I could have had i not deleted it, sorry
Was this it polak?
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GasBurner
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Gas Burner
18 hours ago
4 min
Together We Are Our Strength
There are some seriously good people at Bristol Rovers. Working hard for the club and hard for the fans.
In recent times Rovers have been dreaming big and attempting to reach far with their ambition. We’ve seen positive moves off the pitch with a new and evolving training ground and we can currently see the development of a new South and South East Stand gathering pace. We’ve seen Rovers grow their commercial offering with the introduction of the ever-growing fanzone, additional sponsorship bands, and enhanced hospitality offerings. We’ve seen the Community Trust continue to flourish and provide invaluable support to the communities of Bristol and beyond. We’ve seen the Gas Girls also grow and flourish. And along with the academy grow more vibrant and confident at every turn with opportunities to break through and build on past success.
On the pitch the Men’s team has seen 3 promotions since 2015, we’ve mostly seen a brand of exciting, attacking football, and this year we’ve possibly compiled one of the most exciting squads in recent years with clear potential to reach heights Rovers haven’t seen for generations.
Much of this has been down to the love and money Wael Al Qadi has poured into Rovers. Supported by a young, ambitious and commercially intelligent CEO Tom Gorringe, the club has grown it’s stature and it’s reach. And we now have a new majority owner in Mr Hussain Al Saeed who we are as yet unable to make any informed judgement on.
Of course we do also find ourselves with a stubbornly recurring issue of a new stadium, or at least a stadium with realistic prospects for significant growth.
There’s a sense of deja vu with a new owner arriving, looking at what’s being negotiated and simply saying it’s not good enough!
It’s important to stress that at time of writing the club has still not publicly confirmed or denied the reports which emerged via Bristol Live that the Fruit Market deal is on verge of collapse. In fact they have remained strikingly silent on the matter. Some would say this is wise and perhaps suggests that the club will continue to explore their options until such a time comes when you need to definitively pull the plug or sign those lines.
Lest we forget we also have the no small mess that is the planning process for the new stand which continues to be a thorn in the match ball.
One thing is for sure - you can bet that the club and/or the ownership is leaking money on consultants and lawyers which may turn out to be a waste of resource on yet another failed stadium dream.
Unfortunately the club continues to come under criticism for it’s perceived lack of communication to fans and the wider public. The club are seen as allowing others to control the narrative with no proactive attempts to create the narrative. In many cases these narratives are wrong.
We reached out to the club for their perspective on all the burning issues of recent weeks. The ultimate response wont have helped the situation.
If you follow us on X/Twitter then you’ll know we said the club granted us an interview and answered all of our questions. Unfortunately, for reasons not entirely clear, the club later requested that we didn’t publish any of that interview. We have decided to comply with that request out of respect for the clubs wishes - Even though we did everything we could not to publish any sensitive information.
Gasburner is not a news outlet, nor an extension of the club, just a free extra source of information, fan engagement and opinions on all things Rovers. We do however believe in accountability and appropriate openness.
Its important to acknowledge that it’s not smart business in any case to give a public running commentary on negotiations and legal processes; and that our CEO has offered up some insight through his matchday programme notes as well as directly responding to feedback from fans. But it must also be acknowledged that fans have a right and some may even say an entitlement to know what is going on at the club they spend a large proportion of their earnings on. To fans it is an investment of not simply their earnings, in some cases their entire disposable income, but an investment of the heart and soul.
It’s a difficult balance for the ownership to strike. Wael Al Qadi has been one of the best at communicating and interacting with fans. However, with a new owner may arrive a new trend. As said earlier though It’s too early to make an informed judgement but we can express our wish to the new ownership that they are visible to fans and that they do communicate with fans to answer their questions where appropriate. Or they risk quickly losing the good faith of the hard-liners and fermenting a negative perception across the fan base. And while Rovers are responding to some of the feedback with actions, fans have genuine concerns about prices, about communication, about the running of the club, and about their matchday experience which should never be dismissed or ignored.
Generally though, lets remember that we are in a strong position as a club. The new owners have strengthened Rovers financial position with what is believed to be a strong investment, and as mentioned in the opening ramble, there is a big transformation taking place at Rovers. We keep being told its a long term project, so strap-in because the next few years look set to be exciting, and frustrating, it will hurt and it will create ecstasy. And who knows, it might just lead us to the promise land.
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