BigTime wrote:
PL is a nice new stadium with decent transport links. No one can say it doesn’t look the business but as you say a nice stadium 3/4 + empty can only look so good.
I can’t get a sense of whether the corporate is better but am willing to accept it is. How much interest there is in corporate and how much it is growing month on month is difficult to know. When the fan zone is open the food options for the general punter are slightly better, when not, they are identical to Ealing.
The one thing I do know is if we get to an average gate of 1500 -1750 whilst a mid table Championship side outside the heartlands and parachuted into an area with no residual buy in for RL then we will have done well. How that matches up to financial targets I don’t know but I do think the 5000 is pie in the sky. So if I’m right although a little tin pot Ealing is a better fit especially with the big new(ish) stand and scope to add some more seating. I do think despite the small crowd rattling around the ground The atmosphere at PL is decent now we are all in the east stand but the idea of inhabiting a ground where 3 sides are closed and the fourth side 1/3 full is a difficult sell and there is no suggestion that is likely to change anytime soon. We experimented with opening 2 sides against Widnes after. the flawed awareness raising campaign. We were truly (but completely predictably) dreadful and have never got anywhere near those crowd numbers again. I also wonder how easy is it for those from the North to drive down and park near PL (as opposed to Ealing). I suspect that is a popular method of getting to games in London historically that we may well have curtailed. All told I can’t make the case for PL over Ealing. We don’t even seem to be actively engaging with the community which I assume is more difficult now we only have access to players for a short while and have next to no back room staff. As for RP well it’s tinpot in the same way as Ealing was and the seating area was very very poor (borderline dangerous). Transport wise I suspect driving there may not be too bad but I’m unclear on parking options and the transport link, which is well situated, is a train which is more fiddly than a tube. I thought the atmosphere was decent. The club house was good although I didn’t have the patience to wait for the burger van to get its act together. On balance I prefer PL.
Any way we dress it up we are in some strife and our bungled re-launch run simultaneously with a shambolic move to PT meant we missed a chance to make a good 1st impression....and then there is the decamping to away games and Kent for weeks on end that really doesn’t make any sense and kills momentum. I suspect our average crowd numbers are probably what they were last year circa 750-950. All things considered that’s not bad but also not good enough to justify the expense.
To be honest I thought at first that Ealing's ground would have to work really hard to become as good as 'tinpot'!
But over time, and with the new stand built behind the other goal, it did improve greatly.
I know it would have needed a complete rebuilt on both sides to even have a hope of becoming top flight but we're in no way, shape or form likely to be an SL side any time soon - so I reckon we could have carried on there in the Championship. If nothing else we could have possibly have regular double headers with the academy and womens sides, and with the all weather pitch we wouldn't find ourselves being away from home for months, including two 'home' games in Kent ( which admittedly are easy for me to get to).
Ealing now is on the Liz line so a lot easier to get to from out East ( when it's running!).
Nothing wrong with PL, I do like the ground in terms of it's size but I don't think the move has done us too many favours to be honest.
First game of this season was good, result notwithstanding, with a crowd of 1500-1700 but crowds have dropped quickly to just a few hundred now. We could all fit in to 2 or 3 blocks of the East stand if the club doesn't want to pay for stewards to keep the whole stand open! - and if we have a cup run we're unable to play there because AFC's teams will want to use the ground, as owners there always going to get first dibs.
I don't see how having to go to RP for cup ties at short notice gives a good impression-although giving up home advantage would be even worse.
Overall I have to agree with your last sentence ' not bad but not good enough to justify the expense'.
