Why Sheffield (the city)?

[Big Jack]

4 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Old corner shop Dave

And another " life long Wednesdayite"

[CircleSeven]

27 minutes ago, Hornsby said:

But that doesn't stimulate the economy, as World Student games and tram lines prove.

 

It's all about knowledge now and the brain drain from this city - like you - is still immense.

 

We have not created net jobs in private sector for donkeys.

 

Half -sized Brighton has more new VAT registrations annually than Steel city.

 

I have clients in China working on 6 G, nermind 5.

 

Border cities tend to struggle. Bristol is a regional capital , like Leeds and Manchester.

Regarding my own circumstances I left Sheffield because my wife is from the midlands so we live close to where she is from for family reasons. I don’t think of myself a part of a ‘brain drain’ because my business is still there and we spend all of our company money in Sheffield. I can only speak as I find and I find Sheffield to be a good place to do business. When we build properties I find loads of our first time buyers are from outside the city or students looking to put down roots. Regional capitals are better funded in some respects but they also tend to be more expensive to run businesses in. As for comparisons to Brighton, although they might be eye catching I’m not sure they help that much as Brighton is such a different economy to Sheffields, with house prices being sky high and much easier links to London etc. Sheffield, is what it is. It was an industrial city and its transformation into something new will be slow. Sheffield might be a poor mans Manchester but it’s a lot better than some of the cities of this country. 

[asteener1867]

Probably never recovered from George Orwell calling Sheffield  "The ugliest town in the old world"

If you are of a certain age, you could believe it...

I remember coming home   from  some night game away on the train...Coming through the east end of Sheffield it was just like glowing lava and steam from the steelworks...It really did look like you would imagine hell to be like

Its made massive strides recently, but it takes time to put a view like Orwells to bed.

The number of folk who I have seen come as such as student doctors and nurses and stayed in Sheffield to live and raise a family probably speaks volumes, but garners no publicity.

We had an American junior Dr, who I still bump into occasionally, he's back over there now, but regularly comes over on holiday FFS!

He said it was the people...the "Ey up love" and the way Sheffielders found it easy to chat about nowt, to anyone, and nod hello at strangers..Something you stop noticing as a resident, I suppose.

Even in the 90's when we had a great team..We got little publicity...As someone else has said....Put "Hillsborough" into Google...You won't get Sheffield Wednesday...You know what you will get

 

[gurujuan]

I have to say, the many people I’ve taken to Sheffield, not always to matches, absolutely love it In my conversations with some of the players who have joined our club, all were unanimous in their praise for the city. I don’t believe that Sheffield, as a city, is a deterrent to any player joining our club

[Spookone]

23 hours ago, Woozie said:

That will be Hallam.

That is correct 

[Rogers]

6 hours ago, Ante's Bubbly said:

There are loads of reasons for living in Sheffield and for at least the last 40 years it has been top or close to the top of the list of cities where students move to study and end up staying there to live, so I checked out this site https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/study/city and it has plenty of reasons for coming to live here as many players, ex players, managers and ex managers have stated, including many that still live here after retirement the most famous ones probably being Nigel Pearson, Chris Waddle & Emlyn Hughes. I would also add the friendliness of the locals and the very dry quirky sense of humor and the small lesser know fact that the roots of our game, the first two football teams in the world and most of the original rules all came from here.

 

There are 564,000 people living in Sheffield

Nearly 60,000 of which are students

An affordable city

Sheffield is one of the UK’s top ten most affordable student cities.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Student Living Index 2019

A safe city

England’s safest major city, according to the UK Peace Index

Awarded the Purple Flag for city safety, making it one of the safest places in the country for a night out seven years running

A creative city

Home to the largest community of artists and designers outside London

Known for its music, art and digital scenes

A green city

60 per cent of the city is green space

Over two million trees, 250 gardens, parks and woodland areas and a third of the city lies within the borders of the Peak District national park

 

poo football team though 

[Guest Hornsby]

14 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Regarding my own circumstances I left Sheffield because my wife is from the midlands so we live close to where she is from for family reasons. I don’t think of myself a part of a ‘brain drain’ because my business is still there and we spend all of our company money in Sheffield. I can only speak as I find and I find Sheffield to be a good place to do business. When we build properties I find loads of our first time buyers are from outside the city or students looking to put down roots. Regional capitals are better funded in some respects but they also tend to be more expensive to run businesses in. As for comparisons to Brighton, although they might be eye catching I’m not sure they help that much as Brighton is such a different economy to Sheffields, with house prices being sky high and much easier links to London etc. Sheffield, is what it is. It was an industrial city and its transformation into something new will be slow. Sheffield might be a poor mans Manchester but it’s a lot better than some of the cities of this 

Sadly, as a socialist, Council is also not very business savy.

