Tennis balls Saturday

There’s not a single league 2 side ever other than us with 25k capacity stadium incurring £500k a year in rent and championship clubs get a lot more income from the EFL and TV rights which helps to cover higher costs.
Why are we the only club offering cheap tickets when almost every other club in the country outside the top 2 divisions have a half empty stadium? why don’t they offer cheap tickets to fill their ground?

 

You've answered your own question we have a stadium that can get 23,000 in it would be criminal not to make the best return with regard season ticket holders, I don't know why you find it so hard to grasp 17,000 at £200 is far better than 8,000 at £300, then take the add ons into consideration drink, food, merchandise, it would be a gamble to go down your route.

 

The issue is how the revenue is spent on team strengthening. Hughes had the biggest budget we’ve provided in the bottom tier, yet it was spent foolishly. Get someone in who knows what they’re doing and the crowd size, season ticket issue goes away.

 

Because we’d rather have 17,000 crowds at £200 than 10,000 crowds at £330.

It’s not lack of money that’s stopping us progress. Hughes and Gent have had large enough budgets to build a promotion squad. But we’ve lacked a clear direction on recruitment. We’ve gone for quantity over quality - too many injury prone (Clayton, McDonald) or unmotivated, past their best (Smallwood, Taylor) old timers and hopeful punts on untried academy youngsters (the list’s too long to bother with).
Everyone could see that we needed proven replacement wingers for Banks and Wright, a dominant midfield playmaker, a proven, experienced striker as cover/competition to Cook and maybe a second, quicker striker to play off Cook if we wanted to go two up top (one who actually knows where the net is, unlike Smith). Those acquisitions would have turned the squad from a playoff one to an auto promotion one. Instead of which we’ve once again packed a bloated squad full of unproven or not good enough players, several of whom aren’t even good enough for the bench.
As this WOAP article points out, there appears to have been a mismatch going on between Gent, who seems focused on bringing in young, undiscovered ‘talent’ and Hughes, who wants steady players that he knows and trusts. We need to decide what kind of team we’re trying to build and recruit the right players for that style. I don’t believe that quality players (for this level) can’t be attracted to Bradford City; it’s about spending the money available more wisely.

https://widthofapost.com/2023/10/04/mark-hughes-leaves-bradford-city-as-the-club-tries-to-reverse-a-sudden-slide-in-the-wrong-direction/

 

Because these clubs don't have the capacity to make up for the revenue lost. How could a club getting 10,000 gates with a 15,000 capacity half the cost when they can't double the capacity.

The simple economics are that if you double our prices we would lose potentially half our customers and just stand still, it would be nieve to think increasing the price to the levels other charge would increase revenue.

We have the capacity to do it, so why does it disadvantage us in any way - 7,000 sold at £400 is the same money as 14,000 sold at £200.

 

This article makes clear that, this season, Hughes was given the biggest player budget of any City manager at L2 level and up there with the other big budgets in the league (apart from Wrexham). So lack of money is clearly not the issue. It’s a combination of failure to spend it well, poor tactics and scattergun selection that see us where we are now.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/23834794.mark-hughes-bantams-fans-never-got-carlisle-defeat/?ref=suit

 

Another good article that sums up where we are very accurately.

 

Never recovered from Carlisle away in playoffs. Which as usual he never admitted he got it wrong.

 

I will remember him for Banks/Platt at Carlisle

 

It’s consistent with his attitude to away tickets. Everything must be geared to the wishes of the hardcore ‘travelling faithful’ who go to every away game. Never mind if your finances, or work or domestic circumstances only allow you to attend the occasional away game; or if you’re a Bantams fan living down south whose only chance to watch City live is at a southern ground with small away capacity. Nothing must be done to impede the hardcore mob from attending every single game that they want to go to. It’s all about demonstrating your unswerving, unwavering commitment, week in week out.
Similarly, he appears to resent the fact that we have some home attendees who aren’t 100% committed and prepared to fork out bigger sums to watch games. He’d rather have 8,000 hardcore ultras in the stadium paying top whack than attract the less committed fans with lower ticket prices, even if it reduced our total revenue.

 

Club revenue doesn't just come from ticket sales. The more fans we have attending games = the more:

• Merchandise we sell
• Food and drink we sell at games
• Advertising revenue (companies will pay more to advertise in front of 17k fans compared to 8k)
• Sponsorships

Imo our model is very good. We have lots of problems with our club, but this isn't one of them. The proof is in the pudding. Commercial revenue has grown massively over the last few years.

Football should also be affordable. We don't live in an affluent city and there should be a low barrier of entry for fans to support the club. Increasing prices would price out some of our fan base.

One thing the club could do better is generate more revenue from the supporters who can afford to spend more on supporting the club. To do this they need to offer a value proposition to fans. Something like a supporters clubs scheme where you pay an annual subscription and get access to exclusive experiences or to vote on simple matchday related things (what food/drink choices are available) would be good imo.

 

Like, er, MK Dons or summat?

(There have been more but I won't rub it in too much)

 

I would take that with a pinch of Salt. I remember it's fore runner Boy From Brazil, absolutely creaming themselves about Archie Christie and his approach to "finding" talent.

 

So your philosophy is to cater for the southern based fans who can only get to Sutton Utd and sod the Northerners who travel up and down the country every other week?
With regards to the 17000@£200 or 8000@£300 comment of course I’d go with the former but what happens when the bulk of the 17000 start to get bored of league 2 and stop renewing?
Do we allow the remainers to continue paying £200 or does the price go up at that point?

 

Ok so MK Dons is a very good example.
Why don’t they sell ST’s at £149 to fill the stadium?
Instead they charge £386 and have an empty stadium. Why?

 

Or we look like AC Milan Ultras

 

Population of MK is less than half Bradford.
They get average 8000 crowds??
Not bad imo.
City smaller than Doncaster but better crowds.

 

Why do you think that what MK Dons is doing is correct and what we are doing is wrong?

 

Because I don't think their chairman believes they'll get the crowds.

How about Huddersfield then? Similar size ground and promoted offering cheap tickets.

What's the excuse this time?