Been a lot of talk in recent years about the beneficial aspects of having the Olympics so close to our stadium, but i'm currently finding it hard at the moment to think of a single one.
What i can see though is the negative impact it may present to us long-term.
Lets be clear about this, one way or another a Premiership football club is going to be moving to within five miles of our front door with a 60k stadium to fill. Both clubs already have small aspects of their support south of the river, and Greenwich and Bexley boroughs will be their prime hits to gain additional support from outside of their traditional areas.
On the other side of us, Palace are potentially going to be moving back into Bromley and have seemingly been going through a very public excercise over the past six months to engage with supporters, rebrand and try and drive their identity in their key local catchment areas.
And Millwall will always be Millwall, and attract all the little oiks from the area because it is cool to support them. What they are doing now though with a run of a few years of no real headline incidents is widening it out to a softer crowd, as witnessed by my next door neighbour (who doesn't support a team) taking his 10yr old girl to the Den on Saturday for their 2nd game in the row because they went the game before with a group of local dads and kids and his little girl enjoyed it. Those type of floating dads traditionally always took their kids to The Valley, not the Den.
If there is one thing out of this whole takeover thing that i hope is being addressed its aside from what happens on the football pitch, and what can be done to try and cement the club greater in the local areas, because despite all our fantastic community schemes we have led on in the past 20 years and a decent Premiership spell, its still not carved out anything what you would class as a 'Charlton area' and the competition is about to get a whole lot tougher.
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If Spurs move there, with Champions league football being played too then i dread it.As the gloryhunters will flock away from South London.
Hopefully the spurs board stay put.
If we move back to the Prem, then we can get the funds to run more schemes locally and interest more local fans.
If West Ham take over there with the atheletics track in situ it will be a terrible place to watch football. The Spurs board are desperate to move, lots of politicking going on at the moment.
upton park is 3.2 driving miles away already,if they move into the olympic stadium,i think that it's just slightly further away from us. and they are probably going down.
the olympics are in summer 2012, not sure when it would be ready to deliver football. maybe season 2013/14 by which time we'll be in the prem ourselves anyway.
Bit gutted that I have to enroll my daughter for Arsenal football at her school in Blackfen/Sidcup though, cos Charlton don't do a scheme
: (
I can't see a big issue to be honest. Should you get back to the championship your crowds will increase with Charlton fans. Meanwhile Tottenham will sell to traditional spurs fans, haven't they got a fairly long waiting list for season tickets?
& good to hear your next door neighbour isn't swayed by the negative stereotypes portrayed by the media and other fans...she'll be swearing like a little trooper in no time!
I believe Palace want to redevelop the national athletics centre into a football stadium WITHOUT a running track? Meaning the running track has to be kept at Stratford.
Palace's new board seem to be saying the right things but are way behind what Charlton are doing and have already lost Bromley Borough to Charlton. It is CAFC, via the trust, who are in the schools and working with the local council. They made it very easy for us but now they have woken up yes they will make it harder.
Easy to forget just how far ahead we are in that game.
Millwall are having a spell in the sun. While they are on the up it's fun. And the Valley has been a depressing place in recent times. Not that great on the pitch and an edgy, tense and waiting for it to go wrong feeling in the stands. The wheel will turn again soon and the Powell factor could be part of that. It will be interesting to see what impact having a young, London born Black manager has on our profile. And how much of an increase have Millwall seen in attendances? Gone up but discounting more away fans by how much?
And Varney is back. Easy to forget just how much he did and how dynamic he was/is in building relationships and making use of long term initiatives to push the club forward. A lot of clubs try to copy us but don't realise the time and infrastructure that is needed.
But you know what is missing from what we had in the 90s when we were moving forward? Ground? no, got that. Ambitious board? no, got one of them. Young, focused, keen manager? No, he's in place.
What we haven't got is an active fan base? Finally there are signs that might be changing in the outer reaches of Kent but where are the ideas and the involvement. The Club asked for help raising money to fund things like tracksuits and mini-buses for the academy (and no, the new board aren't going to throw more money at it so it's still needed) but was there a surge of interest? hardly a trickle. New Scoreboard? People keep asking if we can have one but no one wants to start doing something about it.
We can sit and accept it or when can try to change it
I mean that a potential 'big club' with access to a 60k iconic stadium will be on our doorstep and what potential impact that may have.
When moving in there will be a huge drive to increase their support and tap into previously untapped catchment areas, with resources that us (and you) cannot compete with. I'm not talking about the here and now, i'm talking about the impact in 5, 10, 20 years as the South East area of London is the one area with no true single club allegiance areas so is already fragmented.
I'm a bit miffed about this need for a huge drive to increase their support? They are already a big club with decent sized crowds and a large season ticket following.
Is there a need for a huge marketing campaign, free tickets in schools, etc to SE London & N Kent residents?
They may not always sell out but I'd imagine they'd top that up with fans from North London, East London and Essex who want to watch premiership football.
I'm guessing you're looking at the impact it may have if you were to reach the premiership again and be there long term and want to increase capacity etc?
