Crowds

[SMEE]

Football is over priced...its a simple as that. For example.....i could take a family of 4 ice skating for 2 and a half hours AND get a few quid change for what it would cost me to get into the North Stand to watch a game.

But you're not comparing like with like. When you watch an SPL match you are watching the top footballers in the country. If you were to watch the top performers in the country in music, drama or comedy etc you would be paying at least as much. If you are go skating you are entertaining yourself. Skating's an expensive way to entertain yourself - you can kick a ball around the Bught for free!

OK....a family of 4 can go to watch the TOP actors in the world in movies which cost sometimes £100M + to produce......for the same price as it would cost ME to sit in the chepeast seat at footie. No one will convince me that football isnt overpriced and offers little value for money. And the difference between comedians...bands or whatever.....they are usually things which come around once every few years...and not every other weekend

For example....i paid £50 to see the BIGEST band on the plaent back in 2009. That ammount is the total i have spent on seeing them in 8 yrs...so break it down....well, that equates to me spending £6 per year on them. Cost me 4 times that to sit in the main stand at ONE ICT game

Edited October 29, 2012 by SMEE

[CaleyD]

You can compare the price to as many different things as you like...it doesn't change the fact that clubs cannot afford to reduce prices.

[SMEE]

You can compare the price to as many different things as you like...it doesn't change the fact that clubs cannot afford to reduce prices.

And while that remains the case...crowds will remain lower than they could potentially be IMHO

[CaleyD]

We could stop charging altogether, but you wouldn't have a team to follow for very long. Maybe you missed the reports of this years trading losses? Where the room to reduce prices in that?

[davie]

Bottom line is that we need more bums on seats, and on Saturday I think anyone could have reasonably expected more to turn up. Smee, the movie analogy doesn't work. Any blockbuster movie (or any globally famous band) has a far greater reach than us, and can set the ticket price knowing that they will get millions buying the product. Comparing a one off ticket price for a concert that would last for an couple of hours to a season or so's worth of football, is curious in its logic. With the greatest of respect to you, for ICT that ain't never going to work. Reduce the prices and the figures just don't stack up. There is a case to say that the match day experience could be better and therefore offer more value, but price deduction, no. There is, by the way, an amazing amount of work going on by the club and others to improve the experience; the football's better, the league is more compeditive, fans are more involved. Maybe you might want to add your ideas.

[+bughtmaster]

Beginning to wonder when IHE is going to start his problem page.

Dear uncle IMMO.

There seems to be a lot of fixations about, etc. etc etc. what can be done to unburden these poor souls before things get any worse.

Dont answer this if I have to pay as I am saving up for a footie programme,

Yors sincerely

Me

[+Fraz]

I costs me around (possibly just under) £16 a game for an adult in the North Stand. Not terrible value IMO. Though the burgers / hotdogs are a rip off, no question.

[+Feb82000]

club should let disable adults and the unemployed in on concession prices on match days then you get more people buying tickets a lot of other spl clubs are doing this

[+Fraz]

club should let disable adults and the unemployed in on concession prices on match days then you get more people buying tickets a lot of other spl clubs are doing this

I believe that CLAN members do get a discount, though I'm sure someone else would have more information on this.

ETA- I don't think you will ever have a pricing policy that makes everyone happy, all the time for example a pensioner was complaining to me that his son was annoyed as he thought is was grossly unfair that he paid full price while a 24 year old next to him who could be making just as much money if not more got a season ticket far cheaper. I replied with basically saying that there are 65+ year olds that sit near me who quite possibly have no mortgage etc and have much more money than me but get their ST far cheaper. That's the way it is, unless you means test everyone of course.

Mind you the guy in front of me at the turnstiles got a good deal on Sat. After waiting in the 'ticket only' que the girl at the turnstyle let his young son in and then he asked her 'How much for an adult and a child?' Obviously not wanting to tell him this was not a cash gate and he was in the wrong line she just said 'Never mind just go in' and let him through. I would hope he at least bought a programme!

