Will TV Money Distort Admission Fees?

Earlier in the week, I wrote about Huddersfield Town and their decision to make 10,000 season tickets available for 2016/17 at an Adult price of £179, backed by the increase in television revenues that the Terriers can expect to make if they remain in the Championship.

That is the same price as AFC Telford have announced (see the article below) and shows that the increasing value of television rights could make comparison between admission costs at various levels of the game, in a survey such as the BBC’s ‘Price of Football’, increasingly hard to carry out.

Now, there is unlikely to be much crossover between the two clubs named but what if, for example, Wolves decide to follow suit and offer a season ticket below £200 for 2016/17 and attract a couple of hundred floating fans from the local area.

At Non-League level, gate money and spectators then spending bit more inside the ground is crucial both for survival and prosperity, a key element of a club’s budget for the year and something that requires a great deal of thought as to what kind of figure is both reasonable and profitable.

Talk of how live television coverage can affect attendances has been around since the first broadcasts were beamed into our homes but now, in addition to wall-to-wall coverage (even the Thursday night slot is now being regularly filled by Championship matches), the value of the rights could lead to a distortion in ticket prices that makes it cheaper to attend football the higher up the game you go.

That is not, in any way, intended to be a criticism of a club such as Huddersfield or the offer that they have made, one which rewards supporters who have stuck with the club for many years and may attract others who could otherwise be lost to their armchairs.