Takeover

[NewWanker]

The club sits in one of the most deprived / lowest income areas in the country, raising season ticket prices is not going to encourage local people to attend.

I would've thought Sunderland and especially Middlesbro' are pretty close in those terms and yet they have some of the highest cost season tickets.

If owners want to price out local working class people then it’s an option. Why they’d want to make it cost prohibitive for local people with very little real gain in finance is a question I would ask.

Sunderland's average home gate is 42000, the highest in the division, Middlesbro' over 27000. It doesn't seem to put them off or are their fans simply more committed?

30 miles between the two. Massive catchment areas for both compared to us. Even if you factor in Newcastle, which is still 15 miles from Sunderland, it's nothing compared to us, Villa, Blues and Wolves all within 20 mile.

Tyneside population is around 750,000....between 3 clubs... so 250k each
W Mids 2.9m between 6 clubs (inc. Cov) - 450k + each...

Bigger difference is the distance to other overlapping club areas... Not much near Tyneside/Teeside (until you get to Leeds 90ish mins away (from Tyneside)). W Mids isn't that far from London / Manc / Liverpool or even Leeds (around 90 - 120mins away).

It's not always the raw numbers in population for the catchment, you see far fewer 'foreign' (Man C / Arse / Pool / Chelsea) shirts around tynesdie than you do in the W Mids. It's a lot more tribal up there, probably like it used to be for us 30 - 40 years ago.

[Malcolm Tucker]

No one buys a business to fuck all its prized assets off and annoy the customers.

[ColliersWoodBaggie]

<taps watch>

[wba13]

Sunderland is the same distance to Newcastle, as we are to the dingles. I doubt Sunderland fans have gone to watch Newcastle instead.

Our income needs to increase and our expenditure decreased. That's it in a nutshell Derek.

13m between one city Sunderland and one city Newcastle 
8.8m between WBA and Wolves 
5.5m between WBA and Villa 

It’s comparing apples and pears in terms of the concentration of local clubs competing for the next generation of support. 

Cranking up season ticket prices in an area where there are plenty of other options, where young families who have moved to an area with no allegiance to any local teams is a short term solution that will bring in a pittance in football terms in income whilst pricing out local support for the next generations. 

It’s a bean counter solution to a more difficult problem. We could add 50p to a packet of crisps on match day as well, that’s got to be worth at least two new young, hungry players.

and you think they'd want to come and support Albion, when there's two Premier sides close by?

Bean counting is exactly where we are, due to awful mis-management since Jenkins left.

Yes they will bring their families to us as a club because it’s affordable, on their doorstep (can afford to get there), have friends who go and you can currently get tickets. If you make them more expensive that only reduces our fanbase over the medium to long term and solves very little in terms of income generation. 

Your argument seems to be crank the prices up for those already loyal to the club without any interest in securing or attracting new customers. It needs a bigger and better business plan than just flogging as many players as we can and cranking up prices for those who already attend. That isn’t a solution it’s not even a sticking plaster.

That's got to happen and will happen.  Time to smell the coffee Derek.

Sorry but don’t agree we will not sell many will loan out a couple.

[ColliersWoodBaggie]

I would've thought Sunderland and especially Middlesbro' are pretty close in those terms and yet they have some of the highest cost season tickets.

If owners want to price out local working class people then it’s an option. Why they’d want to make it cost prohibitive for local people with very little real gain in finance is a question I would ask.

Sunderland's average home gate is 42000, the highest in the division, Middlesbro' over 27000. It doesn't seem to put them off or are their fans simply more committed?

30 miles between the two. Massive catchment areas for both compared to us. Even if you factor in Newcastle, which is still 15 miles from Sunderland, it's nothing compared to us, Villa, Blues and Wolves all within 20 mile.

Tyneside population is around 750,000....between 3 clubs... so 250k each
W Mids 2.9m between 6 clubs (inc. Cov) - 450k + each...

Bigger difference is the distance to other overlapping club areas... Not much near Tyneside/Teeside (until you get to Leeds 90ish mins away (from Tyneside)). W Mids isn't that far from London / Manc / Liverpool or even Leeds (around 90 - 120mins away).

It's not always the raw numbers in population for the catchment, you see far fewer 'foreign' (Man C / Arse / Pool / Chelsea) shirts around tynesdie than you do in the W Mids. It's a lot more tribal up there, probably like it used to be for us 30 - 40 years ago.

Teeside much closer to Leeds. Also not football country. Leeds are a city club , like Newcastle are. 

Re Midlands, the M5 and Solihull-Leamington-Banbury corridors are untapped potential and Albion have a fair number of fans this way. The West Midlands is the largest conurbation behind London (3m) with around another 9m living within an hour or so away. It's about marketing and improving growth.

