Preston Prevented From A £5 FA Cup Offer

The draw for the 1st Round Proper of the FA Cup was made at the weekend and threw up the usual selection of intriguing ties with banana skins aplenty for some struggling League One and Two clubs.

Bishops Stortford against Northampton Town has already been chosen for live television coverage and the Skrill South side will be hoping to cash in at the gate and on the box. Elsewhere, Shortwood United against Port Vale and Grimsby Town versus Scunthorpe United catch the eye.

But for clubs who are at home to lower league opposition, the early rounds of the cup can be a hard sell so there should be plenty of reduced prices on offer to try and boost attendances at these games.

Preston North End have announced their thinking for the tie at home to Barnet and, in keeping with much of the positive work done on ticket prices by the Lilywhites this season, it is attractively priced at £10 for adults, £8 for PNE ambassadors and £1 for under-16’s.

Indeed Preston were keen to match their recent Johnstone’s Paint Trophy offer for the game against Oldham Athletic and peg adult prices at £5 but have been prevented by doing so by the FA guidelines that set a minimum price for matches in the world’s greatest cup competition.

At first glance that does seem strange, after all the lower the price then the more people will go but the FA will argue strongly that, as a percentage of all gate receipts go into the pool which is then distributed among all clubs who participate in the competition, there is a limit they cannot really go below.

Bristol City are also offering tickets at the lowest possible prices to their season ticket holders for the clash with Dagenham & Redbridge as are MK Dons who host Halifax.

http://www.pnefc.net/news/article/barnet-ticket-details-announced291013-1142303.aspx

Affordable Football aims to bring you the special offers, reduced ticket prices and family deals that make catching a match anywhere in the country more affordable. You can tweet us @affordablefooty or email affordablefootball@yahoo.com if your club are doing something worth hearing about.

International Football Comes To The Midlands

Thursday saw the draw being made for the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship Finals which will take place at grounds across the Midlands this winter.

An expanded eight-team tournament will see hosts England take on Italy, Austria and Portugal in Group A while Scotland, Germany, France and Spain are in Group B.

Telford, Hinckley, Burton and Chesterfield are the host venues with the final scheduled for Chesterfield on Sunday 8th December.

£3 is the maximum price for the group stage and semi-finals, £5 for the final with lots of offers for juniors, schools and clubs.

http://www.uefa.com/womensunder17/ticketing/index.html

Forest Held But A Healthy Crowd

Nottingham Forest’s game against Bournemouth on Saturday, promoted as a ‘Kids For A Quid’ fixture at the start of half-term, saw an attendance of 28,070 at the City Ground, just shy of the season’s best to date which came, unsurprisingly, in the local clash with Derby County at the end of September.

There are always a few grumbles from season ticket holders and regulars when a club runs a promotion like this with comments on Twitter from Forest supporters about ‘17-year-old’s pretending to be under 16’ and ’15-year-old Man U fans’ and perhaps the blanket nature of the offer means a lot of people taking advantage of it who won’t be back for the rest of the season.

Ultimately, however, a crowd of over 28,000 for one of Forest’s lower-profile Championship games cannot be argued with and if only a small percentage of first-timers come back again or spent some money in the club shop then it would have been worthwhile.

Some of the comments, about people gaining discounted entry which they were perhaps not entitled to, reminded me of Coventry City’s game against Oldham in the 1991/92 season which the Sky Blues billed as ‘Ladies Day’ with all women entitled to free entry. Long before David Walliams had the idea for a sketch it was rumoured that some of those taking advantage may not have been all that they seemed!

Sheffield United, the bottom club in League One at the start of the day, also drew a healthy attendance of over 18,545 (a season’s best) with an offer for their game against Port Vale for season ticket holders to bring a friend for free.

Rewarding season ticket holders for their loyalty is part of the balance that needs to be struck when offering one-off deals to others. I blogged earlier in the season about Aston Villa’s ‘Villa Cash’ scheme which operates on a similar line to the supermarket loyalty cards we are all so familiar with now.

'Twenty's Plenty' Gathers Pace

An update on an earlier post about the 'Twenty's Plenty' campaign by the Football Supporters' Federation and a very welcome one too.

Reciprocal deals have been agreed by Newcastle United with both Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion and also by the Swans with Hull City. Under the deals, no away fan will pay more than £20 for their ticket when such an arrangement is in place (the deal between Newcastle and West Brom is actually for £15 adult tickets).