And anyone in Greenwich, Deptford, Lewisham, Bermonndsey, Rotherhithe or Woolwich can reach Stratford in about 20 mins using the DLR or Jubilee line.
Yes. The long-term goal of all mid-size premiership club is to take that up a level to the 'super club' stage to rival Man U. Part of that is winning things, part of that is increasing stadia to 60k+ levels and part of that is driving your brand successfully out to as many untapped areas as you can.
On the last point, that focus has been in recent years globally, but if an opportunity presents itself closer to home to throw a bit of resource at a previously untapped area for them, then they will, particularly Spurs. Doesn't matter that they would already be sell the 60k stadium, it will be driven by raising brand awareness etc.
what would happen, if they establish themselves as top four side though, would be they would be very attractive to younger impressionable kids who see them on the telly and in the papers and want to support a glamourous side with big name players - especially if we are still languishing in League One or fighting relegation in the Championship
another thing that makes a return to the top half of the Championship imperative
Secondly, I agree with Len in that this is all posturing and aimed at smoothing the way for the redevelopment of WHL.
But that's always happened.
Kids all supported Liverpool, then it moved onto United, then in recent years you see more kids with Chelsea shirts.
Surely if Tottenham were to become this mega club, winning titles etc then all that would happen is young impressionable kids whose fathers/uncles/brothers/friends don't take them to The Valley or The Den or Selhurst or wherever, will ask for a spurs shirt for Christmas rather than the Liverpool shirt kids asked for in the 80's United shirt in the 90's, Chelsea/United in 00's etc?
I can see AFKA's point about the drive to increase merchandise sales, more brand awareness, in SE London though.
Can't see it ever really affecting us. You're a different case as you have bigger aspirations than we do (or more deluded than us, depends on your viewpoint). If you see yourselves as getting to the premiership, establishing yourselves etc then yes, Spurs moving to there will provide another option for tickets. But considering your tickets were good value then you'll still regularly sell out for big games etc. If, as AFKA says, you're thinking even longer term about becoming a top 6 club, then can someone tell me where AFKA gets his gear from please, I want some.
Doesn't that already happen every morning during the rush hour?
I think most what I would call "proper" fans support clubs like us/ Millwall for reasons whether it be family links, locality or any of the other reasons as displayed on the recent "Why Charlton" thread. . Most adults if they are ever going to be into football are so now. And whilst a few may have their heads turned by a new sparkling arena i doubt many will change alleigances or embark on their first one on the basis of a new ground moving a few miles closer.
With lots of people living in SE and East London being immigrants (from either abroad or outside of the london area) most of them who had any interest in the game will probably already have an affinity with a club. Eg someone from Yorkshire moving to Greenwich wont change their Leeds support and a guy from Poland or Nigeria may "support" Chelsea or Arsenal as they would be exposed to them in their home countries and attracted to their success and high profile. The latter however would probably follow these teams whilst nursing a coke in a pub as they may be priced out or unable to get tickets at SB or The Emirates or brand spanking new ground in Stratford and if they fancy watching live football may opt for the cheaper more available kind offered sarf of the river (which happens to a degree now anyway.)
Whilst I dont see any benefit of the new OS for Charlton other than a quicker train journey to play away there I also dont think we will be adversley effected and certainly not as materially or perceptibly as when the plastics melted post premiership.
The Jubilee line and DLR Lewisham extension weakened that barrier 10 years ago. There's now high-speed rail from Northfleet, Gravesend and the Medways to Stratford.
Next month there'll be direct DLR trains from Woolwich Arsenal to the Olympic Stadium's front door.
Later this year, Westfield will open Stratford City - *then* you'll find out just how low a barrier the Thames has become, when Christmas shopping time comes.
And political pressure's always there for a new road crossing across the Thames (which could include other transport links).
East London is getting closer - which means whoever moves into the Olympic Stadium *will* be a threat.
I said that is the long-term goal of a number of mid-size Premiership clubs.
If the the league table you are currently looking at has Charlton in that position, then i suggest you haven't deleted your cookies and preshed refresh since 1948 !
It is a massive fallacy to assume that all fans following the top London teams are not 'Proper fans' or are 'plastic' (whatever that term means). A very significant proportion of the fan base for these teams are fans for exactly the same many and varied reasons people have stated why they follow Charlton in the 'Why Charlton thread' on here.
I was talking about those who followed clubs like Charlton before the prem (or are still here after it) and those who follow Millwall for reasons other than becuase of the reputation and the imaginary status they get for it.
Sorry. Yes re-reading your post I think I mis-understood what you wrote. I thought you meant most proper fans support clubs like Millwall and Charlton! Implying that proper fans don't support the bigger teams.
Personally I think the real battle is between the three southeast London clubs, I just hope we remain (arguably) the club to take most advantage of that, and regain our status quickly to continue the good work.
I'm not really sure the influx will be clubless, but they might be soft glory boys for lack of local alterative and ripe for pickings, where did our 'extra' fans come from after all?