Price of Football

[Kowalski]

Hmmm, we never used to have the most expensive "cheapest" season ticket or most expensive "cheapest" match day ticket.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29527838

 

[BobbyBiscuit]

The price of football in this country is absolutely scandalous. But as long as we continue to pay it, they'll continue to charge it.  The price is a huge reason I don't go every week anymore. SPL (or whatever the fuck it's calling itself today) football must be close to the worst value for money you get in the "entertainment business".

 

Compare the price to golf - if you go to the Open a day ticket may cost you around £60. Double the price of the most expensive SPL ticket - but for that you get an all day event and watching the very best in the world at that sport.  Even the most dyed in the wool SPL fan would have to admit our league is a far way away from being the best in Europe never mind the world.

 

I read somewhere a while ago that if the price had gone up only with inflation, we'd be paying around £12 to get in.  The standard has dropped significantly over the last 20 years, but we're paying 100% more than we should be? Talk about taking the piss.

[Kowalski]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30715162

 

Inverness Caledonian Thistle are offering supporters a "pay what you can" deal for the visit of St Johnstone on 20 January.

League Two Albion Rovers piloted a similar scheme last season, with increased gate receipts.

Inverness are fifth in the Scottish Premiership, averaging home crowds of 3,819 this season.

Children under 12 accompanied by a paying adult will get free entry to this month's derby with Ross County.

"In relative terms our club is still in its infancy having just recently passed our 20th season in existence," said chairman Kenny Cameron.

"We do not have the supporter base of some of the older clubs but will continue to work hard with the Highland community and beyond to turn this around.

"We often hear in the press that games in Scotland are over priced and if prices were slashed crowds would increase dramatically, well this is certainly an opportunity to dip our toes in the water and see if this is really the case.

"We feel it is certainly worth trying and if it successful we would certainly look at doing it again and then the carry over from that would be a full review of our pricing structures for next season."

[manc_don]

Very positive to read, and is something that all clubs in Scotland should be doing IMO. Something that should be considered before the start of the season as well so that ST holders don't moan about getting shafted.

[manc_don]

So I see west ham have confirmed that they will be slashing season ticket prices by 25% when they move into the new stadium due to the increase of TV money. Very refreshing to read.

[tlg1903]

well they are going to have 50 k of them to sell in a couple of seasons,  interesting timelapse video on what they are doing with their new stadium if anyone likes that kinda thing

 

[Jute]

So I see west ham have confirmed that they will be slashing season ticket prices by 25% when they move into the new stadium due to the increase of TV money. Very refreshing to read.

 

Extra 19,000 tickets to sell will make up for the loss in cash for the discount in prices.

[Tubilay]

There are scale problems in Scottish football with regards pricing.

 

The reason that clubs in, for example, Germany can afford to offer football at £150 for a season ticket is because their TV deal is so massive that the day-to-day support is a fraction of their overall income. Clubs in England could/should be able to do exactly this as well, but choose not to. Every club in the English Premier league could drop their prices by £20 next year, and still make the same margins as they did this, given the massive increase in TV money. International golf, rugby, tennis, etc, all have huge sponsorship deals, which means they can be a bit more flexible on pricing.

 

In Scotland, we don't have that luxury. Almost all of a club's income comes from gate receipts. As a result, they're more expensive, and they're pushed to the absolute limit of what people will pay. Because the league has no sponsor, because our TV deal is horrendous and because there's minimal "other" revenue streams, clubs have to put up prices. For example, if we dropped the average ticket by £5, it could cost us something in the region of £1 million in lost revenue. That's something like 15% of our total turnover, and that's us. For a club like Motherwell or St Johnstone, that's an enormous portion of their income in a given year.

 

The only way to make it more affordable without cutting back on the budget of the clubs is to open up more TV money, more sponsorship and more revenue opportunities for the clubs.

[manc_don]

Good post Tubilay.  It is quite shocking that those running the game aren't supporting the club better by maximising revenue streams (such as through sponsorship of the league etc...).  I guess it's all if's and but's and unfortunately all of it does depend on them fighting out corner.  The TV "deal" was a complete farce.