Post by QPR Report on Aug 14, 2009 6:54:00 GMT
So how many season tickets did QPR end up selling? Funky a few weeks ago said was 8,000+ at the time.
Guardian/Owen Gibson
Premier League is still proving to be just the ticket for hard-up fans• Only four top-flight clubs suffer reduction in season-ticket sales
• Football League expected to be hit by collapse in sponsorship
Never has the contrast between the front and back pages been as stark as it has this close season, which has seen Real Madrid and Manchester City splashing out hundreds of millions of pounds while the effects of the worst recession in 70 years are played out among supporters.
As the recession took hold, analysts pointed to this summer's season-ticket sales as an indicator that might reveal the soft underbelly beneath the Premier League boom. Many, then, will be surprised by figures showing that just four clubs – Portsmouth, West Ham, Bolton and Aston Villa – have seen a reduction on sales so far. Others – such as Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn – have recorded impressive increases through innovative marketing and straightforward price cuts. Blackburn have seen a rise of 25% to 17,500 after cutting the price of their cheapest ticket from £249 to £199. Sunderland have seen numbers swell to 27,000.
Riding a wave of optimism, newcomers Burnley have doubled the number of season ticket holders from 8,000 to 16,000 – which will go some way to making up for the fact that all of those who have renewed are receiving theirs for free following the chairman Barry Kilby's somewhat rash promise to fans at the beginning of last season.
Beneath the calm surface waters, however, clubs are having to paddle ever faster. According to a recent report by auditors PKF published this week, half of all clubs across the Premier League and Football League believe income from match tickets and season tickets will fall in the coming year.
The vast majority of Premier League clubs have frozen or reduced season-ticket prices, while others have followed clubs such as Bolton and Blackburn, who in recent seasons have been forced to think more laterally about how to attract fans and "flex" their prices to encourage take-up. Chelsea, for example, have frozen season tickets and match-day prices for four years running.
It is probably no coincidence that those who have raised prices, Aston Villa and Manchester United among them, have found it hardest to match last season's figures. Since the Glazer takeover and further expansion of the ground, it has not been unusual for the champions to have a limited number of season tickets remaining on sale going into the new season.
But this year, supporters have noticed a steady stream of emails dropping into their in-boxes offering a "last chance" to snap up a season ticket. In figures supplied to the Premier League, United predicted they would sell the same number of season tickets as last year.
But Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust, said anecdotal evidence suggested some hardcore supporters were giving up their season tickets because a range of factors, from the economy to ticket allocation, had forced them to reassess their relationship with the club. "I've been amazed. Some of the people I thought would never give up their season tickets have done so this year," he said.
Dave Boyle, chief executive of Supporters Direct, noted a similar trend. "For different people, it's different reasons. But Part of it is this thing of the game being so relentlessly hyped," he said. "This idea of football being a matter of life and death is easy to buy when times are good. When times are hard, you realise it's just a game – and quite an expensive one at that."
Research published this month by Virgin Money suggested up to a third of fans would attend fewer matches this season due to rising costs. Fans of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were most likely to go less often. However, last year the same survey said 26% of fans would attend fewer matches, but occupancy levels at Premier League grounds remained at a very impressive 92% and the Football League enjoyed its best figures for nearly 50 years.
And any claims of ennui setting in must be seen in the context of the decade-long boom and attendant rise in the quality of facilities and on-field action that enabled clubs to increase ticket prices to a degree that has been witnessed in few other industries before or since. In 1992, the average ticket price in the First Division was just £7.56.
Most clubs realised two or three years ago that they could not afford to go on putting prices up indiscriminately. When the nation's biggest-selling tabloid starting running a campaign against price increases three years ago, it sounded a warning about the shifting public mood.
Outside the Premier League, there is both cause for optimism and despair. It is here that
Despite many laudable initiatives to boost attendances and re-engage with fans instituted in the wake of the ITV Digital debacle, it is here that the the collapse in corporate hospitality and sponsorship , often reliant on local businesses rather than big corporations, will hit hardest. But enlightened ticketing policies at many clubs such as Nottingham Forest and Norwich City have also boosted crowds. At Cardiff, under-16s can get a season ticket for £49 while at Watford it will cost them £40. At many Football League grounds under sevens or under nines get in free.
While matchday income is less important to clubs than it once was, thanks to the growth of TV revenue, it still accounts for between a third and half of all revenue. And because the majority of season ticket sales are banked in advance, they are disproportionately important. Attendances are also inextricably linked to the value of TV rights - if the atmosphere in grounds began to dissipate, that would soon be reflected in rights fees. The coming season could be the ultimate test of all those theories aboutwhether some fans have been priced out of the game or fallen out of love with it due to hyper-commercialisation. The reality is not likely to be dramatic, and, in contrast to the prevailing atmosphere of polarised pre-season opinion, contain far more shades of grey. yet even at a time of traditionally unbridled optimism, there are definite signs of a shift in mood.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/13/premier-league-season-tickets-manchester-united
Guardian/Owen Gibson
Premier League is still proving to be just the ticket for hard-up fans• Only four top-flight clubs suffer reduction in season-ticket sales
• Football League expected to be hit by collapse in sponsorship
Never has the contrast between the front and back pages been as stark as it has this close season, which has seen Real Madrid and Manchester City splashing out hundreds of millions of pounds while the effects of the worst recession in 70 years are played out among supporters.
