Great post, can't argue with any of that.

The club moved games to Friday night and I had no option , I could not attend games. I fitted in odd games as and when. Last season due to my retirement I can attend matches and I still did not buy a pass, I attended every home game. This season I have not and will not be buying a pass, I will no doubt still go every time I can. In all honesty I have not enjoyed watching the last few years, some games have been painful to watch. We have recruited poorly, in haste and been sold short for years. Now we seem to be heading to the cliff edge and people wonder why, mis-management was rife under the last regime and the birds are still coming home to roost ( Manu).

I have said bad times will return for long enough, every club has these cycles and only if the core base support is strong will teams survive. I think our core base support is now smaller then it has been for years, its been in decline since we left the Boulevard. Too many fans expect too much every week and then find other things to do.

I will always be there, its a way of life but my passion for FC is less then it used to be. I feel distant from these players, management and some of our less then intelligent fans.

Kosh don't start bleating on about if you don't support the club it will fold. You and others spent years giving us the same tripe about Hetherington and her stooge Agar and did it ever fold???

The fact is people have had enough. I bet next year season tickets will be massively down but we'll have a lot more walk ups like myself and my family. I will pick and choose games, if theyre playing well I wont miss many, if theyre playing poorly I wont go to many. This is a result of the clubs false promises, false dawns, lack of team effort, poor coaching etc that's been going on for years and hasn't really changed whilst Pearson has owned us in fact you could argue its got worse under his tenure.

More lately weve had this constant droaning on about how youth will prevail but it will take time. Problem is people have now had enough and Pearson is running out of cash so we may not ever see the fruits of the youth system, again another thing Pearson has got wrong. So despite people rubbishing Rovers they've done it the other way and not really bothered with youth and just bought players in and have achieved basically the same but on a much reduced budget.

Basically this club has been an absolute disaster for years and continues to be so, the last owners were idiots and the current one is exactly the same but in a different way and that there in lies the major problem

I said no such thing. I said that if they hadn't come along we [iwould[/i have folded. I never urged anyone to support the club financially under their tenure, not least because we had healthy crowds and (on paper at least) healthy finances.


To be clear, when you say that people have had enough do you mean that they've had enough of the club existing? Because that's what's on the line here.

Anyone withdrawing financial support when they can afford to continue it needs to ask themselves one simple question - do I care if Hull FC get relegated and/or go bust?

If the answer is no, then by all means walk away. Please don't pretend to be interested in the club's success though. In fact at that point you wouldn't really fall under even the most generous definition of supporter. Which is fine.

If, however, the answer is yes then withdrawing your financial support is at best illogical and at worst intellectually dishonest.

For me there is another factor keeping some fans away and that's the poor standard of match officials. How many times have we walked away from games, sometimes after winning, feeling wound up by the ref. Me and my old man came close to not renewing last year purely for that reason.

I also agree that the KC no longer feels like home. You can't even go to the toilet without being a tigger or tiggeress. I was hoping there was some truth in the rumours circulating earlier this year about us getting our own place. Get Allam to build it in exchange for the KC. It's supposed to be a community stadium, but other than football and rugby (and polo

) it's not used for much else any more. I'd be glad to see the back of it tbh, and I think that's what Allam wants me to feel.

As for Radford, give the guy a break. It was his first year as head coach, and there has been a cultural change at the club. I think it came as a bit of a shock to some players, and took time to get used to. Results toward the end of the season suggest to me this was starting to happen. While 11th looks terrible, it does not tell the whole story. Our points difference would have put us in the 8, which for me says we are not far off. As far as I am concerned, consistency has been one of Hull's problem for quite some time. Last year we were consistent with the exception of our games against Wigan. Consistently losing yes, but by small margins. I believe that our new halves, combined with a group of good players that are more settled into the new culture at FC will translate into more consistently winning these close games.

Time will tell, and there is no doubt next year is a big year for FC, for Radford, and for Pearson. I am looking forward to the new format of superleague. It's not perfect by any means but it has got to be better than franchises and should make things more interesting, which will hopefully translate to more fans through the gates. I have my pass, so I will be there.

I compare it on the basis that the product (on field performance, which doesn't necessarily mean success i.e. trophies) will sustain a client base i.e. fans, the better the performance, the more fans will attend, this will increase further will trophy success. Conversely, poor performance, will result in a reduction and or loss of the client base i.e. fans.

