If we were winning games week in week out we would get good crowds no matter which league we were in. Raj singh was always going to leave one day so what difference will it make now? Either someone buys us or they dont. That was always going to be the case. Id hazard a guess someone will.

I hope you are spot on, And i,m not.

Lets see.

If only it were that simple…but you could definitely kiss the support goodbye.

The support would disappear like a "rat up a viaduct"

Well Darlo were a numerically better supported club than us in the League, last season they averaged 1400 or so and that's on the back of a few good seasons.
This blind faith that people will go to watch 9th tier football is ridiculous, and without crowds or a sugar daddy owner it'll be a long time in the wilderness from which we probably wouldn't recover.

Logically we do the best we can to hold what we’ve got….to suffer ignominy for years in lower leagues to attempt to get back to where we already are ….defies logic.

Some will, maybe half the current core support. I think a bigger problem is people just assuming the Council would lease the ground to a phoenix club whatever form it takes. There'll have to be a credible business case otherwise Hartlepool council tax payers who don't give the proverbial monkeys about the football club will be up in arms.

Hold em or Fold em

Especially if some acquisitive property developer comes along..remember, mindless retail outlets are the new religion..

Varied views which is understandable.
This time next year all ifs n maybes will come home to roost.

actually that would not bother me as long as i saw decent games and we won more than we lost in a season. last season must surely be one of the worst on even pools record. whats the best, a win against eastleigh or a defeat in the EFL. for those who do not like watching these long time non league opponents do not worry as they will be replaced by other ex league clubs over the years.

Eastleigh will be pipedream, look at tier 9 clubs, bet you've never heard of most of them.
Even in tier 9 you need good platers and a good manager, now who's coming to Pools at that level. Might as well watch schools or pub football.
This belief that relegation means you win more than you lose at a lower level is naivety at its most extreme.

I know our defence is a bit iffy, but getting platers in to block the goal with fabricated steel isn’t the answer.
Sorry, couldn’t help it

since when did any council bother about its tax payers. worse pools are supported the better the club might be to them as they all seem to support minority causes.

Unless you have a few ardent Pools fans on the Council they will never back the club.

one thing i think we have heard more from the club this week than we have all season. are they waking up or worried about losing more fans i wonder.

Wish i had thought of it, Maybe a Bricklayer or 2.

Fans were saying oh if we go in the conference crowds will be 1500. Funny swear were getting 3500 to 5000 crowds. Our support will hold up well no matter what league. The reason darlos support is abysmal is because they play in a terrible ground and they had a few year away from darlo. We are in a totally different position. Even if the worst happens.

There you go blithely assuming any version of Pools will have the Vic to play in. Grayfields might be equally likely.

Darlo never played outside of Darlington, bigger town and historically comparing their attendances to ours in the same division bigger fanbase.
But somehow we'll maintain a bigger amount of the fanbase we currently have and not be evicted from the Vic. There's more chance of he'll freezing over.
How many will pay decent money to see a club we have no affinity to playing against Pickering Town on a cold Tuesday night at The Friarage?
Not me that's for sure, if my team folds I'll find something else to do. Pools are my club and no phoenix club will replace them.

Weird. Darlington is very marginally bigger than Hartlepool. I think HBC would be massively on-side for a phoenix club being based at the Vic. Bury and Macclesfield seem to be doing really well amongst many others. Maybe the residents of their towns just care more.

It’s an option I‘d rather swerve…don’t even want to think about it.

Darlo population is about 18% bigger than Hartlepool so hardly marginal.
If we stayed at the Vic would be entirely at the discretion of the town council, and if we could afford the rent. As a new tenant I would imagine that a new agreement would need to be drawn up andvwho knows what the rent would be, or if we would even have enough money to put the lights on.
What would the budget be, would it be enough to attract tier 9 superstars and suitable manager.
Tier 9 will be our fate if we go tits up, the precedent has been set. May e not as severe if we are bought whilst still in administration.
The risk to going bust far outweighs the status quo.
Dream on, or should that be nightmare.

It really is tricky to imagine the town being in such a situation and like you say, unpleasant to even think about. It must have been so surreal for Macc and Bury supporters to find themselves in a situation where their club is gone and they're being encouraged to back a phoenix club, a situation which had only ever been the stuff of nightmares. BUT a club is about people and heart and soul, it's not about a company register.

Definitely marginal. Darlos attendances were not historically 20% bigger. Its totally far fetched that HBC, always very sympathetic to HUFC rent wise peppercorn) would not be so to a phoenix club. Tier 9? Guesswork. There is plenty of precedent that precedent doesn't really happen. Yep, the club has to be in a really poor situation to consider starting again a good option but your assessment is heavily pessimistic and not analytical.

