Tin Pot Cups and Prices

By alan ainsworth (legacy user)4/10/2014 16:55Sat Oct 4 16:55:22 2014In response to agree

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With no reserve team, I think the Tin Pot Cups should be persevered with... though, of course, they become a millstone around the neck if there are eight postponed games in December / January.

Steve in his Official hat is clearly right. The only "additional" fans attracted to MSC / LSC / ILC games by a £5 admission deal would be existing Hendon supporters who'd feel more obliged to support the scheme than they would to simply support the Club in a game they have little interest in.

Football's ticket prices are the product of market forces. The price is what consumers are prepared to pay and have become accustomed to paying. With stadiums full at top level, why should anyone involved with a football club want to do anything about it?
As everyone above 30 knows, it wasn't always as relatively expensive to get in as it is now.
I was paid £40 per week for my first job. It was less than £2 for adult terrace admission to get into almost any 1st Division football match then. So that was just under 5% of a school-leaver's weekly wage.
Now it's £50 or £60 to get into a Premier League game. That 25% of the weekly salary for an adult on minimum wage... and 10% of the weekly salary of a Londoner on an "average" wage for the capital.
In the mid-80s, I paid £1.80 at Ibrox or Darkheid, £2.00 or £2.20 at Old Trafford and £3.00 or £3.50 at White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge. In 1992, Uncle Rupert invented football.
Speaking of Uncle Rupert... prices in the Aussie Rules AFL have more or less doubled in the past 10 years. Memberships (season tickets) for basic entry are around $300 for one of the big Melbourne clubs - that's for 11 "home" games and includes "away" games at whichever "home" stadium a club uses and sometimes for "away" games at the "other" Melbourne stadium was well. (Melbourne clubs nowadays all use either Docklands Stadium or the MCG; they no longer use their proper "home" stadiums for competitive matches, as they've outgrown them.) Basic walk-up prices are $25 or $30. The Aussie dollar is falling down towards $2 to £1 on the exchanges. Average attendance in the AFL in the season just ended was around 34,000. Only the NFL, Bundesliga & FA Insolvent Trading Jamboree pull more fans. All the games are on satellite TV and shown in pubs/bars.
The National Rugby League Down Under is falling behind. Average gates for the season ending tomorrow are "only" 16,000 - which is steady: just a few hundred down on last term - but ticket prices are falling. $20 would have got you a seat at either of defending champeens Sydney Roosters home play-off games, yet the attendances were 23,000 for a match v. fellow Sydney outfit Penrith (who would've brought a fair few) and 18,000 for the match v N.Queensland (who wouldn't). That's in a 44,000 capacity stadium that's pretty close to the middle of town.

Football fans in England are being ripped off... but Borussia Aldi and Dynamo Lidl aren't likely to be allowed into the FA Premier League.
And the notion that the English are capable of saying anything other than "Yes, sir!" to their betters, when told to do something they don't agree with, is too Culturally Diverse for even this city to contemplate.

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