Call me a sad bastard; call me what you like I’ve never much
cared throughout the course of history since the moment I was born. That of
course is a complete and utter lie but then when did the truth ever stand in
the way of hardened facts? In the current concourse of time? Not anytime recently?
Let’s face facts, the club is a joke and a complete and utter shambles. I’d
like to say this was all something new, that looking back things hadn’t always
been this way. In reality, if you take your rose tinted glasses off for even
one minute you will know that this isn’t a problem that dates back say five
years or even ten. This isn’t a problem that goes back twenty years. This is a
problem that has always been masked; sometimes by success but mostly through
history and the factor that the city has on the club and not what’s happened on
the pitch. Sometimes the club has caught a break off the back of what was
happening around the world at that very point in time.
Let’s take the day I
was born. Pompey played Hereford away in front of a crowd totalling 3,893 in a
2-0 away win. That was in what they used to call Division Three. Ironically
renamed League One now just to make it sound that little more glamorous against
the names of the English Premier League and The Championship. Anyone wish it
was still called Division Three who followed the club for more than twenty five
years so clubs can stop hiding behind the real problems facing football at this
juncture?
Let’s hit fast forward a couple of years to 1980. To be
precise Saturday May 3rd 1980 and Pompey are lined up to face
Northampton Town away. Pompey are by now in Division Four or for you youngsters
who are possibly reading this – what they now call League Two. I wasn’t there
of course but my Dad was and he still talks about the support and the passion
that day when around 7,000 fans made their way to the game to cheer on the boys
in Blue hoping to see us promoted back to Division Three.
Taking 7,000 fans away seems a very large number in terms of
support. I’ll get real in terms of that figure in a little while. A 2-0 win
that day saw Pompey secure promotion with the away fans out numbering the home
by a ratio of over 2:1. Here is where the myth starts I guess. Fast forward to
October of the same year and over 12,000 fans travel up to Liverpool away to
see the club lose 4-1 but take the honour and the glory of out singing the
mighty Kop.
These are the seeds by which people would have it be that
Pompey fans are one of the best set of fans in the land if not worldwide. Loyal
to the core and devout in their following week in, week out across the whole of
Britain. Well let’s face facts, as one of the most southerly based sides in
England in one of the UK’s most deprived areas, the reality is there will
always be a tainted view based upon a handful of games to boost the reputation
of what the reality of history actually demonstrates.
Oddly the record attendance for any game involving Pompey is
over 200,000 and took place on a South American tour having been crowned the
Champions of England. If we could sway the FA into letting us do an MK Dons and
playing our homes games in Brazil then we might stand a chance of breaking even
come the next few years.
So obviously there is a very serious point to this all. The
biggest and most obvious I guess is to stop the notion of us being a well
supported club. Since our creation we never have been. Oh but you’re wrong, you
are so wrong you cry. Our record home attendance is against Derby County in the
FA Cup and even if you don’t know the exact figure you would be able to say it
was over 51,000 people. Well, for sure
that is true. You can’t argue with facts. If I could be arsed and trying to be
really pugnacity I would try find the figures of service men living in the area
and do an algebraic equation against the total figure multiplied by the
marginal cost of tickets in those days factored against what little there was
to do on leave on a Saturday afternoon at that very juncture when on shore
leave.
The attendances of the late 1930s and the late 1940s and
early 1950s were let’s face facts swelled by the numbers of serving members of
the Royal Navy, army and Royal Air Force. Were the all Portsmouth born and bred
and true die had fans of the club? Of course they weren’t. Had there been an
extra 200 miles of coast line beneath us at that time that true attendance figures
would have shown a marked contrast as to what the history books actually
document. So let’s start to dispel the notion of the greatest support that ever
existed home and away that could compete with the elite of any English club. It’s
all one big myth.
In 1998 to celebrate the centenary year of the clubs
existence the fans were given the chance to pay £35 from memory to have their
name included in the official centenary guide of the club. If you didn’t want
to pay the extra money the book was retailing at £30. How many thousands
flocked behind a scheme that cost £35 to help the clubs coffers and be a part
of history? 50,000? 40,000? 20,000? 10,000 at least surely? 5,000? 4? 3? Total numbers of names in the book? 2,927.
