What caused more people to stop supporting City?

[the other bob wilson]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

[qccfc]

What happened was the club lost some loyal support after the rebrand, the people who had been coming for years and would put up with pretty much anything.

However at that time the club was successful. There we plenty of people local to me who bought season tickets for the premier league to take their kids. They were never interested in watching football before. At that time it looked like the rebrand was having no effect because the stadium was full.

However the people who bought tickets for the premier league, didn't renew after relegation, or wasn't interested in the boring football. The fans who were loyal before the rebrand were also gone, as such it was a double whammy on attendances.

I would say that we lost more fans down to relegation, simply because at that point there was more to lose.

[itkman]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

In the 14 years I've lived in Cardiff crowds have gone from around 9-12k up to 26k and now down to around 14k. The years leading up to the season in the Premier League saw crowds steadily increase as the team performed better. They've fallen off a cliff as performances got worse and the club seemed to be rudderless. I imagine it'd take a sustained period of progress on the pitch, and some exciting players of the like of Chopra & Bothroyd before crowds start to creep up again.

[life on mars]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

Dropping out of the premiership and the glory hunters , expensive world for folk in the recession , success of Wales where I know fans chose to spend on that dream rather than the City , end of the price freeze played a big part, and the difficult and underwhelming Slade and Trollope appointments,poor atmospheres at the new stadium and the red to blue daft idea .

[Baloo]

Dropping out of the premiership and the glory hunters , expensive world for folk in the recession , success of Wales where I know fans chose to spend on that dream rather than the City , end of the price freeze played a big part, and the difficult and underwhelming Slade and Trollope appointments,poor atmospheres at the new stadium and the red to blue daft idea .

[Pedro de la Rosa]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

I think the rebrand destroyed the innocence of the game, you really realised then football clubs didn't give a monkeys about you. The dire football afterwards hasn't helped though, and when you break the habit it's going to take something to come back. Also, our gates are about 15-16k, which is similar to what they were in the Champ at Ninian. I think it's levelling out to an extent, also those that walked away during the rebrand would be the ones that wouldn't pick and chose etc, so losing them has made a difference.

[Alfonso Perez]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

In my view it's relegation by a mile, although I suspect that a fair proportion will never admit it

[Cleve van Leef]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

Relegation and the total incompetence at the Club. If the Club had remained in the PL the rebrand would not have had any impact on attendances.

[stan butler]

I have spoken to hundreds over the years regarding why they don't go anymore or very little.
From what i can make out a large percentage only watched City for a piss up and a bit of aggro.
Quite a few have said
They dont like the CCS
They can't afford to go
Not many said they don't go because the football is poor or the league City are in
And even fewer mentioned the rebrand , Tan or how the clubs run.

[LordKenwyne]

The premier league was an amazing time. Every day we were in national papers when Tan/Mackay went full on watergate. Every weekend we were watching some of the worlds best.

Now I think there is that collective acceptance that what we are watching is really not very good. It is like comparing a Fillet steak to a pack of quavers. I haven't followed cardiff for decades as some have on here and they know how truly bad football can be. But the 2013-2014 hardcore city fans will see it as I just wrote it.

We are in purgatory.

The premier league year is still imprinted on peoples minds and championship football for the majority is quite poor. My favourite game this year was that 3 4 loss to Barnsley. That and the Bristol game.

On the attendances both home and away I think we truly are a family club now and the cult of following us is gone. I don't see it as a drinking occasion as above said, that'll bring loads in. Wales home games people are drinking cans upon cans outside the ground.

What atmospheres at home this year would you be proud of?. Bristol. What else?. Because that brings the punters in more than anything.

[stan butler]

The premier league was an amazing time. Every day we were in national papers when Tan/Mackay went full on watergate. Every weekend we were watching some of the worlds best.

Now I think there is that collective acceptance that what we are watching is really not very good. It is like comparing a Fillet steak to a pack of quavers. I haven't followed cardiff for decades as some have on here and they know how truly bad football can be. But the 2013-2014 hardcore city fans will see it as I just wrote it.

We are in purgatory.

The premier league year is still imprinted on peoples minds and championship football for the majority is quite poor. My favourite game this year was that 3 4 loss to Barnsley. That and the Bristol game.

On the attendances both home and away I think we truly are a family club now and the cult of following us is gone. I don't see it as a drinking occasion as above said, that'll bring loads in. Wales home games people are drinking cans upon cans outside the ground.

