Part one of this feature can be found here.

By Jake Verity

When you support a football club, it’s so easy to become consumed with all aspects on the pitch.

Your favourite line-up. The formation that suits the team. Who deserves to stay next season. The players we should sign from other clubs. The best manager we’ve had – or the best manager available. You get the idea.

But then there’s all the other things that enrich our time as football, and indeed Bradford City fans.

Your favourite place to go for a drink before the match. The best view inside the ground. The fan displays. The fixture calendar. Checking the fixtures during the summer when they are released. Knowing you’ve got enough loyalty points for that one away game everybody else wants to go to.

There’s a point I’m trying to get to here. A football club exists because of the fans, for the fans.

From the perspective of an owner, sustainability and growth are important like in any other organisation. But unlike any other business – your financial investment (be it buying a ticket or owning the club) is an emotional investment. There are few other things in life you invest so deeply into to the extent it controls how you feel over a prolonged period of time.

If you went to a shop and bought the same thing at 3pm every Saturday, you’d quickly get bored of the same routine. There’s no change, difference or excitement.

That’s where being a football fan is the opposite. Visiting Valley Parade to watch City is never the same. Different players, formations, opposition. We also travel the country and see new places, meet new people. It’s fun and frustrating. Brilliant and bittersweet. Exhausting and exhilarating.

For all I talked about our on the field fortunes in the first of this two-part series; being a Bradford City fan is so much more than the product on the pitch. And if we’re to start enjoying our football club again to the fullest extent, what happens off it, is as important as what takes place on it.

So here are some ideas that might be interesting for the club to consider. Some are structural and tangible, some are more theoretical and outlandish. But most of all, they are things I often think about in my spare time. I’d just love to see some of them become reality.

Big Club Mentality

Firstly, let me make this clear. I simply won’t stand for the suggestion that Bradford City is not an attractive investment. Yes, there are structural challenges around ownership of the stadium that were covered in some depth recently that hold us back to some extent. But, we are a sleeping giant.

Since the 1998/1999 season we’ve had just one other promotion in the last 25 years. I would imagine we’re one of the least successful clubs in the country in that regard – we’ve massively underperformed.

But, when the next one happens, it will be so good. I watched the scenes at Fratton Park this week with envy as Portsmouth finally made a return to the Championship. A club that’s been punching well below its weight finally getting back where it belongs is tough to take when we’re set for another season in League Two.

But there is some hope. One day, it will be us. And it can be sooner rather than later. We just have to change how we think and act as a club. I don’t just think this because I’m a fan either. I see the potential in our club and city and know that when we wake up to our true potential, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

This isn’t me suggesting we don’t care as fans because we do – probably too much!

It’s that we all constantly set our expectations high and feel disappointed when we inevitably don’t meet them. So, rather than the club starting the season stating promotion is the goal (which it must be), let’s think differently.

The goal at the start of the season should be to give fans an amazing matchday experience; a squad that they find entertaining; and reason to be optimistic about Bradford City.

Rather than aiming for 90 points by May, let’s aim for 12 points by the end of August and build from there. The obvious caveat here is the season may start slowly, and that’s also fine. Because a positive feeling off the pitch, buys goodwill on it.

We must go into August not just thinking we’re a big club, but actually acting like one. Buy the best players. Recruit sensibly. Show what the vision is and get the fans excited. I talked about the playing side last time around though. Here’s how we do this off the pitch…

No more excuses

Bradford is the 10th largest city in England. That makes us the fourth largest one-club city in the country (the other three are in the top-seven in the Championship).

You can get to Manchester, Liverpool, York, Sheffield and Hull all within two hours by public transport – we’re pretty much the exact midpoint between the Irish Sea and the North Sea.

Look at Wrexham. They have suffered with issues around their Stadium. They haven’t been in League One since 2004/05. They are a small town that’s more isolated geographically than we are.

But there’s no excuses there. Because they’ve gone out and made positive case for themselves and invested where they needed to. Their owners bought the ground in 2022 and they are now developing it and improving capacity. They marketed a town of 45,000 people to the world – and began getting new investment, tourism and a whole swathe of new fans.

To really put this into context – they’ll soon have a ground with a capacity that can fit half of Wrexham inside. For us to make Valley Parade half the size of Bradford, we’d need a stadium nearly twice the size of Wembley.

They are now back in League One after that 20 year wait. And fair enough, they are a well run club. And it hurts, because this has been the first time in a while we went into this season where one club was far more interesting than ourselves (Wrexham), and another club that has a ground bigger than ours (MK Dons).

