Happy Valley

A club that has appeared consistently on these pages over the lifespan of the blog has been Bradford City and the Bantams continue to regularly run good value ticket offers in addition to their attempts to keep season tickets competitively priced.

Evidence of their success with that are some impressive numbers, reported by the local Telegraph & Argus newspaper, of 16,352 season tickets having been sold ahead of the current League One campaign.

The latest ticket offer is for the League Cup tie at home to Burnley, on Wednesday 26 August, with all advance tickets (for home and away supporters) priced at £5.

Happy Valley

I wrote a piece on Rochdale AFC and the National League Cup a short while, and similar arguments can be made about the Football League Trophy since the introduction of U21 teams into the competition.

But, as Bradford City have said this week, it is a tournament that offers a real chance of winning silverware and at Wembley to boot.

The Bantams have reduced prices to the lowest allowed level for their two home matches in the group stage, against Grimsby Town on Tuesday 2 September (7.30pm) and Everton U21s at a date to be announced.

That means adult tickets are £5 and it is £1 for everyone else. Interestingly, the local Telegraph & Argus newspaper believe the club would have made it just a pound for everyone but were prevented from doing so by the EFL.

Electric Avenue

Bradford City have featured many times on these pages over the years, their season ticket initiatives having built a strong fanbase at Valley Parade that has been able to withstand some disappointing seasons as they battle to get out of League Two.

That all changed on Saturday with a dramatic late winner against Fleetwood securing promotion and joyous scenes from a 20,000+ crowd.

There's a nice piece on the BBC football website about the promotion and its context, as Bradford celebrates its year as UK City of Culture but also marks the 40th anniversary of the tragic fire at Valley Parade.

A message of congratulations also came from Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC and there are good things going on at the Horsfall Stadium as BPA look to mount a promotion challenge from the Northern Premier League's Division One East in 2025/26.

Season ticket prices, if purchased before 30 June, have been reduced to just £75 for adults with further concessionary discounts also available.

Updated 06 June: BPA have announced a free admission pre-season friendly against Guiseley on Monday 21st July.

Bradford City’s 2020 Vision

2019 was the year when a famous football name, in the shape of Bury FC, were suddenly erased from the fixture lists with Gigg Lane standing empty and forlorn on Saturday afternoons.

We’ve become used to the 11th hour rescues that have saved many a club in the past but this time there was no white knight and the Shakers (for now) are no more.

With Bolton having just survived and Macclesfield’s future looking bleak it calls into question the whole viability of clubs in League One and Two.

The way all three of the above have been run can be called into question but what is clear is that the battle for financial survival is getting more and more difficult at the lower levels of the Football League.

A recent report highlighted how stretched things in the Championship are becoming as owners chase the Premier League ‘dream’ and the clubs in that division will continue to push for a greater share of income from the EFL to act as some kind of buffer if they fail to make it into the top-flight.

I’ve often felt that leaves League One and Two clubs increasingly in a kind of limbo where they have the extra costs that go alongside being in the EFL without being able to offer spectators the kind of freedoms they get at a lower level and admission prices are a symbol of that in many ways.

One-off reductions are always welcome, of course, but the short-term firefighting often makes it difficult to really make a concerted push to increase supporter numbers year-on-year.

Bradford City are one of the exceptions but it has taken a huge amount of hard work from the Bantams to do so, their offer of low-price season tickets having survived a change of ownership and relegation back to League Two.

Tickets are already on sale for the 2020/21 season under the 'City For All' banner, priced at £150 for those over 16, £100 for under 16's and £25 for under 11's. 

There is also the FlexiCard option, for those unable to commit to a season ticket, with an initial £50 payment and then payment on a matchday of £10 adults, £5 for under 16's and nothing for under 11's

Season Tickets: Bradford City & Rochdale

The weekend deadline for snapping up a 2017/18 Bradford City season ticket at an Adult price of £149 ended with a total of 16,500 briefs sold, a phenomenal return.

With the Bantams offer, however, it’s not the case that if you miss out on the original price that you face a steep increase.

An Adult season ticket is now priced at £169 until 16th April with Junior tickets £99 and Under-11's £5.

Over at Rochdale, where season ticket prices could be as low as £110 if 4,000 are sold, the first week of business has seen a healthy 500 supporters sign up for what could yet be Championship football next season.

Tuesday evening's home game against Port Vale is crucial in that regard and admission to Spotland will be just £1 for this re-arranged fixture.

Bradford City FC

🎟 Bradford City 2017/18 Season Tickets are now on sale
Become part of our #TeamTwenty!

Secure yours 👉 https://t.co/ttEw28ISIf #BCAFC pic.twitter.com/dNqmJElozA

— Bradford City AFC (@officialbantams) 1 March 2017

It has come to be expected at this time of year and Bradford City did not disappoint when announcing last week that season tickets for the 2017/18 campaign, purchased before 29 April, would cost £149 for Adults, Seniors and Students, irrespective of what division the Bantams will be playing in.

