Post by QPR Report on May 22, 2009 6:24:35 GMT
The Times/Tom Dart
Burnley loyalty card offers fans chance to watch top flight free
Manchester United? Chelsea? Liverpool? Burnley supporters wouldn't pay to watch them. Burnley face Sheffield United in the Coca-Cola Championship play-off final on Monday with millions of pounds riding on the result for the club and hundreds of pounds at stake for each of their most loyal followers.
Victory for Owen Coyle's side at Wembley and some 7,000 season ticket-holders will lead their team to take on the elite at Turf Moor for nothing, all year long.
Before the start of the season, Burnley offered a unique incentive to fans: everyone who bought a season ticket by August 8 last year would be guaranteed a free one for the campaign after, if the club were promoted. Supporters who renewed this spring would have their money refunded in the close season.
It is a remarkably generous offer, especially considering the top flight's reputation as the “greed is good league”. Promotion is supposed to be lucrative for clubs, not fans. Shouldn't Burnley be figuring out new ways to fleece their fans? But Barry Kilby, the chairman, perhaps figured that he was on fairly safe ground. After all, it is 33 years since Burnley were last in the highest tier.
Thanks to the success of Coyle's lowbudget line-up, Burnley are 90 minutes from the big time and a big bill. The cost of the scheme to the club is estimated at £2million, but with a place in the Barclays Premier League worth up to £60million, they could absorb the expense easily enough.
“We called it the 'Chairman's Pledge,'” Kilby said. “If we go up, then people who bought season tickets will get their money back. All of these people have stood with us through thick and thin. It would be just a case of them sharing our success. In terms of Premier League money, it's not that big. I would certainly trade it for getting into the Premier League.”
It is still £2million that could have been ploughed into Coyle's playing budget, but the manager is understanding. “It tells you that the football club is for the town and it probably sums up the chairman himself,” he said.
The sobering reality behind the headline is that as long as they are in the Championship, Burnley need the income from season-ticket sales to see them through the summer, and football in the region is struggling with low attendances. This week, Blackburn Rovers reduced the price of their cheapest adult full-season ticket to £199, a year-on-year discount of £100; in 2007, Burnley's League Two neighbours, Accrington Stanley, let the crowd in free to boost the atmosphere for a crucial relegation match against Torquay United. A season ticket at Burnley next year for new applicants costs between £378 and £462.
“The pledge came about because our Premier League rivals around here were cutting prices,” Kilby said. “I thought that was pretty easy for them to do when less than 20 per cent of income comes from people coming to watch. We will lose money this year, even with the cup runs [Burnley reached the semi-finals of the Carling Cup and the FA Cup fifth round]. It will be around £3million or £4million that we will lose. This is an oldfashioned club and it is supported by directors' loans.”
Promotion would enhance Coyle's growing reputation, but he is close to agreeing an extension to his present deal that would run until at least 2012. “We are talking to him about his contract and are very close to extending it, but with the play-offs everything is on hold,” Kilby said.
Who is Barry Kilby?
- Like other members of the Burnley board, the chairman is a wealthy but not super-rich local fan and businessman.
- A former Burnley youth-team player, he became chairman in 1998 and is reported to have put £6 million into the club, who rely on benefactors covering their losses to stay afloat.
- Kilby made his fortune by pioneering scratchcard games and lotteries such as the newspaper bingo games that became popular in the 1980s.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6337957.ece
