Dying a Death

Blame the Bankers
This economic downturn we are having is now taking hold, not just in Barnsley, but all over the country.
Employment is getting hard to come by and times are hard for many families,( even Tesco's are starting to feel the pinch) but life is still marching on, and its leaving some people behind, hence the drop in football attendance's.

To quote Richietyke "Please explain what the club should be doing instead"
The club is not massively rich, it works within a budget and has to compete with clubs far wealthier than ourselves.
It cannot afford to reduce prices too much as it will decrease the budget for next season, which is when the new rulings come into effect, where a club can only spend the income it generates.
The club has tried to help fans with various payment schemes to help keep fans costs down, with a savings stamp scheme, a 3 payment scheme for season tickets, now theres a 3/4 season ticket, and theres also the 1912 club scheme, and no doubt there will be a 1/2 season ticket available soon, what more can the club do.
I must admit that I dislike this scheme of charging for games by category, but this seems to be the way with all the clubs in the Championship, much simpler to have a fixed price.

I must agree that the £30 price for a Cat A game is steep, but people tend to forget that part of this seasons gate price increase is due to the rise in VAT, and we have followed most other Championship clubs in this pricing, I dont hear many moans at Leeds charging us £35 a ticket.

Despite the early season Hillcroft knockers the product that they have been giving us is getting better as the team and the Hillcroft ethic grows.
Its the best weve had for a good few years.

The club has ambition but you cant sustain it on Patrick Crynes wallet, Its the football fans of the the area who need to seek some ambition to support the club again, rather than leave it to the 7 or 8000 diehard supporters.
Get out from behind your keyboards and get your bum on a seat at Oakwell, show your passion and ambition for our town' team.

Come on you Reddzzz

If we get 9500 for a Catergory A match assuming we've got 7500 ST holders and the away support is 1000 the remaing 1000 home supporters gate money will realise £30.000. If the gate charge is reduced from £30 to £24 it only needs 250 extra supporters to break even. 500 extra supporters will realise £36.000 a £6.000 increase. The lower prices in the Ponty end will be pro-rata. This would be a far more attractive idea than schemes thought up by Rowing and simpler to administrate as well as being easier for the fans. Who knows it might even increase the atmosphere.

£30! I can go to Hillsborough and take my lad and we can sit in the grandstand for £30 for the two of us! Ask Cryne where the iSoft money has gone!

That's why MM had to bail you out, shades of Greece.

Mandy wont be bailing any one out if he's nailed for tax evasion...

As I said on another thread I'm very happy with my club at the moment, it seems that many Barnsley supporters aren't and are voting with their feet.

The club only has a certain amount of finances to play with once they've sold season tickets to adult supporters. For this season, as in previous years they've seen subsidising kids prices (the next generation of fans) by either giving season tickets away, or selling for very cheap prices, as the way to go, rather than selling cheaper tickets to existing supporters who don't turn up anyway. (unless there is a big cup game in the offing). Seems sensible to me. The fact there are cheaper available for a few games at least gives the stay away brigade a few matches to go to should they decide to rock up for a few home games or get an afternoon out from under the missus' thumb. They can't afford to do both.

I have to agree with RT and Kinnell, whatever the club do some people will criticise them, very often for things that are beyond their control.
U7380's sums are accurate but speculative, the reality is that most of BFC's iniatives have neither raised crowds or revenues, the figures are there if anyone wishes to check them, I certainly can't be bothered to do it again.
It seems to me that some fans will continue to ignore the evidence in order to perpetuate the ill-founded myths that the disaffected feed on, and some of us will continue to be unimpressed by such negativity and continue to support our club wholeheartedly! C'mon yooo redzzzz.

<clap>

davedrew - thanks for acknowledging my figures are accurate, but as we've only played six home fixtures this season it shouldn't be too much trouble to provide figures to prove your claim is not "speculative".