Is our ground to big for us?

Hi, i'm a newbie. I've been reading this forum for a year now and was an old member of the BBC 606 forum. I've got some ideas for the club to claw back revenue...

a) reduce the cost of alcohol inside the ground upto 30mins before kick off to local pub prices... get the fans to drink at the stadium!
b) stop complaining about fans watching the games in local pubs by buying the pubs!!!! 5 million quid could buy a few local pubs!
c) if they can't reduce the cost of the tickets then give a freebie with them... a free pint/ free pie/ free whatever...
d) get a deal with the local bus/metro operator to get reduced/free travel to and from games... the mags do it!
e) do something to harness the spending power of those who cant attend games... some off us living abroad can only attend 4-5 games a season.. what about a reduced safc.tv seasonticket for us foreign supporters.
f) use Sunderland Supporters living abroad to spread the good word... where i live near Gdansk it's all Arsenal, Barcelona and Liverpool.... let us help the club with worldwide marketing. (free posters/ flags and prizes for local pub competitions etc)... free strips for school kids etc.

sorry if i;ve blabbed on!

 

thats your opinion

 

It's been said many times that TV is ruining football. Certainly I think such a late kick-off put off a lot of people. If it had been 3pm more people would have come. I agree the club has to work harder to bring in the "floating" fan. The FA Cup has suffered in recent times to get fans interested. Just have to think outside the box. TV is not going away and we have to work with it. Cheaper tickets would have helped but I think there's more to it than just that. It takes me over an hour to drive to the Stadium, so there's travel costs to add to ticket price , plus food and drink.

 

Cheapest ticket for an adult is £15 and that's in the family section , all the way up next to the away fans.

 

Firstly; I think you missed the point I was making... I was merely highlighting the fact that IF SAFC were able to offer tickets for £5 we could fill a 75,000 stadium. This in itself dictates that the SOL isn't too big and Sir Bob Murray did make the correct decision to expand the stadium when he did.

Secondly; As far as naivety is concerned... The elasticity of price would determine the correct price in order to fill the stadium... We have filled the SOL many a time before and therefore we can see the SOL isn't too big at all... The price of the ticket should be reduced accordingly until such point we achieve ecomonical equilibrium.

Which scenario is better for SAFC? 39,000 fans paying £400 per season ticket or 49,000 fans paying £320 per ticket. Do the sums yourself oh great mathematician.

Thirdly; Moving on from the business aspects of a modern football club which I have dealt with accordingly, I shall now remind those who appear to have lost or are losing touch with what football is all about. Football is a sport of the working class... Todays government have people working 30 hours per week in exchange for their 'job seekers allowance'. Many others are limited by the minimum wage... Some people are applying for credit cards merely to survive from one week to the next because they don't have enough disposable income to finance their basic expenditure, such as the mortage, heating costs and food.

Sunderland football club is the binding aspect of a whole region and community of people and it is about time the club changed its focus, if even only for a temporary period of 2-3 years and set the price of the season and match day tickets to such a level that the club would still produce the same amount of revenue that it does today with 39,000 fans in order to re-establish the powerful and spirited atmosphere that the people of Sunderland are able to generate. In addition to the aspirations of 'success', the club also has a role in the community to perform, and that role is to ensure that the people who lare passionate about the area the history and the football club can afford to go and watch that which they love with all of their hearts.

Coming from a fan who supports a club who offer £15 tickets and an owner who on October 24th 2011 reduced the price of a season ticket by 50% to those who already own a season ticket highlights the fact that your reply is clearly distorted by your hatred of SAFC. Newcastle's crowd on the opening day of this season was 46,894 . What was wrong with your fans on that day? That was the opening match of the season, at home when excitement is apparently at it fullest. Was there a flu going round at the time or somekind of a bug in the air? Your choice of words are an embarrassment and very disrespectful of a community of very passionate people who at their essence are no different to yourself.

 

The problem with that statement is that even under Ashley/Pardew, Hughton we were still getting 50,000

 

No, you've missed my point, and I can't be arsed to repeat it again, so here it is:

A £10-20 difference in ticket price is not the factor preventing an extra 50,000 Sunderland fans from turning up to try and watch the game. That's a complete load of ****e.

ecomonical

No, it would determine the correct price for Sunderland AFC to make the most profit, as they're trying to run a business, and profit is more important than filling seats I'm afraid.

Times change, and if the SoL was just the right size for the level of support in past times, it doesn't mean it is now.

And as for your figures, you've just completely made them up to try and back up your argument, and assumed (based on absolutely nothing) that an £80 reduction in a season ticket price (about £8 a month) would mean the difference between 10,000 fans never attending any games, to suddenly buying a season ticket and putting in the effort to attend all the games

Why, exactly, do you think Sunderland's board would sacrifice considerable sums of profit just to increase visitor numbers and help more people attend games? Your club isn't a charity.

Again, you presume that a moderate drop in ticket prices would suddenly sway 10,000-20,000 odd people to attend games, which is based on absolutely nothing.

Mike Ashley can do whatever he likes. He clearly has a plan, and if he is willing to sacrifice so much profit to fill up the stadium, then so be it. I presume it's a part of a bigger plan mind.

