MB86DFC wrote:
Opposing fans laughing at us for playing in an empty venue, so what? They laugh at us anyway for being a failed league club stuck in this awful division. Primacy of tenure could be solved if both parties were motivated to do so, plenty of rugby and football teams have got passed this.
Except the only way it can be solved is if we negotiate it in our favour, otherwise it's pointless us moving back. Quite how we do that when we have no leverage ourselves is anyone's guess. What motivation is there for MP to give us a favourable primacy of tenure deal? None that I can see.
As for opposition fans, they don't laugh at us for being an ex-league club in the NLN at all. No one has ever seen that. Actually, our drive through non-league is one of the things that's helped repair our reputational damage. But they would laugh at us for being in the National League North with a Premier League-sized ground, which would only be 5-10% full.
MB86DFC wrote:
I honestly don't think we would lose the support. As mentioned I know people who would come back, but it is all hypothetical
Marvellous, so beyond asking a few people you know (who may or may not exist) you can't back it up. Wonderful.
As for attendances at BM, we've seen that a decent run in the league, winning football can lift the mood and bring attendances up around 1500 to 1700 at BM. This is roughly what we got in our play-off chasing season that never was in 16/17. This is around the same as our final seasons at the Arena.
If we had a decent manager who could at least get us playing consistently and winning more regularly, that would be a start.
MB86DFC wrote:
Sponsors would not turn away, they sponsor for the commercial benefit of their business. If there are crowds equal to what we have now they will still sponsor. We will still be the same fan owned club, a lot is different now than it was under Reynolds / Singh / Houghton so comparing the two businesses is misguided.
OK then, why aren't local businesses flocking to us now? It's hardly a secret we're fan-owned and back in the town. I can tell you why - because of the reputational damage of moving to an obviously oversized ground, the three administrations and so on. And as I've stated, any non-Darlo fan associates us with the Arena and the subsequent catastrophes there. Their first thought would be "Why are you moving back there, when it caused so much trouble last time?"
These sponsors we need to drive ourselves forward aren't going support us if we go back to where all the chaos began. They certainly didn't support us at the Arena a decade ago.
MB86DFC wrote:
You're correct that I can't offer anything concrete to prove we would increase support, but you cannot offer proof to the contrary.
Of course I can't PROVE it because you're presenting an hypothetical future scenario. But what I can do is inform my opinion with facts. And the facts are our attendances plummeted at the Arena. More than half since we left Feethams. We had three administrations in nine seasons there, which in part can be attributed to the Arena itself. The increased running costs, the need for extra revenue to cover them, which was one reason for the overspending on the budget (to get us higher up the leagues and generating more revenue). And if MP went bust, as is a possibility, we'd be stuck with it.
Of course 10 year average crowds would be down after leaving Feethams as it was a much loved, well located ground with 2 Wembley appearances in the last 7 years of tenancy to boost attendances. Going to the Arena with all of the fan scepticism, merry-go round of rotten owners, administrations and relegation's would naturally push attendances down. This is a completely different scenario so your Feethams to Arena attendance statistic is not relevant.
I'm sorry, but you're just spouting bullshit now. Our declining attendances at the Arena in the past is perfectly relevant. To say otherwise is moronic. We had a winning Wembley visit while at the Arena. Better than anything we had at Feethams, yet it hardly brought about an increase in attendances.
We had 14,000 at the first Arena game, so people were hardly sceptical about trying it. But when they got there, they turned their back sharpish. They'd turn out for big games, but would rarely stay beyond that. And it goes without saying the ground was clearly a factor in that.
In less than a decade more than half our regular fanbase left us. That's not something that usually happens after a club moves venue. It just doesn't. Nowhere else has that happened after a club has moved venues within the same town.
So it's a perfectly relevant statistic. Fans didn't like the Arena, it's all there for everyone to see. I know it's massively inconvenient to your argument, but you can't ignore what's happened in the past at the Arena. If you do, you just look delusional.
MB86DFC wrote:
Even if attendances at the Arena stay roughly the same as they would at BM it is a better position to be in as we don't have to spend millions on upgrades.
That depends entirely on the deal that gets negotiated. Who's to say it'll be any better than what we have at BM? By your own admission it's all hypothetical so your statement here has nothing to back it up.
I can just as easily say what if Northumbrian Water accept the cheaper idea for providing access to the pipe at BM loan_Star has suggested on other threads? That would be cheaper as it'd provide greater flexibility in terms of building around the pipe, allowing us to get up to standard quicker. It's hypothetical I know, but then so is everything you're suggesting.
What we do know is moving to the Arena would instantly plunge us into hundreds of thousands of debt, through having to pay back grant money. And if MP struggle with their finances, as well-placed posters on here are suggesting, then as you admit yourself, we'd be screwed.
Look, I'm perfectly fine with your opinion being we'd be better off at the Arena, but there's nothing to support that at all. At best, all you can offer is hypothetical guesswork (and your ignoring of facts when it comes to the reduction of our fanbase does your argument no favours).
Right now, I don't see any benefit whatsoever to moving back to the Arena. That's not to say I'm happy with BM - there are massive, obvious flaws with the ground. But the flaws and pitfalls of the Arena are far greater and way more damaging.