It really isn't significantly different from my business, if we were to perform badly then our clients would look elsewhere, I would have little or no work and the staff would be unemployed, and the business down the #*tter, although I would consider that I would be able to turn things around if it ever got to that stage by removing under performing staff/management.

I wonder if your local pub suddenly started to sell crap beer at an inflated price, would you continue to use it, or would you look elsewhere, leisure is leisure, and leisure business's are still business's

For what it is worth I have been in to the club shop today and bought some sports gear as well as three season passes, that's over £800 in the clubs coffers.

There you go again. Scarmongering to the point that you could be on the clubs payroll. The club has been a joke for years and people can no longer stomach it. IMO people still and will always love this club but can not support it whilst it still rights cheques it simply cant afford to pay. By that I mean Pearson. End of last season in his speech to the nation he said we'd win most games - did we? This season hes already saying he wants top four, now hes saying its gonna take not just this season but the next for efforts to bear fruit almost preparing himself for another poor season of transition. This constant abuse of both the clubs fans wallets and intelligence is making lots and lot just think 'you know what - F()()k off' not just to Pearson but the club as well.

Im giving the club one last chance next season and I hope others do too and hopefully we will se improvements. Just getting into the eight will be an improvement and I expect us to do so. Id also like to see Sneyd settle in and become something the coub can build it self around for years complimented with HTW or Abdull showing SL standard improvements to become club regulars. But most of all I want to see commitment to the shirt from the team AND manager. Do this and everyone will be happy, anything less and the club is finished as it is now only the 5-6000 diehards will be around the season after and the blame for that will lie firmly at Pearsons door and nobody elses

Sure, our own past form has had some effect on attendance, but I also believe that the game of RL has lost its flavour for some (ex) fans. I think that even if we start and get some success on the field, there will be a certain percentage who would never come back.

It may be a bit of a blessing that we have such a tuff start of the season, because we have the opportunity to hit the floor running, and get the results with good performances needed to bring back supporters early in the season.

We also need to rethink how to build up the atmosphere in the stadium. I believe this is so important for the club to get right.

Isn't the sky money going up by around £600k next season?

Good man.

I'll wait until the kit comes out, but I'm expect to get a few items as they look good.

As said still a difference as Hull are part of my life and more to me than just a business I would say my 3rd best day of my life was Cardiff 05.

No it was complete rubbish.

Our average league attendance was 11,072 down from 11,680 in 2013 and down by about 2,700 from 2010 (not by 4,000 as James Smailes said in the Mail).

Even if you factor in the Salford cup game the average was 10,707. I guess he also included the friendly.

Smailes ought to be challenged on these figures and told he's talking rubbish.

.... and SL attendances overall are down 4%.

Could someone define "support" please.

It seems to me that some including Adam seem to think it's simply about sitting in the stands at the KC. Which is fine I guess. But think about it for a moment.

I have been excluded from my passion by Adams desire to entice corporates. (That's my thought and it won't change) because he sees Friday nights as the night for his team. It's impossible for me to have a work family and rugby balance while we play Friday's. So I don't attend matches as I used to. In fact I see the u19s far more than the first team.
I do get to the odd game at Stadium Allam but not many.
In return though I spend a fortune in the shop. 4 kids all with kit. Me with loads of kit all up to date.
The shop turns over millions as far as I know. The head guy was head hunted because it was doing so well.
Now I am one who "stays away" but do I support the club?
I certainly WONT buy a season pass and not use it. No way. I ain't a charity case. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if I was to find I spend more on the club than the average season ticket holder. 5 replica shirt minimum a season will support that theory.

So having read that how do you define someone who supports the club?

For me the issue with Allam is pure and simple. We as fans don't buy beer and food etc in large enough quantity to keep Hull City (sorry) SMC in profit on match days.
Given we could go an entire season with only 13 games at Stadium Allam I would suggest the great philanthropist should be looking at other income streams and not just Adams pockets. Polo won't do it. Squash certainly won't. The odd concert might and maybe even a top flight Union club. But 13 Friday or Thursday night matches of RL will not increase his revenue streams enough to cover his losses.

So are you saying that if everyone stops going the club can survive? Because on the face of it that's a strange position to take.

Actually, it was Pearson last night who stated our actual average crowd was indeed 9662. This was the average number of people 'actually in the ground'.

Which suggested to me that the 'official' attendance figures were perhaps based on the assumption that all passholders were present and the attendance calculated based on that figure plus extra tickets sold plus walk-ups.

I know this has been mooted and challenged before, but last night Pearson's statement seemed to finally put that debate to bed.

