Pilley and Haythornthwaite

I'm guessing both owners have enough money to keep their assets as a going concern.

I think the good news for them is they know their average home attendances isn't going to move very much really unless they plummet down the leagues which might happen I suppose. So setting a budget is fairly easy.

Certainly FTFC will benefit from some decent away followings visiting next season (Covid permitting) and can easily see them having sell outs of they give over ⅔ of the ground etc.

Oh the wider point, they can do whatever they want with their own money and football is all about dreaming of promotion; I think though, it's a far harder proposition now and the days of multi-scarfers are limited.

I hope they both fail for all the obvious reasons of only having one league team on the Fylde Coast but that's got nothing to do with the owners.
There was a list of Fyldes average attendances for each season online. Unfortunately I can't find it now. There did appear to be though a direct correlation between the protest years at BFC and a rise in Fyldes attendances, but then a decrease, even with being in the National League, which as I remember, though I could also be wrong, tied in with the end of the Oyston era and the beginning of the fans return to Bloomfield Road.

I can't really see them getting an increase again or the building of a 4th stand.
 
My understanding that Pilley, on occasions, has pissed quite a lot of people off at Fleetwood as he has always made it clear he supports Blackpool.
 
Well AP will be counting his dosh after this weekends England v Croatia game that’s for sure and the rest of the Euro’s.
“Pool Foot would like to announce a sell out for Sunday’s game between England and Croatia, no one will be admitted on spec if you turn up on the day”
“The club would also like to point out tables are booking up fast for the Scotland game and few remain”
“FTFC would like to stress that bookings only are accepted for all England games”😮
 
Well AP will be counting his dosh after this weekends England v Croatia game that’s for sure and the rest of the Euro’s.
“Pool Foot would like to announce a sell out for Sunday’s game between England and Croatia, no one will be admitted on spec if you turn up on the day”
“The club would also like to point out tables are booking up fast for the Scotland game and few remain”
“FTFC would like to stress that bookings only are accepted for all England games”😮
Yes I’m sure England’s forthcoming Euro campaign will go a long way to wiping out the £6m annual loss 👍
 
Makes me chuckle that the Fylde owner has a painting of Bloomfield Rd (outside the old Spion kop) proudly on display within his Lego stand.

A pointless club with no soul or identity.

Haythornthwaite has always been a fan of Blackpool. Why do you think he let us train at Mill Farm free of charge? And why do you think he let Brett have his testimonial there? Seems to me that anyone who spends £15m of his own money to set up a football club and massive community facility deserves a lot of praise.
 
Haythornthwaite has always been a fan of Blackpool. Why do you think he let us train at Mill Farm free of charge? And why do you think he let Brett have his testimonial there? Seems to me that anyone who spends £15m of his own money to set up a football club and massive community facility deserves a lot of praise.
Call me old-fashioned, but a man who has "always been a fan of Blackpool" has a funny way of showing it if he then spunks £15m on another club.
 
Haythornthwaite has always been a fan of Blackpool. Why do you think he let us train at Mill Farm free of charge? And why do you think he let Brett have his testimonial there? Seems to me that anyone who spends £15m of his own money to set up a football club and massive community facility deserves a lot of praise.
The testimonial also helped promote the new stadium to potential new customers with a much larger crowd than normal. And what coppiceman said too.
 
Call me old-fashioned, but a man who has "always been a fan of Blackpool" has a funny way of showing it if he then spunks £15m on another club.

Why? What do you think he should do, buy 50,000 BFC season tickets?

The testimonial also helped promote the new stadium to potential new customers with a much larger crowd than normal. And what coppiceman said too.
Right, so he let Brett have his testimonial there to promote Fylde's stadium? Who was he promoting it to, Blackpool fans?
 
Why? What do you think he should do, buy 50,000 BFC season tickets?


Right, so he let Brett have his testimonial there to promote Fylde's stadium? Who was he promoting it to, Blackpool fans?
You sound like a member of his family.

What do I think he should do? Not pour millions of quid into a neighbouring club would be a good start.
 
You sound like a member of his family.

What do I think he should do? Not pour millions of quid into a neighbouring club would be a good start.

OK I get it. You're worried about DH pumping money into Fylde because you think it's a rival club.
 
