Robbie Loving Posted August 24, 2004 Share Posted August 24, 2004 Originally posted by ianmitchell you do not seem to have got, deary me fella, is how many years we have been in the top flight as opposed to how many years you have been in. Btw I wouldn't really call myself much of a wednesday fan actually, I have just been raised to support sheffield wednesday and I will defend my team. i do appreciate how many years weds have been in compared to united i was pointing out the fact......... actually forget it *bangs head against wall* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carcrash Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 As a Sheffield United fan there is a small part of me that feels sorry for Wednesday. Last season you missed out on relegation by 3 points which isn't good is it. Your board seem to have totaly mismanaged the club and you have got Ken Bates sniffing around. How much are Wednesday in debt at the moment, the last I heard it was about 20 million. Over the last 20 years United have had a series of crooks and asset strippers running the club. We have come through it. We have one of the best youth systems around and it is starting to pay off now. We no longer need to sell our best young players to keep the club afloat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 You've pretty much hit the nail on the head there carcrash. Dave Allen (I believe) has the best intentions, but I think he wishes he had never got involved. It would be VERY easy for him to throw in the towel, maybe relocating the club to Owlerton Stadium (which could handle the ground and training facility) in the process to make a few quid. A friend of mine owns another club and the fans there think he's a God, but they had VERY low expectations from the past. Football is very fickle, and ultimately it was the short lived 'player power' that caused the demise of many viable businesses, and the problems we see today. Wednesday on the other hand have VERY high expectations and are (whether Blades like it or not) still one of the biggest clubs in the land, never mind Sheffield. United have always been a generally mediocre side, whereas Wednesday have enjoyed the heaven and hell of glory or disaster! Wednesday will come through it once again to glory , but they will probably be back down in the far future too . If it was up to me, I would bite the bullet and ground share at Don Valley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tosh13 Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 a lot of owls fans come from Barnsley -Rotherham -Doncaster,that is why attendances have always been higher for the owls.The Blades are mostly Sheffield based as they should be.I have lived in Barnsley for 25 years & the amount of kids with owls shirts on is unbelievable I ask them why don't you support your local team & they say the owls are a bigger club.All I can say is glory seekers as I do not think any of the above teams have a cat in hells chance of being a club the size of the owls & achieving what the owls have done in the past.I have been a Blades fan for 41 years & I have seen all the ups & downs the club has gone through,debts of around £6 million in the 70s & bad investing ,but we sorted our finances out & are building for the future as I hope the owls will do as i would like to see the Blades & owls in the premiere league because I am sick of the like of Leeds being shoved down our throats for the last 30 years.UP THE BLADES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Loving Posted August 26, 2004 Share Posted August 26, 2004 Originally posted by Tony If it was up to me, I would bite the bullet and ground share at Don Valley. don valley would make an excellent ground for rotherham, although some of it would need to be modified ie roofs for all parts of the ground, the problem with weds or united using it is i believe only 25,000 seater stadium and weds got 26,000+ on saturday, and sheffield united sometimes get that (this sunday will be one of them times) also..... you talk about dave allen,i think he has done a lot of good for weds, but what i dont like about him, is that he goes on about how he has put all this money in to the club, he never stops telling people, but he never mentions the fact most of it is just a loan and all the money is coming back to him when the sale of the training ground goes through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted August 26, 2004 Share Posted August 26, 2004 You're absolutely right about Don Valley, but it was always designed to be expanded quickly so that the roof you see today goes all the way around, with expanded seating to match. I drove past the Reebok Stadium earlier today, and even that reminds you about how much stadium facilities have come on in the lat 10 years. Remember when Hillsborough was the best ground after Wembley? It's starting to look a bit of a dump now, only 15 years later. Anyway, when Sun International get their hands on it they may well buy Wednesday and put them in place to make sure that they have lots of 'light nights' next to the casino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timo Posted August 27, 2004 Share Posted August 27, 2004 I agree with Tosh's comments regarding Wednesday's bigger outside of the city fan base, and it doubtless makes a difference to the attendance figures. As a Blade I too am pleased that United are sorting out their financial problems [and like Tosh I hope the Owls do too]. However, I find it hard to envisage when either club will have the financial capital to be able to get to the Premier. Even if United manage to get there, would they be able to stay there? The big clubs like Man U and Arsenal are like Multi-national giants, and it is all about money. Look at Warnock's relatively tiny budget...United and Wednesday are like corner shops trying to compete with global companies. Tosh refers to the Red and Blue sides of the city. Can we really talk of such things? I would love to see a breakdown of the respective fan bases in geographical terms. I am aware of a study in 1997 conducted by Sheffield Hallam University ["Sheffield Divided Or United?", I think it was called], which suggested that Wednesday enjoyed more middle class, as well as working class support and their fan base was more inclusive, i.e contained more ethnic minority supporters, females etc and was seen as a "family" club. Conversely, United were associated with young, white males according to respondents. Without going into the deficits and pitfalls of field research, I don't accept the findings as accurate. What about Blades support in Dore and Totley? Hardly working class areas. As for the "side of the city" argument [no offence intended , Tosh], I originally come from Wincobank which is nearer to Hillsborough than the Lane and [at least when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s] is historically a United enclave alongside nearby Brightside, Firth Park, Shiregreen and Darnall. I wonder if there are any historical reasons why certain areas are predominantly one or the other, aside from geography? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timo Posted August 27, 2004 Share Posted August 27, 2004 Sorry, it was Plaintalker who referred to "sides of the city" re Owls and Blades not Tosh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tosh13 Posted August 27, 2004 Share Posted August 27, 2004 Originally posted by timo Sorry, it was Plaintalker who referred to "sides of the city" re Owls and Blades not Tosh. Ok T I will let you off this time LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoughby79 Posted August 27, 2004 Share Posted August 27, 2004 the biggest fan base in the region i would say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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