Skip to main content

Is Bristol England's football enigma?

Neither Bristol club is doing as well as they would like at the moment.   Steve Lansdown has been a generous benefactor of Bristol City, but promotion to the Premier League has eluded them.  (Lansdown's recent views on the club's situation can be found here: https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/steve-lansdown-updates-supporters/  Bristol is a vibrant city and the regional capital of the west of England, but is punching below its football weight.

Bristol City — the Robins — have never won the league title. They have never won the FA Cup, nor the League Cup. Bristol Rovers — the Gas — have never won the top-flight title either, nor the FA Cup or League Cup. Bristol City have at least tasted top-flight English football, most recently in 1980, though many will not consider that to be recent. Bristol Rovers have never made it to the top division; they did come sixth in the old Second Division in 1959.

Consequently, the city of Bristol has never staged a European football fixture. It has never staged a Premier League fixture. Yet Bristol is accepted on various population/boundary measurements as the seventh-largest city in England. It has, moreover, an organised football tradition dating back to 1883 when a team called the Black Arabs were formed on Stapleton Road. They would quickly morph into Bristol Rovers. Bristol’s credibility, infrastructure and location meant it was one of the FA’s chosen 12 host cities in its unsuccessful bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Bristol is English football’s enigma. Over the past week, since the clubs’ two new managers were appointed, The Athletic has spoken to those involved today and historically to understand why Bristol, the city, does not fulfil its potential.

I’m not sure they come up with any answers, but it’s an interesting story and I find The Athletic subscription good value.

One of the most interesting ideas was that Bristol lacks an ‘industrial cluster’ of clubs of the kind you find in Lancashire.   I would add that it has been and remains a strong rugby area.

Cities that have two clubs often become absorbed with the rivalry for understandable reasons.  Merger is unthinkable - even in Dundee where the grounds of the two clubs are in the same road.

[The writer is a client of Hargreaves Lansdown].


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s
1 comment
Read more

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is
Post a Comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to depl
Post a Comment
Read more