Thank You

The Affordable Football blog and twitter page will be five years old in July and I just wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone who has ever read, re-tweeted, notified or been to a game because of something they have seen on either.

The inspiration came, strangely enough, from Coventry City's run to the area final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in the 2012/13 season.

The Sky Blues had offered tickets at £5 for the area quarter-final against Sheffield United and were rewarded with an attendance of over 10,000 at the Ricoh Arena at a time when gates were falling amidst deepening discontent with the club's owners.

Prices were held for the semi-final against Preston North End (12,665 coming through the gates) and, to the club's credit, for the area final home leg against Crewe Alexandra. This game took on a life of its own as ticket sales grew and grew until the Ricoh was sold out for the first time for a Coventry home match.

31,054 were there and I sat next to a gentleman who was travelling around the country for the next two weeks and watching a game on most days. He had read about the ticket offer on the City website and it formed an idea in my mind about a website where you could read about reduced price tickets and offers in one place.

I wondered whether there would be enough to write about but that certainly hasn't been a problem as clubs, at all levels, up and down the country are constantly trying innovative ideas to get people through the turnstiles and here's to plenty more to keep up to date with during the 2018/19 season.