Thoughts on ticket prices, now versus then

[The Moonster]

1 hour ago, FFCinthearea said:

My first Falkirk match was in 1986 v Motherwell.  I still have the ticket and it was £2.50 for the terracing which is about £5 in todays money.  Admission to the South Stand in the Scottish 3rd tier is £18 which is just under £9 in 1986 world.

£2.50 in 1986 is over £7 in todays money. Also, assuming you were a kid when you attended your first match, that wouldn't be comparable to the adult price of £18 you're paying today?

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, FFCinthearea said:

My first Falkirk match was in 1986 v Motherwell.  I still have the ticket and it was £2.50 for the terracing which is about £5 in todays money.  Admission to the South Stand in the Scottish 3rd tier is £18 which is just under £9 in 1986 world.

Actually, 1986-2020 is a 2.49 multiplier...so the £2.50 is about £6.22, and the £18 would be £7.23. This is calculated via https://www.inflationtool.com/british-pound/1986-to-present-value

[Homer Sandoval]

2 hours ago, FFCinthearea said:

My first Falkirk match was in 1986 v Motherwell.  I still have the ticket and it was £2.50 for the terracing which is about £5 in todays money.  Admission to the South Stand in the Scottish 3rd tier is £18 which is just under £9 in 1986 world.

These type of comparisons are worthless and can't really be amortised to suit.

Are admission prices too expensive is the real question. The quick answer without any thought will always be yes. People hate paying for stuff and when they do pay want to pay less without thinking why.

Supporters want title challenging teams every season but never have the worry about that can be financed.

Club officials will always look at revenue streams and admission prices will be quite a high priority.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Tappy the Toon said:

"there's a few Lowland League clubs who seem to be following the Gretna model".

Who's that then?

I'm sure you could hazard a guess !!

[Thereisalight..]

£18 at Somerset isn’t too bad, I’d be happier with £15 for Championship games tbh. it should be a mandatory price across the league. The fact the Dundee teams are able to charge almost Premier League prices is scandalous 

[Thereisalight..]

Taking Stranraer for example, £15 per home game for them isn’t ideal as they get low attendances anyway. I wonder if prices were £10-£12 if they would get more punters through the door. 

Imo prices should be £22 max for Premier League Games, £15 for championship, £10 League one and £8 League Two

[Jack Burton]

I would assume that crowds in the 70s/80s and even 90s were much higher for clubs than they currently are. Clubs could therefore charge less but still take in reasonable gate receipts.

Were more clubs part-time in the 70s and 80s too?

Wages for players even in the Scottish premiership must be hugely increased from 30 to 40 years ago as well.

[Life on Marrs?]

When I first started paying into Bayview myself, around 1990/1991, I'm sure it was £5 adults, £2 or £2.50 for kids. Think the juvenile gate was for u16 though. Saturday, my dad, was £12, me and 2 kids £21. In comparison, would the cinema, or bowling, or fife flyers for example be much cheaper? 

Post Bosman, we no longer have, say the £1.5m motherwell received filtering down through the leagues. I. E. They wouldve bought from a championship club, in turn would've bought from league 1 etc.

Nowadays,unless you are in a league with a big TV deal, the only source of income for most clubs, lower league is at the gate. Clubs need to maximise this revenue & charge as much as they can get away with. Not many people decide to go and watch another club, so unfortunately when people find an alternative they end up lost to the game. Over the years my interest in some seasons has been less than others, but always feel a sense of guilt for not going, at the end of the day, its what we, as lower divisions fans do. I'm not an armchair fan & have no interest in the money & VAR obsessed premier league. 

[GordonS]

4 hours ago, WATTOO said:

Yes, the English Premiership appears to be rapidly heading in a similar direction. I heard Carragher and Neville discussing modern players and agents last night where basically the player now sees himself as a company and product with lots of employees, Management teams and personal entourage as opposed to a footballer playing for a club.

It's certainly a very dangerous route to be going down as there will surely be a tipping point sooner or later, especially when the next long expected global recession hits...........

I'm not sure a tipping point for English football is foreseeable, tbh. The current TV deal is worth £3.1 billion per year, with a third of that coming from overseas. The huge increase in global audience, the rapid expansion of broadband and the growth in incomes in the developing world (there are more middle class people in China than in Europe) mean there could easily be 200 million willing to pay a tenner a month for streaming access. Even I'd pay that, it's much cheaper than a Sky subscription.

That's £24 billion a year. Take off the costs of broadcasting and you could be looking at about a billion PER CLUB PER SEASON. The peak could be a long, long way off yet. There's a good explanation here: https://youtu.be/u5jqCh3Eiq0

At that level income from tickets is sweetie money, but as long as they're filling the stadiums they'll charge as much as they can.

4 hours ago, WATTOO said:

I'd say Scotland is maybe further ahead than many as lessons have been learned since the crazy spending days of the 90's and early 2000's, more and more clubs appear to be living within their means and keeping their playing budget and expenditure broadly within their income.

There are of course exceptions who are being funded by rich benefactors which of course is unsustainable long term and there's a few lowland league clubs who would appear to be following the Gretna model which will undoubtedly end badly for all concerned.

While I think prices are still a bit too high, they've barely risen in 10 years now. Some clubs are now at the level that is fair enough for full-time football, especially in a country with a rotten TV deal.

Got to say though, I don't think any LL clubs are "following the Gretna model." I don't think any are spending beyond their means. Kelty are spending a lot on infrastructure but that's going to last them many decades, it generates income and some of it is community use too. 

 

[GordonS]

22 minutes ago, Jack Burton said:

I would assume that crowds in the 70s/80s and even 90s were much higher for clubs than they currently are. Clubs could therefore charge less but still take in reasonable gate receipts.

Were more clubs part-time in the 70s and 80s too?

Wages for players even in the Scottish premiership must be hugely increased from 30 to 40 years ago as well.

I remember when Mo Johnston left Celtic - the first time - there was shock that he'd turned down TWO GRAND A WEEK! Ten years later, in 1998-99 Rangers had a higher wage bill than Man Utd. https://twitter.com/sportingintel/status/1105934572993331201

As for attendances, I don't know. One thing I did look at recently was the season Dundee Utd won the league their average home league crowd, excluding the visits of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee, was less than 8,000.

 

[The Moonster]

49 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Taking Stranraer for example, £15 per home game for them isn’t ideal as they get low attendances anyway. I wonder if prices were £10-£12 if they would get more punters through the door. 

This gets rolled out every time this discussion comes around, but it doesn't take much thought to realise why clubs aren't just slashing prices and watching punters roll through the gate. These figures aren't at all accurate as not everyone pays full price but for arguments sake, lets say Stranraer had 300 adults paying £15, that is £4,500 for the club. If they charged £10, they'd need an extra 150 bodies coming through the gate to get the same income, at £12 it's an extra 90 bodies. I highly doubt there are 100-150 punters in Stranraer who sit in their house on a Saturday saying "if the club would just drop their prices by £3 I'd go along".

Albion Rovers literally let their fans pay whatever they wanted for season ticket and barely saw any increase.  Fans like a moan about the price but it's not the real issue for most.

[Life on Marrs?]

Clubs in the past have tried all sorts of initiatives to get more fans in, £5 admission etc. You may get more turnover at the pie stall, but clubs that try this generally lose money & season ticket holders feel cheated. Very few clubs could possibly see the gate increase by more than 10%. We reached a point where people either go to games, or dont.