Edited October 29, 2012 by fraz

[Scarlet Pimple]

Caley D said it straight. The club cannot afford it.

Would it shock you to learn that the club spent 100,000 pounds on hospital operations for players over the last year?

This club looks after their players very well indeed and I have no doubt that they use the top surgeons in the land.Mr Hogg went to London for his serious procedure did he not? And that figure is an indisputable fact from highest authority.

It's the equivalent of maintenance for you car and an expense that can't be avoided .

Do the mathematics. How many fans would need to come through the turnstyles to cover a total annual bill like that over a fiscal year?

Truly it is a very vexing situation for the club to be in. If the fans won't support the club in greater numbers then there must be the possibility of lowering standards. And operations ,possibly, in a lower division.

And since the club has finally managed to put a very good team on the park, what more can anyone expect from them when the money isn't there to buy high -priced players who may not fit in anyway.

I do wonder what the club's loss will be at the end of the current fiscal year?

If a fan can't afford to go to every home match then why not every other match-i. eonce per month , but it has to be a commitment.y not go every two weeks-that cuts their annual bill in half and surely makes it afforodable

[MarkD]

3,000 attendance from a population of 60,000 i.e. 5% isn't actually bad. The overall problem is that Scotland is trying to maintain 40 football teams on a population of 5m ... compare to England where 50m are maintaining (or not) 150 or so including the Conference.

[Huisdean]

It's quite simple really, if the fans want it, if the community wants it and if the city wants it...then they have to do their bit to help make it happen.

Thats exactly where the problem lyes. The overwhelming majority of People just dont care. Why is that? I think price is the biggest bugbear

Don't agree at all that price is the biggest bugbear. It is to those who want to attend but cannot afford it financially but there are many people in Inverness who can afford to attend and do so when it suits them. That is their right but, as Caley D has alluded to, many appear to just constantly moan/take from the club rather than give something back. That "giving something back" can be in many forms such as attending more games, volunteering to help the club, buying merchandise etc. Heaven forbid we get relegated or suffer severe finacial difficulties because of the apathy of large sections of the public in Inverness as you can be sure there will be a lot of "public" support at that point but it will be too late. Inverness will get the team and level of football it deserves if attendances do not start to pick up.

[Charles Bannerman]

3,000 attendance from a population of 60,000 i.e. 5% isn't actually bad. The overall problem is that Scotland is trying to maintain 40 football teams on a population of 5m ... compare to England where 50m are maintaining (or not) 150 or so including the Conference.

I actually think one of the major elements of what is a multi dimensional problem is the religiously and politically divided nature of society in Scotland's most densely populated west central area. This has created an environment for rival population groups to polarise around two neighbouring clubs which have therefore artificially become large enough to acquire a critical mass which then drags in further fans from right across Scotland.

As a result of this unnatural skewing of football support, local clubs such as ICT and many others are under supported within their local areas because of the all too familiar widespread support for the Old Firm, much of it for the reasons stated above.

But yes, 40 "senior" football clubs for a population of 5 million is also too many. But then if you further extrapolate that argument, is the location of two top division football clubs within an immediate area which has a population of less than 200,000 also excessive??

Edited October 30, 2012 by Charles Bannerman

[SMEE]

club should let disable adults and the unemployed in on concession prices on match days then you get more people buying tickets a lot of other spl clubs are doing this

I think the club charge £10 for disabled and if a carer is required, they get in free...but im not 100% sure

[Alex MacLeod]

I've followed football for a good number of years now and I've come through more than one recession in that time. I dont think it would take too much research to see that in times of recession football crowds go down. I also talk to many people from many areas of the country about this very subject and many do not attend games any more because, to use the words of one person, the game here is run by a duo-dictatorship who have the officials of all the governing bodies in their pockets. Many are sickened by the general product on offer and by the media bias towards Glasgow. Many choose instead to go play a game of golf, a sport that costs a deal more than a season ticket, or watch a different sport. Many people just aren't interested in football so perhaps we have levelled out at what is our realistic share of the population. Looking at the catchment area of our club we have to compete with shinty and rugby both of which are quite well supported.

