First of all, would like to say well done to all the Poolies that attended - 5k crowd is exceptional given the debacle of last season.

Though whilst I recognise the Heed are a smaller club - they only managed to bring just over 400 down the A19, which is poor.

Now I appreciate most of them follow the carTOON army or Sunlun but 412 is fucking woeful given the distance, particularly on a Saturday afternoon!

Possibly, but well done to those who did show up and the club will grow again over time, the problem is the ‘considerably richer’ neighbours with their self entitled belief in greatness and a servile local meeeeja.

I say it again theres nothing non league about our support. Foundation s certainly there for an ambitious Consortium takeover for sure.
Must be some rich arabs who can use Pools as a rich toy to play fantasy football with.

UTP.

suppose their turn out was not that bad when you look at it as a percentage of their average home gates. its not fashionable for many non league fans to travel away to watch their team. there is always a premier league club around the corner somewhere to watch on the box.

Agree with what you say but I have to keep trotting out the mantra, you just cant beat being there.

The potential at pools is untapped, with a decent team and a newly refurbished ground we are more than capable of pulling in 7000 crowds.

That's probably true, but a good start would be regularly filling the home sections of the existing ground.

Can't see Hartlepool Council showing any interest in developing the Vic when they've just handed over control of the town's key civic buildings to the Tees Valley Mayor. What's the alternative? Wait till a new rich AND saintly owner appears and allow him to buy the ground?

The ground must never be sold to anyone ever.
Even if we were in the championship i could not see us getting more than 6500 regulars so the ground is big enough.
Owners only want to buy the ground to flog it off in an asset stripping exercise and move us to an industrial estate near Peterlee.
Pools is lucky in that it has no assets (dont mention the players please )
We only need to keep an eye out for another Coxhall.

Imagine the scenario where a new owner appears and wants to buy the ground and gets the big no..like IOR did. Don’t forget we were successful at the time but I never blamed IOR because in all honesty I wouldn’t refurbish something I don’t own, but the Council expects the tenant to yet what exactly is their input financially?
My fear is someone turns up and wants to buy the ground and because of these financially strained times agree to sell,…..or the new owner gets turned down and decides they’ll invest in new Meccano stadium at Graythorp…. Unlikely but stranger things happen at sea.

Whilst I am ever grateful for IOR over the years I got the impression they couldn’t wait to offload Pools first to the two crooked fellas who run off with 2 games takings and ended up being jailed. Coxhall came in running an agency which no one had ever heard of and the rest is history.

with football the way it is now i dread the prospect of new owners coming in. there is as much chance of a coxall mark 2 coming in than our knight in shining fivers. firstly they would see the vic as a great place for property development if they could con the council to sell it. these are smoothed tongues individuals and could not blame anyone being taken in by them. Who would want an A19 arena or a tees road stadium no matter how grand the facilities were. the vic does not need vast fortunes spent on it apart from a new rink end thats got a 40/60 split between home and away fans. as for not owning the vic, well we are in good company with many others including premier league clubs whose grounds are owned by another body instead of the club.

Funny thing is I can’t see who’d want that site……would you want a house there, I know I wouldn’t….it’s just perfect as a football ground, out of the way but close to the centre.

Still losing money - 20 mins to get a pint behind the Mill house stand - surely they can come up with a better system

You'd like to think something like this would be a possible way forward for Pools:

https://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/n ... investors/

Trouble is, there's precious little evidence of 20+ football and community minded investors having the odd £1.5 million to put into a small football club - without even owning it - anywhere in the North-East.

Altrincham is richville. Average price of a house there - £570,000.

There’s the rub, but for the number of investors and the amount of £1.5 m, it works out at £75k each which is achievable..if you have the money that is.
By the way, If I was the chairman I’d be getting my surname changed sharpish…school must have been a nightmare.

One of the Cheshire Loonies...

There isn’t really a solution, try getting staff for a couple of hours work on a Saturday afternoon, what happens to the beer Pools don’t sell from opened barrels, I can’t see the beer sales being a big earner as opened barrels will need to be poured down the drain.

It surely is as simple as getting 20 odd pints pulled & 30 or 40 bottles opened just before half time. One person taking the payment other giving out drinks whist continuing to add more drinks.

I for one wouldn’t want a pint which had been sat there or a bottle already opened, both would be as flat as a f***.

Never understood drinking at half time…. It’s the trip to the bogs that would pee me off…literally.

Unfortunately as we get older, So does bladder control.

Not a problem, had my bladder replaced with a converted self sealing fuel tank off a buccaneer…..