The Triangle of Hope
Season ticket seat blockers v half-and-half tourists
We all know it’s the hope that kills. Every time. Another campaign is over, ending with ‘what ifs’ for most. But the next fixture list is less than four weeks away and your season ticket renewal already sorted. You do realise that you’re a seat blocker, don’t you - depriving your club of valuable cash and with it the means of competing?
A die-hard Spurs fan this week pinged me an old meme from the Tottenham Hotspur Funnies social media page, summing up the annual victory of heart over head that fans of the majority of clubs must experience. ‘I get my hopes up: I get disappointed: I start to believe again.’ Might as well add ‘I renew my season ticket.’
For decades regular fans were invaluable assets for football clubs in the top flight of the English game. Stadiums were rarely full. Season ticket sales provided crucial cashflow, often spent to cover losses before the first August fixture had even kicked off. They cemented the relationship between club and supporter and offered few perks beyond a discounted average matchday entry price, a regular seat (unless you chose the terraces) and priority access to a cup final ticket if that happened to be your team’s year.
As the popularity of the Premier League has exploded, so the season ticket equation has reversed. Where the balance of advantage traditionally rested with clubs, now fans find themselves incumbent owners of scarce assets. Waiting lists are the order of the day, memberships are sold to monetise the scramble for scarce single match tickets and clubs crank up the prices of hospitality experiences to satisfy the once-in-a-blue-mooners.
The tales may be apocryphal, but fans tell of season ticket holders at the biggest teams dying and their friends and family holding onto the tickets for years rather than inviting the clubs to the funeral. Such is the length of waiting lists. Can cause a problem if a twenty-something is using a deceased senior citizen’s ticket that had been sold at a concessionary rate, but that’s always been a challenge at crowded turnstiles five minutes before kick off, whether the named ticket-holder is dead or alive.
If you doubt leading clubs’ interest in the season v casual ticket equation, look no further than the aforementioned Spurs phasing in a halving of its discount for over-65s in the coming years. The same fan describes his team’s season ticket base as being “as sclerotic as Japan”, reckoning chairman Daniel Levy is taking action because the club faces a “tsunami of fans about to turn that age in the next few seasons.” The BBC reports that Spurs claims to have four times as many older season ticket holders in its new stadium as at its previous White Hart Lane home.
A one-off attendee is likely to spend a multiple of the amount of cash on a matchday as a regular. Think club shop souvenirs followed by early entry to the ground to be fed and watered. A half-and-half scarf bought from a street vendor might deprive the club of a few quid, but all the rest offers a fat margin while the die-hard is happily ensconced in their favourite pub or chippy, happy to make it to their seat moments before the teams take to the pitch.
The die-hard, though, is an integral component of the stadium experience for the casual spectator. Where do you think those songs come from and do you even know the words? The challenge for clubs is to weigh loyalty and the atmosphere that comes with it against revenue maximisation. Little wonder that stadium expansions are so popular, bringing with them not just total capacity increases but also the opportunity to sell premium seasons and one-off seats without displacing long-term supporters.
Fulham FC provide one pointer to football watching’s future. A sparkly new stand (albeit well behind schedule for a full opening) whose best views have a season price of £3,000 will boost Craven Cottage to around 28,500 seats. Only a little over half of this overall capacity will be available as season tickets, a much lower proportion than at London’s other Premier League clubs.
What comes next? Expect the arrival of dynamic pricing, enabling clubs to clear the market for scarce seats at the highest possible level. It happens for music gigs and US sports, why not here? Also, more add-ons to tickets that cost clubs little but act as a fig leaf for expensive seats. Again, the music industry already shows the way. Look too for penalties when season ticket holders leave seats empty rather than recycling them through club’s resale channels - get a refund on your ticket which is then resold at a massive premium, or else. Brentford, for one, has already got there.
