Pay on the gate is dead - and it’s a problem

[Mr Farrell]

1 hour ago, FlyingOwl said:

He genuinely ‘doesn’t get it’ from when I’ve gone to fans forum meetings. They all had massive debates about ticket prices and he constantly tried to justify it. He was of the idea that when he had them priced at £20 for the odd game, we didn’t get a massive extra influx of fans through the gate. 
 

He didn’t get that one or two kids for a quid or £20 tickets in all stands games a season wouldn’t be enough to tempt fans back often enough. 
 

He was adamant that if we want success then these are the prices we have to pay. And that we’re a family and real fans will pay the money. 
 

I do think, or rather remain hopeful, that his heart is in the right place with this club. But I bloody wish he had one or two better football advisors on board whispering in his ear.

 

When was the last forum ?

 

Seems like years ago.

[Inspector Lestrade]

8 hours ago, OurDan said:

 

Every club that's been promoted in the last 4 years has charged less than us

 

Id been a season ticket holder all my life until the last 2 years, my Dad bought me one so I could go with him. But I really couldn't stand it any longer. The club is dead, the atmosphere is dead. He hates going as well, but goes out of duty

 

Chansiri has killed us. And continues to do so. And is so pig headed he refuses to learn from his mistakes

 

 Every club that's been promoted has had smaller ground than us as well, so lower overheads I would assume.

 

Again bring answers to the table instead of your family history as interesting as it is. Doesn't help us solve the conundrum.
 

[Inspector Lestrade]

7 minutes ago, Mr Farrell said:

 

Be nice to hear DC give a bit of a rallying call or some positive news. 

 

Not sure what the current plan is, and aside from blaming the EFL for us diddling the accounts, not heard him say much for over a year.

 

What's your solution?

[torres]

2 minutes ago, Inspector Lestrade said:

 

 Every club that's been promoted has had smaller ground than us as well, so lower overheads I would assume.

 

Again bring answers to the table instead of your family history as interesting as it is. Doesn't help us solve the conundrum.
 

Villa have a bigger ground 

[Inspector Lestrade]

Just now, torres said:

Villa have a bigger ground 

 

Oh aye apart from them.

 

 

There's always one  

[Belfast Owl 2]

39 minutes ago, rickygoo said:

And tell me what sort of competent marketing outfit comes up with Club 1867 and then tries to launch it twice? 

 

I thought that was all Chansiris fault?

 

It was a terrible idea whoever came up with it.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, bigash_swfc said:

 

We need a complete restart. 

 

A ruthless, rebuilding restart. 

 

An understanding from the fans, that Forestieiri, Westwood and Lee etc...are part of the problem, not the answer. 

 

Imagine if all 3 of them are on 30k per week each or more. We could have 6 well scouted youngsters all busting a gut to get into the first team for that. 

 

Competition is key. Westwood, Forestieri and Lee are done. Winnall doesn't seem the player he was, prior to injury. Rhodes is a luxury.

 

We're too comfortable, and it seems like we're in for Wilfried Bony, 31. Who will probably take 3 months to get fit and look a world beater in our last 2 games.

 

To a certain extent I agree but there has to be a balance.

 

Kieran Lee probably deserved the chance of a new contract for a year if he proved his fitness. However, I'd be disappointed but not completely surprised if he got anywhere near what he was previously being paid. He can't have had too many options from elsewhere considering his recent fitness record.

 

Westwood was a big part of helping to turn the 2nd half of last season around, Dawson looked out of his depth at times last season, not helped by Luhukay's strange selection and formation changes but it seemed like we needed his experience. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and as things stand now it looks like we may benefit from moving him on.

 

The likes of Forestieri, Rhodes and even Winnall are expenses that are dragging us down as they don't contribute anywhere near enough. When we signed him Forestieri was a bargain, signing him up to a long-term contract was what I believed to be a decent strategy - get 2 good years out of players like that and if we aren't successful then they are still a good age to sell on and use the money to refresh the team. That strategy falls down if you don't sell on and their value depreciates along with the length of their contract.

