Football Fans Census On Pricing

Can't argue with that. Glad to see Blackburn and Wigan taking the lead.

col8 I disagree. Funding no longer has to come primarily from the fans. Last season Villa turned over £50 million and only £11 million of that came throught the turnstiles. In simple terms if you doubled the entrance fee you would not double the revenue generated. In fact you would would probably get less, as most fans turn their backs on the game. Last season Villa Park had 750,000 customers. If you had charged all of these an extra fiver it would still have amounted to just an extra £3.75 million (a years wages for two top players). But if the club had charged the extra fiver the attendances would have dropped. So in reality the fans by themselves probably funded the Ashley Young transfer and a years wages. I am not sure if you were aware of the discussion earlier this season that showed how a £200 season ticket (providing 35,000 were sold) would generate almost as much over the season. And in fact may even generate more when catering and merchandise were brought in to the equation. It makes no sense to drop your prices if you are filling your ground. Villa like many clubs are not regularly selling out and so something has to be done. I personally think a £200 season ticket is a great idea. What you then do is price the remaining tickets by the match. For example Manure, Redscouse, Chelski and the Arse games are £50 each. However if you buy tickets for one of these games + one other, you get the two for £60. This means you sell out the less attractive games and can also charge the 'bigger clubs' supporters £50 to come into VP. If by doing this the club could average 40,000 per game the revenue generated would be over £9 million. Just £2 million less than last season. This doesn't though take into account extra catering, merchandise, programmes etc which would make up the difference. The next spin off would be that the North Stand redevelopment would have to happen to accomodate the extra fans. So instead of 40,000 the club would be aiming for 50,000. And the cycle goes on. Once people are through the door that is when you start to maximise the different revenue streams. It is not rocket science. Next season Villa are likely to generate between £10 - £15 million through the turnstile (either via a £200 season ticket idea or on the current pricing structure) however if we were to come bottom of the league this itself would generate £30 million. The fans are no longer the main funding source for clubs and there is no excuse for not reducing the prices considerably.

I think VOTH is spot on. We are at the mercy of TV nowadays and the input and money from the supporters who attend matches is not crucial. This is not the case for the lower divisions because they do not benefit from the TV money. They need the gate receipts. The supporters are actually needed at the games in the Premiership to make it a better TV spectacle. Reduce the prices for season tickets massively. Incentivise the remaining matchday tickets so that the money can be loaded on to visiting supporters and generate more money from the associated merchandising and catering.You know it makes sense.

Personally I dont think that attending a football game is over priced, certainly not at Villa Park anyhow. I accept though that I'm probably in the minority who think that way, and rest assured, should a reduction be offered, then I'm certainly not going to turn my nose up.