“There will be consequences if fans consistently leave their seat empty. If a season ticket holder fails to use their ticket for a league match, they will get a yellow card. If they get four yellow cards by the next renewal date in 2025, they will lose the automatic right to renew their season ticket for 2025/26.” Brentford FC (using its official resale process avoids a yellow card)
Points deductions for Everton and Nottingham Forest this year highlight the imperative to comply with the Prem’s financial regulations. Be assured, loyal fan, that every single pound counts in your club’s battle to compete within the rules. Do your duty: sing up or resell your ticket!
Tangoed
One in three Americans is arrested by the age of 23. Each year 3% of the US population have their collars felt. Scottie Scheffler is 27. Perhaps we should be less surprised whenever our sporting heroes cross officers of the law, whatever the circumstances.
Batting towards a century
Cricket’s civil war over The Hundred continues. A Sport inc. reader and committed supporter of red ball county cricket asks me if I think it will still exist in 50 years time (the cricket that is, not this newsletter). Says he doesn’t care if they live beyond him, but he needs public bus services and the County Championship to see out his days. He’s 52 years old.
Total attendance at all Championship matches across the eighteen counties last summer totalled just under 400,000, over a fifth of them at the Oval and Lord’s combined. That’s an average of only about 3,000 per four day match. Little wonder that reader gets anxious whenever bus timetables are updated.
Meanwhile, close watchers of domestic cricket politics are awaiting Lancashire Cricket’s AGM next Thursday to see whether disgruntled members vote against the reappointment of Andy Anson as chair.
If worrying about county cricket is your thing, do read The Cricketer and sign up to this Substack: The Grumbler
It ain’t easy
The IPC never has it easy heading into a Paralympic Games, but its leaders might have been forgiven for assuming that Parisians would embrace the Paras with as much enthusiasm as Londoners in 2012. Not so it seems judging by the plentiful tickets still on sale, which prompted IPC president Andrew Parsons’ latest comments.
“In terms of awareness now is the moment to create this call to action to really make people purchase the tickets. I think the Parisians are aware, what we need now is probably to be more concrete.” Andrew Parsons reported in The Guardian
Provides me with an excuse to show you this typically uplifting promotional video though. Released at the weekend, watch it here
Let me be concrete: wheelchair rugby finals day is on 2nd September. If you’re going to watch just one event at Paris 2024 in person…
Meanwhile at West Ham Utd from next season no new concession prices will be available in Bands 1-4, only in the Super Gods Band 5-6. A very hard climb for for a fit adult never mind an over 66 or child.
WHUFC have slipped the details in on the bottom of Page 2 of the FAQ's:
https://whufc.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000172840-where-can-i-sit-with-a-concession-ticket-
As a Lancashire Member I will be supporting Andy Anson and the Board. That doesn't mean I am totally happy with how The Hundred is being dealt with. There appears to be more than enough money in domestic cricket to go around. The issue (as with most sports seeking external investment) is how that money is spent. Rather than take difficult decisions to re-structure the sport, it is easier to raise external money, at the cost of losing some control over the future of the sport. Our federations are guardians of the game, looking after the sport for not just the present generation, but future ones. Once control is given away to entities where profit is the first and only priority, a little piece of the sport dies. My view is that sports have lost sight of their purpose. Money should be used to enable that purpose, not be the purpose in its own right. Will selling stakes in Hundred teams make the competition competitive with the IPL? No. Will it park a giant immovable great tank on the lawn of the domestic cricket season. Yes. We are letting the sale of the Hundred drive the future of domestic cricket in England and Wales. It should be complementing it. Losing August to the Hundred optimises its revenue and its sale potential, but is it right for the overall game? Is only 4 days cricket at Old Trafford over the school holidays a good thing? Is having an Ashes done by July good? Wouldn't it be nice to have some red ball cricket in the summer? Do we need the Blast and the Hundred? We should be agreeing the future structure of the domestic game before we sell the Hundred, in my view, if we need to sell it at all.