Planning for our Tier Ten rebirth

I was thinking the same. At present we are heading non-league again.There used to be lots of people buying pasties and tea but I see that there are not many people participating in the food on offer.Over priced rubbish on sale just like the game of football yesterday.
The chairman Martyn Staines is paid to do what! He has lost all credibility and none of us trust him. Who in their right mind gives a coach a two and half year contract to be an untested manager.
I hope this club is not dying!

Never mind we’ve always got the fruit market to look forward too 😱👀

Those who would like to see us play at Twerton again, might get their wish. I’ve seen better games in National League South, that I saw yesterday.

I would love to go back to trumpton to be honest at least you knew what club you where supporting ie rag bag rovers ! Not this complete rubbish we have now ?

You'd love to go back to Twerton? I'm fairly sure you still can?

2 divisions away from non League.

So ignoring whether or not people think this may or may not happen, I wanted to look at this hypothetically.

Where we would play?

I’m guessing in the event of liquidation, the mem would be in the hands of creditors or developers, so we would have to find somewhere else to play. Apart from the obvious joke of Horfield Common or the Downs, I expect somewhere like Cossham street (Mangotsfield) Lodge Road (Yate) or even a move back to Twerton Park if nowhere could be found to accommodate us. The ground might be one of the biggest issues we faced as we would need to find someone willing to ground share, we would need to find somewhere capable of hosting large crowds weekly and where we could achieve permission from governing bodies to play in the National league and the EFL. To this end Twerton Park might be the most likely candidate but Cossham street might be viable with a few upgrades.

What would our crowds look like?

Hard to say, but I know we have a fan base that are loyal to the core and willing to follow a would be Phoenix club just like Wimbledon and Hereford fans have. Hereford had an attendance of 2,800 in their inaugural season, using this I would say we would get somewhere of the region of 3,500 to 4,000. Roughly half of what we get now but still more than a lot of league sides.

What league would we start in?

I believe the F.A. will only allow applications for clubs to join the 9th tier and below and I can’t see any examples of any team rejoining the football pyramid higher than this. Considering this, we would be starting in the Western League Premier division and working our way up from there. This is, for those that don’t know, one division lower than Mangotsfield and two below Yate Town.

Would we have a professional status?

Most previous examples of Phoenix clubs have started life semi professional and moved to becoming professional as they moved up the tiers. There hasn’t been a precedent for a club as large as Rovers dropping down to that level so we might make it pro but it would be difficult considering we would have no previous turnover, no prize money and I expect attracting pro players to come and play in the western league would be challenging. Remember we would have no previous staff or players as they have all left what was left at Rovers and found new Pro teams. We would have to hold trials and draw players from that to begin with.

Could we do it?

Absolutely I think we could if the situation ever became dire enough. We would have a loyal following, be one of the largest clubs in non league and be fan owned. National League and the National League South are difficult leagues to get out of as they only have 1 automatic spot but I think we’d do it and become a football league side again eventually. Being fan owned has its perks and as the saying goes “You’ll never get rid of the gas”.

Another happy day here on gaschat

That would be some away day!