Rochdale forum

[stevedale]

I will bite at the league 2 comment ,please look at the tables .The 1000 comment anywhere is way off mark ,we take a very large amount of our home attendance away especially when games have something riding on it like 977 away at Torquay one year and around 1200 to Morecambe with nothing riding on it.Anyway we will sell the away allocation and hopefully a good game will ensue AND the better team on the day wins .I will watch the game from a beach bar in the sun just like i did the Leeds game a couple of seasons ago.

[Fazered]

I will bite at the league 2 comment ,please look at the tables .The 1000 comment anywhere is way off mark ,we take a very large amount of our home attendance away especially when games have something riding on it like 977 away at Torquay one year and around 1200 to Morecambe with nothing riding on it.Anyway we will sell the away allocation and hopefully a good game will ensue AND the better team on the day wins .I will watch the game from a beach bar in the sun just like i did the Leeds game a couple of seasons ago.

You mean you're not coming to Holker St in sunny Barrow-in-Furness? You don't know what you are missing

[Hadrian]

Clearly stevedale will be watching from the back bar at the Castle House on Walney.

[stevedale]

I will bite at the league 2 comment ,please look at the tables .The 1000 comment anywhere is way off mark ,we take a very large amount of our home attendance away especially when games have something riding on it like 977 away at Torquay one year and around 1200 to Morecambe with nothing riding on it.Anyway we will sell the away allocation and hopefully a good game will ensue AND the better team on the day wins .I will watch the game from a beach bar in the sun just like i did the Leeds game a couple of seasons ago.

You mean you're not coming to Holker St in sunny Barrow-in-Furness? You don't know what you are missing

20.12.2014 v Boston ,poor game and bloody cold ,i know what i am missing.

[stevedale]

Sorry and 15 9.2015 v Lincoln another 1-0 ,Jeez its just as well i wont be there

[Jim_Delsey]

[quote="Jim_Delsey

Not really re allocation, you're a bigger club than us but not that much tbh. It's Rochdale not Manchester. I've been to Spotland a few times and seen the away support at places in League 2 so am a bit dubious about 1000 at Fleetwood or anywhere frankly ...

But to be fair not one of your fans anywhere have tried to Billy Bigtime it. You absolutely strolled past a Carlisle side going well and your manager is as good as anyone in the lower two leagues. Difference is we won't attempt to match your way of playing, which apparently Carlisle did. We will do our own thing, which will give us a punchers chance at home no question.

We are a very badly supported club given our incredible success of the last ten years. However, our away support cannot be called into question and local grounds have, on occasion, given up home areas for us. Be as dubious as you like. bury fawn over our away support. It keeps them going!

Steve mentioned the tremendous following at Torquay but omitted the 900+ who went to Plymouth in circa 2001 to see us fail to make the play-offs.

"It's Rochdale not Manchester" I've never seen that posted anywhere ever! Is it a compliment?

[K-Man]

Barrow once took 7,000 to Sunderland.

[saltcellar]

Barrow once took 7,000 to Sunderland.

On the 2nd January 2010.

[stevedale]

See your club has followings as well ,lets hope 3500 turn out in January to make it a cracking atmosphere.

[Wintergreen]

Hello fellow Lancashire lads, I remember when we used to play Rochdale on a regular basis and they always seemed to be good games, you have done very well to maintain your status and progress as you have. We bought a winger off you in the late 60s called Dave Storf real good player who I think was our club's record signing at the time. Going your way from us in '85 were Vic Halom (manager) and Barry Diamond our goal machine in an NPL winning team, the grass wasn't much greener for them as neither did much at Spotland.

Speaking of grass, I believe you share Spotland with your local rugby team and play on a grass surface; we have a an RL team in town also and a joint venture is often discussed hereabouts. Generally, how is your join up with the Hornets viewed in the community?

[Jim_Delsey]

Hello fellow Lancashire lads, I remember when we used to play Rochdale on a regular basis and they always seemed to be good games, you have done very well to maintain your status and progress as you have. We bought a winger off you in the late 60s called Dave Storf real good player who I think was our club's record signing at the time. Going your way from us in '85 were Vic Halom (manager) and Barry Diamond our goal machine in an NPL winning team, the grass wasn't much greener for them as neither did much at Spotland.