Right, so he let Brett have his testimonial there to promote Fylde's stadium? Who was he promoting it to, Blackpool fans?
[/QUOTE]
Err that's not what I said. Nice bit of putting words into other people's mouths. Where did I say that DH let the testimonial go ahead there solely to promote the stadium? It certainly did promote the stadium, and it absolutely will have helped DH.

And yes to disaffected Blackpool fans who were boycotting BFC, because that is what happened, which isn't a criticism it is fact that some started going there to get their football fix. Again that isn't a criticism of those fans, just fact.
 
Tangojoe said:

Right, so he let Brett have his testimonial there to promote Fylde's stadium? Who was he promoting it to, Blackpool fans?

Err that's not what I said. Nice bit of putting words into other people's mouths. Where did I say that DH let the testimonial go ahead there solely to promote the stadium? It certainly did promote the stadium, and it absolutely will have helped DH.

The testimonial also helped promote the new stadium to potential new customers with a much larger crowd than normal.

That's where you said it.
 
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If Blackburn can co exist with Accy,we can co exist with the Cod's. We're so much bigger than them. I don't know why people get worked up about them
 
TangoJo is right. Haythornthwaite is blackpool through and through. Some people might remember he twice made offers for bfc but oystains wouldn't sell.
Call me an old fart but when I were a lad fleetwood boys were all blackpool fans. Cods didn't exist. Shows how far we've fallen.
 
If Blackburn can co exist with Accy,we can co exist with the Cod's. We're so much bigger than them. I don't know why people get worked up about them
Totally agree 53. 👍

We should be talking about up coming games with the Nobbers, Blackburn, Sheff Utd, WBA, etc but instead people just can’t stop talking about the Cods and the Coasters or their respective owners.

FFS they’ll even be a certain poster on here who will be telling us all about their results and poor crowds next season when we already know but rather strangely never comments on Blackpool fc results. 🤔

Time we put a record on methinks.
 
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Well AP will be counting his dosh after this weekends England v Croatia game that’s for sure and the rest of the Euro’s.
“Pool Foot would like to announce a sell out for Sunday’s game between England and Croatia, no one will be admitted on spec if you turn up on the day”
“The club would also like to point out tables are booking up fast for the Scotland game and few remain”
“FTFC would like to stress that bookings only are accepted for all England games”😮
Desperado. Why not just run a pub 😁
 
If Blackburn can co exist with Accy,we can co exist with the Cod's. We're so much bigger than them. I don't know why people get worked up about them
Surely in the context of this discussion though the situation with Blackburn and Accrington is completely different?

I mean for starters, there's only one Accrington and here we are talking about two Clubs (AFC Fylde and Fleetwood). Also Accrington is not being heavily bankrolled like both these local 'rival' Clubs by supposed Blackburn Fans.

So despite the protestations of some, it's quite a unique and interesting situation that merits some discussion and local interest.

Incidentally the fact we can Co-Exist with both these local Clubs (in the same way Blackburn apparently Co-Exist with Accy) that doesn't mean that is necessarily in the best interest of our Club or for the prospects of a succesful Club in the area. In fact, if anything Blackburn is another case in point, that potentially too many Clubs in our region has hampered Crowd numbers and the financial prowess of individual clubs...
 
Surely in the context of this discussion though the situation with Blackburn and Accrington is completely different?

I mean for starters, there's only one Accrington and here we are talking about two Clubs (AFC Fylde and Fleetwood). Also Accrington is not being heavily bankrolled like both these local 'rival' Clubs by supposed Blackburn Fans.

So despite the protestations of some, it's quite a unique and interesting situation that merits some discussion and local interest.

Incidentally the fact we can Co-Exist with both these local Clubs (in the same way Blackburn apparently Co-Exist with Accy) that doesn't mean that is necessarily in the best interest of our Club or for the prospects of a succesful Club in the area. In fact, if anything Blackburn is another case in point, that potentially too many Clubs in our region has hampered Crowd numbers and the financial prowess of individual clubs...
Discussion is grand. I just don't understand why we're emotive about it now we've got out the league with them in it. Fleetwood have,at best, a long term future as Accy or Morecambe as Pilley seems to be drawing back on the funding and even if he's going to go again, he's really going to struggle to establish them long term - Fylde are in tier 6 last time I checked and where they are probably take as many lapsed PNE fans as they do ours.

