Jon Blakely's Canadian Chronicles
Tuesday 19 February, 2002
Half a Season, Sir?
Recent years down at VP have been interesting to say the least. It has been Boys to Men and Back again (I think I'm quoting some 'Boy Band' there).
What really shocks me is that despite the paying Bradford public shelling out large amounts of cash for season tickets and game day tickets, 3 out of the last 5 seasons they have had it decided by one man, and one man alone that they are only going to get 3 quarters of a season of effort.
Now I'm not talking about effort as far as the players are concerned, but effort as far as Bradford City Football Club as a company.
Just about 6 months into this season, last season and the season in which Chris Kamara was told to 'get his coat', Bratfud City have put out the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the bedroom door.
Mr Richmond (with the apparent agreement of his Team Managers) has told the City fans that the football club is making no efforts to better themselves for the rest of that season. The club will drift and costs will be cut where ever they can be.
The analogy would be that half way through a financial year, the company (A big retailer) I work for see that they are not going to reach the expected targets, so all the best people leave, a couple of contractors come in to hold the fort, and where necessary, close a few shops down because 'we just don't see any reason to keep them open'. Customer Service is awful as a result.
Our paying customers would not put up with that, and guess what would happen, they would drift away, maybe taking their family with them to shop elsewhere, where all round effort is lasting and investment in the shops is obvious, and hey you never know a few extra new shops might just help getting very near the results and better still make it a lot easier next year.
So, City shut down six months into the season again. Can I ask whether any Season Ticket holder has had money returned because of this? Or did you just pay for six months and got the extra 3 (no matter how poor) for free?
If City had entered the Stock Market, as Richmond claimed that he tried to do, this situation wouldn't arise, why? Because Share Holders don't accept this kind of 'shutdown'. City fans are staying home now this season, because they have been told, they have been shown, that the season is over. The club don't expect relegation, they are not trying for promotion, the exciting players are gone. Why bother! Mr Richmond has 'said'.
But unlike that season where rookie Paul Jewell took over as caretaker, and won the job after another inane performance at Crewe, Relegation is a real threat this season, and unlike Manchester City who did Premiership to Division Two in successive seasons, City do not have 30,000 mad fans to just call on to pay up for a Promotion fight.
Mr Richmond has said that the club is already over budget for next season, so where is the cash coming from for the expected push? Who knows.
All I know is that for a large percentage of Mr Richmond's time here in Bradford, he has called time on a few too many seasons for my liking.
The last time we made the push, as Mr Richmond has stated before, the time was right, a lot of clubs where really struggling to stay alive that season. Oxford United, Bristol City, Port Vale, Bury. But next year, Who's gonna come down from the Premiership? Clubs with big fan bases who can fund themselves like Manchester City. Blackburn Rovers? Leicester City? Derby County? Everton? Then we will still be left with Birmingham City, West Brom, Coventry, Watford, Burnley and Preston, none are in the state we are in.
Next season the time isn't right and Mr Richmond will see any investment in the team as wasted effort, so who knows he may call 'time' on next season In August, that would set him a new record, unless of course he has al ready called 'time' on it.
Until next time.