We’ve also lost Stockport and Mansfield, two well structured and run clubs from the division. A large ground and ex-Premier League status mean absolutely nothing for us if we have no strategy or plan to utilise our greatest assets, our fans and our city.

So for anyone who says “Wrexham has an advantage we don’t” in the sense of their owners’ global reach. Yes, that’s true to some extent. But it’s no excuse. There are several high profile celebrities who happen to be Bradford City fans that have millions of social media followers. What’s the plan to work with them? How can we collaborate to boost our global influence and support their interest in our club?

It’s easy to look elsewhere and think they have it better than we do. But it’s only when you look at what you actually have and think about how you make the best of it, you find success. That’s exactly why Stockport and Wrexham will both keep growing. And it’s time we joined them on that journey.

Infrastructure

I should start this section by saying I began writing this piece before the article about the future of Valley Parade was published. But when it came out I paused and spent far too much time looking through the comments to see what everyone else thinks we should do about the ground. I was pleased to see most of you are in the same place that I am, though. Let’s just buy it.

Who does it? How is it done? When will it happen? All valid questions. But we all are broadly on the same page. We want the club to own its ground once again and should find a way to make it happen.

If we were struggling to fill the ground week on week, I could understand an argument for leaving and pursuing other options. Likewise, if there was a serious option on the table for a multipurpose venue somewhere else in the city, I could get it. But with the current economic situation, we must focus on the reality. It’s what we want and the danger is if we wait too long or don’t get it right, somebody else will get to decide for us.

By buying the ground, we become an attractive investment for the current ownership, and to prospective buyers in the future. We would also probably have greater control over what we do with it. I’d hope we’ll be able to find ways to pay it off over time – and it’ll only cost a fraction of what it would to move away to a new site and build a new ground.

What I’m getting at here is holding new events beyond League Two football. Other clubs use their stadium for gigs, surely we could have a go? There’s also International Youth Football – something we have done in the past, arguably when Valley Parade was a more modern ground than it is now.

A lesser known fact is that Andrea Pirlo played at Valley Parade in 2002 for an Italy U21 vs England U21 match; it’d be good to see the next Mbappe, Bellingham or Haaland come to Valley Parade some time soon.

I know there’s arguments against my suggestions, and that’s fine. For example, if we were to host gigs, my immediate thoughts are noise, crowds and the impact of the pitch. But if we want to own Valley Parade and pay off the ground; to diversify our income and also bring new and exciting things to Bradford; everything has to be considered as a trade-off. At least consulting on these sorts of things is a start, right?

There’s always a way to make things happen by bringing people together, rather than pushing them apart.

It’s fairly obvious that a 25,000 seater stadium in an area of 1.8 million leaves room for growth and development over time. I said in my last article, get the product right on the pitch and the ground will always be full of it. I know it feels like a long time away, but if the club is actually working on a strategy we must imagine life beyond League Two; and League One.

Remember, there were once plans for the ground to hold 35,000 / 40,000 so filling Valley Parade in its current state shouldn’t be a ceiling. It’s the big picture thinking that gets us excited as fans – some ambition, direction or even consultation would be a good place to start.

A quick word on the training ground too. We’ve obviously got talent at the football club, amidst rumours that Premier League clubs are once again looking at one of our young players. I know one thing at a time and let’s sort out the ground first.

But, imagine a strategy that looks towards securing Valley Parade and we instead spend real money on building a new training facility. Again, this would and could be an investment that pays itself off over time.

Better facilities leads to better players (also less injuries) and more money for younger prospects. And perhaps that’s where we can work with the local Government to build a facility that’s multi-purpose; maybe that’s something we could share with the Bulls or Park Avenue.

Who we are, and what we offer

Bradford. Our City. The place we all grew up, or have family connections with. If you’re a City fan and neither of those apply, fair enough to you for enduring the years of torture.

I’ve talked about the big club mentality and how we view ourselves as a football club. Now I’ll talk about how we utilise our city.

Bradford becomes the City of Culture in 2025 and there’s no greater time for us to try and finally mount a serious promotion push. A strong city can be defined by its sporting success. And likewise, sporting success can be defined by a strong city. The two are not mutually exclusive. They are intertwined.

As one of the biggest cities in the country, Bradford is also home to thousands of business owners who all bring something different and exciting – I’m sure many would like to work with the club. The club does deserve credit for the commercial partnerships we’ve struck. But I think time for deeper, more outside the box thinking that could make wonderful things happen.

Some of it is focusing on a new type of match-day experience; the rest of it is thinking about how the football club can support the city and vice versa.

Imagine if your season ticket got you a 10% discount at certain bars/restaurants in the city and in exchange the club offered opportunities to those businesses’ in return.

