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Chester chairman Stephen Vaughan has threatened to quit the club, again, after just 269 fans turned up for their home friendly with Belgian side Cercle Brugge.
The gate was over 1,000 down on the gate for another friendly, with Stoke City two days earlier, and left Vaughan feeling "insulted". Vaughan later claimed to the local media that he had ploughed £5million into Chester City, but that all incoming transfers would be put on hold: "I'm off if the crowds don't improve. I know it was hastily arranged but 269 is an insult. Last night has cost the club thousands of pounds. I drove from one end of the country to watch the game but where were the others? I've put a freeze on putting any more money for transfers and I'm going to take stock over the weekend. If there's anyone else out there with ideas of how they can take this club further then they can give me a call. And if they want to buy it, They'll need £5 million. It's night's like last night that make you think that's it.
"All I've had is criticism for the past two years and it still continues, I've got people complaining about friendly admission prices, I've got season ticket holders demanding to be reimbursed because they don't like all the games being switched to a Friday night. I'm just totally disillusioned with the whole thing. We put on these friendlies to help pay for the signing on fees and relocation fees for the payers that we have brought into the club. This was a Premie League Belgian side we were talking about last night. 269 is an insult and the 800 home fans who came to the Stoke game wasn't good either."
Fans were critical of the high prices for the friendlies. Both games, two days apart, cost £12 admission each and many fans on the club forums were opting to ignore the second game after seeing a disappointing start to the pre-season with a 2-0 loss to Stoke. Chester also lost the second game, 1-0, after Brugge had a man sent off.
