Rubbish. It is not rational to challenge a generic point by citing selected individual examples that contradict it. By that absurd logic you could dispute that men are generally taller than women because you know some women who are taller than some men.
There is a clear and obvious pattern of increasing catchment areas as you progress upwards through the divisions. Yes Burnley are in the premier league and Sunderland & Portsmouth are in Div 3; the correlation is not absolute at any given point, but it is still the major factor that determines a club's position over time.
There is a reason why Swindon fans have higher expectations than Morecombe fans but less than Newcastle fans. It is not that we have fallen into any traps, it is that we can count.
You defeat your own argument here.....
the correlation is not absolute at any given point, but it is still the major factor that determines a club's position over timePerhaps
a factor, but not a major factor
AS you say there is no correlation intra Prem as budgets are skewed by money from other sources... exactly the same happens in the FL. In the Championship budgets are skewed by parachute payments, as well as owner input, in the FL occasionally the same can happen as when Wolves bombed a few years back, you would argue that their immediate return was down to crowd size, yet Wigan have been in the same boat, and get modest crowds.
The season we were in the Prem, they averaged < 2000. They achieved on the back of Whelan pumping in money.
They've recently been sold to Chinese from HK for a tidy sum. Another similar club would be Fleetwood funded by Piley, their 8 mill state of the art training facility, te sort of thing Power might want at Highworth but we're a long way from seeing it happen, despite us getting bigger crowds.
You'd expect us to do better than Morecambe and we are.....
Let me try and explain my argument again.... in today's football, there are potential sources of income, of which gate money is one... for lower and non league clubs, a happy cup run can on occasion make a significant short term difference. Lincoln and Exeter being examples.
The differences in budget caused by gate money, can also be offset by owner investment, like the case of Bormuff. The season Black pulled the plug it was the Cherries promoted, despite us averaging 2000 more at games.
Power's investment, was in purchasing the club, with the aim of it running on income from gates, and any other windfalls from sponsorships etc. we compete against some other clubs who have a similar policy, but many who are funded to a similar extent by owners or loans taken out against say ground assets etc.
So to look at say Saturday's game and think as you seem to be doing... oh it's only Mansfield, long recent spell in non league we get bigger gates therefore we should be beating these is ridiculous. We know their budget is bigger than ours due to Radford's money.
Power has brought us to level where we are sustainable, should be able to avoid the Conference trap door, and may have a shot at a PO place with some good running.