As the recession took hold, analysts pointed to this summer's season-ticket sales as an indicator that might reveal the soft underbelly beneath the Premier League boom. Many, then, will be surprised by figures showing that just four clubs – Portsmouth, West Ham, Bolton and Aston Villa – have seen a reduction on sales so far. Others – such as Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn – have recorded impressive increases through innovative marketing and straightforward price cuts. Blackburn have seen a rise of 25% to 17,500 after cutting the price of their cheapest ticket from £249 to £199. Sunderland have seen numbers swell to 27,000.
Riding a wave of optimism, newcomers Burnley have doubled the number of season ticket holders from 8,000 to 16,000 – which will go some way to making up for the fact that all of those who have renewed are receiving theirs for free following the chairman Barry Kilby's somewhat rash promise to fans at the beginning of last season.
Beneath the calm surface waters, however, clubs are having to paddle ever faster. According to a recent report by auditors PKF published this week, half of all clubs across the Premier League and Football League believe income from match tickets and season tickets will fall in the coming year.
The vast majority of Premier League clubs have frozen or reduced season-ticket prices, while others have followed clubs such as Bolton and Blackburn, who in recent seasons have been forced to think more laterally about how to attract fans and "flex" their prices to encourage take-up. Chelsea, for example, have frozen season tickets and match-day prices for four years running.
It is probably no coincidence that those who have raised prices, Aston Villa and Manchester United among them, have found it hardest to match last season's figures. Since the Glazer takeover and further expansion of the ground, it has not been unusual for the champions to have a limited number of season tickets remaining on sale going into the new season.
But this year, supporters have noticed a steady stream of emails dropping into their in-boxes offering a "last chance" to snap up a season ticket. In figures supplied to the Premier League, United predicted they would sell the same number of season tickets as last year.
But Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust, said anecdotal evidence suggested some hardcore supporters were giving up their season tickets because a range of factors, from the economy to ticket allocation, had forced them to reassess their relationship with the club. "I've been amazed. Some of the people I thought would never give up their season tickets have done so this year," he said.
Dave Boyle, chief executive of Supporters Direct, noted a similar trend. "For different people, it's different reasons. But Part of it is this thing of the game being so relentlessly hyped," he said. "This idea of football being a matter of life and death is easy to buy when times are good. When times are hard, you realise it's just a game – and quite an expensive one at that."
Research published this month by Virgin Money suggested up to a third of fans would attend fewer matches this season due to rising costs. Fans of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were most likely to go less often. However, last year the same survey said 26% of fans would attend fewer matches, but occupancy levels at Premier League grounds remained at a very impressive 92% and the Football League enjoyed its best figures for nearly 50 years.
And any claims of ennui setting in must be seen in the context of the decade-long boom and attendant rise in the quality of facilities and on-field action that enabled clubs to increase ticket prices to a degree that has been witnessed in few other industries before or since. In 1992, the average ticket price in the First Division was just £7.56.
Most clubs realised two or three years ago that they could not afford to go on putting prices up indiscriminately. When the nation's biggest-selling tabloid starting running a campaign against price increases three years ago, it sounded a warning about the shifting public mood.
Outside the Premier League, there is both cause for optimism and despair. It is here that
Despite many laudable initiatives to boost attendances and re-engage with fans instituted in the wake of the ITV Digital debacle, it is here that the the collapse in corporate hospitality and sponsorship , often reliant on local businesses rather than big corporations, will hit hardest. But enlightened ticketing policies at many clubs such as Nottingham Forest and Norwich City have also boosted crowds. At Cardiff, under-16s can get a season ticket for £49 while at Watford it will cost them £40. At many Football League grounds under sevens or under nines get in free.
While matchday income is less important to clubs than it once was, thanks to the growth of TV revenue, it still accounts for between a third and half of all revenue. And because the majority of season ticket sales are banked in advance, they are disproportionately important. Attendances are also inextricably linked to the value of TV rights - if the atmosphere in grounds began to dissipate, that would soon be reflected in rights fees. The coming season could be the ultimate test of all those theories aboutwhether some fans have been priced out of the game or fallen out of love with it due to hyper-commercialisation. The reality is not likely to be dramatic, and, in contrast to the prevailing atmosphere of polarised pre-season opinion, contain far more shades of grey. yet even at a time of traditionally unbridled optimism, there are definite signs of a shift in mood.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/13/premier-league-season-tickets-manchester-united