And certainly explained some of the more head-scratchingly curious attendances announced, which a quick glance around the stadium often contradicted.

He clearly said the 9662 was the average attendance of people physically in the stadium.

This was where he got the benchmark figure of 9500 from, below which he would not be able to justify the SMC not shutting stands in 2016.

Worrying.

Our attendances have dwindled, but we are still in the top 3-4 highest in SL, the problem is the KC is to big for us, we need our own ground, a smaller ground would create a better atmosphere.

do you know anyone with a spare £20m?

Whilst Kosh may have good intentions with him buying a pass to keep the club afloat it's clear that the fans money has been abused over the past few years £450K paying players off is an embarrassment to be quite honest. Our team is still suffering from poor recruitment of previous years. I'd say this year apart recruitment/retaining of players under Pearson has been the poorest I can remember we have let players slip through our grasp in Manu & Briscoe & signed many a dud in O'Carroll, Arundel, Crookes, Miller, the list simply goes on. We were promised internationals & England knights players. Yet all we did was sign young players on over the top contracts that were hyped up. Tuson was a fine example, I feel he was a steady player. Wigan thought that too which is why he was offered to stay but in the lower tier pay bracket yet ourselves & Wakey were prepared to move him up to the higher banding of pay & here lies the issue he was never gonna be a world beater neither was Pitts or O'Carroll but they came and the club bugged them up. So when these players don't meet the bugged up standards the club the. Throw them to wayside, they can't have expected these to have turned into international standard players within a season or two. We'd have been better served cherry picking from the lower leagues, Whiting, Walmsley, Hardaker & Hill have all shown the step up can be made. Bringing someone in with potential on a small wage isn't so much of a risk.

I started writing a really long dull appraisal of the situation but got a bit bored. My two penneth:

On the club's finances:
Buy a pass or we're fecked. Or do an @airliebird. If we've dropped £600k already and passes are down, regardless of the extra half a million on Sky, we've got shrinking income streams. Not good.
Costs could get out of control. There seems to be permissible variability of contract terms with the SMC. AP's already bankrolling improvements in the academy, fees for Sneyd, EBTs for Manu and a warm weather camp. Can't say he's not doing his bit. Needs backing. Mistakes have obviously been made on recruitment in the past, and a bit more humility and holding up of hands wouldn't go amiss frankly, but we are where we are and need to get on with it.

On the SMC show today, I think it could be bollox. The Council have refuted that anything has gone on outwith terms of the head lease, and the whole thing was in place before the Allams did their acquisition, so should have been covered by their due diligence. As for the accounts, wowzers. The direct costs attributable to Hull FC have reportedly gone up from £200k in 2010 to £1.2m last year, on lower crowds. The direct costs of City, with total attendances around 200% more than ours are £1.8m, just 50% more. Amazing stuff.

Some good points you've made, some signings can be made to look good because of the club they have come from, some are risks that have or haven't paid off, but it's about learning from mistakes which we as a club never seem to do, maybe with the halfback situation the signings have been panic buys, but it's about who is available at the right time with a small budget to work with.

Some fair points

I posted mid season when the 3 league split thing was launched how in 2015 we'll be looking at 7k gates and Batley visiting. As usual was shot down in flames.

Moving to the season end now, with the 2 relegated trams gone we are second bottom. In the pic form the pre season opening talk by AP and LR at Chants Av with a slide show to the players, the slide on the pics said "season aim, the super 8"

Do you think all this attendance talk is some kind of realisation that if we dont make the 8, we WILL see gates of 7K with the likes of Batley Sheffield Whitehaven in town, threats from the SMC, threats from Pearson about falling gates, we are closer to those gates falling, maybe giving the SMC and AP an excuse to follow their threats through.

Of course its all bawlicks as we will be in the top 4 and unbeaten at home all year.

It is scaremongering to state that if the stay away fans don't come back the club will fold.

The club won't fold, it's been in far worse positions before and it's still going.
Pearson's finding out the hard way that there's no money to be made in RL. it's alright moaning about 'off cap' salary expenses, but apart from the Manu situation (which AP knew about) they've all been of Pearsons doing, he signed the deals off. Our attendance hasn't fallen out of line with the rest of SL, so they're not Hull FC stay aways, they're RL stay aways.

Pearson spent the first 2 years of his tenure promising this, that and the other. Now he's publicly saying the club faces financial difficulties. Doesn't sound dissimilar to Hudgell really.