Speaking of grass, I believe you share Spotland with your local rugby team and play on a grass surface; we have a an RL team in town also and a joint venture is often discussed hereabouts. Generally, how is your join up with the Hornets viewed in the community?

The marriage with Hornets has been generally disastrous, but we now own their shares in the ground so they are tenants now. But it has been a 25 year abusive relationship with them rarely paying their way and playing on the pitch when football would be postponed. Over time this destroyed the pitch which now has £50,000 per year spent on it just so football can be played. Until this regular investment, we'd often go weeks without a home game and being the Rochdale groundsman was harder than Stephen Hawkins' homework for many seasons.

Most Dale fans would advise any other football club not to get involved with any other rugby club. It just doesn't work. Ask Stockport.

And Hornets aren't really viewed as anything in the local community. They get around 300 watching them and when they reformed after going bust (writing off a huge debt to us/stadium company in the process) they then reformed dropping Rochdale from their name, ergo they are called just Hornets now.

They then illegally sold their 45% stake in the ground to the RFL, from whom we've negotiated the purchase from plus the council's 10% stake and with it we will over the next 9 years service the £600,000 debt run up by Hornets in the now defunct Stadium Company.

Complete parasites. Above figures are off the top of my head so may be a fraction out.

Barry Diamond still lives in Rochdale. Was a decent player for us - as was Frank Gamble who may have come from your lot under Halom?

[Wintergreen]

Wow - that is some tale from the dale, thanks for that bud; plenty on here (including me) will heed your words if and when similar proposals are mooted again in Barrow.

Yeah the aptly named Gamble did go to Spotland as well from the best footballing side I have seen in our non-league days, we have a good side now but it is based more on power and workrate than flair. Should be a good test for us, I didn't expect anything at Bristol R but we just seem to have found a way to get results.

[Jim_Delsey]

Wow - that is some tale from the dale, thanks for that bud; plenty on here (including me) will heed your words if and when similar proposals are mooted again in Barrow.

Yeah the aptly named Gamble did go to Spotland as well from the best footballing side I have seen in our non-league days, we have a good side now but it is based more on power and workrate than flair. Should be a good test for us, I didn't expect anything at Bristol R but we just seem to have found a way to get results.

Not a problem - happy to help. The problem with rugby people is they think they're superior to football. Hornets used to sneer down their noses at us and call us the AFC as they thought real football was rugby league.

It's something I've noted across the country. Just look at how many football clubs have AFC in their title when they play in a town that has a rugby league team. Likewise you'd be hard pressed to find many traditional AFC's in non rugby league towns.

In my view it is impossible for the two codes to exist in one venue harmoniously.

1. The playing surface needs massive investment or the football club suffer. Rugby play on anything. Nor will they contribute to the required investment as they will say the pitch is fine for them.
2. The rugby club will refuse to go 50-50 on expenses as they will claim they only play, say, 12 games a season whereas the AFC play 23 games.
3. The rugby club will expect half of everything the football club bring in via sponsorship even though the football club's staff have sold the perimeter boards etc on the basis of higher football attendances.
4. In short, the rugby club will be envious of the status of the football club, its attendances, cash-flow, FA Cup glory etc. and will try and prise a piece of the cake for them.

I really don't know Barrow at all - its rugby or football clubs. I don't know past histories or relationships. I don't need to as points 1 - 4 are applicable to every potential rugby/football ground merger.

It's my specialist subject/bugbear as it is with many Dale fans. But if you go down that route you'll be adding a ball and chain to your club forever. There is a reason we were in Division four for a record 36 seasons and Hornets is the main one.

[barrowfan_chris]

Cheers have always been against ground sharing the points you have raised are the exact reasons it should never ever happen.

[barrowaberdeen]

Some intersting words there. We decided to destroy our ground with Speedway at one point!

I wasn't really having a dig at Rochdale's away following, just more thinking that the allocation given was about right. We can all pull out big followings on important days. If it goes to a replay, I'd expect us to take similar I think.