The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last...

Everybody seems to be coming up with a load of theories about what the problem is, what the club should be doing to resolve it and where to apportion the blame, but the answer is pretty simple. Footballers get paid far too much money. And that is it.

The ticket prices will remain high (and I believe £20 is pushing it for the level of football that we play at, let alone £30) and consequently the attendances will remain low as long as footballers see the sport as a way to get rich quick. I don't believe any footballer in the top couple of divisions has got the right to complain about the low crowds, lack of atmosphere, dwindling support or crowd demands, when they are getting paid what they do and expect the supporters to pay the prices they have to pay.

There's nothing BFC can do about it on their own. There's not much the Championship as a whole could do on their own. The problem is here and the only logical conclusion to this is that eventually it will all go pop and teams will start to fall off the bottom.

The Leeds problem wasn't that they didn't get into the Champions League, it was because their wage bill was too high. Barnsley didn't go into administration because we lost some TV money or because a bank got twitchy about a loan, it was because the wage bill was too high. And don't even start me on Pompey.

As long as clubs, or should I say the big clubs, can keep getting out of it by the awful means of going into administration to avoid paying their debts, or getting bailed out by the Football Association/Premier League/Football League/whoever runs ruddy football these days, then it will carry on. I wonder what Pompey's wage bill is this season? I wonder if any of their fans will care? I wonder if the ticket prices have crossed the minds of anyone who comes on here bemoaning us not signing 'proven Championship' players?

It is in all the top players and managers' interests to keep bailing the clubs out, because once one big club goes more will follow, and then the bubble will burst. Footballers are just a microcosm of the world at large. B*gger the environment, I'll be gone before the planet caves in...b*gger football, I'll be in my retirement home in the South of France by the time the football league caves in.

When we were in administration a bunch of supporters rattled the buckets at Oakwell and managed to collect, from us fans, who after all were just about to buy our tickets for the game too, enough money to pay the wages of Mike Sheron for that week. Who are the mugs? Well, the mugs are the St John Ambulance, the tax man and everybody else who don't have their debts protected by the incomprehensible rules of football. Oh, and us of course.

We have footballers getting paid £250k per week for playing for Manchester City. A few years ago Pompey had one of the top 5 highest paid footballers in the world in their squad (Sol Campbell if you must). That's in the world! Barnsley had several players on almost £10k per week allegedly, most of whom were frankly rubbish. Even now, Barnsley reserve players have salaries that would make the MD of my company blush. And I imagine that we are at the bottom end of the scale for Championship wages.

This shark at Donny has justified his strange set up there by saying that the most anyone will get for playing for Donny is £2k per week. This is Donny who were in the conference a few years ago I take it. Donny who play in front of crowds lower than ours. Exactly how much do the players think they are worth?

Ah, but players' careers finish at 33, so they have to provide for their families. A sponsored car, sponsored leisurewear, endorsements, everything laid on by their clubs and the like help provide for their families too does it? Poor little lambs.

Heaven forbid they have to get another job when their pampered life as a footballer ends then. I'm 42 an I'm working in my third industry. I guess a lot of us who post on here are in a similar boat. perhaps some of today's money grabbing players should have a chat with players of yesteryear. They don't have to go that far back either before they find ex-footballers who are in new careers. In fact, a short moustachioed custodian of the 1980's Barnsley goal works for a similar company to mine.

But our top players all see football as a way to making a fortune. Look at the extra curricular habits a lot of them have developed. Chopra spending £20k in a day at the bookies, whilst we are moaning about paying £30 to see us play his team? Come on!

Jeysus, being a footballer's wife is now seen as a career choice. Sod chasing the big city fat cats, the easiest way to a fortune is to bag a Premiership footballer. And you don't have to try to mix in a different class of people to bag them, because they come from the same streets as you!

How many of us still feel the same way about England games than we do when we were kids watching Kevin Keegan or Stuart Pearce? Not many, and the reason for this is that we just don't identify with the players any more. In fact, we just don't like them.

Now I'm not saying that we should all start blaming the current Reds players for the problems we're in, because I imagine that they too struggle to believe what even mediocre players in the Premiership are earning, but nevertheless they are getting paid too much money. Are any of the companies that people on here work for ever likely to start forking out twice as much on employee salaries as the company's annual income? I very much doubt it. My company recently sent a memo out saying we're allowed no more stationary for the rest of the year apart from printer paper and toner. Staples and folders have become the new currency.

But it's players as a whole who are to blame. I just don't buy any of that "they're only taking what the stupid Chairmen are offering them" nonsense either. Most of the people making the financial decisions in the Premiership don't have to worry about the stupid salaries they are paying, because they have the money and know that there are fans willing to pay the stupid prices they charge. At the clubs that struggle for crowds, they make the money back for their wages by the silly money thrown at the from Sky, the Premier League and sponsors. It's a bit different where we are though.

Fans demand success, most fans only equate striving for success by bringing new players in, these players cost money, the money has to be recouped somehow. If you are one of those that blame the Chairmen rather than the players, how would you feel if your club stuck to its guns and only actually brought in players it could afford? They have to try to balance what the fans demand, with what they think they need to do the job they need, with what they think they can afford and then set the prices accordingly. And when the wages are double the income there is no way of setting prices that are going to be attractive to the supporters. It's a vicious circle.