 

And you know that from planning regime .

 

Recall when they thought World Student Games was Olympics.

 

But it is true, city getting much better.

[Gob_Bluth]

14 hours ago, gurujuan said:

I have to say, the many people I’ve taken to Sheffield, not always to matches, absolutely love it In my conversations with some of the players who have joined our club, all were unanimous in their praise for the city. I don’t believe that Sheffield, as a city, is a deterrent to any player joining our club

 

My other half is a born and bred east londoner, she loves it when we visit family, she's already said she'd like to move to Sheffield when we're ready to leave London

 

It makes her weekend when she goes into a shop and people call her "duck" and loves the general friendly atmosphere

[gurujuan]

2 minutes ago, Gob_Bluth said:

 

My other half is a born and bred east londoner, she loves it when we visit family, she's already said she'd like to move to Sheffield when we're ready to leave London

 

It makes her weekend when she goes into a shop and people call her "duck" and loves the general friendly atmosphere

Even the bus drivers call you love I’ve contemplated moving back for a second stint, and think at some point, I might

[the monk]

On 10/03/2021 at 18:43, hangonrose said:

I was born in Sheffield, so it's a place very dear to my heart.  But why is it that football in this city - apart from the odd sparkly season, like we've had and the other lot have had - is unsuccessful?  Why aren't we like Manc or Liverpool, or N London?  We can get the crowds to match any city, but why do we manage to make a mess of it?

 

How many players come here and are sold for a profit?  Very few.  Next season, we'll have a Championship and a League 1 side more than likely.

 

There must be something in the air or it's the people which puts the mockers on consistency.  Brentford?  Barnsley?  How come they get it and we don't?

 

Have I missed something?  Are our supporters like dementors, sucking the life out of the soul of the club?  It's a recurring theme though.

 

Either club should attract the money men, judging by the crowds either club can generate, and invest accordingly.  Why are people queuing up to buy Ipswich?  Derby?   and the list goes on.

 

Please put me straight....thanks 

You say .Barnsley get it , but for a points deduction for Wigan they would have been relegated last season  ...again 

Like United the only thing they have done is stumble on what appears to be a good manager after appointing a load of dross for years 

[hangonrose]

On 10/03/2021 at 19:37, Ever the pessimist said:

I love the city, partly due to the self-deprecating nature of the people, but at times I think that holds us back. It may sound daft but I honestly believe that some places mirror the people or vice-versa. Brash Leeds, self-confident Manchester, loyal and combative Scouse....It's interesting that nationally people often think Sheffield is a city of about 2-3000K rather than twice that.

More specifically football, both clubs have made very poor decisions when strongly positioned. 

I also wonder whether the city councils of other places as more football friendly and see it for what it is / could be: a huge income generator for the city.

Yep, good answer, that's where I'm sort of coming from and you've put it well.  The only two times in living memory that I've felt we could be big-time, was the day I was at Hillsborough and Chris Woods was also there putting pen to paper - on top of all the other players, and I just thought 'we're serious now".  The other time was the night we beat Arsenal 3-0 in the Cup, but strangely never felt it when we were in the playoff final.

[hangonrose]

On 10/03/2021 at 20:26, doubleo said:

We're not on our own, Think Bristol, Nottingham, York, everywhere in Wales apart from Swansea and Cardiff, and up until recently Leeds.

I'm putting us in a block above all these - Bristols have never been crowd generators, Nottingham have only ever had Forest to make a decent crowd, whereas we could reasonably get 30K at either ground, with full houses for big games.  Leeds (a one club city) would never generate a regular 50k+, as it's a rugby city

[mildatheart67]

Bristols have never been crowd generators,

 

 

You sure about that

[mildatheart67]

If Leeds stay in Prem they could easy get 50,000.

