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The Real Cost of High Prices? The Future of the Club.
Written by IamSpartacus on Thursday, 18th Oct 2012 16:00

With the results of the BBC Sport Price of Football Survey 2012 it has been made clear that ITFC are one of the most expensive clubs in the Championship - to the extent where even some Premier League clubs are cheaper:

ITFC cheapest Season ticket: £390

Premier League clubs with cheaper season tickets: Wigan, Aston Villa, Stoke, Reading, Newcastle and EVEN Man City.

ITFC cheapest matchday ticket: £22.50

Premier League clubs with cheaper matchday tickets: Aston Villa, Fulham, Newcastle, Wigan.

There are many conclusions to draw from the details on the link - statistics and all that - but a couple are:

- There is one club in the divisions below with as expensive a cheapest season ticket as us, perhaps making them a better attraction (that said, Colchester are stunning close in price, but they do like to rip supporters off there as well).

- That the only other teams in our division that have higher ‘cheapest day out’ prices are (aside from Brighton and Wolves) all generally in the lower half of the division - a coincidence? Perhaps. Or just clubs losing touch with one huge element that can influence activities on the pitch, the fans.

Over the last few years I have increasingly had to consider the money spent on going to watch games. I have two young children, a wife, mortgage repayments, a job where I have (in political parlance) had pay cuts in ‘real terms’ over the last five years and with the general cost of goods and services in normal life increasing to stunning proportions. I am now close to the point where I actually can’t afford to go. I can’t be alone?

A small admission (shhhh… between us), I have actually resorted to subscribing to the ‘Ipswich Player’ on the official ITFC website because I know I won’t be able to afford games coming up. It is a depressing admission.

On top of that we have (over a several years now) been offered some of the most dismal, clueless and uninspiring football since, well ever, in my 30 years of watching. I used to think that the Roy Keane era was close to John Duncan’s, but Paul Jewell, I’m afraid to say, has achieved true greatness in his ineptitude (only my opinion, of course).

Now, what affect does this have? I have a young son who is starting to take more of an interest in games. I have told him that he supports Ipswich (and that he can live in the shed if not) but his friends support Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool etc.

My son has mooted the idea of supporting them AS WELL as Ipswich (Agggghhhhhh!!!). I have pointed out that he has been to Ipswich games and they are his club, but those games are getting slowly further apart, so the argument becomes less strong.

The increasing issues with getting to games myself (and therefore him too) might result in my son:

1) Supporting one of the ‘on TV’ teams, causing him less grief at school

-&-

2) Forgetting the habit of watching games ‘live’, morphing into preferring something else to fill his time

My habit/addiction, at nine years old, of going to games was from being taken by my Granddad. If I hadn’t been taken, would I care so much now? Answer: Nope, unlikely. It is a pleasure/pain passed on from one generation to the next and so on.

Currently, I feel we are approaching a missed generation. There is even an argument to indicate we are within it already…

SEASONPOSITIONAVE ATT
2004/053rd25651
2005/0615th24165
2006/0714th22488
2007/088th21932
2008/099th20873
2009/1015th20840
2010/1113th19614
2011/1215th18266
2012/1323rd17104

The above table shows how the attendances have plummeted. Even during a couple of better seasons under Jim Magilton (yep, seems a while ago now) the number of people going to matches fell.

Is this just because of poor football? I suspect not. I think it also involves an additional mixture of high prices, poor value given to customers (we used to be called fans) and less disposable income.

Most of us on this site love the club, love the association with it and love the history but when the financial pips are squeaking, and those running the club (and even playing for it) appear to hold fans in contempt, it really does make it an easier decision to not go.

This then has a knock-on effect to the next generation. The club offers VERY cheap tickets for young fans (an U11 season ticket in the family area is £10), but completely miss the point that they need to be taken by an adult (accompanying adult season tickets in the family area is £493).

Our club and (as the link above shows), many other clubs, are actually creating a generation of fans that have never been to a live match before. A generation that considers a ‘live match’ to be one on TV.

Some fans think you MUST go to games. In fact, unless you go, you aren’t deemed worthy of an opinion. Furthermore, if you don’t go to every game and agree with absolutely all the propaganda coming from within the club, you are a traitor and might as well wear Budgie colours.

