Morepork Posted May 16, 2021 Share Posted May 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, PaoloDiCanio12 said: Getting bigger crowds than arsenal and big 6 and the title winners at one point, Sheff u couldn’t do that Leicester couldn’t etc etc, it depends how you value size of football clubs, overall we are easily a big club, current infrastructure nowhere near So what criteria do we apply to measure "big"? How do we catagorise clubs? There's an interesting survey - Here. You'll see we narrowly missed out on the top 20 of British clubs which given the 10 criteria seems quite generous to. The only positives I can see for us currently are our history and potential (however distant). To my mind that doesn't make us big. We'd be in a catagory that was "once big/could be big again" 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaoloDiCanio12 Posted May 16, 2021 Share Posted May 16, 2021 22 minutes ago, Morepork said: So what criteria do we apply to measure "big"? How do we catagorise clubs? There's an interesting survey - Here. You'll see we narrowly missed out on the top 20 of British clubs which given the 10 criteria seems quite generous to. The only positives I can see for us currently are our history and potential (however distant). To my mind that doesn't make us big. We'd be in a catagory that was "once big/could be big again" I would personally say fanbase seasons in top flight and success, I wouldn’t take that poll too seriously to be honest, Im not sure how Watford and Brighton can make the list but we cannot, there was a poll on fanbase when around 20k+ fans participated and we were voted as the 4th best supported, so we’re clearly recognised for something still! In my opinion overall in our history we are certainly a big club, current infrastructure/facilities, we are not. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneManBand Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Same old wendy, living in the past. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewings Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Great post! Was at that game, sat in the north.... Warhurst played for Oldham and was quality. Oldham played a right game that day as well was a fascinating match. I think the potential of Wednesday will always be there but weather or not it ever gets used is a totally different debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyblack Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 10 hours ago, Nero said: Once upon a time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owls-Fan Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, PaoloDiCanio12 said: I would personally say fanbase seasons in top flight and success, I wouldn’t take that poll too seriously to be honest, Im not sure how Watford and Brighton can make the list but we cannot, there was a poll on fanbase when around 20k+ fans participated and we were voted as the 4th best supported, so we’re clearly recognised for something still! In my opinion overall in our history we are certainly a big club, current infrastructure/facilities, we are not. Good post, living in the south it’s funny for me as the only people I hear say we aren’t a big club tend to be wednedayites. But anyway, you just have to look at the attendances in games against Wycombe (league 1 promotion), Brighton and Huddersfield (champ play offs), all over 34k to see there is a big fan base there when the games are big enough. Those people weren’t forced to be there We have been out of the top flight, and rubbish for the most part, in the last 20 years. I always wonder how a team like Spurs attendances would look if they had followed our same path. Dropping to league 1, lowest league position with players like Tony Crane and Barry-Murphy in the team. Would they still have got 25k then? I’m not so sure. The “mighty” Leeds average attendance when they were last in league 1 was 21k and 23k. Saints were similar. Let’s see how we compare to that in the next season or two. Edited May 17, 2021 by Owls-Fan 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1867Heaven Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 8 hours ago, Rogerwyldesmullet said: Thanks for posting this because growing up I always had us in the same bracket as Villa Newcastle Chelsea Spurs Man City in terms of support but below Man U Liverpool and Arsenal. Unlike a number of other clubs, we have not had the chance to do a “reset” in the modern context. We have been badly managed and badly run for so long I think it would take a sustained period of success to rekindle those sort of crowds. Likewise - Hate to say it, but Hillsborough has gone from being one of the best stadia in the country to being too old, too tarnished and nowadays in the wrong place to ever be selected for international matches again. Dave Richards has a lotto answer for.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nero Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 9 hours ago, PaoloDiCanio12 said: Not sure if this is a joke/bait post but we certainly were a big club in English football, if we weren’t/ aren’t overall a big club how come these are the overall stats for our club? Not a joke post. My mindset is we ARE a big club because of what we were. I can understand younger fans thinking we are a mid championship club but not in my day. We got always got bigger comparable crowds than Chelsea, Leeds etc. I still think we have that potential but its being drained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nero Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 2 hours ago, OneManBand said: Same old wendy, living in the past. Same old pigs/minipigs/dingles coming on our site as you are obsessed with 'wendy' as you hilariously call us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewookieisdown Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 There's no one definition of big club, and no measure. What can certainly be said is that we have been a well supported club; for our current level and standards we are still well supported; and the response to the two strong seasons from 2015 showed there was still a big pool of latent support. That said, I'd suggest that any useful idea of "big club" ought to be forward looking. If you say we're a big club but we're likely to spend the next decade in the third division or lower well, that's not really being a big club, is it? There are a number of clubs which we were "bigger" than thirty years ago, but who at the moment would seem likely to do better than us not just next season but over the next ten - twenty years: Southampton, Watford, Norwich, Brighton are obvious examples. More generally, the support for the club is clearly an asset, or would be if we were competently run. But it's not going to be enough to do what seemed possible decades ago, and see us permanently established near the top of the table. We simply don't have and won't have the global profile for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gob_Bluth Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 The big club debate is tedious The only metric that matters is current success. 