Sad Demise Of Torquay Utd

[queenslandpie]

Me too. I think my soft spot for Torquay stems from my days watching Soccer AM when it was introduced by Tim Lovejoy and the lovely Helen Chamberlain, who was a big Torquay fan. I seem to remember she came second in a big poker competition, winning in the region of $400K, and owned a couple of racehorses. I've also had some great weekends there over the years.

I read a book by Gary Nelson who also briefly played for us on loan which described they shoe string budget that Torquay used to operate on called Left foot In the grave. Good little read if you fancy it.

[TedBovisPie]

Rochdale in the mire as well

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68353473

We were lucky with the Bros!

Another traditional league club with low crowds as upthemaggies mentions above, wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see them back in the league.

[slack_pie]

Another traditional league club with low crowds as upthemaggies mentions above, wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see them back in the league.

Why do Rochdale have such low crowds? According to Wiki, the population of Rochdale is just over 100k, so about the same size as Mansfield. Yes, they are close to two huge Premier League clubs in Manchester, but they also get half the gates that Oldham get, which is five miles down the road and has a slightly smaller population.

I'm pretty sure Rochdale struggled to break 5k when they were an established L1 side as well, so it's not just about being in the NL.

[queenslandpie]

Why do Rochdale have such low crowds? According to Wiki, the population of Rochdale is just over 100k, so about the same size as Mansfield. Yes, they are close to two huge Premier League clubs in Manchester, but they also get half the gates that Oldham get, which is five miles down the road and has a slightly smaller population.

I'm pretty sure Rochdale struggled to break 5k when they were an established L1 side as well, so it's not just about being in the NL.

If you look at that area there are just tons of clubs. From the big Manchester sides Blackburn Huddersfield Bolton Oldham etc etc its pretty competitive. I would imagine the Stags get a fair bit of support from the outlying villages but I bet most of those around Rochdale go elsewhere. I wonder how Kairo is getting on there. He was such a weird signing.

[upthemaggies]

Why do Rochdale have such low crowds? According to Wiki, the population of Rochdale is just over 100k, so about the same size as Mansfield. Yes, they are close to two huge Premier League clubs in Manchester, but they also get half the gates that Oldham get, which is five miles down the road and has a slightly smaller population.

I'm pretty sure Rochdale struggled to break 5k when they were an established L1 side as well, so it's not just about being in the NL.

They never averaged more than 3,632 during their L1 spell recently, overall average for the last 50 years is 2,508.

A big factor might be the fact they spent 36 consecutive seasons in the 4th tier from 1974-2010 and the vast majority of those mid-bottom half of the table as no hopers, which is hardly going to inspire new generations of fans to turn up. They reached one play off final two years before going up with us in the Munto season, that 2008 Wembley trip (losing 2-3 to Stockport) probably was the thing that inspired their brief period of relative success. They were League Cup finalists back when it was a two leg home and away final in the 1960s but it must be that prolonged spell of stagnation that explains their lack of support.

[queenslandpie]

They never averaged more than 3,632 during their L1 spell recently, overall average for the last 50 years is 2,508.

A big factor might be the fact they spent 36 consecutive seasons in the 4th tier from 1974-2010 and the vast majority of those mid-bottom half of the table as no hopers, which is hardly going to inspire new generations of fans to turn up. They reached one play off final two years before going up with us in the Munto season, that 2008 Wembley trip (losing 2-3 to Stockport) probably was the thing that inspired their brief period of relative success. They were League Cup finalists back when it was a two leg home and away final in the 1960s but it must be that prolonged spell of stagnation that explains their lack of support.

Most of their "success" was also due to having Alan Hill as manager who called in a lot of favours and they had just a nuts amount of loan players at the time ( many on season long loans to keep the wage bill down) most of whom worked out for a while. Obviously not a recipe for long term success. But at the time I doubt any Rochdale fans moaned. It takes a special kind of person to support a perennially struggling team like them or Torquay with no investment ever and basically on the breadline every season. Much worse than Notts. I salute all of their fans.

[durhampie]

Its shocking when you have clubs on their doorstep spending literally millions on just one player, Whereas just 2 million would keep the likes Torquay and Rochdale afloat..

The Premier league and Sky have a lot to answer for. We just hope that one day the boots on the other foot..

[BCnotts18]

If you look at that area there are just tons of clubs. From the big Manchester sides Blackburn Huddersfield Bolton Oldham etc etc its pretty competitive. I would imagine the Stags get a fair bit of support from the outlying villages but I bet most of those around Rochdale go elsewhere. I wonder how Kairo is getting on there. He was such a weird signing.

He's not doing too badly, 9 goals in 24 appearances is certainly not a bad return at this stage of the season.

[upthemaggies]

I was just looking at the tables for 10 years ago, 2013/14........

Yeovil and Doncaster were both in the Championship.

Wolves, Sheff Utd and Brentford were all in the 3rd tier.

Luton were in the National League.

S****horpe won promotion into tier 3 that season with Rochdale.
Dagenham & Redbridge and York both finished just outside the 4th tier play offs.
Bristol Rovers relegated into tier 5.
Stockport finished 14th in tier 6 below Colwyn Bay and Leamington.

An awful lot can change in a decade!

[The_Don_ORiordan]

I think if you look at our crowds the few seasons before munto you get an idea of how a club perpetually in the lower half of league 2’s gates are affected.

Losing to crap sides, only able to buy crap and hire crap managers. Dire football.