We're on a high, I'd guess our crowds will (covid allowing) equal or or surpass those of the last time we stepped up to the championship when neither club was a serious thing.

Perhaps Burnley and Colne Dynamos is a better example of an upstart neighbour...

There's always a non league club somewhere that wants to make a go of it, always someone with ambitions to run a football club. They usually run out of money or get bored in the end because it's really hard to create even a proper Div 3/4 fanbase from nothing and now our travails are over, that will impact their prospects of further growth a lot.

They've more to fear from us than we them is my honest opinion.
 
Discussion is grand. I just don't understand why we're emotive about it now we've got out the league with them in it. Fleetwood have,at best, a long term future as Accy or Morecambe as Pilley seems to be drawing back on the funding and even if he's going to go again, he's really going to struggle to establish them long term - Fylde are in tier 6 last time I checked and where they are probably take as many lapsed PNE fans as they do ours.

We're on a high, I'd guess our crowds will (covid allowing) equal or or surpass those of the last time we stepped up to the championship when neither club was a serious thing.

Perhaps Burnley and Colne Dynamos is a better example of an upstart neighbour...

There's always a non league club somewhere that wants to make a go of it, always someone with ambitions to run a football club. They usually run out of money or get bored in the end because it's really hard to create even a proper Div 3/4 fanbase from nothing and now our travails are over, that will impact their prospects of further growth a lot.

They've more to fear from us than we them is my honest opinion.
There's a lot of history wrapped up the whole FTFC debate on here in particular. In fact there's a lot of history wrapped up in Blackpool and Fleetwood the Towns and especially many of the rivalries we have experienced playing local football ourselves. So I think there's always going to be a certain amount of resentment towards the "Two- Scarves" types who say they support BFC, but then have put regular cash into the Fleetwood coffers.

I understand what you are saying about there always being local clubs and that Fylde are in Tier 6, but that doesn't mean we can afford to be complacent about them as 'rivals' and I don't mean 'rivals' in terms of seriously representing a threat to Blackpool or ever challenging us as equals, but rather in terms of a competing business (essentially feeding off the same pool of fans).

You are right that we have nothing to fear and (at least on the face of it) we probably have the best owner out of the available options in any case. Of course, in an ideal world, they might have pooled their resources, but too many cooks, too many ego's...It would never work out in any case.
 
TangoJo is right. Haythornthwaite is blackpool through and through. Some people might remember he twice made offers for bfc but oystains wouldn't sell.
Call me an old fart but when I were a lad fleetwood boys were all blackpool fans. Cods didn't exist. Shows how far we've fallen.
What Division were we in when you were young?

We've plummeted as far as the Championship.
 
There's a lot of history wrapped up the whole FTFC debate on here in particular. In fact there's a lot of history wrapped up in Blackpool and Fleetwood the Towns and especially many of the rivalries we have experienced playing local football ourselves. So I think there's always going to be a certain amount of resentment towards the "Two- Scarves" types who say they support BFC, but then have put regular cash into the Fleetwood coffers.

I understand what you are saying about there always being local clubs and that Fylde are in Tier 6, but that doesn't mean we can afford to be complacent about them as 'rivals' and I don't mean 'rivals' in terms of seriously representing a threat to Blackpool or ever challenging us as equals, but rather in terms of a competing business (essentially feeding off the same pool of fans).

You are right that we have nothing to fear and (at least on the face of it) we probably have the best owner out of the available options in any case. Of course, in an ideal world, they might have pooled their resources, but too many cooks, too many ego's...It would never work out in any case.
Aye, agree with all that.

I think to some extent you could look at FTFC as bringing a degree of shape and meaning to an otherwise pretty drab season and a bit after the homecoming.

The two games against Fleetwood were my lads highlights. Without them,we didn't really have that many 'colourful' games.

I'd also wonder if what Pilley was up to helped crystalise opinion in our fanbase about Oyston's neglect. I can't really remember the timescales now but whilst we've always known he didn't give a shit about the wider structure of the club, seeing Pilley building what he has really brought that home. I might be wrong there and possibly Poolfoot came after the battle lines had been firmly drawn.