 

Both Winnall and Rhodes were signed at a time when most felt 1 striker wasn't a priority never mind two. Neither have ever been 1st choices in the side under multiple managers, Rhodes is one of the highest paid players at the club and Winnall quadrupled his wages to come here. 

 

Bony has scored something like a total of 10 goals in the last 3 seasons. If this is what we are looking at then the club shouldn't be surprised if their transfer policy continues to be roundly criticised.  

Edited January 4, 2020 by Guest

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Mr Farrell said:

 

Be nice to hear DC give a bit of a rallying call or some positive news. 

 

Not sure what the current plan is, and aside from blaming the EFL for us diddling the accounts, not heard him say much for over a year.

 

I'd be inclined to keep quiet if I was sanctioning a move for Wilfried Bony. 

 

 

[Belfast Owl 2]

24 minutes ago, rickygoo said:

Bigger changes are happening. Short of promotion maybe we need a galvanising event. Leeds got it from hiring Bielsa. All those years ago the Geordies got it signing Keegan. . 

 

The only people who benefited from Bielsa were Norwich and the Pigs.

 

We had Bruce who is a promotion expert and you could see he was building something. Pity he is a Judas cheeky monkey

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Belfast Owl 2 said:

 

The only people who benefited from Bielsa were Norwich and the Pigs.

 

We had Bruce who is a promotion expert and you could see he was building something. Pity he is a Judas cheeky monkey

 

 

Disagree with that. I was sceptical about Bielsa and expected him to leave when they failed to get over the line last season but their fans have bought into what he brings big time.

 

I don't think dirtyleeds have a squad that should definitely be in the top 2 but they play decent football and he has brought increased media interest as well as interest and togetherness from their core support.

[Belfast Owl 2]

1 hour ago, rickygoo said:

I never said you don’t care. And I wasn’t rocking out the I go more games than you stuff to imply I’m a bigger fan. I’m saying if you’d gone regularly recently you’d see the issues more clearly. Totally different thing. 

 

The price thing has got my goat since the opening day Bristol City game. For a while I was slagged off for my views on here. Increasingly people are agreeing - wrong or right who knows. I just happen to think it’s wrong - commercially and - more importantly- re the spirit of the game. 

 

But as for “loudmouths” - this is a football forum where we discuss stuff to do with the club. We’re you being a loudmouth when you criticised Chansiri on here? 

 

 

Good point

 

I am a bit of a cheeky monkey so Ill be a loudmouth as well.

[james o connor]

35 minutes ago, Inspector Lestrade said:

 

Again not bringing anything to debate your just going through a list of what we already know.

 

 

Well clearly I am , I’m stating it needs to change or we will lose a generation to the sty / arm chair / glory hunting Liverpool etc . 
 

pot kettle ???

[Belfast Owl 2]

1 minute ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Disagree with that. I was sceptical about Bielsa and expected him to leave when they failed to get over the line last season but their fans have bought into what he brings big time.

 

I don't think dirtyleeds have a squad that should definitely be in the top 2 but they play decent football and he has brought increased media interest as well as interest and togetherness from their core support.

 

But they burned out last season and fell apart again. Due to his tactics. Like his teams have before. 

 

Bruce is a far superior manager with contacts and brings media interest.

 

The Leeds fans I know are a bit more subdued and scepitical after that. And cant understand what he sees in Bamford.

 

Lets see how they finish this year.

 

 

[BingleyOwl]

2 hours ago, Belfast Owl 2 said:

 

So you will happily spend the extra few quid on booze?

 

Maybe you are more of a drinking fan than football?

 

I just dont get how an extra 10 quid is that much of an issue. More of an excuse for majority.

