Not actually going to happen. But a report has been done showing what clubs need to do to their ticket prices in order to break even: If the fair play rules were in place this season and they enforced them though Wolves would be the 4th placed team eligible for Europe.
I remember Adam Pearson once saying that gate receipts were almost a negligible part of a clubs income. Looks like I misunderstood him at the time.
In our division they must be a decent part of turnover. 17k at an average of something like £15k a pop is c£6m (gross) excluding corporate pricing. I remember when we were in L2 Liverpool came to pay a visit as we took more non-ticket matchday income than they did with Prem League attendances. Seems AP has taken his foot off the gas somewhat with regard to that.
The figure AP gave before was that they were less than 1/3 of our income. I can't remember if it was in L1 or in the Championship, but either way we'd have been averaging about 17k gates at the time. There's not much point in us generating non-ticket matchday income from fans. Unless it's increased programme sales or MOTM texts the club doesn't get it anyway.
Would increased attendances (irrespective of price) have much impact on what the club could charge for sponsorship or advertising?
Theoretically yes, but I would say that it would have a bigger effect % wise in the lower leagues where the media coverage is less and the sponsors are more local businesses supporting the local club. That way the sponsors are after the fans of that club and doubling the attendance should double the amount of trade they gain as a result of the sponsorship (not double their overall trade) so the fees should double. In the higher divisions they're more often than not national companies looking for exposure so TV coverage and association with the successful teams drives the cost. The majority of the people who see the adverts/sponsorship won't be in the stadium so adding a few thousand onto the gate is insignificant. EDIT: I don't have any figures to back it up, but I'm assuming for example that if Man U's gate suddenly dropped to about 40,000 AIG wouldn't be demanding the cost of sponsoring them reduced accordingly where as John's corner shop sponsoring Macclesfield probably would.
For me, there needs to be a salary cap. I sadly fear this will be almost impossible to impose, but it is necessary to reduce levels of debt. Eventually to even eliminate them. Too many players are over paid. I'm not actually thinking of the top earners when I say this. I'm thinking of the hoards of just average - or even below average - premiership players that are earning a stack over what they ought to earn if clubs were set up to 'break even' or (shock) make some sort of operating profit. We all know why clubs are struggling to break even - it's not due to lack of income. This is the richest league in the world! What other league boasts such revenues from it's TV deal? The problem is the players are all on too much. It needs to change and quickly. But like I said, I doubt it will. Just look at the stupid wages we had to pay for crap players when we were in the PL. It's total madness and it's been out of control for a long time. Clubs have not been cutting the old cloth accordingly and sooner or later it will implode.
