I-Follow & City:The Future or The end of the Away Day?

But midweek matches were available on iFollow before the pandemic hit.

 

Yes, since August 2018.

 

I give you an alternative ‘arbitrary’ figure. I suggest that the support would decrease by 5-10% (so 50 - 100 less) but that the i-follow numbers would be 1500-2000.

 

If the average away attendance for the last full season was 1009 and the average paid to attend was £16 (based on figures to include concessions), the 1009 X £16=£16,144.
If i-follow is available and the actual live attendance decreases by 10% the 908 paying fans at an average of £16 would generate £14,528. So a reduction of £1,616 on the gate.
However if an additional 1500 bought an i-follow ticket at the flat rate of £10 then that would generate £15,000. If 10% was taken by the EFL, then that would leave £13,500. If the host club got 40% of the remaining £13,500 they would get £5,400. Add that to the actual ‘gate takings’ and that would generate £19,928 or in simple terms an additional £3,784. Remember they wouldn’t be paying ‘admin’ fees to the away club, for the loss of 100 or so tickets which is probably around £300 or so. Which is a rough figure of £4,000 extra income.
So the host club on that equation has a reduced physical gate, but gains more money.
Meanwhile City would get an extra £8,100.
Happy for others with a better understanding or knowledge of the system to come up with alternative figures.
However:

• City fans who want to go to a game can do so.
• City fans who could not make it in person can follow the team.
• The ‘Host’ team makes more money.
• City makes more money.
• Those who don’t want to use i-follow will not have to do so.

 

I actually like planning the whole away day. Travel, parking or trains etc. This will continue as before, irrespective of wether or not City have an i-follow option. I will also go to about the same number of games. What i-follow offers is an additional experience.

 

There is no doubt that iFollow has some impact, but

I think those figures are very conservative and the increased income would probably be even greater. For example, the 908 travelling fans would probably only account for the 'loss' of around 500 iFollow passes (families/friends watching together), so iFollow sales would probably be more like 2,000 based on those travelling numbers.

What you have demonstrated is that there is an opportunity for all parties (EFL/home club/away club) to make extra money out of this. The only debate that the EFL/clubs should be having is how to split that extra money. Personally, I see little wrong with a 50/50 split after the EFL have taken their 10%. However, other splits are available.

Ryan indicated, at the Brighouse Town Q&A this week, that we should know the answer, from the EFL, in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

 

I went for a 1500 + 908 figure as that would be under 2,500. Yes we have apparently sold more than 3,000, but that has been during a spell when the club has been doing well and there are fewer alternatives given the Coronavirus restrictions on other activities. I would think the figures are a reasonable average over a whole season.

Even if we went on the basis of a 50/50 split of the £13,500, after the EFL had deducted 10%, then over a season that could be about £155,000 extra, which could pay the salary of a decent striker in League Two!