 

You serious? You must be made of money. And it’s not just ‘an extra £10’. For Cat A games it’s an extra £20-£25. I mean, I don’t know your circumstances. You may be loaded. You may be single. But if you’re someone earning a moderate to low salary and has to buy several tickets, not just one, the extra cost is soon more than just ‘an extra £10’.

[Belfast Owl 2]

Just now, BingleyOwl said:

 

You serious? You must be made of money. And it’s not just ‘an extra £10’. For Cat A games it’s an extra £20-£25. I mean, I don’t know your circumstances. You may be loaded. You may be single. But if you’re someone earning a moderate to low salary and has to buy several tickets, not just one, the extra cost is soon more than just ‘an extra £10’.

 

Nope Im not single and am far from loaded.

 

But is it really 20-25 quid dearer since DC came in?

 

Not from my memory of being POTG

[Guest Ferkorf]

3 hours ago, kobayashi said:

You do understand that an average crowd of say 25K including 5K of non season tick holders equates to 35K of "regular attendees" if those non season ticket holders average go to say every 3rd game. The 5K of non season ticket holders are not he same 5K people every week.

Wow thats genius, you shouldn't presume every one here is as thick as you though pal.....

Since you didn't understand my point which was no matter what calculations are thrown around on here we have never had 30k fans on average at Hillsborough in my lifetime which is 35 years and I doubt we ever would unless we got to the prem.

Cheers though

[Inspector Lestrade]

1 minute ago, james o connor said:

Well clearly I am , I’m stating it needs to change or we will lose a generation to the sty / arm chair / glory hunting Liverpool etc . 
 

pot kettle ???

 

We know all that!!!  

 

Draw a line in the sand how do we go forward and improve the situation?  Don't need to know the problems they are well documented in this thread already.  

 

Gives us a broad outline what we can practically do which can honed down for our requirements.  A working model as it were, thats all Im asking.

 

Dunno why I am been attacked for asking a questions and a solution.

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Belfast Owl 2 said:

 

But they burned out last season and fell apart again. Due to his tactics. Like his teams have before. 

 

Bruce is a far superior manager with contacts and brings media interest.

 

The Leeds fans I know are a bit more subdued and scepitical after that. And cant understand what he sees in Bamford.

 

Lets see how they finish this year.

 

 

 

You only have to see the media interest he has brought and the increase in attendances at home to see the positive effect he has had. 

 

Yes he has some history of failure after promising beginnings but Leeds are closer to promotion under him than they were before him and are a more marketable club to boot.

 

Bruce came with promotion credentials but proved to be a more unstable option for our club than Bielsa is at Leeds. 

[Guest Ferkorf]

3 hours ago, BingleyOwl said:

You’re 35. For the vast majority (at least 20 years) of your life, we have been a very poor club, on the edge of extinction and yoyo’ing between League 1 and the Championship. For the first few years of your life, namely mid 80s to mid 90s we had a good, successful squad. Our average home attendances during that time we’re 27k+. At the time, these were among the highest average attendances in the country.

Yes mate I'm fully aware of the attendances back then as I attended Hillsborough back then. I recall the bigger games against man utd with the full house, I also remember the lesser games that were about 23k.

But even then when we were pretty much awesome we still didn't average 30k fans for the season.

I believe if we got back to the prem we should or might at least

But not in this division and thats proven to be fact.

We literally do not have that many fans that can be bothered anymore.

Is it a price problem? Performance problem or both?

Or maybe if your not that arsed about footy that won't change

[BingleyOwl]

1 minute ago, Belfast Owl 2 said:

 

Nope Im not single and am far from loaded.

 

But is it really 20-25 quid dearer since DC came in?

 

Not from my memory of being POTG

 

So I’ve just checked and the difference is £14/game on the Kop prior to Chansiri’s arrival. I’m not sure about the other stands. Still too big of an increase in my opinion.

 

2014

- Stand: Kop

- Non-member adult ticket

- Fixture category: A

- Price: £28

 

2019

- Stand: Kop

- Non-member adult ticket 

- Fixture category: A

- Price: £42