The Leeds metro area is much bigger than say Newcastle and Leeds are reported to have a 20,000 waiting list for season tickets

[NorthernOwl]

On 10/03/2021 at 20:26, doubleo said:

We're not on our own, Think Bristol, Nottingham, York, everywhere in Wales apart from Swansea and Cardiff, and up until recently Leeds.

 

I live in York and it's a bit of an interesting case. A city of 200k plus and a club stuck at national league north level. In relative terms their level of underachievement far dwarves Wednesday's.

[NorthernOwl]

On 11/03/2021 at 06:49, mcmigo said:

We should go all out and become the worlds first club for the modern millennial  to attract a new global fan base.

 

1.  Players must be vegan

2.  Boots made from non leather products 

3.  Only organic vegan food in the ground 

4.   Travel  to matches in an electric bus or by horse and cart 

5.  Sponsored by charities such as greenpeace

6.  Half time and pre match entertainment should be debates and talks about ESG issues 

7.  Players should be prominent spokespeople on human rights, climate change, progressive taxation , universal basic income, race and gender issues

8. Positive discrimination in promotions/ hiring  

 Etc etc

 

 

 

Working out ok for Forest Green who will probably be in the same league as us next season.

[hangonrose]

On 11/03/2021 at 12:40, Ante's Bubbly said:

There are loads of reasons for living in Sheffield and for at least the last 40 years it has been top or close to the top of the list of cities where students move to study and end up staying there to live, so I checked out this site https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/study/city and it has plenty of reasons for coming to live here as many players, ex players, managers and ex managers have stated, including many that still live here after retirement the most famous ones probably being Nigel Pearson, Chris Waddle & Emlyn Hughes. I would also add the friendliness of the locals and the very dry quirky sense of humor and the small lesser know fact that the roots of our game, the first two football teams in the world and most of the original rules all came from here.

 

There are 564,000 people living in Sheffield

Nearly 60,000 of which are students

An affordable city

Sheffield is one of the UK’s top ten most affordable student cities.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Student Living Index 2019

A safe city

England’s safest major city, according to the UK Peace Index

Awarded the Purple Flag for city safety, making it one of the safest places in the country for a night out seven years running

A creative city

Home to the largest community of artists and designers outside London

Known for its music, art and digital scenes

A green city

60 per cent of the city is green space

Over two million trees, 250 gardens, parks and woodland areas and a third of the city lies within the borders of the Peak District national park

 

Well said, that man - it started to look up when I left in 1989.  Surely a coincidence.....

[hangonrose]

37 minutes ago, NorthernOwl said:

 

I live in York and it's a bit of an interesting case. A city of 200k plus and a club stuck at national league north level. In relative terms their level of underachievement far dwarves Wednesday's.

That's interesting in its own right.  I'll now have to look at city populations in the UK, and see how they fare.  Not expecting St David's or Wells to be knocking on the EFL door though...

[Rev Owl]

On 11/03/2021 at 06:49, mcmigo said:

We should go all out and become the worlds first club for the modern millennial  to attract a new global fan base.

 

1.  Players must be vegan

2.  Boots made from non leather products 

3.  Only organic vegan food in the ground 

4.   Travel  to matches in an electric bus or by horse and cart 

5.  Sponsored by charities such as greenpeace

6.  Half time and pre match entertainment should be debates and talks about ESG issues 

7.  Players should be prominent spokespeople on human rights, climate change, progressive taxation , universal basic income, race and gender issues

8. Positive discrimination in promotions/ hiring  

 Etc etc

 

 

That'll bring em in 

 

No really I think its a great plan.

[Shez]

3 hours ago, hangonrose said:

I'm putting us in a block above all these - Bristols have never been crowd generators, Nottingham have only ever had Forest to make a decent crowd, whereas we could reasonably get 30K at either ground, with full houses for big games.  Leeds (a one club city) would never generate a regular 50k+, as it's a rugby city

 

They were selling out home tickets at 35k (25k season ticket holders). They have a 25k waiting list for season tickets beyond that. Not only could they sell 50k they could sell season tickets close to that. Their home support, like Wednesdays has been hit by issues with the ownership for years but with the right owner and a Premiership platform and a 1 club City you'd expect they could fetch crowds of 2/3rds of both Sheffield clubs combined under similar performance