I'd agree that as a club, we seem to be becoming smaller rather than bigger. I'm not so sure it's a trend that is going to be arrested anytime soon, either.
Look at the make-up of West Bromwich now. There are large immigrant populations, and a lot of the fan base that would have been there has been eroded or moved on. Of the people I sit by, there is only one guy who lives in West Brom - everybody else is from Walsall, Birmingham, further afield.
As a club we seem to be trying to generate interest among the immigrant communities, but the best way to do that would be success on the pitch; we had two years where we were the only Midlands team in the Premier League and did nothing with it.
To grow the club we would need a range of initiatives to draw fans in from the new-look local community or look further afield. We haven't done that, and so we are contracting in size. This will be especially pronounced with our ageing fan base, and with Villa / Wolves penning us in either side.
We're still bigger than Blues, who couldn't even sell out for Manchester United at home when both teams were good, but you look at the state of Midlands football and I think it's all downhill.
Sorry to depress everybody.