The club has been disorientated since Uncle Ken sold us to Coxall, even the promotion season was mostly behind closed doors, it’s as though everything that can go wrong does, regardless of intent.
If the worst happens it has to be faced up to, no denying that and it would be a challenge, no denying that either, but I’d rather jump into the Icy sea when there’s no other option.
Tough dilemma, but events outside our control will decide for us.

Times like these remind me its more important to think about what you have in common with fellow poolies than what your differences are.

Thats progress

You have seen who owns Macclesfield.

Tell me a club that has gone out of existence and a phoenix club starting at a higher tier than 9. And since when have those that matter, the FA or Football Leagues ever looked kindly on Hartlepool?
20% is marginal, really so if I owed you £108000 and offered you £92000 to settle you'd be fine cos it's marginal? (Figures chosen are the populations of the 2 towns just for analytical purposes).
There is absolutely no guarantee of a new club playing at the Vic, of a reasonable rent, if a new club could afford to run the club from the Vic, etc etc. I am simply stating possibilities not absolutes. For all we know one of the rugby clubs could do a deal to take over the Vic? Whatever happens to the ground is totally out of a phoenix clubs control.
So not pessimistic at all really, more like the reality if we go down the pan. That's why my preferred option is that there's a takeover soon.

Unless its Kim Jong Un and people only turn up because they'll be shot if they don't then I don't think its relevant.

If you are talking about possibilities then don't start making them sound like probabilities. That's when I start to have problems with what you are saying

So tell me a club that's gone bust and been resurrected as a phoenix club higher than tier 9? The precedent is set and not going to be changed because its the mighty Pools.
Would you wrote off that £16000 as marginal?
Those who want a phoenix club really should look at what's happened to others and accept that it won't be any better for us.

Interview on Tees with the Trust,
Reposted on The HUST thread..

Bored with this now.

Wheres this tier 9 and greyfields shit coming from.
Never had the bigA bfor so will be Northern Premier n still the Vic.
Down with this Negativity.
We Pools United we never be defeated.

Negativity… …you’re actively promoting it now.

darlo, pools and halifax too are really more or less similar sized towns. the annoying thing is you,d lose the population of forest greens nailsworth in all three/ its all about ownership now and not populations, gates and anything else.

It's all about what happens on the pitch really now, we'll be far more attractive to investors and buyers if we're in or around the playoffs.

Darlo never played outside of darlo? What do you call bishop auckland then? Your not factoring in the fact since raj took away pay on the gate our attendances massive rose week in week out, not fiddled like they were for years. If we went down this season we would comfortably pull in 2000 to 2500. Darlo dont seem to be able to pull in more than 1600.

Why all of a sudden would we lose the ground? All very dramatic.

Its scaremongering to justify raj and his great ownership. Hartlepool has one half decent thing going for it. The football club and its fans. Does anyone honestly think no matter what happens, hartlepool council would rather have us on greyfields than victoria park?

Tell you what a few people on here would have a heart attack if we got took over by decent owners and saw the potential this club has. When we struggled at the bottom of the football leagur the same people insisted crwods would be dreadful in the conference. Newsflash they arent? The same people now say if we go any lower the crowds will be dreadful? Newsflash they wont. We will pull in double to darlo in the same league at the vic.

Easy. Even if we had been at the arena we would have got far better crowds than at Bishop Auckland.

Just one example chester preliminary round of the fa cup with chester at home to a team 6th bottom of the conference north, while we cant beat anyone, crowd what was it 2700? that would be very close to the norm, just imagine if we won games on top of that. If your lot played at feethams now our crowds would be very similar, the ground matters, and losing fans playing 10 to 15 miles away is hard to get back.

Actually chester crowd was 3200

Its also a myth darlo get bigger crowds, not sure they have averaged more than us much in the last 20 plus years.

Why go on about organising our funeral when we’re still alive.

Its not me saying were playing on greyfields or going bust.

I have never read on here that Raj's ownership has been described as great.
Who on earth would not welcome better owners and why would better owners bring on heart attacks. More like if we had better owners the heart attacks would occur amongst the crew who would have less to whinge about.
I also can't recall the people who said our crowds would be dreadful if we found ourselves in the Conference. Crowd reduction happens due to a variety of reasons, weather, bad results, bad league position, Saturday before Xmas, holidays, no cash etc and the odd Covid.
I do recall you mentioning crowd reduction in your many rants about Raj though. So even you recognise it can happen.

My take on crowds is generally they turn up when their team is winning and can't be bothered when they're not. There are sometimes exceptions which is why I say generally. You will have noticed that I don't get involved much in predictions of crowds, results etc. If I was any good at it I would make a living at the expense of the bookies.