Ryan Sparks

If you want to pretend increasing revenue streams naturally or organically will allow us to compete in the Championship with the silly post-Premier League budgets you are trippin' bro.

It can't be done.

 

Just another bad suggestion.

The idea now is a good time is crazy. For all we know, the appetite for live football has gone down among the more casual followers.

 

I haven't mentioned the championship. Even with 15,000+ crowds in league one we couldn't compete financially with the likes of Millwall or Sheffiled Utd. Instead of compete i'll reword it to say have a better chance. Otherwise we might as well make tickets £100, shirts £20 and really hang our hat on the affordable peg.

 

Well given that being consistently competitive in the Championship while being sustainable (which is the best strategy unless we have tend of millions someone can afford to lose) is impossible, surely being affordable is a legit option?

There is only one way to compete with the budgets of the Championship, and we don't have the backing for that nor will we ever have that backing with Rupp at the helm.

I'd say affordable football for a club that cannot compete is a better idea than gradually ever more expensive football when we STILL wouldn't compete. I just don't see any value in what you're proposing beyond what people like Dave are suggesting with essentials like hot water.

If you're simply on about the match day experience in League One and Two (and the occasional relegation season from the Championship) then fair enough. But I get the feeling many wanting us all to pay 250 notes per each family member won't be satisfied with a relative lack of on field improvement.

 

So by your logic we might as well give the manager 2 million to spend on wages as opposed to 2.5 million because essentially it doesn't matter? If spending money doesn't matter why did we use transfer fees in January when there were plenty of 'free' players about? What happens when new lease time comes around and for instance Gibb puts the price up? What if Messrs Turnbill Sparks and T & S decide it would be advantageous to add extra coaches to the roster? Whos actually paying for all this? I'm sorry i just don't get this affordavility trumps everything, it defeats the object of trying to grow the business.

 

Well, if we're realistic about it, the whole point is to get this club back into League One. That's why we spent fees and decided to get a little closer to wage cap. Next season they'll be hoping we launch a promotion challenge.

In League One we might spend sensibly again to get the club into the Championship, where we won't compete, but Stefan WILL have a better chance of getting his investment back.

That is the whole point of this, and we have been told as much by the Associate Director who frequents this board.

Let's not be naive about it.

At no point has it looked like Rupp can't afford to make the changes he's made. At no point has he struggled to finance the club, so why are you fretting about it? He can easily afford it, and he's got a very good reason to do so - it's called profit.

He's here to sell us, but not while we're in League Two.

 

The season tickets will definitely go up in price. It won't be this season as Covid still has a massive influence on the immediate future of football. The season after however, i'm pretty sure you will incremental increases. probably between £15 to £20. If we get promoted then i expect them to go upto £200. You could push it slightly further but for now i think £200 is below the tipping point at which fans would think twice about renewing. Of our fan base i'd say we have a good chance of 10,000+ seaon ticket sales when covid dies down and i'd say 90% of those would renew wether they be £150 or £200. Only definite way of knowing is by actually increasing the prices. People are gonna not renew for the sake of the cost of a decent chinese takeaway.

 

To me, I wouldn't baulk at an immediate rise to £250. its still cheap football. We've been spoilt and like you, I think we need to get in the real world if the club is to be self sufficient. We cant rely on year after year success to bring in 16,000 every week.

 

Bless Wycombe, but look where they are? Relegation favorites from the second they were promoted and they're more than living up to that. Like the manager a lot, but poor guy knows he's trying to get an average League 1 side to perform week in week out against proper Championship teams. Sorry and I wish it wasn't so, but it is ALL about the money. If you can't buy better players - or keep the best ones you already have - the likes of Wycombe are playing with hands tied behind their backs whilst carrying a grand piano on their shoulders.

 

Bless Wycombe, but look where they are? Relegation favorites from the second they were promoted and they're more than living up to that. Like the manager a lot, but poor guy knows he's trying to get an average League 1 side to perform week in week out against proper Championship teams. Sorry and I wish it wasn't so, but it is ALL about the money. If you can't buy better players - or keep the best ones you already have - the likes of Wycombe are playing with hands tied behind their backs whilst carrying a grand piano on their shoulders.

 

In the championship EFL basic award and solidarity payment is about £7m. In league one it’s about £1.5m.
Get promoted, don’t spend stupid money and come back down £3-4m richer. That’s a lot of money to invest in your long term future, at City it’s a new training ground, maybe a good portion of the money to buy the stadium. What City might have been better doing in 99/00.
It’s wrong, there shouldn’t be such massive differences between the championship and league one or the championship and the premier league.
The side City currently have, with a few additions could get promoted and the season after be pushing for promotion to the championship. But without tens of millions they’re not staying there or getting promoted, the set up of the pyramid is wrong. £40m parachute payment? That would pay the whole of league two’s wage bill. How can any league two club go on a run to the championship and compete with that? They can’t, and if you can’t compete then what is there for us league two fans to dream of? The odd cup run and the odd season in the championship, that’s it unless you have an owner like Derby who has lost £200m.

 

Spot on.

And people can talk charging literally any figure and it will not come close to changing those facts or figures.

As I say, it's borderline redundant to discuss ticket prices. Without a very long term plan, they're meaningless for fans seeking serious success, and that's just the way it is.

 

I don't think parachute/ solidarity payments existed in 1999/00

 

The championship is far from an impossible dream, not easy but we aren’t talking Premier League here. Rotherham, Barnsley, Luton, Millwall and Coventry with all their off field issues aren’t doing bad atm or in recent seasons. So for every Wycombe there is hope, even Burton had 2 seasons up there. Are we any smaller than them clubs really? How much do their owners throw around every season? I doubt they throw what the likes of Derby do at it. If we are to be self sustainable and get to a decent level we’ll have to pay for it simple as that really.

 

The whole system is a busted flush, perennially favouring Premier and Championship clubs with parachute payments. Clubs above us are being given free money for failing. And this is what the cartel have fixed. They don't want lower league clubs coming in and spoiling their inclusive little party. Let's not be deluded - if City have ambitions to ultimately reach the Championship, we will need one heck of a financial investment first to get up there, and then remain there. Never mind just getting back into Lg 1. Welcome to the utterly cynical un-level playing field of English football. The Premier and the EFL have stitched things up for the top clubs. It's a disgrace. Turbo capitalism at its very worst.

 

2006/07 introduced

 

A balanced approach year on year to increasing ST prices would be accepted by anyone. Do not forget the club revenue isn't just ST's but programmes, food, hospitality, advertising etc-so by having more bodies in the ground their is a better chance for the club to skim a few more quid from us. I think our prices are too low and in reality I wouldn't baulk at paying around £8-£10 per home game especially if we get to League 1.

Getting a settled squad for next season and a proper go at auto's to league 1 is the short term goal right now.

To get to the Championship I would expect ST's to be at least £299 and I would pay that, as it still represents good value for money and the extra fans who would attend games in the championship would far outweigh those who were priced out and the away followings would also bring good revenue.

So lets get to the Championship and go from there.

 

Not relevant; the question should be what is affordable to Bradfordians. What is affordable to me might not be affordable to someone else and vice versa. It's one of Ryan's jobs to figure this out and get it right.

 

Pretty much the same as is affordable to those in Bury, Oldham, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Blackpool and most other struggling Northern towns.

 

You could start by adopting a variable price depending on where you sit, a bit like the rest of the world