Full details can be found on the FSF website but all the clubs involve deserve praise, especially Newcastle who haven't always had the best of press during the Mike Ashley era.

http://fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/newcastle-swansea-and-wba-agree-twentys-plenty

An October Update

Our twitter page @affordablefooty is where I try and collate all the special ticket offers that I have found but a quick update today on what is coming up over the next couple of weeks.

On Saturday (19 October), Sheffield United season ticket holders can take a friend for free to the game against Port Vale where the Blades are hoping to have a new manager in place and also climb off the bottom of the League One table.

With half-term approaching, Nottingham Forest are offering a ‘kids for a quid’ deal for the game against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Monday 21 October sees Everton Under-21’s take on Manchester United U-21’s at Goodison Park (7pm) in a fixture that the Toffees are offering free admission to in a bid to help youngsters experience the feeling of going to the famous old ground.

Middlesbrough’s ‘Spirit of Teesside’ fixture against Doncaster Rovers on Friday 25 October hopes to celebrate some of the unsung heroes of the region as well as attracting a big gate to the Riverside Stadium for the televised game. Tickets are priced at £12 for adults and £7 for concessions.

A day later (Saturday 26 October), Tranmere Rovers are offering all current and ex-servicemen and women as well as all Over-65’s, entry to their game against MK Dons for just £5.

Charlton Athletic are running their successful 'Football For A Fiver' initiative again this season with the fixture against Wigan Athletic on Sunday 27th October the chosen game.

A big crowd attended last season's corresponding game and the Addicks are again hoping for a near sell-out. All tickets are £5 plus a compulsory £1 donation added which will go to the club's chosen charities.

The last weekend in October is a good one for football fans in London looking for affordable ways to catch a match as the day before Charlton v Wigan it is Brentford’s ‘Pay What You Can’ fixture against Shrewsbury at Griffin Park with the minimum price of a ticket set at just £1. Again, there is a charitable element to this as Sport Relief will benefit from it.

Also in the Capital that weekend, England’s Women will take on Wales in their latest World Cup qualifier, this time at the New Den home of Millwall. The games at Bournemouth and Portsmouth recently were very successful and tickets are again priced well with £5 the maximum and lots of offers for concessions, Lions season ticket holders and groups.

Links to all of these offers are available on the various club websites. Any others? Please let me on twitter @affordablefooty or by email affordablefootball@yahoo.com.

Coventry City: When Affordable Football Only Goes So Far

A big reduction in the cost of season tickets and a bright, young team playing attractive (and winning) football under the guise of an impressive manager.

The perfect recipe for increased crowds? Not when the team in question is Coventry City.

A summer of off-field arguments (which I don't intend to go back over here) saw the club hierarchy make the decision to play home games at Northampton's Sixfields ground, 35 miles away from Coventry.

At a stroke, last season's average attendance of 10,949 has been reduced to 2,026 as a significant number of supporters stay away, either because they are boycotting games officially or are unable or unwilling to make the journey.

Season ticket prices were reduced to take into account the inconvenience involved but in effect the prices could have been set high or low and the numbers sold would not have altered much as only a hardcore of people had decided to buy.

Full disclosure from the author as a season ticket holder (on and off) over the past 30 years and continuously since the 1993/94 season. I'm not boycotting Sixfields completely and have been a couple of times but a season ticket was never on the agenda even if it had been £100.

Sunday's game against Sheffield United was accompanied by a ticket offer for season ticket holders which allowed them to bring a friend to the game for the equivalent matchday cost of their season ticket (as little as £8 for adults). An exciting 3-2 win, however, was watched by 2,078 of which 966 were visiting supporters. Ok this particular game was live on television but even if the Sky Blues continue their unlikely climb up the League One table after being deducted 10 points, those figures are unlikely to rise by much.

As an aside, the Blades are offering their season ticket holders the chance to bring a friend for free to this Saturday's game against Port Vale.

http://www.sufc.co.uk/news/article/20131019-bring-a-friend-for-free-553813.aspx

Accrington Stanley Battling On Two Fronts

Accrington Stanley's 'Fan Friday' initiative against Dagenham & Redbridge recently saw a crowd of 1,751 (all but 82 in home areas of the ground) turn out after the club offered £10 entry to season ticket holders of other clubs with the aim of making Stanley your 'second club' for the night.