So, there's nothing Don Rowing and BFC can do about all this whilst the footballers are continuing to to milk the game for every last penny. The clubs at the top have to take the lead and whilst the Premiership are allowing any old oil baron or Russian gangster to come in and pay silly money it's not going to happen soon. All BFC can do is try to balance the books in the best way they can. We all have our theories about how much money we would bring in if we set the prices at certain amounts, but even then we are guessing with our figures.

People seem to think it's simply a case of £20 x 3,000 floating fans = £60,000 and £30 x 2,000 fans = £60,000, but it's not quite as simple as that. Firstly, and obviously, there is absolutely no guarantee that dropping prices means more people. It hasn't been the case this season, as it wasn't last. Take the Cup run a few years ago. £15 for a match against Premiership Burnley brought a crowd of 6,270, whereas £25 for the game against Manchester United brought a crowd of 20,019. There are a lot more factors than price of tickets to get the crowds back to Oakwell. Personally I think we should have a big sign in town advertising that our opponents are Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in rotation, as that appears one of the only three sure fire ways of bringing in higher crowds (the other two are giving the tickets away or reaching the promotion positions in the league).

But there are also other financial aspects to take into consideration, because I am pretty sure that more people in the ground brings higher costs for policing, tax, stewarding and things like that. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but it will be a bit like stamp duty on houses and why sometimes going over a certain limit by a small amount actually loses you money in the long run. Either way, what I am saying is that it will not be as straightforward a mathematical formula as we imagine and, anyway, we are probably so far off our break even point that the few hundred extra people that dropping the cost has brought in is a drop in the ocean.

Anyway, I've been rambling on for a while now, but my point is that football is being brought to it's knees as a spectator sport, as a community event, as something for kids to look up to, as something for fans to invest their emotions in and, ultimately we will find, as any sort of league that resembles the original idea of a nationwide football league by the greed of the players (and managers - for all his whining about the fiasco at Leeds, David O'Leary made sure he left the club with a pretty penny), starting at the top and filtering down the rest of the pyramid. And nothing will be done about it until clubs at our level start to disappear and by then the damage will have been done, because the clubs at the top are alright Jack and they'll pull up the ladder.

 

I hope this post

Doesn't get buried overnight.

 

Re: I hope this post

Great post. Normally get bored reading the longer posts but that's brilliant. Found myself agreeing with everything you said. Well done for finding time to write such a well thought out factually correct post. (In my opinion anyway .... )

 

Re: I hope this post

to summarise then Gordon..... football is fooked or will be soon....i agree.

 

Two words

1. Bosman
2. Agents.

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

The best post I have read on here in a very long time.

 

Like

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Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

It's not that they are getting paid £250k a week or whatever, it's that they are getting paid that amount by clubs that are not making a profit.

If they club was making a profit, they could afford that sort of figure, but these are clubs who are making a loss and still thinking they can afford huge wages.

BFC are making a start on sorting this out, but it's very difficult when fans moan about no big signings or the club not showing ambition when we have to let a player go rather than giving them a wage rise.

The fans have to get realistic too, we can't keep thinking that it's the Directors job to fund the club out of their own money, the club has to become self profitable.

 

Re: I hope this post

Great post, lot of valid points there, one scourge of the modern game, agents not mentioned

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

apart from all mine obviously

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

that looks like a really good post if i could read it all without my eyes stingin, is there a audio version avaialble

 

Excellent post!

.

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

Excellent !

 

Couldn't agree more

The only source of income any business has is from its own customers. If it pays out more than it gets in, it's doomed. It's not difficult to follow.

I can never understand why, if it's that simple, some of the UK's top businessman seem to forget it when they find themselves in charge of a football club.

And by the way I think the so-called "football creditors rule" is illegal. Needs testing in the courts. Knock that rule in the head and it might knock some sense into the maniacs who run football.

 

Plagiarism is alive and well it seems.....

Whilst this posting is more detailed it merely reiterates my earlier post(s) this week regarding overpaid footballers -clubs need to reduce outgoings rather than the impossible task of increasing revenue in these cash strapped times. PLUS the issue of general disillusionment and disconnection between football players/authorities and fans.

 

Re: Plagiarism is alive and well it seems.....

Handbags.

 

Re: Couldn't agree more

Hmrc came close to nailing Wendy with it. And I think going forward they'll attack every club that is looking at administration.

I am not brilliant when it comes to company insolvency but I always thought a general rule of thumb was the government is the first in the queue for any dividends paid out followed by other creditors eg suppliers and so forth with the money raised through sales of assets.

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

a good post but i think we went into Admin because of the personalities involved at the time rather than any lack of a viable financial alternative

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

Excellent post Gordon, and also good point made by Rosco.

I agree with everything here; Barnsley FC, the CCC and english football as a whole cannot change anything unless every other major league in the world does the same. If you were in a job getting paid a huge amount of money and your company started paying lower (but affordable) wages - you'd simply move to another company that pays the huge wages.

Footballers would do the same, and you'd see a rise in the number of players playing in Russia/China where they'll pay daft money for players.

One day the bubble will burst, hopefully it'll start with the corruption at FIFA. Football is probably one of the biggest money laundering operations in the world - starting with the backhanders at FIFA.

 

Re: The reason for the ticket pricing problem and falling attendances solved at last.

We went into admin because of the NatWest bank.