Pearson does care about the Club and he is right in calling for fans to show the same passion.Yes a winning side gets fans back but apart from last season we have done ok under his time as owner. like it or not constant negativity from certain sections of fans as not helped.Yes pay your cash and have your say but last season is behind us and we have to look to the future and back the Club or we wont have one.Radders is heading the right way and we must back him and the team.Come on get behind the Club and give them the best possible supportforums.rlfans.com/posting ... &t=575722#

Pearson does care about the Club and he is right in calling for fans to show the same passion.Yes a winning side gets fans back but apart from last season we have done ok under his time as owner. like it or not constant negativity from certain sections of fans as not helped.Yes pay your cash and have your say but last season is behind us and we have to look to the future and back the Club or we wont have one.Radders is heading the right way and we must back him and the team.Come on get behind the Club and give them the best possible supportforums.rlfans.com/posting ... &t=575722#

In 2009 we averaged 13,226 despite finishing 12th and with the economy being at the height of the credit crunch.

I've found you a fab avatar.

I didn't hear any finger-wagging, blaming, or chastising. I heard a simple statement of fact from the bloke who is keeping us in business with his own money. If some folk feel that having harsh reality pointed out to them is chastisement then I can only assume there is a guilty conscience at work.

Regarding the paying off of unwanted players - what would you prefer? That we hang on to people who clearly are not of the required standard?

Sorry that's what I ment

he didnt chastise/criticise any fan for not renewing, with the help of fellow fans we need them to get back supporting the club

I was generalising rather than accusing AP of such a thing. The point being that those fans stay away for a reason and they won't return unless the feel that those things have been addressed. It's exactly what happened at Bradford, the reason those fans never came back is because ultimately the team didn't perform.

£200k of his wages went into an EBT that only became payable on his return to Australia.

Most decent businesses (it is after all what the club is) acknowledge where they are going wrong when losing money and address it. Sitting in a small room in front of a few customers saying spend with us or else is not a great way to go about addressing the issues.
AP said we have lost kids in the past 2 years, he attributed most of this to football. He mentioned getting his kids back to his ex at midnight as a personal issue. Maybe just maybe the message is getting through there.
Friday nights do not attract families in the numbers they should. Friday nights do not attract away fans. Hence a threat veiled or otherwise to close the North stand. That's before Thursday's. But Friday's we are to,d attract corporates. Well maybe AP needs to recognise where IMHO he has gone wrong. Add in mediocre results despite wembley and you don't have to be an accountant to realise where his money is going.
Many of us have been there there was only a few thousand stood in the freezing winter months. We survived. Maybe at times by the skin of our teeth but we survived. We now have a supposedly more professional product played apparently in the summer, but Friday nights in February, March, April do nothing to entice families.
Play Sunday's and put on entertainment and make it a family occasion and have a winning team who make us feel excited about going to watch and people will return.
But don't sit and threaten us with extinction trying to scare us into going again.

I get APs passion but I do wonder about his methods at times.

No guilty conscience here, I'll be there next season just the same as I have been for the past 40 years or so. However a fair few won't unfortunately and will only return if the team performs well and wins, that's the harsh truth of the matter.

Well said.

AP didn't threaten anyone with anything. He simply stated facts. Apparently some are unable to face them.

If the stay-away fans don't return then we won't have a future in SL. It really is that simple.

And yet as pointed out to you a few posts ago we have had far larger crowds during worse runs of fortune. Which strongly indicates that there are other factors at work than simply conjuring up a winning team from thin air.

Perhaps he doesn't want anyone telling him that he didn't say it how it was when he heads west along the M62 for the last time having finally run out of available cash. The stay aways make their own choice (as they always have done) no doubt for a variety of reasons but it's good that everyone understands the consequences of their actions.

I did get the impression it's a bit make-or-break this season. The North and South stands possibly closed next season if crowds don't improve. Onky 200 or so passes sold in October. Pearson is desperate to rally sales and push for a better atmosphere (mentioned the new floodlights contributing to that). Although he insisted vocally on being 'professional' and 'diplomatic', it's clear it's all out war with the Allams.

He mentioned several times we are being 'squeezed' and he only just managed to broker the deal to keep the full stadium open for the next 12 months. If gates fall below an average 9500 he will struggle to fight that position next year. Then it's the slippery slope.

What was most telling is he cited the huge debts of the SMC as their leverage and justification for this. He also stated that he cannot understand while the SMC balance-sheet situation is so 'complicated' when it was very simple - and marginally profitable - when he ran it.

It was also mentioned that the relationship with the SMC was previously 'amicable' whereas now... it isn't. Now it is 'functional'.

The Allams, he said, are 100% definite in their desire to sell the club. Presumably that aspiration would be much simpler with us 'squeezed out'.

Now is the time to rally. If every family could introduce one new passholder, or convince a stay-away to return, that'd probably do it.