insanity is going to continue, it will certainly not entice the fans back to the ground and the patient may wither away. I hope I’m wrong. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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