After taking the plunge over the summer and offering season tickets at a vastly reduced rate of £179 for Adults, the impact of Huddersfield Town’s initiative was clear to see from Saturday’s opening Championship fixture of the season.
The visit of Brentford (so, not a local derby or an opponent who would bring a large away following) attracted a record first-day attendance for the John Smith’s Stadium of 18,479 with head coach David Wagner and a number of players commenting on the atmosphere created in a 2-1 victory for the Terriers.
To put the figure into some sort of context, 13,397 watched the same teams play in early May. Neither side had anything but pride to play for that day (Brentford running out 5-1 winners) but Wagner’s methods and results had been bearing fruit and generating optimism that merely surviving in the Championship was not the limit of Huddersfield’s ambitions.
Chairman Dean Hoyle shrewdly capitalised on that with his season ticket initiative, explaining at the time of its launch that it would essentially be underwritten by the increased television revenues coming into the club should it not succeed.
Saturday’s evidence points to it succeeding in a big way.
A relatively quiet week ahead on the affordable football front although many clubs are offering £10 adult tickets in the opening round of the League Cup and there are a number of replays in the FA Cup extra preliminary round (such as AFC Liverpool against West Didsbury & Chorlton on Wednesday evening where admission is priced at £5 for Adults.
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