I get that but at some stage to grow they would have to borrow/speculate.

The club has to grow without success for it to be truly sustainable. Bradford are the prime example of club relying on regular silverware. As soon as that stops the proverbial hits the fan and as you say nothing is guaranteed in sport.

It irks me that out of a potential target audience of 100k we only attract a fraction of that, but then I don't think the club does much to improve on that. Social media can be a good thing but it doesn't replace getting into the target market and pushing the club be it player meet and greets in the Ridings/Trinity Walk to family fun days in the town centre.

Does anyone else think the new site for the shop can be easily missed.Maybe it's my age ,but I walked past it, when going to pick up my ticket. Perhaps it needs some sort of advertising placards or whatever to 'shout out ' to people as they pass by.

You could argue that Bradford come into the category of "borrowers and speculators" and they risked everything on an immediate return to SL and therein lies a cautionary tale.
The other Championship clubs involved in the middle 8's both this season and last, with the obvious exception of Leigh, put their additional income (from qualifying for the middle 8's) into long term development etc, whereas Bradford went for broke.
MC may not be spending his budget in the way that some would like but, he has done a superb job at steadying the ship and keeping it afloat and I'll take that every time, compared to the fete of The Bulls.

Your 100k target market is a little optimistic. (the total is around 76000)
With so many clubs in close proximity plus all of the other distractions in the summer months, anything around the 7/8000 figure would be superb and MC would be very, very happy.

If we can get some early results and gather some momentum, it would be excellent to sell out a few games at BV

Getting people through the gate each season is directly linked to success on the pitch. Up to this year where we managed a decent season, the previous 3 we finished 12, 12 & 11, is there any surprise crowds have dropped. We need to follow up last season, by being competitive & having at least a decent season again. Only then we will see a gradual rise in people through the gates to around 6-7k. Ateotd we managed to get about 800 more people in this season, from the abysmal 2015 one. A similar rise this season will start to look a bit more respectable.

Competitive team with stadium hope crowds will grow as will new sponsors etc. Competitive team playing in new stadium we will have average/above average SL attendances. A competing for a trophy team in new stadium and there's no reason for us to be a Warrington/St Helens type of club.
Up the Trin

The season before last getting hammered every match knocked us massively regarding support it was torture for even us loyal fans and did us lots of damage. Last season was 100% better but the finish took the shine off. I'm looking forward to this season more than I have probably since the 2004 season .

Yes I'm afraid 2014 and 2015 were disasters for the club. I reckon we hemoraged 30% of our fans though I'm not convinced all of those actually paid anything like full price to watch.

I certainly think there are a couple of thousand out there who could still be tempted back but it will take a Wembley or Old Trafford trip to do it. I think with a bit of titivation BV and the club as it stands could maybe restore the average number of home fans to between 5-6000 plus whatever the away support is if we had some good years.

Whether thats enough to survive and prosper I don't know - but as ever at some point the ground will cost us.

Thats what I said, at some point it will require an investment - what I'm saying is that if we were a normal business what we are doing now would work eventually but not in sport.

However IMHO there is still some mileage left in what we are doing now.

I must admit to no longer knowing anything about the culture and demographic of the city as it's over 20 years since I left Wakefield and 8 years since I left the UK.

That massively under qualifies me to comment but I would like to add a couple of observations to the debate:

1) we constantly refer to returning fans... I started watching in 75 and crowds were around 3.5k average... the last time we had significant crowds (av 10+) will have been the 1960s... those people aren't coming back! And crowds today are better than much of the past 30 years.

That means we have to attract new sections of the population or turn casual attendance into a genuine fan base.

And... 2) I think Vasty is correct when he talks about investment...had we the fortune to add Glover's, entrepreneurial investment of money and marketing nous onto Carters sound financial model and diligence we could(?!?) see a genuine affect. Notwithstanding the state of belle vue...

The club is doing all it can with the resources at it's disposal.
I can understand the frustration with the lack of promoting the club around town but if they spend money on this, the squad maybe weaker and not match upto the hype?
Same goes for beer in the ground, would you rather have crap beer and a decent team or great beer and a rubbish team?
Can have the best beer in the world but if your team is rubbish, there will be no one to sup it!
CC has assembled a really good squad, I'm happy that any spare money has been spent on this rather than having a 'roadshow' in town to promote the team, that people won't give a second glance to.
Massive progress has been made over the last 3-4 years and we all know that the ground is the biggest stumbling block that is holding us back to possibly going to the next level.

Nailed it.

Can't describe the feeling I get driving through Normy knowing I'm literally minutes away from the bright lights of the cosmopolitan metropolis and it's cultured folk.

Would imagine it would be quite exhilarating and exciting for someone from Kippax