According to the official club website, fans of Leyton Orient and Hull City were among those who made the trip and in a season where gates have dipped as low of 1,174 the move was clearly a success (last season's corresponding fixture just made it into four-figures).

“The extra support was heard and we were very much grateful for that,” said manager James Beattie after a 2-1 defeat left Stanley adrift at the foot of the League Two table and with a battle not only to save their hard-won Football League status but also to keep the club afloat financially.

“It was a good promotion by the club. It’s just a pity that we couldn’t put on a show for them."

At Stanley's level, with so much local competition, even 50 or 100 extra fans through the turnstiles on a regular basis can make a huge difference so hopefully some of those who took advantage will be back at least once more before the end of the year.

Would a few more Friday night fixtures help? Growing up I remember Tranmere Rovers playing regularly on a Friday night to try and attract some of those who would be going to Anfield or Goodison Park the day after.

There is a danger of alienating your hardcore support and it would be counterproductive to do it for a fixture where a big away following is expected (e.g against Portsmouth) but once every couple of months could be about the right balance.

Good luck to Stanley for the rest of the season.

Everton Versus Manchester United For Free This Month

Earlier this season I blogged on Affordable Football about how clubs could do more to promote reserve team (now under-21) football to a family audience and make much more of the experience rather than farming out games to other venues or playing them in the middle of the day.

Since then I have highlighted Leicester City's attempts to offer just such an experience over the course of the season (2,000+ fans and also the inaugural season of the FA Premier League Under-21 Cup, the next round of which takes places before the end of October.

A mention now for Everton and their decision to make the game against Manchester United on Monday 21st October free for all fans with the specific aim of younger supporters being able to experience the buzz of being in a (hopefully) packed Gwladys Street Stand.

Alan Myers, Director of Communications, said: “The Under-21s have made a terrific start to their season, so we are in for a really exciting game against tough opposition. We hope all our junior fans, some who may not have been able to come to a fixture before, come along and enjoy the magic of Goodison Park.”

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/2013/10/10/watch-u21s-at-goodison-for-free

Newcastle The Biggest Fish In 'Twenty's Plenty' Net?

An interesting article on the Independent website on Wednesday suggests that the Football Supporters' Federation is about to make the biggest breakthrough yet in its 'Twenty's Plenty' campaign which believes that £20 is an affordable and realistic price for away match tickets in the top-flight.

Newcastle United are believed to be on the brink of offering £20 away tickets to any club where the travelling Toon Army have been given a similar deal.

The move, if it comes about, will be a step up from the success that the organisation has had so far in getting clubs to offer subsidised travel and discounts on some away tickets.

An interesting read at http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/exclusive-newcastle-united-lead-the-way-towards-20-away-tickets-as-fans-pressure-forces-price-cuts-by-manchester-united-liverpool-and-arsenal-8867482.html

http://www.fsf.org.uk/

Enjoy A Weekend Of Affordable Football In London

Charlton Athletic are running their successful 'Football For A Fiver' initiative again this season with the fixture against Wigan Athletic on Sunday 27th October the chosen game.

A big crowd attended last season's corresponding game and the Addicks are again hoping for a near sell-out. All tickets are £5 plus a compulsory £1 donation added which will go to the club's chosen charities. There has been a bit of grumbling about this on a couple of Charlton forums I've looked at (not the amount but the 'compulsory' nature of the donation and the fact that it's not strictly 'football for a fiver'). Overall though it is an offer well worth highlighting.

Few clubs can have been more active over the years in engaging supporters and building and retaining their fanbase as Charlton.

The Valley Express service has provided surely the most comprehensive supporter travel option of any club in England for home games (a look at the number of places the service goes to is very interesting - http://www.cafc.co.uk/tickets/valley_express/ ) and supporters still seemingly have an active part to play in the running of the club.

The last weekend in October is a good one for football fans in London looking for affordable ways to catch a match as the day before Charlton v Wigan it is Brentford’s ‘Pay What You Can’ fixture against Shrewsbury at Griffin Park.

http://www.brentfordfc.co.uk/news/article/pwyc-three-weeks-1095587.aspx

Middlesbrough Aim For Quick Bounceback From Lowest Gate

Middlesbrough’s televised fixture against Doncaster Rovers at the Riverside Stadium on Friday 25 October will be priced at £12 for adults and £7 for concessions in a bid to repeat a 28,000+ gate that watched the similarly priced Sheffield Wednesday game last season.

