How Do You Feel About The Club Effectively Abandoning Affordability?

It's life, it's football. You need more money the higher your aims are. The next level financially is frightening and bums on seats won't bridge the gap

 

£349 for 23 football matches is still incredibly good value for an adult and we’ve sold a record number of season tickets despite these increases.
I’d say the price point is about spot on right now.

 

I think any further increases next year and they lose a large percentage of the season ticket holders. Whether the increase covers the cost of losing ST holders will be something the club will need to consider.

Regardless of the general cost of everything going up so it's only right STs do that's a mute point,. I'll admit I'm borderline on whether next year becomes affordable especially now the kids are no longer kids.

As opposed to other stuff, it's disgusting and I won't touch it but I get that people do and clubs need extra income to be competitive but six shirts on sale at £65 a pop, bland polos at £50, like you say mascots being charged £200 and the rest , that can do one

 

THing is the same has been said about every increase as we have moved away from dirty cheap and every year the following increase hasn't seen the take up drop off

 

In my opinion it was never about affordability. The cost of tickets wasn't dropped to make it more accessible for the less well off, it was because the club had hit rock bottom with fans voting with their feet. When Parky turned the club around the marketing department dined out on the cheap ticket deals but ultimately it was a millstone round the clubs neck from a business standpoint.

 

The club are in a difficult position
Obviously need to maximise revenues
Running cost for every business in the country are rising more than they should , in particular energy charges
I am speaking from experience and you just can’t keep consuming these from potential profits
Without having that billionaire sugar daddy, if we want to advance and not stand still or even regress, the money has to come from somewhere
In our case fans, sponsors or saleable assets

 

Ultimately it was always going to need to happen unless Stefan wanted to effectively keep subsidising our season tickets. There's no doubt they have been a huge success and been a key part of us building the fanbase to the stage where attendances are the highest they've been for 100 years. You can see the impact in the numbers when comparing the 19/20 season back in league 2 for the first time at 14,200 which is higher than the first 2 seasons in league 1 after we got promoted in 2013. What the prices have done is get people in for a long time so now lots of people are committed to the point where they will accept these price rises as going to City on a weekend is all they know, it will no doubt have got a lot of children in who are now adults and created fans for life.

I think we are probably at the limit for what a lot of people would tolerate and buy without a lot of thought, we certainly would be risking a lot going up another £50 next season.

 

The affordable ticket prices we have enjoyed for years is the reason we now have such a large fan base. So it worked

 

It has to be done, it's just the way of the world now. The ticket price has more than doubled since the German takeover, but the costs of running a club will also be double, at worst most likely. The squad wages have darted in that time too. I cant remember if it was our promotion season or the one before, but Sparks had a quote in an interview at the time, where he said the 2013 promotion squads budget was about £1.7m-£1.8m ballpark, and when he did the interview we had a smaller squad for 2024/2025ish and the budget was another Million quid on top. Same league but the average wages had just had to go up for the cost of football.

Unless you have an owner who is happy to lose a lot, and a lot is millions on millions on millions every single season, affordable football just isnt a thing anymore. It's not a "City" thing in my eyes, it's just a football thing. The sport is just daft financially and it's never going to come down, it's only going to rise. I wouldn't be surprised if we have STs at the £400 mark if not next summer but certainly the one after. Then probably around the £450 mark by 2030.

 

I’d be happy to pay more, but I want a clear plan of where we are trying to get in the next 3 years. What are we putting in vs the owner. There is no strategy currently just whatever we make goes into the team fair enough but what about the other things like our own training ground/ better facilities/ scouts - coaches the stuff that allows you a stronger chance of developing. They’re all not on the radar it’s a long grass conversation as no one really has a plan. I work within financial services developing strategies and I find it shocking we don’t have one customer bases, revenue streams we have and it’s just one season to another if it happens great.

 

I think a lot will depend on how we do this coming season. Promotion would definitely lead to another rise, even having another good go at it probably would but I reckon there would be a price freeze if it ends up being mid table mediocrity or worse.

 

It depends on how you look at our prices now. You could do it in two ways. Firstly, as a percentage increase in the last 3 years, then it looks massive and as though we are alienating fans. But fans haven't been driven away, in fact, we got our highest ever average attendance last season in the modern era, those facts mean it's not the way to look at it. Secondly, you can compare it to our EFL peers, despite the increases, we are still on the lower and more affordable scale. Therefore, I'd still class us as affordable and argue we undervalued tickets by the end. Don't get me wrong, it's done a fantastic job at increasing the fan base, but for me, we could have increased tickets in the 2016/17 season when we were fighting for promotion at this level. Eventually, the prices became a bit of a laughing stock. i.e., we were near giving them away, and we were more like a charity case than a slick business. It's no wonder we failed to compete for players.

I'm personally happy to pay more for a competitive team. And to be honest, if £350 over a season is too much, let alone anything above £150, then you need to focus your priorities on what is important to you, such as family. Because football is a luxury, not a need,

 

I stopped going to VP after 50+ years when RS decided that adequate investment was a new club shop roof and being self sustainable was our goal.

 

Problem with all these plans, they all cost money, of which we have a very limited amount. Firstly let's drop this idea of what Rupp is worth, in the grand scheme it's pointless. He's already funding to a small scale, that isn't going to expand to a level where it finds things like stadiums and training facilities. Sizeable investment to that scale would have involve multiple agencies and the appetite for that discussion simply isn't there in the current economic climate.
Personally I'd like to know what the long term plans for Valley Parade are, especially as it is pretty much nailed on we will be signing another long term lease for the stadium. The infrastructure itself is at least 25 years old at its youngest part, new seats is like putting lipstick on a pig. I love the old girl but at some point during that new lease it's gonna need a serious refurb, in a world where sport is transgressing more to the corporate side Valley Parades facilities are somewhat outdated

 

I don't believe football clubs are run by thick people; some are narcissists and whatever else, but I believe if they could get the same amount of money through ticket sales but have more punters through the doors, then they'd do it. I think it was the Peterborough chairman who said don't underestimate the numbers Bradford brought in at low prices. Some clubs wouldn't be able to fill their stadiums if they gave them away. The only way some will fill their stadiums is by having success well above their station on the pitch, and for teams like Salford and Harrogate, that still won't be enough. So no, tbh I don't look too much into who does or doesn't fill their stadiums as I don't think a £100 here or there will suddenly give them a full house. If Barnsley had season tickets at £100 next season, they wouldn't sell out. But if they get a cup game against a big team, they will. Likewise, if they were in the PL selling season tickets for £500 they'd sell out.

If we are talking about our business model, then our average attendance would indicate that we are perfectly priced.