Premiership- a dream too far?

[Mexicano Rojo]

Yesterday I was asked to go to the Emirates on a freebie with my best mate, his brother has 2 season tickets and was away so we had them. Now I have never been to the emirates before, i have been to Highbury a dozen or so times over the years and yesterday was my first taste of premier division football for a good number of years. I watch it on sky and in the pub and enjoy most of the games as the majority of football fans would generally watch anything, but a few things yesterday really hit home to me and made me pretty depressed to be honest.

The sheer size of the emirates stadium is breathtaking, its a fucking monster. I have been to the nou camp and san siro in the last 2 years but this took the biscuit, the scale and luxury of the place is really in a different class. The infastrucutre around the stadium was immense and as a DRS season ticket holder it made me just see, at first hand, the gulf in size/money, between ourselves and the top teams in the english pyramid.

Our ultimate dream as football fans is for swindon to get into the top tier and compete. We reached the top once, surely one day we can do it again. The thing is the game has moved on so much since our last visit it felt yesterday so far from our grasp. I have never experienced that feeling before. It depressed me that the top end of the english game has really become a foreign concept to me. Growing up and going to games there was always a buzz playing a bigger team and going to slightly bigger stadiums but they never felt as alien as yesterday. Arsenal felt like they didnt belong in the same competition as us anymore.

60,000 people there yesterday against wigan. Wigan. Who we are arguably a bigger club than. I wonder how the hardcore wigan fans feel week in week out when they visit places totally alien to themselves.

[trogladite]

and when the money gurus get their wicked way and the top ten sides play nothing but european football with friendlies in the rest of the world.  It truly will be an alien experience.  Not that I care, whether town are playing top flight football or oxford, I'll be there, supporting amd moaning in eqaul order.

[juddie]

if you're telling me the emirates is better than the san siro and the Nou Camp then you're bonkers.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

if you're telling me the emirates is better than the san siro and the Nou Camp then you're bonkers.

Call me bonkers then. I've been to The Emirates and it has to be the best stadium in the world. Not the biggest but certainly the best.

It made me think up a new Carlsberg advert..'Carlsberg don't do football stadiums, but if they did...'

[Arriba]

we'd have taken a damn site more fans than wigans dismal turnout yesterday.
clubs like burnley etc will never compete on the same scale as arsenal,but are having an absolute ball in trying to.
i want some of it for us

[Mexicano Rojo]

if you're telling me the emirates is better than the san siro and the Nou Camp then you're bonkers.

the san siro is awe inspiring as you approach and is great inside too. but so is the emirates, plus the emirates is proper luxurious too. Nou camp is good but a little disapointing as its semi buried beneath the ground.

[Arriba]

nou camp is a bit drab really, despite it's awesome size.
the emirates is the best stadium i've been in for sure.

[Rich Pullen]

The Camp Nou looks a little tired nowadays... Outside it's quite ugly but inside it's still very impressive.

It's all subject to opinion really. For all the massive football grounds in the world the Highbury experience was amazing because of the hustle and bustle outside the ground on matchdays etc. Whereas Old Trafford was a big disappointment in my opinion.

[reeves4england]

The Camp Nou looks a little tired nowadays... Outside it's quite ugly but inside it's still very impressive.

It's all subject to opinion really. For all the massive football grounds in the world the Highbury experience was amazing because of the hustle and bustle outside the ground on matchdays etc. Whereas Old Trafford was a big disappointment in my opinion.

I think that's what's disappearing with modern stadia. I walk past Highbury almost every day and I love how it's just surrounded by residential streets, which used to give you the busy atmosphere. The Emirates is only round the corner, so that still exists to some extent, but I can't help feeling out-of-town stadia and those in business parks are lacking something.

[Peter Venkman]

The gulf between the Premier League now and when we were there is like going from Hunts Copse to the County Ground.

I would love us to be able to get back to the top division and have a stadium that can at least compete with Wigan/Burnley/Wolves but I doubt we can ever have or support a stadium of the magnitude of the big clubs which is a shame.

But the thought of going to visit these grounds week in week out is something we can aspire to and with Fitton and Co in charge I think it is feasible to aspire to get there again, maybe not in 4 or 5 year but certain in the next 10 years.

Swindon and its surrounding areas CAN support a side in the Premiership and CAN draw on a huge potential fan base of 25k+.

I wish we could have another stab at the top league, we didnt do ourselves justice.

[Mexicano Rojo]

lets hope so jj.

the hustle and bustle is still there after an arsenal game. It took me just as long to get home to brighton from arsenal as it does from swindon. 60 minutes stop start walk to finsbury park tube crowd controlled by the police.

[jonny72]

Plenty of smaller clubs have made it to the Premier League in recent years (Stoke, Burnley, Reading, Hull, Bolton) who aren't that much bigger as a club than us, so it can be done. There are also plenty of big clubs falling on hard times and dropping down the divisions (Southampton, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield Weds).

You don't even need to spend a fortune to get in to the Premier League, just the right manager and right players - and we just need to get back to the Championship and stay there and then we at least have a chance.

The only thing beyond most clubs is the Premier League title and the Champions League, which would require a team outside the top 4 to spend in the region of £200m to achieve - which ain't likely to happen at most clubs.

[Reg Smeeton]

 We're not competing for the Prem though....the CCC is the 4th best supported league in Europe, there are a clutch of clubs in there, who easily average 20-25,000.  This is where we need to try and establish ourselves...and it won't be easy. I've seen us promoted from Div 3, 4 times, each time we hang about for a few years, then have a disastrous season, due to finances and get relegated.

 We're still way off being able to compete at this level...what is currently being achieved, is getting back to some sort of stability whereby we're able to be around the top ten of Div 3. This is good and credit to Wilson for doing what has been asked so far, but pushing on is going to be mighty difficult.

[Bogus Dave]

Plenty of smaller clubs have made it to the Premier League in recent years (Stoke, Burnley, Reading, Hull, Bolton) who aren't that much bigger as a club than us, so it can be done.

Stoke, burnley, Bolton and debatedly reading are all much bigger clubs than we are

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

I can't believe some people think we're bigger than the likes of Hull, Bolton and Reading. Seriously get a grip people. Maybe once upon a time those teams were smaller than us but not now. They get 5 figure crowds week in week out and have better stadiums by a mile. As Reg was basically saying we're a league one club and that's only going to change if we can get fans to come on a regular basis and find the right financial footing to cut in the CCC.