Gaps & Spaces = the sign of apathy

[Legion]

We're shit
McLeish is clueless
It's too expensive (up to £47 for that? laughable)
The football is diabolical

Simple really.

Is there anything about our club that you actually like?

[montague]

Very noticeable the spaces are at the home matches generally, and especially in the local derby matches.  31000 V Wolves, and 34000 V WBA. Arent these no longer regarded as fierce rivals any more.                           

                            Average home attendance & rankings
                         Pld  Total     Highest   Average  Capacity  Pct
10 Aston Villa (9) 5  162239 34248   32448     42551  76.2% 
Only Blackburn and Wigan percentage wise rank lower!! and shudder to think what the home attendance for these matches will be when Wigan/Blackburn turn-up.
Be lucky to 27000 imo
http://itv.stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/attend.html

Thats quite an interesting website. For those interested our average attendance in the last 64 years is 31k.

1970s = 31k; 1980s = 23k; 1990's back to 31k; 2000's 35k. I have always felt we had a core support in the low 30's, a few more when we are doing well, with a capacity for huge turnouts on the right occasion.

[D.boy]

We're shit
McLeish is clueless
It's too expensive (up to £47 for that? laughable)
The football is diabolical

Simple really.

Is there anything about our club that you actually like?

The pies.

[pestria]

As MarkM said above - the post-Euro 96 boom is over and we're now getting the sort of crowds we've traditionally got.

I'd say the Lerner boom is well and truly over and we are now getting the crowds we've traditionally got.   Yet another sign of failing to keep pace with our supposed rivals of the last 5+ years.

[villa `cross the mersey]

To come up to Birmingam for a home game for me and VV junior i'm looking at an outlay of £200. To watch shocking football served up ny a disinterested looking team managed by Captain Clueless. An absolute no-brainer in the current economic and football climates.

You have my sympathy and respect - I`ve never costed up my fortnightly expenditure but I guess its approx £100 per home game. I guess the thing for me now is the ridiculous amounts of money the players get - I daresay the likes of Albrighton and Bannan are possibly earning in a week what I get in a year - fair play if you can get it but morally that can`t be right surely?

Like many others I am now at the stage of "disinterest" where I no longer bother to watch games on TV,  leave games early (something  which I have castigated others for doing in the past) no longer enjoy the "home game experience".

I must still care `cos I am on here on my day off .....and I still get a warm feeling when I see a fellow Villan on the M6 or one of the many other motorways I find myself on as part of my job.

VCTM jnr and me still enjoy the away games for the craic and the time together.... but right now I am regreting that season ticket purchase `cos the thrill just ain`t there anymore 

[andyh]

This summer they sold two of our best players - again - didnt replace them, appointed the bloke who got Blues relegated twice.

Is anyone even remotely surprised crowds are down so much?

Theyve brought it entirely upon themselves, unfortunately. I don't know if it is because they don't care or because they're genuinely clueless. Or both.

I think it's that the new breed of multi-millionaire owners are clueless when it comes to football fans.

They're all fantastic businessmen, have looked at football and seen the loyalty fans show and have assumed, incorrectly, that no matter what prices they charge and what gets put out on the pitch, the fans will keep on coming.

A very good point, although I'm not sure you can include RL in there. Is he really a fantastic business man ?

One of the blokes I go down with has been a season ticket holder for 40+ years. He was saying as we walked away from the ground on Saturday that he really has had enough and can't see himself renewing next year. It might be an idle threat following a bad result, but I think he just might go through with it. I don't think he will be alone.
 

[not3bad]

BCV, do you just cut and paste the same thing into every thread? Go back to your Olbiyun board and stop boring me with your unremitting negativity at absolutely everything.

What's his user name of the Albion board?  TheLittleRayofSunlight?

[Corleone]

Unless we "win the lottery" like Man city or Chelsea it will become increasingly pointless as time goes on, as the targets and expectations of the club get squeezed each year.

We cant compete financially, and if we try to compete by developing youth players they will be off
as soon as they become half decent - so for a club in our position what is the point?

[MalcolmP]

Unless we "win the lottery" like Man city or Chelsea it will become increasingly pointless as time goes on, as the targets and expectations of the club get squeezed each year.

We cant compete financially, and if we try to compete by developing youth players they will be off
as soon as they become half decent - so for a club in our position what is the point?

No point at all - Proud History No Future !

[MarkM]

Unless we "win the lottery" like Man city or Chelsea it will become increasingly pointless as time goes on, as the targets and expectations of the club get squeezed each year.

We cant compete financially, and if we try to compete by developing youth players they will be off
as soon as they become half decent - so for a club in our position what is the point?

I would agree.

Hope has continued to keep me attending "maybe it will be our year for the...."

But as time goes on the more it becomes apparent that it will never be our year for anything!

Football in the PL really needs to look at itself and realise that without us the fans, the football will slowly die

[pedro25]

Season ticket sales would have been well down last season too imo if M'ON and Milner had left earlier in the summer.

[MarkDrapersHairstylist]

We're shit
McLeish is clueless
It's too expensive (up to £47 for that? laughable)
The football is diabolical

Simple really.

This.

[austin]

The trouble with football clubs turning the game in to a product is that when it's a bit shit and over-priced, consumers stay away.

Nail on the head

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Unless we "win the lottery" like Man city or Chelsea it will become increasingly pointless as time goes on, as the targets and expectations of the club get squeezed each year.

We cant compete financially, and if we try to compete by developing youth players they will be off
as soon as they become half decent - so for a club in our position what is the point?

I would agree.

Hope has continued to keep me attending "maybe it will be our year for the...."

But as time goes on the more it becomes apparent that it will never be our year for anything!

Football in the PL really needs to look at itself and realise that without us the fans, the football will slowly die

Same for me. I've been going for nearly 30 years and I've never felt so low on hope. Even during the recent bad times (the latter O'Leary years) there was hope - the hope that Ellis didn't have long left, so things would pick up sooner rather than later, after he'd gone. We don't have that hope now as we tried to compete with the Top 4, came close, fell away and are now as far away as ever.

Add in the Man City factor too, and it seems there is very little room for optimism or hope of actually achieving anything. This is confirmed in the whole matchday experience at VP these days, where atmosphere is non existant. Pretty depressing overall.

[richardhubbard]

We're shit
McLeish is clueless
It's too expensive (up to £47 for that? laughable)
The football is diabolical

Simple really.

Is there anything about our club that you actually like?

The pies.

I think the pies are shite