[Borin' Baggie]

If owners want to price out local working class people then it’s an option. Why they’d want to make it cost prohibitive for local people with very little real gain in finance is a question I would ask.

Sunderland's average home gate is 42000, the highest in the division, Middlesbro' over 27000. It doesn't seem to put them off or are their fans simply more committed?

30 miles between the two. Massive catchment areas for both compared to us. Even if you factor in Newcastle, which is still 15 miles from Sunderland, it's nothing compared to us, Villa, Blues and Wolves all within 20 mile.

Tyneside population is around 750,000....between 3 clubs... so 250k each
W Mids 2.9m between 6 clubs (inc. Cov) - 450k + each...

Bigger difference is the distance to other overlapping club areas... Not much near Tyneside/Teeside (until you get to Leeds 90ish mins away (from Tyneside)). W Mids isn't that far from London / Manc / Liverpool or even Leeds (around 90 - 120mins away).

It's not always the raw numbers in population for the catchment, you see far fewer 'foreign' (Man C / Arse / Pool / Chelsea) shirts around tynesdie than you do in the W Mids. It's a lot more tribal up there, probably like it used to be for us 30 - 40 years ago.

Teeside much closer to Leeds. Also not football country. Leeds are a city club , like Newcastle are. 

Re Midlands, the M5 and Solihull-Leamington-Banbury corridors are untapped potential and Albion have a fair number of fans this way. The West Midlands is the largest conurbation behind London (3m) with around another 9m living within an hour or so away. It's about marketing and improving growth.

The West Midlands metro area (not conurbations) covers 4.5m people from the four historic West Midlands counties.

Around me it's either Coventry, Villa or who your parents supported but it feels like those football fans massively outnumbered by glory hunting fairweather fans. Hell, I imagine there's a lot of glory hunting fairweather fans we could turn in West Brom, Smethwick and Handsworth.

[Bob Fossil]

I would've thought Sunderland and especially Middlesbro' are pretty close in those terms and yet they have some of the highest cost season tickets.

If owners want to price out local working class people then it’s an option. Why they’d want to make it cost prohibitive for local people with very little real gain in finance is a question I would ask.

Sunderland's average home gate is 42000, the highest in the division, Middlesbro' over 27000. It doesn't seem to put them off or are their fans simply more committed?

30 miles between the two. Massive catchment areas for both compared to us. Even if you factor in Newcastle, which is still 15 miles from Sunderland, it's nothing compared to us, Villa, Blues and Wolves all within 20 mile.

Tyneside population is around 750,000....between 3 clubs... so 250k each
W Mids 2.9m between 6 clubs (inc. Cov) - 450k + each...

Bigger difference is the distance to other overlapping club areas... Not much near Tyneside/Teeside (until you get to Leeds 90ish mins away (from Tyneside)). W Mids isn't that far from London / Manc / Liverpool or even Leeds (around 90 - 120mins away).

It's not always the raw numbers in population for the catchment, you see far fewer 'foreign' (Man C / Arse / Pool / Chelsea) shirts around tynesdie than you do in the W Mids. It's a lot more tribal up there, probably like it used to be for us 30 - 40 years ago.

West Midlands is also land locked so borders multiple other counties, bringing the likes of Cov, Forest, Derby, Stoke, Forest etc. into the equation. All Newcastle, Sunderland and Boro have to their right is fish!
As a small town club, we have little scope to increase our attendance dramatically, unless the new owners get us to the Champions League, of course. 

[Fulham Fallout]

No one buys a business to fuck all its prized assets off and annoy the customers.

You know yourself Malc, that we need to eradicate losses and there's only too ways of achieving this. Increase turnover and / or cut costs.

[Malcolm Tucker]

No one buys a business to fuck all its prized assets off and annoy the customers.

You know yourself Malc, that we need to eradicate losses and there's only too ways of achieving this. Increase turnover and / or cut costs.

There are far more creative ways to do it with a football club, as those bastards up the road have shown.

[Fulham Fallout]

No one buys a business to fuck all its prized assets off and annoy the customers.

You know yourself Malc, that we need to eradicate losses and there's only too ways of achieving this. Increase turnover and / or cut costs.

There are far more creative ways to do it with a football club, as those bastards up the road have shown.

Extending contracts and subsequent period of amortisation of costs is one way. Or, re-value players and have their written down value at the end of the contract equal to an amount the club believes is realistic(ish).  But this is kicking the can further down the road and unless promotion is secured, the above could come back to bite us (or any other teams doing the above) on the bum.