Of course, promotion is great - that goes without saying. Surely it's better to do all that without owners locking you out of the ground, or not having two pennies to rub together for transfers though? It's not about the league we are in - I'd be happy if we were top of League Two with a decent squad, decent manager left to get on with managing the team, and funds to buy players.
What you mean even with great owners, standing at the ground and fans feeling part of the club we still couldnt get near 30.000!!! kinell Yet some think we should have built a 50 or 100.000 stadium after two seasons in the PL.
The council should have built the 35,000 stadium first envisaged. Instead they compromised because of Sport .England for the sake of £2million which they then said we weren't going to get and which we got from the FL thanks to the Sunderland chairman Bob Murray, who also gave usual advice on things to do and avoid (which is the reason AP invited Sunderland to play the opening match). Sport England put the council in an awkward position by saying if their recommendation for a 25,000 stadium was ignored that could affect future projects for Hull and East Riding. You can imagine the council not wanting to read headlines about swimming pools, kids play facilities and other things being turned down because of their actions. Sport England were miffed because Brooking had stated that 15,000 would be an appropriate size for Hull. It was pointed out to him Hull was bigger than both Sunderland and Middlesbrough which had both built 30,000+ stadiums. One Councillor reminded Brooking that he must be aware we could get crowds like that. He had played in front of one in the Cup. And lost. Cllr Trevor Larsen wrote a good article about this and his contempt for the HDM and its coveting of the issues and negative attitude which were on a couple of forums at the time.
A point I have made in the past when blasé remarks about getting 40,000 have been expressed. And being shot down with accusations of negativity, being anti Hull City and the city of Hull and having impertinence to even offer an opinion as I live in the East Riding.
We pretty much sold out both seasons, 24,816 in 2008/09 and 24,390 in 2009/10. This time around wasn't much different, 24,117 in 2013/14 and 23,557 in 2014/15.
I was there in crowds of 3,000, there at the Southend game when so many Hull people had deserted City and decided to go to egg chasing so I can get away with it.
I remember the discussions on boards when the KC was being built. Many thought that, with our catchment area, the stadium should have had a capacity of 40K - citing our crowds in the 50's as being evidence of potential. What a joke. As has been pointed out, our average crowd figure fell during our second season in the top division under Phil Brown, (hallowed be thy name). You can build it, but they're not coming.
I hate this attitude. If we actually made an effort to be a big club and attract big crowds we could do it. This is a big City not some backwater, and we must have one of the biggest undisputed catchment areas for fans in the football league. There are much smaller cities and towns than Hull, on the doorstep of other FL clubs who get much bigger crowds than us. It's a lack of ambition.
Its not an attitude but the reality. Swansea have been on the up for years. They've been in the PL for 5/6 years now. They still havent bought or extended the stadium they are in. When they do its only going to be 26.000 from 20.000 at first. To think we should go and extend to 40.000 or even 30.000 on the "I think we could easily" is ridiculous. We will/would need to be in the PL for at least 3 or 4 years to even think about it. Thats without all the stuff about the council being unwilling to sell.
It's quite a simple equation as to how we could fill a stadium, of 40,000 or more, play attractive entertaining football and charge the supporters an acceptable and reasonable charge for entry, whether both will ever happen together is, unfortunately, highly unlikely.
Can't fathom why any City fan would ever go and watch Hull or Rovers ,even if they were playing at Wembley, if City were playing. Makes no sense. I was 8 when City played Southend/ Hull played Rovers at Wembley so was probably playing with me eagle eyed Action Man. He was a paratrooper mind so watch what you say. Hard as bastard nails he was.
We were dire in the second half of our first season, too. Sorry, but Hull is a backwater. It is as relevant as Northampton, which has the same population, or Wolverhampton, or Plymouth.
I can think of one poster on another forum who makes a big thing of what a supporter he is and who lectures others on how they should support the club who went to Wembley that day.