If Sunderland take the same route, then that's fine too. However, your talk of essentially giving up revenue to fill the stadiums is ridiculous. They're just not going to do that without some kind of money-making motive.

Our crowd appear to be a different kettle of fish, however. Even during the relegation season and our Championship season, before such big cuts were introduced, crowds were still massive. Sunderland, on the other hand, are struggling to reach anywhere near capacity despite the successes they are having. I'd suggest that you should accept the fact that there's more to it than just £10-20 in ticket prices which is preventing 20,000 extra people attending the games.

As another poster put it, perhaps you should just concede that possibly, just possibly, many Sunderland fans aren't as dedicated and passionate as you would hope they are.

 

Bearing in mind that your tickets are cheaper than Sunderlands and bearing in mind that you never once filled your stadium this season prior to Mike Ashley cutting the price of a season ticket by 50% to those who already own a season ticket, how do you explain the following attendances at the Sport Direct Arena?

Saturday 13 August: Attend: 46,894 Newcastle 0 Arsenal 0

Sunday 28 August: Attend: 42,684 Newcastle 2 Fulham 1

Saturday 24 September: Attend: 46,236 Newcastle 3 Blackburn 1

Sunday 16 October: Attend: 46,420 Newcastle 2 Tottenham 2

Any idea's?

 

Why did your crowds increase from a 45k average to a full house subsequent to Mike Ashley offering the 50% off price offer for existing season ticket holders?

Obviuosly using your logic, reducing the price had nothing to do with an increase in Newcastles attendence. Your reposte is actually laughable and I would be embarrassed....

Mike Ashley has a plan but the same method for Sunderland is naive? It's not possible to have an educated debate with yourself. Your logic is virtually non-existent.

 

What on earth is your point?

Every team has attendances which peak and fall over the course of a season. There's absolutely no point in picking out four games over a 3 month period with lower-than-usual attendances and asking why. It could be for a multitude of personal reasons. Just look at the 28th of August, a prime time for holidays before the kids go back to school the week after. That could easily account for a reduction in thousands, and that's just one of many reasons.

Really, picking out a few individual attendance figures to back up your argument (whilst ignoring the rest) just makes you look like a fool.

 

Chappedarses meaning.....
I will though, as I'm a boring twat who hasn't got a life.
My suppositions are better than a Mackem's suppositions.
I will have to write a lot again, to get in how much better Newcastle are compared to Sunderland.


I don't know why he doesn't just insert the above three lines into every post he makes on the Sunderland board.
Save him a hell of a lot of time and we won't get so bored of him repeating himself ad-infinitum.

 

Anyone else pictured him as his avatar?

Crouched over his keyboard with that stupid manic look on his face, panicking in case he doesn't get the last word. His little fat fingers hammering away at his keyboard and his feet stamping as he types!

please log in to view this image

 

Your the only person that is proving himself to be a fool here....

Contrary to your apparent 'understanding' that I'm merely picking out 'random' figures... I actually selected the crowd at your first four home games prior to the 50% off season ticket offer which was deployed on 24th October 2011. That is not random at all, those figures are the crowds that you were generating prior to the 50% season ticket offer.

Perhaps your arn't even aware that your clubs attendances only reached 50,000 AFTER Mike Ashley offered the 50% off season ticket to existing season ticket holders?

Your ought to get yourself on the three legends phone in, thats a comedy show too!

 

It's funny cos it's true

 

The pubs with their giant screens are a real problem. Going to a football match at Roker used to be a social event - you could move about, mingle with different people, have a different laugh. That's what all-seater stadiums don't have. You're stuck in the same seat with the same people around you week after week. The pubs have made football a social event again, and they are a real threat.

But buying up the pubs is a different matter. With cheap supermarket booze and the smoking ban, pubs have started closing down at the rate of one per day. Who wants to buy into that? I don't know what the answer is.

Success maybe?

 

I think the sad fact is that that second relegation killed off 5-10k of loyal supporters, maybe older fans. Sure we've gained new fans but maybe they are more casual and alot of them pick and choose their games.

There are those who could go and are choosing to stay away for some reason. All i can say to them is your missing out.

I just hope that the 20-25 k season ticket holders are rewarded if we reach wembley

 

I still think the financial situation isn't fully being grasped by those who can afford to go with no worries.

In the 70s and 80s I could afford to go to every game I could get too.
I would spend the whole of match day on the beer then go clubbing.
I was out every night on the beer, I have always smoked like a chimney.
I ran expensive cars.
Ate out two or three nights a week.
And still had spare money to waste.
That same money I was earning then, would hardly cover the cost of car insurance now.
Even if I was still capable of going, I would think twice with the smoking ban. (That's a long time to go without blackening my lungs.)

My son is on a canny wage for his age, he still has to budget to have money set aside for the match and drinks.
I help him pay his insurance which is £4500!!!!
He has to pick and choose when to go out.
His friends are worse off being on minimum wage, with them, it can come down to buying clothes or going to the match.

He also said it was the regulars round about him and his mates who were missing. So I'm assuming season ticket holders.