Stalinist nonsense, of course. Real life pressures can take over our hobbies and past-times, that is the reality. Additionally, those same fervent fans are always welcome to tell my wife, when we need cash for the monthly shop, that watching Ipswich play is worth the visitations to a soup kitchen. I’d much prefer they receive the painful knee-capping from that than me.

Back to the attendances, based on recent gates of approx. 16,500 fans x £31.00 (ave ticket price) = estimated average match gate receipts of £511,500.

Let's say the prices were slashed - not this 25% off for one game nonsense to try and lure occasional fans back only for them to realise the true extent of prices and not come back. Let’s have an average ticket of £22, for instance.

£511,500/ £22 = notional attendance of 23,250 (last seen in 2005/06- when we finished 15th like last season) - I haven't adapted for the lower prices of children in either example. I think the children's prices aren't actually the problem, it is getting adults to pay the higher amount that will automatically result in more kids going anyway.

Would any season ticket holders (even ones paying £10 for kids season tickets) really mind if the club even gave out tickets free to relatively local schools or clubs? Surely anything to capture the imagination and support of local youngsters is going to benefit the club.

Could a slashed ticket price bring fans back regularly? Not from just one-off games, I am sure - however great a game that one might be, disposable income is finite. I do feel a constant lower price would, however.

I think allied with a longer term view on the pitch (not the loanee-fest we have had foisted on us), a feeling that the club respects and values fans and a better atmosphere in the stadium, yes, lower prices might work. Not immediately, but the short-termist view often doesn’t work (someone should tell Paul Jewell this, maybe?)

Hope on the pitch allied with some awesome advertising of Ipswich as a family-friendly-priced club would, I am certain, recover fans from the abyss.

One thing is definite, it might actually safeguard the future from a missed generation of fans - and would ensure, in my case at least, that an extra young lad (and perhaps my daughter) would offer another 80+ (hopefully) years to the club in support.




Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.

martleshamitfc added 17:44 - Oct 18
I would rather a full stadium of 30,000 which in turn creates an entertaining atmosphere and spur on the team. The only way to do this is obviously reduce prices, at the moment i think the average is about 17-18k so surely reduce the adult price and allow under 16's and oap's in for £5-7? But at the end of the day whatever the costs "Entertainment" will really decide how big the crowd will be!
2

happybeingblue added 18:29 - Oct 18
It could be worse you could be paying big prices to watch england, who are equally as dull to watch! and half of those so called world class players rooney cole etc are raking it in! like the saying goes FOOTBALL WILL EAT ITSELF loads of my mates stopped going years ago because of the inflated prices,egos etc.feel sorry for the old pros who had some real quality compared to the average joes who grace itfc/ team england football in general,most of them arent even prepared to try and attempt to take their opponent on no wonder football is becoming dull! when was the last time you were generally excited/felt like you had got your moneys worth leaving portman rd?? come on now be honest!! its been a few years hey,so we are probably lucky to be getting 17,000 average.
2

Blue041273 added 19:54 - Oct 18
There will come a time when reality prevails and prices in all things in planet football become realistic. That time will be when the Football League clubs accept that only three clubs can get into the Premier League and establish a wages code that reflects their situation in the real world. Why should anyone playing in the Championship think they are worth 5k, 10k, 15k or more per week? All the excessive prices in the football experience go towards the costs of players. We may want a successful team but the cost is becoming evermore prohibitive.
1

bluewhiteblue added 20:12 - Oct 18
Very good blog.
0

RegencyBlue added 20:39 - Oct 18
Spot on blog!
0

blues1 added 20:40 - Oct 18
good blog, just 1 problem. at the prices you suggesting it would need a very large increase in the size of the crowd for the club to even break even on its costs. unfortunately, its unlikely that big an increase in attendances would occur. but yes, i agree they do need to be looking at the matchday prices. as for season ticket prices. i think on the whole theyre not so bad. if people dont want to pay the top prices there are plenty of areas in the ground where season tickets are cheaper. not as if theres not space for them to move, if they cant afford to stay where they are. my season ticket is, i believe very good value(even tho the entertainment is poor), working out at around £17 per match. hardly expensive for championship football
1

IamSpartacus added 21:32 - Oct 18
The point, Blues1, is that to take a child (in an area which doesn't involve inane and pre-neanderthal language/chanting- don't care myself, but do care if my son were to copy) it isn't either £17 per match or literally that each week... you need a hefyt up front figure that completely negates the future of the club. (unless I am unaware of a speacial payment fairy :-) )
0

fredbarber added 23:55 - Oct 18
Good blog mate
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Luggworm added 08:06 - Oct 19
I stopped reading when you said the football is uninspiring when compared to Roy Keane's time in charge
0

Lesta_Tractor added 08:36 - Oct 19
We cant afford to go very often so I'am limited to making two visits a season.

