They have tried all of these marketing ploys haven't they? and they haven't worked. The one they haven't employed yet is the 'winning team' concept. Its all very well to bang on about running the club in a fiscally prudent way etc but the bottom line is they are struggling to make money and attract crowds and its the old adage of "if nothing changes, nothing changes". I grateful that Welnix saved the club from destruction but get sick of them bitching and moaning about crowds when they haven't tried the obvious and spent some serious money on quality.
If they want to run the club in the current manner, just do it and stop haranguing the core fan base about not turning up and prostituting the club around the country to make a quid. If you want to be serious about owning a club then you've actually got to spend money on things that will make people turn up to watch, buy your merchandise etc. If you don't want to do that, fudge off, sell the club and let someone else have a crack.
2014-15 when it looked like a very real possibility that we'd win it our average was 8.5k, the year before that when we finished 9th it was 8.2k, last year it was 8k.
I agree that winning will increase crowds, but it needs to be a team that's competitive over multiple seasons and that can only happen through sustainable development. You say if nothing happens, nothing happens, but we haven't yet seen the results of our investments in the academy system, it's only three years old.