4 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheff74 Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 As an old git myself I get the sentiment, but unfortunately I doubt that few outside our fanbase, and a few pundits, recognise us as a really big club anymore. 30 years since winning a major trophy and 22 years outside the top flight with a fair chunk of that time spent trying to fend off relegation into the 3rd tier, with varying success. When our fanbase is fired up and in tune with the team and manager, it can be something quite wonderful to behold. We saw that when we beat United to promotion, and during Carlos' first season, but since then, it has been a lapse into levels of apathy that I haven't seen since the 70s', and which could prove irreversible if this owner doesn't stop alienating supporters with his incompetence and arrogance. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beauchief Owl Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Good grief we used to be able to come back and take a point having been 2-0 down. The good old days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siggi's Jonnson Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 In the past i have been to matches with 40000+ and always thought we were similar to Everton and Man City before their good fortune. If we had been in the premiership for the last 20 years, I think we would have been on 35000+ gates regularly. But a good proportion of Wednesday fans only go when It's cheap, successful to a degree and playing fancy opposition. To put it scientifically, it's like the ******** effect. It gets big when It's exciting and then gets smaller when the excitement goes. At the moment we are in a period of abstinence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSandersonOWL Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 10 hours ago, PaoloDiCanio12 said: Not sure if this is a joke/bait post but we certainly were a big club in English football, if we weren’t/ aren’t overall a big club how come these are the overall stats for our club? A straight post adding the word WERE to the OP title, the word ARE would have been a joke given our current plight Even when we were the yo-yo club in the 1950s we were a BIG club, with EXCELLENT players and MASSIVE crowds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millomowl Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 I remember that game like yesterday! Warhurst being electrifying down the flanks for them and thinking oh &*(^ when we were 2-0 down. Then we had some spine and resilience unlike what's served up now. 2nd biggest crowd in the country was a frequent occurrence for us at this time with the side to boot! The passion and drive of our support will never diminish we are who are and proud of it. The fact that you see ridiculous amounts of money in the game and clubs that we used to beat on a regular basis in the European Cup Final, fair play to them just shows what good organisation and ownership can do. Yes you in your ivory tower take notice. Going forward when allowed fully back in grounds that try and fill the ground - take a punt and make it a max of £20 for an adult. At the end of the day it's 3rd division football coming out of a pandemic in a working class city. WAWAW Stay safe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supervisor2 Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 10 minutes ago, Sheff74 said: As an old git myself I get the sentiment, but unfortunately I doubt that few outside our fanbase, and a few pundits, recognise us as a really big club anymore. 30 years since winning a major trophy and 22 years outside the top flight with a fair chunk of that time spent trying to fend off relegation into the 3rd tier, with varying success. When our fanbase is fired up and in tune with the team and manager, it can be something quite wonderful to behold. We saw that when we beat United to promotion, and during Carlos' first season, but since then, it has been a lapse into levels of apathy that I haven't seen since the 70s', and which could prove irreversible if this owner doesn't stop alienating supporters with his incompetence and arrogance. Just deleted my first reply as it was nearly word for word the same as Sheff74 The words ‘big club’ is now an off the cuff comment. We were a big cub in the fifties and sixties, then rode on the wave of the 66 world cup and semi final ground......not the (football) teams. We had some good seasons in the 90’s and the play off seasons that rekindled the interest outside the club but we are now just that team with a unique name to a lot of people Hopefully the whole set up can ‘reset’ this season and can become that ‘big club’ people will watch out for for footballing reasons when the fixtures and cup draws are made and a club to be proud to follow for generations to come WAWAW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pOWLtergeist Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 14 hours ago, Nero said: Wasn't that the time Oldham had their 'plastic pitch'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartman Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 There's women I can think of who are in their 60s that were probably cracking looking 30 years ago But.....yer know 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mcguigan Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 2 hours ago, Nero said: Not a joke post. My mindset is we ARE a big club because of what we were. I can understand younger fans thinking we are a mid championship club but not in my day. We got always got bigger comparable crowds than Chelsea, Leeds etc. I still think we have that potential but its being drained. Our problem has always been consistency of crowd numbers over the season, hence why we've not averaged over 30k for well over 50 years. Sure we can pull in good home fan numbers once or twice a season but so can most clubs that have ample capacity to do so. Look at our high numbers in the Championship, they're usually inflated because of 4-5-6k attending away fans. We took 40k to Wembley but so did Bradford City and countless others. Our away support numbers are up their with the "big clubs" but not much else these days I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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