What atmospheres at home this year would you be proud of?. Bristol. What else?. Because that brings the punters in more than anything.

Sorry i didnt mean just having a day on the piss i meant getting pissed and aggro.

[LordKenwyne]

Sorry i didnt mean just having a day on the piss i meant getting pissed and aggro.

Ye that is what I meant as well. There is no edge at all to our home games now.

It may be a good thing but really our image is set in stone around the UK. Mention cardiff and most will think you eat babies for breakfast.

Couldn't be further from the truth with how we currently are. I don't know what they get up to away mind.

Crystal Palace let that small section get away with murder because they create the atmosphere that leads to a cult following. Even if they aren't the nicest.

[Charlie]

Though I still go, I haven't got the same passion for it as I once had. And for me it wasn't really the rebrand as I was one of the reluctant reds, I hated the badge more than the shirt colour as at games I still saw the individual players more than just a colour.
I started going down late 70's so I've seen a lot of good and bad in those years but the only constant was wanting to see the City play in the top division against the top teams in the country.
I've now seen that and it was a bit shite.
I always want us to win, but it doesn't hurt as much when we don't anymore, and for me personally i think its because I couldn't really care that much about getting back to the prem.
But, hypocritically I'm looking forward to being involved in a promotion battle next season as I want to see some exciting games, games with something to play for.

[City123]

The general negativity surrounding the club in recent years, the lack of homegrown/local players in the first team, the rebrand, disillusionment with the modern game, seeing that the Premier League isn't all that its cracked up to be, the sanitasation of modern football, the poor football following relegation

Take your pick really

[blue matt]

from the late 80's i have seen crowds rise and fall and fall a little more

look at 93 as a prime example, The eddie may prime years saw us with very tidy crowds ( for Div 4 )

Most football folk as a fickle as they come, yes we lose some Die hards over the rebrand and that era, but that wasnt a massive amount, despite what the " stay-aways " would have you think, but the biggest loss was the glory hunters who only arrived to see us in the EPL, personally i dont miss them one bit

[Arfur Europe]

Though I still go, I haven't got the same passion for it as I once had. And for me it wasn't really the rebrand as I was one of the reluctant reds, I hated the badge more than the shirt colour as at games I still saw the individual players more than just a colour.
I started going down late 70's so I've seen a lot of good and bad in those years but the only constant was wanting to see the City play in the top division against the top teams in the country.
I've now seen that and it was a bit shite.
I always want us to win, but it doesn't hurt as much when we don't anymore, and for me personally i think its because I couldn't really care that much about getting back to the prem.
But, hypocritically I'm looking forward to being involved in a promotion battle next season as I want to see some exciting games, games with something to play for.

There is a huge truth in there and it hit home for me personally when we did finally get to the 'top table'.

All those years I'd dreamt of achieving just that, was completely tempered by the realisation that you were then in danger of going straight back down again. Apart from a few matches, we were cannon fodder.

It's something of a paradox to realise that your lifelong dream and ambition is to become an average to terrible side in a league that is a different universe altogether.

That, along with getting older and wall to wall football coverage tainted it all for me.

My new ambition is simply to have a solvent club called Cardiff City, based in Cardiff, and to have a few local / Welsh players coming through to support.

[Cyclops]

My viewpoint is slightly different. I started watching First Division football in 1953. Loved my football. I began attending CCS the season before promotion. My main reason for going was to enjoy a football match - I had no interest in rebrands - and the shenanigans at the club were nothing when compared with what happened to my home club. I enjoyed the games so much that I got a ST during the promotion season; revelled in the Premiership season (£13 a game! Incredible value and t'riffic standard of football). Saw the writing on the wall and didn't renew my ST, and cherry-picked the games I wanted to see when the best teams came to CCS. Then Warnock arrived, and football livened up, I bought a half-year ST and have renewed for next season. So my main reason by far for my attendance was to watch an acceptable reasonable standard of football at a very reasonable price from a seat in a great position.

[valleys caveman]

For me it was the rebrand. That picture of Cardiff fans all decked out in red scarfs still makes me cringe.
I was the only City fan in my school, and when we were losing to teams on a wet Tuesday night and struggling down the bottom of division four, my plastic mates would all be talking about how Liverpool, Utd and Spurs had all won and how good they were doing in the league and Europe.
I always told them I'd be watching the Bluebirds in the top league soon, in fact it wasn't soon, it was over 30 years later when City finally made it. I never did get to see them in the top league as I just couldn't face giving Tan a penny of my money.
I understand for some people its only a colour, its only a badge etc. For me it wasn't.