A day out at FPR usually costs us:

Petrol from Leicester to Ipswich (and back) £50
Tickets for me and the GF in the LSBR £55
Lunch and Dinner £50

A trip to see Town is even less appealing when we could just go watch the Leicester Tigers play for £15.
0

MBG added 08:51 - Oct 19
The slide in attendances at Portman Road is something we should all be worried about. Many people say there is an overall downward trend in the Championship but our attendances have fallen much more than the average. I would put it down to the following:
1. High ticket prices
2. Disappointing results in recent years
3. The lack of connection many fans feel with the club since the Marcus Evans takeover
There is too much greed and short-termism in football and the management of our club is no different unfortunately.
1

Lesta_Tractor added 09:11 - Oct 19
@MGB

just to continue on that theme..

4. Not looking after the kids!

Look at how many other clubs do kids for a quid or family specials, if Town did this then they would get more through the gates and this would also help to secure a decent fan base for the future.
0

tractored added 09:37 - Oct 19
So how do you explain 16000 for the Cardiff game priced at a tenner?
-1

Lesta_Tractor added 09:53 - Oct 19
That was on Telly, poor choice of game by the club..
1

Devontractor added 11:32 - Oct 19
In real terms the cheapest tickets to Portman Rd today are no more expensive than they were in the 1970s. I can remember paying £2.40 to see the Town for (what seemed) many seasons: that equates to £22-£23 today. Put it another way, a pint used to be less than 20p whereas today its £3 or more. So the price of a ticket today is under 10 times the cost I remember from way back (when the likes of Barca used to get beaten at PR!): A pint is about 15 times more expensive than in those years gone by.
It may seem expensive but then just about everything is these days. Footie is being squeezed by the increasing demands on our pockets as many of us see real world wage freezes or reductions.
The demands of players (or perhaps, their agents?) need to be much more in keeping with today's conditions.

-1

AlwaysBlue added 09:06 - Oct 21
Excellent blog. The club has for a number of years been jeopardising losing the next generation of fans. As a girl in her 20s who has held a season ticket since the age of 9, the disparity between the cost of a junior, student and then adult season ticket is a factor that particularly in my early 20s made me seriously consider giving up my season ticket. There is a massive jump in price from a junior/student season ticket cost to an adult one. It is almost certainly losing fans especially when it is this generation who are struggling to achieve a job that just pays the cost of living.
The club have shot themselves in the foot by not considering reducing the price of season tickets. As a result it means they cannot repeatedly reduce matchday prices as there would be an element of season tickets holder who'd feel aggrieved if matchday prices were lower than season ticket cost per game. However, personally I would rather see Portman Road filled to the rafters than the huge number of empty seats there are now week in, week out. It would also give the team a huge lift at a time when they are apparently struggling for motivation. Incidentally I'd say the crowd figures, especially this season, are inflated due to the automatic inclusion of season ticket holders.
Regardless of where we end up at close season (and at best this will be lower half of championship), the club must review the cost of season tickets in order to correlate it with the community's economy. Otherwise I fear the number of season tickets holders could decrease even further.
1

Daleyitfc added 10:33 - Oct 21
Devontractor has a VERY dodgy memory about prices in the 1970s : I can only assume he was one of the very very few who paid for a seat in those days, because it was certainly nothing like £2.40 to watch from the terraces ; it was actually around 80p in the mid-70s. And a pint was 30p then, btw. Therefore, allowing for inflation, we should be paying around £8 now. But, actually, if you compare the admission price with other entertainment prices, it should be even cheaper. It was between £3 and £4 to go to the cinema at that time, and is no more than double that now, so admission to football should be no more than £2.
But, of course, inflation is not the issue : the reason for the ludicrous prices in football is two-fold : 1) The stupid Taylor Report after Hillsborough which did away with terracing ; 2) The daft wages paid to the players.
Anyway, good blog overall.
2
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