Only 3 games at Bramall Lane this season,All the rest at Don Valley,Very Disapointing,So the TBC turned into the DVS.

Woooooo only 10 minute drive for me instead of 25.





In all seriousness what's the point in having 3 games at Bramall Lane, might as well just admit defeat and play them all at DVS.

Very disappointing from an away fans point of view - is it just a one off for pitch work or does a permanent return to DVS look more likely?

SUFC didnt get a world cup game and lost interest IMO,Millers moving into there "NEW YORK stadium" and Eagles coming back,Crowds are going to get lower,especially most matches being friday night,Cant see a chance of them being good enough for next franchise,Tim Bergin should be given the freedom of sheffield if he increases crowds,Many have tried and nearly all have failed,Not the Eagles fault but it's a big step backwards,Shame really if a concerted effort at the start of the Bramall Lane campaign would have been made then who knows,If we couldnt get crowds at Bramall Lane i don't see how were going to get them at Don Valley,Sorry for the gloom but i dont see it any other way.

Jeez - New York is a hell of an away trip.

A small part of me thinks it serves us right for ever even trying to form a working relationship with Sheffield United. More chance of Sepp Blatter winning Sports Personality of the Year.

I feel like I should probably elaborate as I just sound like a bitter Wednesday fan



Football clubs are businesses first and football clubs second, and have been for some years. Sheffield United (and to be fair, the same could probably be said of most football clubs if we were their tenants) don't care about Sheffield Eagles. They saw us as a vehicle for revenue, with Challenge Cup semi finals or World Cup games or whatever else. I suspect we always knew it was a risk but eventually concluded it was one worth taking. In hindsight maybe we were wrong, although I suppose there was no harm in trying rather than just sitting at Don Valley twiddling our thumbs for another couple of years.

We did the hard part getting in there,Did we relax and expect the crowds just to flock in,The question is,Did we do enough to encourage the crowds in? If the answer is yes then it doesnt matter if we play on the moon,Crowds won't increase,No super league.Anyone for south yorkshire eagles?





(Joke)

What about the lottery - is that still part of SUFCs?

I understand the Eagles made savings in admin costs by merging it but is it better to claw it back now?

Apart from few hundred diehard fans, Sheffield doesn't want to know us so I don't think it matters where we play, we still won't get decent crowds.

No.

You may be right but it's no good just accepting that or we'll still be treading water in 20 years time.

Is that to both?

Are we geeting a good deal then?

Someone needs to convince me

True enough but we have probably been saying this since the club reformed and we are in crowd terms no better off. In playing terms last season was one of our best ever but our smallest gate of the season (I think) was against Widnes in the play offs, we took 1 coach load to Leigh. I don't know how many we took to Warrington as I went by car but there were at least 15 Featherstone coaches that I counted.

We know the problem - apathy but how we overcome this I don't know. Until we do then we will continue to tread water, which is at least better than drowning

BTW I do not mean apathy on the part of the club - far from it, I mean apathy from Sheffield as a whole.

Would love to see the attendance stats from the top divison when we were there,Im sure we regulary got above 3k which is miles away at the minute,Like greybeard says weve been banging on about crowds for years,There comes a time when your head hurts and you cant take it nomore.

Our gates are half what they were in 1991/92, when we had a season in the 8 team Div 2.

Our lottery struggled along on 1200 members, paying a quid apiece a week.

SUSA offer weekly prizes of £2000, £250 , three of £100 and more £10 consolations than I can be bothered to count. Then there's a Mega Prize Draw of £5000 every so often plus consolations of £1000, Several at £250, 80 at £10 and thirty bonus prizes (whatever they are).

We were offering £100 for five days.

How many would we claw back if we set up a rival lottery ?

And that's not even thinking about the costs of running it. Collecting a quid off 1200 people and logging it all into the computer is a lot of work.

I like Don Valley. For me, the running track is the only negative. Plenty of positives.

This is probably the reason for lack of games at Bramall Lane.


The club are aware of the state of the pitch and are laying a new 75k pitch at the end of the season.
Its going to be one of the new semi-synthetic ones that have a plastic blade of grass for every 10 real ones.
Apparently the synthetic grass blades have roots which go 18 inches below the pitch so its going to be a Big job to install.

Suppose you need a perfect surface when you play like Brazil.

RL doesn't even tear up the pitch.

It's not just the running track at DVS it's the track and the long jump pit which adds even more distance between fans and pitch.

Anyway after the Olympics DVS can forget about any big athletics meetings so the running track can be dug up and the pitch can be moved right up to the stand. The far side can be sold to a supermarket chain which will pay for the work.

The club and fans can buy the Cocked Hat and run it as a co-operative with some decent ale and snap on on match days. Maybe even some cider for HL and ESO.

BUT - there is a new chippy/restaurant on the site of the old Omega sauna. For anyone who doesn't know where that is ask Dr B. Maybe that will be open on Friday nights for a pre-match snack.
Are there any players from Hull that could be sponsored by the chippy as the Zeenat did for Saqib Murtza?


Seriously like it or lump it that's where we'll be for most of 2012 at least.

Airborne for President

I presume Dr B will have known it as a sauna rather than a chippy!!!!

Ive no idea what you mean