By Albatross
March 2 2005

With the end of the season promising to be exciting yet again for Hartlepool Supporters, one or two people are starting to wonder what going up a division would mean for Hartlepool United. Do we really want promotion? You bet we do! Whether the Pools Board want promotion I see as something of a non-issue. They may have ideas regarding the playing budget and the like, but if Cooper can get Pools promoted without breaking the bank I can hardly see them instructing the Pools boss to back off. Indeed, it would be hard to see Cooper or any other manager worth his salt agreeing to work in that way. There's no doubt though that there are positives and negatives for HUFC should promotion be achieved, so let's have a look at them.

One of the big positives is of course that the club would be breaking new ground. After spending all of our Football League history in the lower reaches, at last we'd have made it to the higher divisions, and would be playing teams such as Leeds, Leicester and Coventry on level terms for either the first time ever or at least for the first time in many years. What fan wouldn't love to see Pools taking on some of the (relatively) bigger fish, and maybe handing out a few bloody noses?

There are other things as well of course. We could probably expect to see a rise in money for TV Rights and Sponsorship - although these days this would be unlikely to be as big a jump as it once was. We could probably expect season ticket sales to rise even further, and hopefully see more people in the ground overall.

As for the negatives - well, from a fans point of view we'd be extremely unlikely to make the same impact as we have in our current division. The gap between Divisions 2 and 3 has been shown to be much less than we originally thought; over the last two seasons the sides promoted have done pretty well. Last year only Rushden went down of the other sides promoted with Pools, thanks mainly to financial meltdown when Max Griggs effectively pulled the plug; Wrexham may well join them this season thanks to administration and the points fine, but Torquay are still in with a decent chance of staying up and the lowest of the other six sides promoted in the last two seasons is Huddersfield in 13th place. Meanwhile, although none of the sides promoted to Division 1 last season are now favourites to go down, Plymouth are only in 19th place while Brighton are also in the bottom half and QPR are no better than mid-table. The likelihood would be plenty of defeats, and a struggle to avoid relegation.

For the club, finances could be an issue. While there might be some extra money coming in, potential signings would probably be looking for higher wages - and so no doubt would a few of the current squad. Stay in the division, and expensive ground improvements would also be demanded by the authorities - just seating the terraced areas would drastically reduce capacity, so we're talking about rebuilding at least one stand and possibly two. Prices would almost certainly have to rise to compensate, and increases of this sort are never popular with fans. Attendances would also be an unknown; while you'd hope more people would be tempted by a higher standard of football, people in the town are hardly responding in numbers at the moment despite the fact that we're likely to finish in the playoffs or better for the sixth successive year. Our average attendance so far this season is only just over 5000 - how many would come to see Pools in Division 1, and then stop again on the grounds that we were struggling, paying no attention to the fact that we were operating at a higher level than ever before? Sadly the answer might be that all too many would be this fickle - even though the regulars would give their eye teeth to see Pools in Division 1 even if just for one season.

Like many I'd love to see Pools up there, and I see the question of whether it would be a good thing for the club to be promoted as a no brainer. Every fan wants success, and if we do win promotion I don't think you'll find many people calling on Pools to turn it down or saying it's a bad thing. The important part is what happens next. After all, there are plenty of clubs who have reached higher levels and then gone crashing down again with severe financial difficulties; Oldham, Swindon, Barnsley and Bradford have all been at the top level in the recent past but are in our division having mostly suffered from financial difficulties with Oldham currently looking in danger of being the first former Premiership side to be relegated to Division 3. There are other examples as well, going all the way back to Bristol City in the late 70s and early 80s - and not just sides that made it to the top level.

Then again, there are sides that have thrived. Who would have thought 20 years ago that Crewe would be an established Division 1 side? That Walsall would have spent a significant proportion of the last ten years in that league as well? The secret is not so much getting there, as how things are run once you are. Crewe and Walsall have both experienced some yo-yoing between Division 1 and 2; but with their boards keeping a tight rein on things and refusing to get carried away, being relegated hasn't necessarily been a disaster financially and in Crewe's case particularly they have usually bounced back again looking even stronger. Given IOR's track record over the last 6 years or so I can't see them suddenly deciding to spend more than we can afford - they seem to have a level they will fund us to and expect the club to stick to it. While that may not always be popular when it means we can't bring in the players we think we need, it is eminently sensible and speaks of a long-term view about how HUFC operates. On that front at least, I don't have too many concerns.

There are essentially two questions. The first is "Can we make it" - and that's for Neale Cooper and his squad, with plenty of support from Poolies everywhere, to answer. The second is "If we do, what's a realistic aim?" That's a more subjective one. A struggle to avoid relegation would be the most likely outcome, but there's no reason why it should be an unsuccessful struggle; meanwhile with a youth setup that's surely the envy of quite a few other clubs to keep the talent flowing, "doing a Crewe" is by no means out of the question. After years of struggle in the basement, would you be happy with the prospect of being a mid-table Division 1 side? I know I would.......