Quote Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY View Post
That's another deluded pal for you then

Our crowds when we got to the championship were a huge let down

Dave Jones talked about it the press and its one of the few things he was right about
By the time Jones left we'd added 10k to our attendance. It was always going to take time to build up crowds after nearly 2 decades of shit. The new stadium helped with that, as did (in the end) regular promotion pushes.

Did you expect to see Ninian Park full because we were promoted to the second tier? Nothing in our history suggested that would happen.

In our first 5 seasons in the Championship we had a relegation battle, Black Friday, sales of cult heroes in Gabbidon, Kavanagh, Earnshaw, and mostly crap football. We had a fantastic 3 months to open the 2006/07 season before the worst end to a season in our history. We lost 2k in our average attendance the following season and that would have been more had we not had the run to the FA cup final. Once we started competing around the top of the table, crowds improved.

Historically, our crowds have never improved by much after promotion from the third tier. Since the 70s, we've been relegated three times to the third tier. On 2 of those occasions our crowds went up. That's why I wouldn't expect a mass exodus if we ever did go down.

The big crowd puller is the Premier League and promotion attempts. And do you know what? We're no different from any other club who have had relatively little time in the top division. You keep avoiding the fact that those teams with the most loyal crowds are invariably those with the longest histories in the top flight.

You might call them Johnny Come Latelys but we need them. A decade in the top flight and they bring more friends and family. We convert them to the religion of Cardiff City. We grow a fan base. We won't playing in the bottom half of the Championship. That's a fact. Hardly any clubs would