Ex Shelton Seagull
New member
I've been reading some articles in the Times over the past couple of days that highlight the fall in crowd numbers at Premiership and Championship games. Premiership crowds have gone down by a couple of thousand and some Championship clubs have had very big drop-offs in support.
Last Saturdays game against Leeds got a crowd of 21,212. When we played them in January the attendance was 27,033. Is this a direct result of the price hikes that Ken Bates has put in place up there? I know our away tickets were 20 quid as opposed to 19 last season. Someone pointed out that Cardiff appear to be 5,000 supporters down at the moment. That's a serious problem for them because they have to average crowds of 13-14,000 to service their debts and pay for their new players. I think Plymouth are about 4,000 supporters down from last season.
Can these be attributed to poor performances, ticket prices or some other reason? Millwall crowds have dropped by about 6,000 from last season, how much of that drop can be attributed to the general air of depression around the New Den? At the start of the season the League, and Coca-Cola, were busy trumpeting the highest crowd levels in decades at this level. Now they're starting to drop dramatically.
We're struggling to shift all our tickets for the Palace game. At 30 quid a pop for adults is anyone surprised. 30 notes to gain entry to an ageing shed, poor view, hostile treatment by Police and, unfourtunately, a probable defeat. For people with other priorities, such as their family, it's a hell of a whack to the finances. Expect the same when we play Southampton, because I think we're on 30 quid a ticket there.
Clubs have been upping prices year on year and maybe this year they've pushed some people too far. Looking at ticket stubs for the 02/03 season you can see that nearly all clubs had upped their prices by a couple of quid just two seasons later. The current downturn in the retail economy doesn't stop at the high-street, it affects leisure activities like football as well. This seems to be an economic lesson most chairmen are ignoring.
I'm no going to the Burnley game next week, but I thought I might take in a game somewhere. As a laugh i thought i'd check out Chelsea prices. It would cost 48 quid minimum to get in, combined with train travel it works out at around 68 quid, to go and see a one-sided game between two teams I really don't care about. I just want to watch a game of football but there's no way i'm spending that much. How much more would it be if I was taking along a kid? You'd be lucky to get change from £120 when the day was done.
I'm now toying with the idea of going to watch Brentford play Bristol City. 13 quid on the terraces, lunch and a pint by the Thames and back home on the train for around 30 quid. Or go and watch a game at Crawley, or maybe Hassocks in the FA Cup. I guess that my loyalty to Albion blinds me to the cost of going, i'd never paid attention to how much it all costs but i'm having to cutback a bit this season.
When/If we ever get a new stadium will we be affected by this drop in numbers? Will ticket prices drop or will they stay at Withdean levels? I think I already know the answer. The floating punter appears to have voted with their feet this season, the current prices are too much. When our capacity is increased later in the year we are going to have to WORK to sell tickets for the first time in ages, are the club prepared for this? We aren't exactly a bargain ourselves and sitting in the open for a match against Burnley isn't really a draw in itself. We don't want large swathes of empty seats at Withdean after we've finally got the capacity expanded.
Last Saturdays game against Leeds got a crowd of 21,212. When we played them in January the attendance was 27,033. Is this a direct result of the price hikes that Ken Bates has put in place up there? I know our away tickets were 20 quid as opposed to 19 last season. Someone pointed out that Cardiff appear to be 5,000 supporters down at the moment. That's a serious problem for them because they have to average crowds of 13-14,000 to service their debts and pay for their new players. I think Plymouth are about 4,000 supporters down from last season.
Can these be attributed to poor performances, ticket prices or some other reason? Millwall crowds have dropped by about 6,000 from last season, how much of that drop can be attributed to the general air of depression around the New Den? At the start of the season the League, and Coca-Cola, were busy trumpeting the highest crowd levels in decades at this level. Now they're starting to drop dramatically.
We're struggling to shift all our tickets for the Palace game. At 30 quid a pop for adults is anyone surprised. 30 notes to gain entry to an ageing shed, poor view, hostile treatment by Police and, unfourtunately, a probable defeat. For people with other priorities, such as their family, it's a hell of a whack to the finances. Expect the same when we play Southampton, because I think we're on 30 quid a ticket there.
Clubs have been upping prices year on year and maybe this year they've pushed some people too far. Looking at ticket stubs for the 02/03 season you can see that nearly all clubs had upped their prices by a couple of quid just two seasons later. The current downturn in the retail economy doesn't stop at the high-street, it affects leisure activities like football as well. This seems to be an economic lesson most chairmen are ignoring.
I'm no going to the Burnley game next week, but I thought I might take in a game somewhere. As a laugh i thought i'd check out Chelsea prices. It would cost 48 quid minimum to get in, combined with train travel it works out at around 68 quid, to go and see a one-sided game between two teams I really don't care about. I just want to watch a game of football but there's no way i'm spending that much. How much more would it be if I was taking along a kid? You'd be lucky to get change from £120 when the day was done.
I'm now toying with the idea of going to watch Brentford play Bristol City. 13 quid on the terraces, lunch and a pint by the Thames and back home on the train for around 30 quid. Or go and watch a game at Crawley, or maybe Hassocks in the FA Cup. I guess that my loyalty to Albion blinds me to the cost of going, i'd never paid attention to how much it all costs but i'm having to cutback a bit this season.
When/If we ever get a new stadium will we be affected by this drop in numbers? Will ticket prices drop or will they stay at Withdean levels? I think I already know the answer. The floating punter appears to have voted with their feet this season, the current prices are too much. When our capacity is increased later in the year we are going to have to WORK to sell tickets for the first time in ages, are the club prepared for this? We aren't exactly a bargain ourselves and sitting in the open for a match against Burnley isn't really a draw in itself. We don't want large swathes of empty seats at Withdean after we've finally got the capacity expanded.