I dunno, I think what I'm saying is, I quite liked our rivalry with the Cods in lieu of Bolton being so shite it was meaningless, Wigan similar this year, and no one else being around us.

Rivalries also serve to create a broader football culture in the area. Dundee for example supports 2 clubs who have both had significant European runs in their history despite being smaller than Blackpool and Fleetwood combined. If Pilley stays on his project, it's going to put pressure on the Blackpool board not to become lazy, to work doubly hard to get the next generation etc.

I'm not really arguing the toss, I just think that the Cods are now a fact of life and it's healthier just to enjoy beating them than it is to fret too much about what they've done and how they've done it. I don't really like bankrolling through the leagues but there we go. It is what it is. I'm not sure if Fylde really have a long term future, I can see them being squeezed out as where they were an ',exciting project' - there's a far more exciting project now.

For the record, I ain't never been to either a Cods or Fylde match! (Except obviously as a Pool fan)
 
I,ve held a theory for 2 years now and that is , that Burn Naze would make a terrific training ground for us. After all its out of the way, ready to go and only 7 miles from Bloomfield. It would give Pilley working capital for The Cod’s survival in the football league.
Fylde could always ground share with the Nobbers ,selling Dungdale would help the Tower,s owner recoup a few Bob and between the two of them would ensure a sellout most weeks.
The Council own the tower if you are thinking Trevor Hemmings still owns it.
 
I'd also wonder if what Pilley was up to helped crystalise opinion in our fanbase about Oyston's neglect. I can't really remember the timescales now but whilst we've always known he didn't give a shit about the wider structure of the club, seeing Pilley building what he has really brought that home. I might be wrong there and possibly Poolfoot came after the battle lines had been firmly drawn.

That's a very good point and I would agree that a certain amount of grandstanding from Pilley did highlight many of the inadequacies at Blackpool. I mean there's also no question that he personally has done a fantasic job with the Club, given what he has to work with. You're also right that the mini rivalry (in the absence of anything better) has given our fans something to focus on, particularly many of the younger fans, who are yet to experience a real Derby game.

I have to say though, where I would always want PKE to be around as a rival and can see the value in that local rivalry to drivethe interest for both Clubs, I really wouldn't be bothered at all if Fleetwood disappeared into oblivion tomorrow.

I'm not really arguing the toss, I just think that the Cods are now a fact of life and it's healthier just to enjoy beating them than it is to fret too much about what they've done and how they've done it. I don't really like bankrolling through the leagues but there we go. It is what it is. I'm not sure if Fylde really have a long term future, I can see them being squeezed out as where they were an ',exciting project' - there's a far more exciting project now.

Yep, I agree that they are a fact of life at the minute and I suppose only time will tell if that continues. AFC is on my doorstep and itls a really tidy development, but I just can't see them having a future over the long term.
 
Haythornthwaite has always been a fan of Blackpool. Why do you think he let us train at Mill Farm free of charge? And why do you think he let Brett have his testimonial there? Seems to me that anyone who spends £15m of his own money to set up a football club and massive community facility deserves a lot of praise.
Does any sound businessman not do that with ulterior motives though? I've yet to meet one who does!
 
Andy text me to congratulate us on promotion and to pass on his best regards for the upcoming season. Would have thought he’s quite looking forward to his own club’s chances in League 1 👍🏼
 
Andy text me to congratulate us on promotion and to pass on his best regards for the upcoming season. Would have thought he’s quite looking forward to his own club’s chances in League 1 👍🏼
I heard Pilley was at Wembley for our game so I assume he'd have been supporting us. It will still be in his blood/dna.
 
What Division were we in when you were young?

We've plummeted as far as the Championship.
The old first division. Yeah, I'm one of those north of 65 and proud of it.
My point was we might as well ask what do squires gate think of us going up.
 
Just reading what Sadler has said today, there is an argument that because Pilley and Haythornthwaite have done what they have largely without the help of fans than they will find it harder for supporters to get on board during the harder times. At least Sadler has always been up front about the fact he hasn't got a bottomless pit of money and how important the fans money is and in some ways that makes it more of a collective responsibility and makes fans feel far more a part of the club.
 
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