I’m sure the club already does things like this but it’d be good to think about how some of this could be more public facing. For example, according to the club’s website transport discounts are possible on matchday which is fantastic; I’d love to see more things like that that boost the club and the city.

Take this as an example. I know “something-up in a brewery” has been levelled up at some of the trickier moments the club has had over the years. But in fairness, it’d be great to get the various breweries and pubs across Bradford and West Yorkshire into Valley Parade.

Imagine for a select game of the season, there’s a “Bradford City Beer Festival” after the match. You could hold it in the Main Stand’s concourse, ticket the event and have different breweries in charge of each kiosk.

Further to that, you could have pubs from across the city running bottle shops and local food vendors with pop up stands inside. If you can host a beer festival inside an old village hall, I’m pretty sure you could do it in a football stadium. More extra revenue for the club, an event for the city to get behind and that might well end up funding the wages for a new player who is the difference next season.

I know it’s not as easy as I’m making out, but there’s definitely potential and many more ideas that could come to fruition. Perhaps as fan, these are the sort of things we could work with the club to make happen. Of course, that relies on them wanting to work with us too.

Pre-Season Friendlies

Last season was a start. The club again should be credited for trying to organise something abroad. For the first time since Echterdingen (and how I wish I’d been there for that trip), we left the country and gave fans a new experience.

At the time; there were some definite frustrations with the club’s organisation of the visit – the quality of opposition (which then ended up being a La Liga side!); and some unnecessarily expensive packages which until late in the day meant you couldn’t buy a ticket on its own.

This is where working with fans can engineer something different, and hopefully exciting. As long as it works from a footballing perspective, there’s no reason why fans shouldn’t be able to shape or influence a pre-season itinerary.

As trivial as it sounds, it’s a fantastic opportunity for the players and fans to bond with one another; especially those new to the club. It’s also good for many other reasons whether they are commercial or football related.

Forging connections and relationships with clubs overseas could be genuinely exciting too. I know it sounds ridiculous but if we were in theory to partner with a third-tier German side. Or a second-division Spanish team and make a yearly fixture a regular occurrence.

Not only would groundhoppers amongst us find that extremely fun, but we might find an amazing loanee – or open other opportunities with different sides. Let’s face it, we all miss Kai Bruenker, who actually helped knock Bayern Munich out of the German cup this season!

And there’s more…

What is the marketing strategy to grow Bradford City as a brand? There will be one I’m sure. But I feel there’s some huge opportunities for the club to assert itself on a national stage.

Partner up with brands like Classic Football Shirts to release old kits. Speak to content creators on YouTube and proactively get them along to the ground to cover us. Actively work to bring in loyalty schemes that benefit the fans off the pitch.

A good example could be reimagining the loyalty points system like some Premier League clubs do. Make an integrated system where purchases at the ground, club shop and scanning in tickets gives you a different kind of ‘points’ beyond those we need to access away games.

You could call them ‘tokens’ to differentiate them from normal loyalty points. Fans could redeem these for unique prizes like a limited edition programme the club has made; a prize draw to go watch a training session; a private stadium tour. These are a handful of examples, but a different way of thinking that takes us forward as a club.

We need to move with the times as modern football is constantly developing. I put forward some suggestions in my last article about the more boring practical things that we should do and the club has since acted by bringing a Head Of Football Operations in, which is good.

All supporters want is understanding, involvement and to feel part of something. The club has been strong commercially in recent times, but it’s time we start thinking about the possibilities beyond what we know and what feels simple. It’ll make us a more interesting, exciting place off the pitch, and might just help improve things on it.

Communication, Communication, Communication

I know this has been a long piece, but I wanted to leave the most important point until last.

There’s a whole world of opportunities out there for us as a football club and city. I’ve tried to outline some examples as well, rather than just make this point with nothing behind it. Regardless of what they are or how practical they might be, if some became reality, they could bring a real vibrancy to Valley Parade that has been missing in recent times.

The biggest issue has fundamentally been a disconnect between the club and fans this season.

Communication matters so much and I think if we’re to truly move forward off the pitch, it’s about working with each other. A city that’s together will always be stronger than one that’s apart. As fans, we just want to see the club at the best it can be.

We all care so much about this football club because it’s a huge part of our lives. It’s never just a couple of hours on a weekend. It’s so much more than that for ourselves, our friends and family. It’s an even bigger thing for our city. So let’s all think about what comes next.

This is our club, This is our city, This is our chance to do something differently.

I want the 2024/25 season to be a successful one we’ll never forget. Let’s go out there and make it happen.

Categories: Opinion

Tags: BCAFC