[PEARSON]

I think most people have a spare 1k lying about so this should be easy. Can't believe we didnt think of it earlier!

[Wise_Owl]

Put Wednesday in the Premier now, we'd full house every home game, I don't remember us doing that all that often under Francis in the top flight, but crowds all across the board were low at that point.

I still don't buy that. Newcastle are one of the biggest clubs in the country fanbase wise. We are a few levels down in terms of support, actual or latent.

[RobHowe]

after the last decade?!

I would pay £10,000 for my rumbleing season ticket!

Seriously though, where are these 15,000+ additional fans, that are going to pay Premier League ticket prices week in, week out, going to come from?

[Salmonbones]

I still don't buy that. Newcastle are one of the biggest clubs in the country fanbase wise. We are a few levels down in terms of support, actual or latent.

You don't have to buy it. Look around at other club. Look across the city.

What do you know that can contradict actual hard facts?

[Brownlad]

Seriously though, where are these 15,000+ additional fans, that are going to pay Premier League ticket prices week in, week out, going to come from?

I don't think it's as high as that but I think it goes without question - well, in my opinion, to be more specific - that Premiership football WOULD = higher crowds. First off for the obvious games against the 'big 4' you would attract far, far more neutrals than we currently do. Students, casual football fans, opposition fans...

Secondly I think there are actually quite a lot of people who are Wednesday fans but don't attend regularly who would, after the last decade of dog balls, turn up far more regularly, even v Wigan.

In fact I'd be pretty disgusted if we were in that position and I heard a Wednesday fan say "nah sod that, its only wigan"

I'd relish every single game if we were to ever be in the Prem again, because chances are where we are now, as a football club, is where we are going to stay, unless the landscape changes dramatically, which I can't see happening.

[PeteG_1984]

I don't think my Mrs would be please at me handing over £1.5k to SWFC

[shabbyhouse]

I still don't buy that. Newcastle are one of the biggest clubs in the country fanbase wise. We are a few levels down in terms of support, actual or latent.

I agree, but can we say as a club we're 40% the size of Newcastle, and that pro rata in our fan base, there would be the equivalent of 20,000 with an average of £1000 to commit, local businesses and business people included? Surely we can.

It's not about creating more sub-groups, cliques and factions: it's about giving your money to the club and possibly kissing it goodbye (or hopefully not!) to stop us continually bumping along the financial sea-bed.

There wouldn't need to be no buy-out of existing shareholders, just a paying off of existing loan notes and perhaps a rights issue.

It's also a way to stop the tedium of "investment tomorrow".

UTO!

[Otto_Man]

The idea of fan ownership is a good one, you only have to look at Barca to see how great it can be, the problem we have (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) is a reyt lot of our fans are rumbletards.

[shabbyhouse]

Spot the double negative...

[shabbyhouse]

The idea of fan ownership is a good one, you only have to look at Barca to see how great it can be, the problem we have (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) is a reyt lot of our fans are rumbletards.

And Geordies aren't???

[RobHowe]

I don't think it's as high as that but I think it goes without question - well, in my opinion, to be more specific - that Premiership football WOULD = higher crowds. First off for the obvious games against the 'big 4' you would attract far, far more neutrals than we currently do. Students, casual football fans, opposition fans...

Secondly I think there are actually quite a lot of people who are Wednesday fans but don't attend regularly who would, after the last decade of dog balls, turn up far more regularly, even v Wigan.

In fact I'd be pretty disgusted if we were in that position and I heard a Wednesday fan say "nah sod that, its only wigan"

I'd relish every single game if we were to ever be in the Prem again, because chances are where we are now, as a football club, is where we are going to stay, unless the landscape changes dramatically, which I can't see happening.

I don't doubt for one minute that Premier League football would result in higher attendances, but if we're going to sell-out, as has been suggested in this thread, then based on the current average attendance we are going to need an extra 15,000 plus fans to turn up week in, week out to achieve that.

That's where I think we'd struggle - as I just don't see that many people wanting to pay £30 to watch Wigan on a cold Monday night in January or Stoke hoof it / chuck it into our box for 90 minutes.

I fear an early return to the Premier League, as unlikely as that might be, as we're just not ready. Just to stand still would cost us millions - and we could quite easily blow the TV money just doing that.

It's a Catch-22 situation because we're unlikely to get such an injection of cash by any other means, but I just can't see the fans or the club being prepared to stick with a Championship squad and take a season on the chin, getting hammered most weeks, just to save as much of the TV revenue as we can. We're more likely to end up spending daft money to buy average players with little or no passion or commitment for the club, and who will jump ship at the first sign of trouble / bigger wage packet.

[Davidioso]

Still, please go ahead and contest the above.

No

[RobHowe]

The idea of fan ownership is a good one, you only have to look at Barca to see how great it can be, the problem we have (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) is a reyt lot of our fans are rumbletards.

^^^^^^

(And I include myself in that group. )