Lee Power, budgets and finances

[Honkytonk]

We're currently 9th on average home attendance with 6,951, which is not that bad considering the 8 above are mostly Northern teams with very strong fanbases, or teams that are spending a shit ton lot more money than we are.

http://www.emfootball.co.uk/attend.html

Interesting to note that clubs like Orient/Yeovil are worse off attendance-wise than we are and probably spending a lot more. Also interesting to see Bournemouth bottom of the average attendance for the Championship on 9,630. Must be leaking money out of every orifice.

As others have said we're not doing too badly, but it could be better, and I think the average will be roundabout 7,200 come end of the season. If you look at our min/max you can see attendance is pretty consistent.

[Only Me]

Been over this a million times, people are skint. I normally do 15+ games a season. This year 0. the reason, although I earn a pretty high wage my wife was made redundant and is now on a third of her previous wage, hence disposable income gone in a flash, and no immediate sign of it recovering. Bet if you did a poll there would be multiple examples in the same vein. If I could I'd be there every game, I cant, so is that an excuse or a fact of life?  

Excuse

[Only Me]

I'd love to see a 'pay what you can afford' experiment for one match, just to see whether a fan base is really out there during these times of financial hardship.

Good point, but I am not convinced this would work. Even if someone could afford to pay £50, why would they pay that when most (if not all) people look for a bargain and would pay less, eg £20.

[REDBUCK]

Surely you're missed the point !!!!

[deltaincline]

I think Power and Co need to return to the days of just getting bums on seats to increase revenue.

Once they've got an increased fan-base, they can then set about increasing the yield per seat.

Football is a habit. Especially when it's quite expensive, and it's relatively easy to get out of the habit and do other things.

They've ridden the higher crowds that came off the back of The Black / Wray era, the football dipped when we has a sell off under Jed, and the club is inevitably now struggling to increase crowds - despite the good football and league position.

The phenomenon in business terms is called "lag". Aside from increased crowds, they won't benefit in real terms for a while, but the building blocks will be there.

Get more people in with offers and decent discounts, then worry about leveraging more money out of them later.

Simples.

[wiggy]

I think Power and Co need to return to the days of just getting bums on seats to increase revenue.

Once they've got an increased fan-base, they can then set about increasing the yield per seat.

Football is a habit. Especially when it's quite expensive, and it's relatively easy to get out of the habit and do other things.

They've ridden the higher crowds that came off the back of The Black / Wray era, the football dipped when we has a sell off under Jed, and the club is inevitably now struggling to increase crowds - despite the good football and league position.

The phenomenon in business terms is called "lag". Aside from increased crowds, they won't benefit in real terms for a while, but the building blocks will be there.

Get more people in with offers and decent discounts, then worry about leveraging more money out of them later.

Simples.

Fill the seats and maximise income off of food and drink sales/merchandise.

[chalkies_shorts]

Fill the seats and maximise income off of food and drink sales/merchandise.

Food and drink sales sold off by Jed

[pauld]

Fill the seats and maximise income off of food and drink sales/merchandise.

Won't help. As I keep reminding people, we don't have any income from food and drink sales because JedCo forward sold it all for the next decade for a pittance. Right about the time people were saying they couldn't possibly be asset strippers because we didn't have any assets to sell....

One thing Power could profitably do, although I suspect he's looked at this already, is have the legal people go over that contract with a fine tooth-comb and see if it can be declared invalid/fraudulent/whatever

[horlock07]

At what stage do more bums on seats mean more stewards, more police and more overheads - potentially becomes a vicious circle when trying to up gates by cheap tickets?

[pauld]

Don't get me wrong, we *should* be trying to get more bums on seats, definitely, in the medium-long term we need to increase our fanbase, BUT it's not a short-term fix thanks in large part to Jed's shenannigans AND tbh I think our gates are pretty decent. Best part of 7000 for a rearranged 3rd tier midweek fixture with Champions League on TV? Plenty of teams at our level look at us with envy. The fact that some are spending beyond what those gates could sustain is an indication of how football continually thinks it can exist on the never-never which is why so many clubs are in the shit and vulnerable to chancers like Jed. And that includes us - we were spending way beyond that under Wray and Co with their Shit or Bust "strategy".

[kerry red]

I know a few of us have put the boot into 'Muff, but on crowds of 10,000 and players on (allegedly) highish salaries, how and when does the shit the fan for them - even taking into account the Russkie.

[Tails]

Not to mention what they've spent on transfer fees in the last few years.

They are playing some bloody good stuff, and even taking away the heavy backing he's had, Eddie Howe has a done an amazing job there. They look like they will be a good bet to go up to the Premier League, and if they do that I imagine the Russian will make a lot of his money back. It's then how heavily he wants to invest in them staying in the Premier League because there's no way they can sustain it without more heavy investment.

[jonny72]

Won't help. As I keep reminding people, we don't have any income from food and drink sales because JedCo forward sold it all for the next decade for a pittance.

What exactly were the terms of the deal?

I've read people on here claiming we sold of all rights to food and drink sales for a pittance but have never seen an explanation of the deal. Plus the articles I've read elsewhere suggest the terms were somewhat different than claimed.

[horlock07]

Power really needs to follow Everton's marketing methods to get people through the door!

[Bob's Orange]

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/article/lindleycateringdeal-860259.aspx

Good ol' Steve Murrall.