Hey TC, you make a very good point re. visitors prices. Someone from LUFC with commercial nous should be examining it. The few examples you've indicated should make someone sit up & take notice. Then again, is there anyone connected with LUFC with commercial nous?
TC - I wouldn't start using facts and evidence with ristac, he only believes what he dreams up and then decides that his (usually incorrect and easily refutable) opinion must be fact Football is terribly price inelastic until you reach a certain level, and then there appears to be a cliff edge. Bates has pissed off 50% or more of the hardcore Leeds fans so much that they no longer turn up with his long term high prices - their cliff edge has been found. In one season, by moving the away fans to the West Stand and thus changing their pricing structure to the highest levels, not only are the away fans so pissed off they can't be arsed to turn up, the whole debacle pisses off the manager too cos he can hear them singing about him. Imagine if there were 2000 fans there instead of the usual 150! Of course, no-one used to sing about Simon Grayson. He was too much of a nice guy. Warnock on the other hand has the habit of annoying everyone, but is it financially sensible to incur all the costs in transferring the away fans back to the cheesewedge just for the one season that NW is here?
I am not saying the price isn't wrong, but I don't think we would double the away support if we lowered the prices, Birmingham and Forest were midweek matches, they are always going to attract lower support, Burnley was a Jan 2nd game, right after Christmas and a busy schedule again lower away support. Hull brought 2,246 and Boro 2,409 and West Ham 2,958 and Blackpool 1,819 - all above their average for a season, even Derby and Palace brought more fans than their yearly average. You could pick loads out, Brighton took 993 to Leeds but only 234 to Hull and 679 to Boro. Yes the prices charged at Elland Road are wrong but in all honesty I don't know how much of a difference it would make where away fans are concerned. Opinion must be a fact right?
The fact is Bates is on a mission to keep costs down and by making the cost to visit Elland Road so high will reduce the number of visitors and reduce the Police bill. The WYP don't come cheap and insist on stupid numbers to Police games with a big away turnout, they also insist we are limited to no more than 1000(they've admitted they can't cope with more than that) provided we jump through hoops to get there. Eventually the figures on running the club will look attractive enough to show a potential investor and then Ken will be off into the sunset with some serious wedge in his back pocket.
666 is not Clive Time. CT was a full blown wum & 666 will remember him from the old 606 666 is Leeds through & through who is just frustrated & not blinkered about Bates propaganda & has probably got used to driving the message home that Bates is a crook & is killing our club. Most on this site agree with that, unlike old 606 & the play ground that is JA606.
Not to delusional, super-spunking Leicester maybe. 20m for wages, transfers and agents would easy get Leeds in the mix. Sadly, we'll be operating on half-to-two-thirds of that amount yet again.
But that doesn't generate any income for Leeds - Sort of aids my argument that your prices are too high - and the over policing and Service Staion pick-up fiasco - see Us and Cardiff had the fewest away fans at Elland Road this season
I agree with all that, just saying that most fans are still obsessed with us and **** over the fixture list being released when they see "Leeds (H)". Especially Millwall now West Ham are buggering off to the top flight where they belong.
Ken Bates " I had a Saudi businessman who is a Leeds fan and wanted to invest in #lufc . "He said he was serious and I gave him some papers to do with Leeds and off he went. He rang me the following week and asked if his chief financial advisor could come over, look at the clubs books and look around Leeds. "He came over in the week the season started. He was very impressed with everything and ...Shaun (Harvey) showed him around the ground, he saw the new pavilion and he saw the work that was underway in the new East stand. He thoroughly enjoyed it. "Unfortunately, we then entertained him for the day when we played Middlesbrough when the silly demonstration took place. In those days, we were in the old West Stand boardroom and they decided to prance around outside the boardroom, where you can see out of the windows. He was a little subdued over it but we tried to laugh it off and put it down to youthful exuberance and the disappointment of just missing out the previous season. "I did not think anything more about it and we left on good terms and he wrote his report and raised a few more questions. We then never heard back from them and it dragged on. Eventually, he rang me up and said 'not being funny, it is a great idea, I love Leeds United and am still a big Leeds fan but we cannot afford to be associated with that kind of nonsense in the society we live in back in Saudi Arabia.` "That was a £20 million investment out of the window. So, people who want to demonstrate or chant, it is their choice but they have to realise the implications and consequent results that can be emanating from their behaviour."
Just seen that the Leeds Attendance for the 2011/12 season is down 92,000 on the previous season that's £3M in lost revenue You had more in all 3 seasons in League 1 - think that should make Bates and Co have a re-think!!
Wrong. £35 is a ****ing disgrace. No club should charge that and it should be against a rule but it's not. Put £10 tickets up for sale and your away end will sell out week in week out. I'd go to every away game if it was a tenner, but thats so rare now. Am I right in saying you regularly bring in 30m per year? So only 8 months worth of revenue. Shouldn't be that much. Any £20m investment should be put into financing your academy, training ground, stadium and scouting. Forget buying £20m worth of talent in wages, transfer fees and agent fees. Leicester have upgraded to Grade A academy status, have now got training facilities that clubs in the top half of the PL can only dream of, a state of the art 32k seater stadium with access to 45k when ever you like and a scouting network that you only need ask Hull fan about. It's really not the case. You are possibly the most delusional fans in the country when this type of thing is said. No fans are obsessed with you apart from your local rivals. Going by your logic I could say that Leeds are obsessed with every team in the league that they get the highest away attendance for. Yeah, but its down to protests isn't it?
AKCJ out of interest how many away games did you attend this year? It is bollocks saying you would go to every away game if it were £10 because it would cost you more than £25 in fuel travelling to Elland Road and back. Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton, Cardiff, Bristol City £35 a ticket is nothing to them compared to the cost of fuel to get there and back, you could give them a ticket for £10 and for some it would still be the best part of £50 in travelling expense, an 8 hour round trip or more in good traffic 2 hours at the game including parking, food and drink, it isn't all about the price of an away ticket. Outside the Premier League I would say Leeds have the largest UK fan base by a long shot so no matter where they play they attract a following.
This season I went to Forest (twice), Coventry, Bury, Peterborough, Rotherham and Birmingham. Not saying i'm your most die hard fan and saying i'd go to every game is probably an exaggeration. But i'd have gone to games like yours if they were better priced. When you're looking at spending about 60 quid to watch a football match you have to take a step back and think. Football is entertainment and i'm not entertained enough to warrant spending that sort of money. Some are and had we been winning more then I probably would be too. Cov, Rotherham, Forest and Bury were our first 4 away games this season, despite winning 3 out of 4 and only losing the 4th to a last minute goal with 10 men, I would have gone to more had our performances been better both home and away.
In a way i can understand where he is coming from, i remember in my single days i'd pulled this stunning classy bird, i was punching well above my weight, this was not going to be a usual taking her up around a back alley, this was going to be a top hotel and no football for at least a month(but worth it), suddenly a few of my mates turned up, at first i managed to avoid them and then suddenly they spotted me, i could had died on the spot as they asked "have i banged her yet" and "what you losing your touch?" when i said "not yet", as they ruined things further i sat in disbelief as they then got involved in a big fight and then turned on the bouncers, needless to say she left, without me. I often wonder where i would be now if i had married this minted bird, would i'll be living the life of Riley in my million pound gaff in Sloane Square, breaking my legs in Switzerland every winter and spending the summer in our second home in the South of France? Still life ain't so bad for me now really,i've just found a quid down the back of my sofa and i'm of to the corner shop to buy a can of Stella