The theme for the evening is the ‘Spirit of Teesside’ and the club’s official website takes up the story:

‘Retired workers from the key steel, chemicals and shipbuilding industries will join representatives of a wide range of organisations from across the area as guests in the Middlehaven Suite, which will be renamed The Spirit of Teesside Suite for the night. In addition, match tickets will be given to apprentices from Middlesbrough-based TTE Technical Training Group – a charitable organisation that supports some 600 youngsters through apprenticeships each year.’

Attendances have been the theme of the week for Boro after 12,793 watched Tuesday night’s game against Huddersfield, the lowest ever league gate at the Riverside Manager Tony Mowbray called those who were there ‘the true Boro fans’ but a Tuesday night game in the Championship is always a hard sell when a team is struggling slightly and another home fixture follows on a few days later.

Boro have always worked hard to engage and involve their community but prolonged exposure to the Championship without a sniff of promotion can gradually see a hard core of fans being chipped away at season-by-season.

My club Coventry City experienced this from their first season at the Ricoh Arena through to relegation in 2011. A few hundred fans each year decide not to renew season tickets or go to many games but the cumulative effect is not always noticed until later on.

Shakers Hard Work Rewarded With Improved Crowds

Bury FC host their first family fun day this Saturday with free entrance to all of the activities going on before the game outside Gigg Lane and reduced prices to those families who then go inside the ground for the match against Newport County (as little as £10 for one adult and one child).

2012/13 saw the Shakers go perilously close to going out of business (they were less than a day away from oblivion according to manager Kevin Blackwell) before Stuart Day completed an eleventh-hour takeover.
 
The arrival of a 31-year-old property developer could have set some alarm bells ringing but Day and his team, as well as allowing Blackwell to put together a whole new squad, have put in place a host of initiatives to try and put Bury FC back at the heart of their community.

From this distance it seems as though they are slowly winning the battle.

Last season in League One, average gates were 2,749 with a low of 1,396 for the match against Stevenage.

So far this season the average is 3,305 and that’s at a lower level (where Bury are 18th in the table at the time of writing) and without the benefit of a big local match against Preston North End which attracted over 5,200 through the turnstiles last season.

The positivity has also been reflected in away support with big followings going to Rochdale and Fleetwood in the league and Norwich City in the League Cup (helped by an army of coaches paid for by the club).

Talk of feeder clubs has swirled around English football in recent weeks and Bury are often cited as potential targets but the glory of the game in this country is in the sheer amount of towns and cities where there is a local professional club to act as a focal point for the community.

That status needs to be constantly worked towards, however, and the Shakers deserve huge credit for their various attempts to make the club and its town feel closer to each other.

http://www.buryfc.co.uk/news/article/fun-day-information-1091826.aspx

AFC Wimbledon Still Building For The Future

Never mind ‘Kids For A Quid’ say AFC Wimbledon. The Dons are offering free football to Under-18’s for their home game against Accrington Stanley on Saturday 12 October.

The whole of the Your Golf Travel terrace has been set aside for home supporters with adult tickets in that area just £10.

The story of AFC Wimbledon’s birth and rise has plenty more chapters to be written yet and the club seem to be coping well with what can sometimes be conflicting aims. Establishing themselves as a Football League club while maintaining the community ethos and sense of fan ownership that has helped to get them this far.

The next of those chapters may well be the building of a new stadium, back in the borough of Merton and close to the Plough Lane home of the side that made such a startling rise through the ranks of English football in the 1980’s.

In the meantime, offers such as the one detailed above are very much in keeping with the ideals that the Dons were born with.

Affordable Football aims to bring you the special offers, reduced ticket prices and family deals that make catching a match anywhere in the country more affordable. You can tweet us @affordablefooty or email affordablefootball@yahoo.com if your club are doing something worth hearing about.

This weekend sees Notts County take on Crewe Alexandra at Meadow Lane with prices slashed to encourage stayaway fans back to watch the Magpies in action. The club are working overtime to make the day a success and have produced a poster that can be downloaded and displayed in shops, workplaces, pubs and anywhere it will be noticed.

http://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/article/crewe-ticket-discount-spread-the-word-1075966.aspx

http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/article/free-entry-for-kids-1076803.aspx