The Frustration of Bath and Bristol

Bath/Bristol
By Glen Leat
April 18 2003

With all this talk about the problems Bristol are having in keeping their team in the City of Bristol and Bath are having in securing their ground it is worth looking at the home attendance of each team this year to understand the frustrations at both clubs.

In the table below you will see the attendance figures for home fixtures for both Bath and Bristol so far this season and, as Del Boy used to say, "What can't speak can't lie!"

Bath Bristol Date Opponent Attendance Date Opponent Attendance 14-Sep-02 Wasps 7608 01-Sep-02 Saracens 4761 28-Sep-02 Glaws 8200 15-Sep-02 Saints 4674 26-Oct-02 Leeds 8200 29-Sep-02 Tigers 6237 10-Nov-02 Sale 7430 10-Nov-02 Newcastle 4342 24-Nov-02 Bristol 8200 17-Nov-02 London Irish 5005 28-Dec-02 Quins 8200 29-Dec-02 Sale 5642 01-Feb-03 Tigers 8200 02-Feb-03 Leeds 5032 01-Mar-03 Saracens 7290 02-Mar-03 Quins 5205 15-Mar-03 Saints 8200 16-Mar-03 Glaws 10693 10-Apr-03 London Irish 8200 Total 79728 Total 51591 Average 7973 Average 5732 Without Glaws game 40898 Average 5112

Of the 10 games Bath have played they have packed the house out on 7 occasions whereas the only time Bristol have had a reasonable crowd was when Glawster brought their hordes of travellers with them. I have therefore shown the Bristol average including and excluding the Glawster match so the overall results are not too distorted by the faithful Cherry and White fans.

All of this supports what we have all known for ages, Bath need a bigger ground and the City of Bristol should be ashamed of itself for not supporting a club with a proud history, particularly at a time when supporter numbers could be the difference between staying and going. If Bristol Rugby is replaced by Oxford Rugby those people who purport to support their club but rarely turn out will only have themselves to blame. I have a great deal of sympathy for those fans who regularly go to the Memorial Stadium and yet may have their rugby club taken from them. No doubt a few more than 5000-6000 Bristol supporters would turn out at Twickenham for a Cup Final and boast to their friends, "I was there."

In terms of Bath, if I have to read another letter in the Bath Chronicle from someone who claims that the Rec belongs to them, the rugby club should get lost and they are part of a large group of Bathonians who wish to "preserve a green oasis in the centre of the City for all to use" I think I will throw up! The writers of these letters remind me of the ex-Iraqi Information Minister who believed he was speaking for the majority and was always telling the truth. Anyone would think that the rugby club represented some axis of evil and that the City of Bath is so bereft of any green space that 10,000 Bathonians crowd on to the Rec each day protecting each blade of grass in fear of it being the last piece of green they will ever see in their fair city.

If anything Bath is awash with green space, including Victoria Park, Sydney Gardens and The Parade Gardens to name three large areas in the centre; and there are many more dotted around the city. In truth what these people don't like is to see others enjoying themselves and a professional business (that replaced an amateur club) trying to be successful. If the law of physics made it possible these people would transport us back to time when the average citizen knew their (lowley) place and stuck to it and certainly didn't consider helping their city progress in to a new age. I imagine if they had been around at the time of our Georgian architects we now wouldn't be able to enjoy the likes of The Circus and The Royal Crescent because these buildings would have been considerd a radical departure from the standard architecture of Bath at the time and would certainly have eaten up a great deal of green pasture!