The way to increase attendances is not to cut prices, thats been tried and failed, its to nurture the fans of the future. That is being done but it takes a generation or two to reap the benifits of the current investment. Not only must you get the kids supporting the club but you have to break the bond, brought about by the influx of imigrants from the overspilling city to the west of Stirling, that is Celtic and Rangers.

Many people will have many excuses for not attending. Those unemployed and/or on low incomes will always blame cost. Those who can afford the cost will blame the product and those who can afford but cant blame the product will always have a prior engagement. At the end of the day this debate will go on and on.

[Heilandee]

Many choose instead to go play a game of golf, a sport that costs a deal more than a season ticket.

Don't know where you get that golf costs a deal more from Alex,

Season ticket for the main stand at TCS approx 25 games? = £370.00

Season ticket at Culcabock use 365 days = £379.00

Sadly,I know plenty football "fans" who prefer to go out golfing on Saturday afternoons nowadays,myself included.Supporters are getting disillusioned for a variety of reasons,what the reasons are can be argued all day and night, but the game is losing a lot of diehards.

[Huisdean]

I think HeilanDee has hit the nail on the head. Gone, or certainly going, are the days of the die hard supporter who attends week in week out no matter what the team is doing. Fans are much more fickle now and everybody wants to be seenm as an individual, not follow the "tribal" layalty of a football fan. There are also so many alternatives to football now, that were not always available in the past, that it is a lot easier to find another option fror something to do on a Saturday than going to watch a game.

[Alex MacLeod]

Many choose instead to go play a game of golf, a sport that costs a deal more than a season ticket.

Don't know where you get that golf costs a deal more from Alex,

Season ticket for the main stand at TCS approx 25 games? = £370.00

Season ticket at Culcabock use 365 days = £379.00

Sadly,I know plenty football "fans" who prefer to go out golfing on Saturday afternoons nowadays,myself included.Supporters are getting disillusioned for a variety of reasons,what the reasons are can be argued all day and night, but the game is losing a lot of diehards.

Equipment needed to go to football = nil

Football shirt and scarf = £50

Pringle and Golf shoes £150

Equipment needed to impress golfing buddies £1000 +

[Heilandee]

Yer frequenting the wrong golf clubs Alex! My equipment widnae impress anyone,(well, not my golf equipment ) The bar bill may be considerable on occasions but that can be the same at the fitba.

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

County v Aberdeen - 3-Nov-12 - 6,064

ICT v Aberdeen - 15-Sep-12 - 4,499

A larger crowd by 1,500 - they must be doing something right or has the Aberdeen away support grown since the start of the season....?

[Yngwie]

Novelty factor for both sides.

[+DoofersDad]

Its more than novelty. Regardless of what the Dons fans were doing, that crowd demonstrates that the County fans are getting begind their team well. After a solid but unspectacular start it looked as though they might be finding it a little bit tough, but they have picked themselves up after getting humpred by us and are managing to secure wins when they might have been content with a draw. We may be 3rd (which is brilliant) but they are only 3 points behind us. We need to keep winning to stay in front of them and we will need to get the support behind the team. Our crowd against St Johnstone was pathetic on a good day for watching footy - hopefully the message will get through to a few more folk that this could be our best season ever both in terms of what the club achieves and the way the team is playing.

[culduthel]

6,000 poor souls attended the county home game today !!??!!

Do you think they all paid ?

[IBM]

6,000 poor souls attended the county home game today !!??!!

Do you think they all paid ?

Or do Global give their staff free tickets?

[Yngwie]

Its more than novelty. Regardless of what the Dons fans were doing, that crowd demonstrates that the County fans are getting begind their team well.

Don't disagree, but our first SPL game at TCS v Aberdeen had a crowd of over 7,000. And technically our first home SPL game against them had nearly 10,000!