[Nick]

The Rebrand? Relegation? The truly awful football we played in our first season back in the Championship (we might have been winning more last season, but the quality of football wasn't much better than it had been a year earlier)? A dislike of "the modern game"?

For me, I'd say the biggest reason for what is a pretty widespread loss of enthusiasm was the first of the reasons I named, but an awful lot of people I talk to say things like "the shit football we played under Slade was the final straw for me", so I might well be wrong.

Relegation and the appointment of some dreadful managers with the team playing awful football. If City were still in the premiership there would be 30,000 plus most weeks if there was a decent team, with a good manager playing good football. Red or blue.

Thankfully we are back in blue now, though.

[life on mars]

I also think a lot of fans never really felt comfortable in the new sterile stadium environment, or the push to the Premiership , they were real old skool terrace culture fans that felt at home in the old Ninian Park and it's crumbling environment that held so much history and memory . I believe it gave comfort ,belonging and a home feeling to those fans that dont really seek or want that not so attractive upper tier of football that is driven by commercial greed .

[splott parker]

It's been a turbulent few years, no doubt, but, personally relegation from the top flight was the best thing that happened to the club in recent years. If we'd have stayed up and had still been there, we'd still be in red, the crowds would have been consistently high, Tan would have insisted he was correct with the rebrand (hard to argue, given that we'd got our feet under the Premiership table), blue would be a distant memory for many but most importantly, for me, somebody else would be sat in my seat. Before the 'Fulham' turnaround I was going through the motions, perhaps, through habit but it wouldn't have continued. South Wales football fans, in fact South Wales sports fans are particularly fickle and I'm convinced that a bit of success will see gates improve and if we do manage another promotion it'll seem proper and us who've stayed through the dire shite pre Warnock would be able to celebrate unreservedly. Let's just hope that those in charge have realised the error of their ways and let the football men run the show.

[jeepster]

It's been a turbulent few years, no doubt, but, personally relegation from the top flight was the best thing that happened to the club in recent years. If we'd have stayed up and had still been there, we'd still be in red, the crowds would have been consistently high, Tan would have insisted he was correct with the rebrand (hard to argue, given that we'd got our feet under the Premiership table), blue would be a distant memory for many but most importantly, for me, somebody else would be sat in my seat. Before the 'Fulham' turnaround I was going through the motions, perhaps, through habit but it wouldn't have continued. South Wales football fans, in fact South Wales sports fans are particularly fickle and I'm convinced that a bit of success will see gates improve and if we do manage another promotion it'll seem proper and us who've stayed through the dire shite pre Warnock would be able to celebrate unreservedly. Let's just hope that those in charge have realised the error of their ways and let the football men run the show.

AMEN to this.

[Nick]

It's been a turbulent few years, no doubt, but, personally relegation from the top flight was the best thing that happened to the club in recent years. If we'd have stayed up and had still been there, we'd still be in red, the crowds would have been consistently high, Tan would have insisted he was correct with the rebrand (hard to argue, given that we'd got our feet under the Premiership table), blue would be a distant memory for many but most importantly, for me, somebody else would be sat in my seat. Before the 'Fulham' turnaround I was going through the motions, perhaps, through habit but it wouldn't have continued. South Wales football fans, in fact South Wales sports fans are particularly fickle and I'm convinced that a bit of success will see gates improve and if we do manage another promotion it'll seem proper and us who've stayed through the dire shite pre Warnock would be able to celebrate unreservedly. Let's just hope that those in charge have realised the error of their ways and let the football men run the show.

Good points, well made. But doesn't address the question raised.

[insider]

I agree with SP, relegation was the best thing that could have happened to the City as Tan was only going to revert his ridiculous decision as soon as the profit column went tits up. A large majority of the lost fans were the recently discovered fans that did n`t have a stomach for relegation and a struggle in the championship.
The Premier league is n`t the be-all and end-all for me I`m happy in the Championship in Blue (albeit I don`t like the red squiggle) just being competitive.
With Neil Warnock I think we will at least be competitive so I`m looking forward to next season already, whether he will bring many fans back is yet to be seen.

[Jordi Culé]

For me the rebrand. Not been back since and won't be until Tan ****s off for good.