http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14367362.stm Hopefully the link works. Just something of interest really. Looking at the table we are the 3rd most expensive club to watch in the league at £25.90. To me, that makes sense as we are trying to get out of League 2. No matter what people think of the town, the stadium is nice for lower league football too. However, when you look at the League 1 stats: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14367610.stm we are more expensive than 21, yes 21 of those teams. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14367357.stm We are more expensive than 7 Championship teams, including Birmingham & Blackpool who were playing Premier League football last season. There are even 2 Premier League teams where a day out to watch would be cheaper. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14367608.stm When all that is taken into consideration, I start to think differently to my above opinion. As a Gills fan, I find it a travesty we are not a bigger club. The only pro team in Kent with attendances around 6-7,000? We could come up with many reasons as to why and fixes to the problem and this is where I hand over to you. Is this a reasonable price to be paying? Are you happy with what you get from your day once you've forked out? And lastly, what changes, if any, would you make in terms of the prices, experience, club as a whole?
£25.90 Ok, to some that doesn't seem a lot, but then if your kids and other half would also like to go, then all of a suddernly that's close to £100 a time. In these economically tough times, that could price a lot of potential supporters out of going. I certainly cannot afford go to every game now (working every other weekend doesn't help either), so have to pick and choose my games... Last season I didn't see Gills win a single game!! and had to endure that 90 minutes of hell called the Hereford home game...well worth the £25 I spent on the day. HOWEVER... I understand why Mr Scally has set the prices fairly high... The club is still in seriously in debt, but he also realises that in order to get enough punters through the door, he has to provide a team that we the supporters want to pay to see. I think this season he has achieved this with some exciting signings which should see a healthy attendance in the opening match. It's a fine balancing act Mr Scally has to perform. Too high ticket prices watching poor quality football will not get any more than the normal 4000 or so through the gate. But if the Gills get off to a flyer then this could easily double by September. If he prices the tickets too low, then more may be tempted to go in the short term, but will there be enough extra seats sold to justify the lower price. Glad I'm not making that decision. UTG.
An interesting article on the cost of football in the UK this morning on the Beeb website here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14366574.stm with some particularly interesting figures on league 2 page http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14367362.stm. Apparently we have the 3rd most expensive "dayout" in league 2, and while i've personally thought our ticket prices have been too high for at least 2 seasons now I wandered what everyone else thought? If I weren't a Gills fan and didn't love the club and football so much, I wouldn't even consider attending at that price...
That's a valid point. As I'm 21 I still get away with the young adult ticket prices. But I always get the train to games from Rochester station. Add on that a drink and more than likely a burger or something plus the programme cost too. So for people like yourself who would be paying for other, it's one hell of an expenditure for what is not really a day out, more like just the afternoon! That's precisely it, supply and demand. Dropping the price doesn't automatically mean enough people would then go to even out the changes. It's a tough thing to consider. Being a Gills fan I will pay that amount to watch them. I had friends at university in the Nottingham, Portsmouth and Southampton areas who regularly attended the games at their respective grounds. I wonder how many students we attract from the University campus' at both Medway & Canterbury?
could be cheaper but after this summer's investment in the team dont think we can complain too much. also if we reduced the costs- would it mean bigger gates? probably not significantly. we also ran specials like the town end tickets at the end of last season so all in all not too unhappy about ticket prices. Personally as i have to cough up for return flights from Ireland the ticket price isnt quite as significant. looking forward to Saturday though and the new season. every game i traveled over for last year was dire. really dire. the pre season reports have got me optimistic that at least we'll be letting the ball see some grass this season! UTG