Less than 3,000 fans wanted to part in 1998 with a sum far less than what the
trust are asking for now to help take over the club. Wow – That’s a hard
hitting reality starting to bite home is it not? I’m not sure on the exact
figure of the extra to get your name in the book, but let’s say the cost was
£35 at the time. Total sales before tax and printing costs would have been
£102,445.
So in 1998 if you couldn’t get more than 3,000 fans to get
their names written into a centenary book for less than forty quid, how on
earth do you think in twenty twelve you are ever going to find the number of
fans needed to raise a bid for the club to buy it out and put it into the hands
of the fans?
Let me re-iterate that point once more. Less than 3,000 fans
chose to pay around £35 of their hard earned money to mark their name in the
history of Portsmouth FC. Not pledge to buy a share at a thousand pounds of
their own hard earned money. That’s less than 3,000 people not willing to spend
even £35 to mark 100 years of our club.
But – what about the 250,000 plus people that came onto the
streets of Portsmouth to witness the FA Cup being brought home to the city that
had held it for the longest period of time during its entire history since the
competition began? Look at all that possible
support. Look at the vast numbers…
October 25th 1986 and my first home game against
West Bromwich Albion. Attendance that day was 11,698. New Year ’s Day brought a
home crowd of 18,289 to Fratton Park against Reading. Come April with the side
challenging for promotion back to Division One the top attendance didn’t break
20,000 in total. It was only the last game of the season against Sheffield
United that saw the attendance sore to 28,004.
Surely with Pompey back in the top flight the fans would
flood back to Fratton Park in their numbers?
This is a club who’d won the FA Cup in 1939. This was a club
who had won back to back league titles in the late 1940s. This is a well supported
club and always has been?
February 27th 1998 and Pompey lose 2-0 to
Liverpool in front of a home crowd of 28,117. Any talk of importance of South
Coast rivalry in comparison shows a home attendance of just 20,161 on August 22nd
against our nearest and dearest rivals down the road. The return fixture away
had an attendance of just 17,002. As embarrassing as it was to not sell out at
home this season to our closest rivals this isn’t a new thing by any means.
Despite returning back to the top echelons of Division One
Fratton Park was never close to being full. In the early 1990s when Pompey had
come close to returning back to Division One under the stewardship of Jim Smith
attendances had been boosted by giving away tickets to school children in the
North Stand.
Every decade shows a false economy through attendances or
non attendances.
During the war serving members of the arms forces swelling
the crowd numbers.
Take away the position of Portsmouth to the coast and place
us in Carlisle for example during the 1930s and 1940s. Average the attendance
to be between 1,500 to 2,000 at best.
Where are the fans that packed Southsea common when we won
the FA Cup? Where were the fans that could have paid £35 to get their name in
the centenary book? Less than 3,000 took up the option in 1998 of spending way
less than £100 to be associated with 100 years of history!
Let’s go with fact. They’ve never existed other than during
the EPL years which brought us to our knees. By that stage a full ground was by
memory around the third worst average attendance in the league.
So armed with the facts. They are facts. If you cannot get
more than 3,000 people to spend less than £40 to get your name in a book to
celebrate 100 years of the club. Fast forward to twenty twelve. Does anyone
really think you’ll get more than 3,000 people to part with a thousand pounds
to save the club?
I don’t need the shit of the PBA in my life anymore. I have
long walked away. But the one thing the PBA has always done is stood up for
what we know to be basic math. Basic principle. And we’ve never shied away from
the real truth.
So ask yourself. If less than 3,000 people in 1998 wouldn’t spend
£35 or more to get their name in a book to mark 100 years of the club, do you really
think any supporters trust will gain anywhere near the amount of pledges needed
to take over the club?
If you cannot raise more than £150,000 through history is it
any wonder the PST haven’t come made a bid yet? The numbers aren’t there and
they will never be. If the same 2,927 people who signed up at £35 or more in
1998 to have their names signed into Pompey's history all magically found a
grand each to invest, that would give you a little over a quarter of a million.
If you cannot get someone to spend £35 what chance do you
stand of asking someone for a thousand pounds?
The facts speak for themselves. The debt levels are too high
to even support a notion of a buyout.
So if I know that and you know that, then why are the PST
asking for your hard earned money?
Still no bid on the table. Deadline after deadline gone and
extended. New scheme after new scheme.
I paid for my name in history as a son of Suffolk.
I was less than 3,000 who took that opportunity.
Do I need to say any more?
PUP
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