New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[horlock07]

https://www.ukpopulation.org/bradford-population/

Well fuck me, there you go, that's way bigger than the population figures the Council gave me when I did a project over there a few years back. I suspect that includes all of Bradford MBC, so a load of the towns like Keighley, Saltaire, Bingley, Shipley etc.

[RobertT]

Season tickets are a double edged sword, well, maybe more edges.

On the plus side, football clubs are in the unique position of being forced to shut down for 2-3 months a year, not earning any Revenue through sales in order to meet their consistent costs.  Season tickets give the club upfront money to cover that period.  They also provide a level of commitment to the number of people likely to attend any give match - this enables accurate planning for the operational costs and relatively easy budgeting.

On the downside, they are much lower per match in terms of Revenue per Customer - much better to charge on the day prices.  I know it is not the same, but Disney recently limited the sale of Annual Passes as they had sufficient demand for on daily sales to switch their model and boost Revenue.  All those Annual Pass wannabes moaned, but they have consistently filled the parks and raked in more dosh as a result.

Getting to near 7m on Revenue is pretty high for us I think.  It's why I think a small breakdown of that would be useful - it would show the impact of decisions this team has made and show what a good job they are doing.  My suspicion is we did a cracking job on hospitality and commercial activities last year.

[RobertT]

Bradford's Turnover in 2020 7.3m, which dropped to 5.0m in 2021 (Covid).

Interestingly, for those who would like our club to be transparent, and they have done a lot better, Bradford produce much more detailed accounts:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05102915/filing-history

Breakdown of where all the Revenue came from - which tells us that they had a little more income than us in the 2020 year they show on their latest accounts, but that was including some decent Transfer income.  So they may sell a shed load of season tickets, but it does not appear they bring in more money than us through ticket sales.  If anything, it suggest they make less.

[Posh Red]

We got season tickets again when Fitton & co reduced the prices to try and get us to 6,000.

At that point it equated to roughly the cost of 10 games, at the moment we are up to 15 games (which is still a decent saving if you can make all the games).

The problem for us is that we struggle to make midweek games so it gets to a point where it’s no longer cost effective.

[The Million Pound Man]

anybody know if the Nationwide ticket offer will run again next season? think its £12 for an adult per game atm

[4D]

Can't wait to see the sponsorship income in next year's accounts 

[BambooToTheFuture]

Well fuck me, there you go, that's way bigger than the population figures the Council gave me when I did a project over there a few years back. I suspect that includes all of Bradford MBC, so a load of the towns like Keighley, Saltaire, Bingley, Shipley etc.

Yeah it's the Urban sprawl that makes up the c500k. Not be long before the likes of Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds all become one (and dare I say if we start to include the merge of places like Wakefield, Castleford and Pontefract on the 'Leeds' side). But Bradford City itself isn't really that huge. More like a large Town at best and relatively fragmented at that too.

Question being, what would it this new super metropolis be called? New Leeford? Bradedsfield? Bradford upon Leeds? 

[BambooToTheFuture]

Getting to near 7m on Revenue is pretty high for us I think.

What as a ballpark figure does Town generate in annual gate receipts (on all tickets inc hospitality, STs, walkups etc)?

If we say the average cost of a ticket went to about:

c£25 per ticket
c10k gate
25 home games (allowing for one FA Cup and one League Cup, I'm being incredibly conservative on this so not including any bonus cup runs or PO gate share or TV money)

=

c£6.25m pa in gate receipts.

That feels like a pretty decent revenue for L2 (Div4) from just one strand of income with zero bonuses added to it. Do the club REALLY need to raise the prices that much? There's some flex in the circa figure above due to hospitality being higher yet nominal and obviously STs being relatively cheaper than a walkup but I can't imagine it would be too far away from that, maybe as low as c£6m pa and potentially as high as c£6.5m pa. An increase in walkup price to c£28 would bring the Town gate receipts to c£7m pa based on the above.

But even c£5m pa of gate revenue (based on walk ups as low as £20 per ticket) would seem ok for a L2 club from just that one income stream alone and before we start adding up any additional income streams like sponsors, investors, assets sales/transfers, solidarity payments and money for competing in the division regardless of finishing position - if which most of those are also guaranteed or at the least incredibly safe projections of other revenue coming in to the club.

[Batch]

the average ticket price is much lower than you think iirc due to concessions, kids and  alleged abuse.

actually, am I thinking of season ticket average per game. maybe I am

[DMC]

Average ticket value last season was around £10 they said

[RobertT]

Average ticket value last season was around £10 they said

yes, they were surprised at how low it was themselves.  I imagine this is a simple average of total gate receipts, including season tickets, divided by total attendance.  Hence why Season Ticket prices would be looked at as well - adding more to the matchday price is a real pain point, but doesn't touch the average a great deal as they did such a good job of converting people to season tickets last season.

[horlock07]

Can't wait to see the sponsorship income in next year's accounts  

I can't wait to see who they announce as the sponsors of next year's account's.

Seeing how shit hot they have been at maximising sponsorship opportunities its surprising to see that the ground has not been sponsored, as they could have got cash for this year at least?

[DMC]

They are trying

[BambooToTheFuture]

the average ticket price is much lower than you think iirc due to concessions, kids and  alleged abuse.

actually, am I thinking of season ticket average per game. maybe I am

Average ticket value last season was around £10 they said

I'm genuinely surprised at this, although you guys will know more than me as I'm not a ST holder or regular attendee. I think I may have accepted something as low as c£15 avg.

Still, for one single revenue stream thats c£3m.

yes, they were surprised at how low it was themselves... adding more to the matchday price is a real pain point, but doesn't touch the average a great deal as they did such a good job of converting people to season tickets last season.

To be honest Rob, adding to either the Matchday or the ST doesn't really move the average too much. If we over egg it with 5k STs and raise the price by say c£50 then that's c£250k more revenue via that stream; matched against c5k walk ups and raising the Matchday by c£3 per ticket then that brings it to c£375k.

I could genuinely see the club increasing both STs and Matchday, with something like the above it would see the club hope to bring in an extra £600k+ via total gate receipts. I think that brings it to about a £14 per ticket value.

Questions are, would regular STs accept a c£50 rise and would walk ups rebuff the idea of an extra c£3 for a matchday ticket? It probably means in real terms (If, like most fans stomaching the increase) either one of no program, no tray of chips or no very cheap pint of mild, each game.  Obviously, I've no idea what the potential/planned ST or Matchday (or both) price rises would be but as stated, it doesn't seem like just one of them alone would move the average too much; from about the suggested current £10 value to roughly £12 

[Bob's Orange]

I can't wait to see who they announce as the sponsors of next year's account's.

Seeing how shit hot they have been at maximising sponsorship opportunities its surprising to see that the ground has not been sponsored, as they could have got cash for this year at least?

Did the Energy Check County Ground expire?