Championship football remains a strong possibility as Stuart McCall’s side are currently in the play-off places and continuing the upward progression of the past few years under Phil Parkinson.

Successful teams will nearly always attract improved attendances but the Bradford model, which began in the summer of 2007 with a push to attract 10,000 season ticket holders through a partnership with the Telegraph & Argus, showed in its early years that it was relatively resistant to performance on the pitch as they regularly turned in the biggest gates in League Two despite a struggle to avoid falling out the Football League.

What is also interesting about the Bradford offer for the 2017/18 season is that it has survived a change of ownership of club, German duo Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic taking over in the summer of 2016 but promising to ‘respect the traditions’ laid down by Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn.

That seems to have been the case, helped by chief operating officer James Mason remaining in position, with former favourite McCall coming back when Parkinson’s surprise departure raised concerns about the future direction of the club.

You could argue that the anticipation of low prices is now such that to change tack would risk alienating a significant percentage of potential buyers but the model is clearly working from both a financial, football and public relations point of view.

Bradford City Freeze Season Ticket Prices for 2016/17

Bradford City travel to The Den tomorrow evening (Friday) for the second leg of their League One play-off semi-final with a mountain to climb after Millwall won the first game 3-1 at Valley Parade on Sunday afternoon.

Bradford boss Phil Parkinson is not giving up just yet, saying after the match: "I take a lot of heart from the way we played in the second half and I firmly believe that this tie is not over."

So, a tall order but it could still be Championship football for the Bantams next season.

Regardless of which division they are in, however, the pioneers of affordable season tickets will be freezing prices at 2015/16 levels when a further reduction in prices from the previous year resulted in over 18,000 being sold.

That means Adult season tickets from as low as £149 (£6.48 per match) for 2016/17 even though the club says that some supporters have actually urged them to increase prices, presumably feeling that more money could then be invested in the playing staff.

James Mason, City's Chief Operating Officer, told the official club website: “We are building a club for many generations to come and it's worked so far. Julian's (Rhodes, joint-chairman) foresight all those years ago was a brave but brilliant move.”

It was back in April 2007 that Bradford announced season ticket prices of £138 for the following season, with a target of 7,000 sales despite relegation to League Two. When the offer closed at the end of July, over 12,000 season tickets had been purchased.

As Mr. Mason also says, other clubs are beginning to follow Bradford’s lead, notably their Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town whose £179 Adult season ticket offer has proved hugely popular since being announced before the end of the 2015/16 campaign.

Season tickets at Valley Parade will not be on sale until after the play-offs have run their course and further details will be published then.

From Bradford City to Huddersfield Town, Affordable Football in West Yorkshire

Bradford City's season ticket initiative has been featured many times here on Affordable Football since I started the blog in July 2013 and rightly so.

Attendance figures this season have once again shown the success of the Bantams offer and how it has proved itself relatively resistant to events on the pitch (although City have moved up the League One table in recent weeks and are threatening to overtake my own Sky Blues in the play-off places).

And, across West Yorkshire, Huddersfield Town have taken the plunge and announced their season ticket prices for 2016/17, the headlines clearly being made by an Adult cost of £179 for a whole campaign of what should be Championship football with the Terriers, despite some inconsistency, responding well to the methods of new head coach David Wagner.

8-17 year-old tickets are priced at £69 and it is £23 for Under-8's. 

And that is it, simplified, low prices across the board with chairman Dean Hoyle telling the Huddersfield Daily Examiner that an improved financial situation and extra cash from TV rights mean it is time for everyone, himself, the club and supporters, to 'step up'.

“We will use £1m of that extra money to re-engage with the fans through unbelievable savings on season-cards – initially for the first 10,000 bought, and we expect a big take-up.

“And the other £1m will be put back into the football costs – and maybe more if we get a better take-up on the tickets than we expect."

The prices are obviously what catch the eye (dare I say they could even have been pitched a little higher for a season of Championship football) but it also the honesty that the club have shown in making the offer that appeals.

Silsden AFC

The wonderfully nicknamed ‘Cobbydalers’ currently ply their trade in the North West Counties League and are proudly back on home soil at the Angel Telecom Stadium, after a short spell of groundsharing when they moved up to their current level in the pyramid, and with excellent new facilities in place such as a £1.2m sport club and the ‘1904’ Lounge which is named for the year of the club’s formation. 

For the remainder of the 2015/16 season, Bradford City season ticket holders will be given free admission at Silsden AFC when the Bantams are away from home, starting this coming Saturday (February 6th) when Alsager Town are the visitors. 

It’s a generous offer, and a smart one too given the vast constituency that is the Bradford City season ticket holder base. I wrote back in the summer about the club’s aim of getting 15,000 on board for 2015/16, a figure that was comfortably beaten.

Bradford City, Accrington Stanley

No apolgies for mentioning these fine clubs once again.

Bradford City's #onefournine campaign, with Adult, Senior and Student season tickets priced at £149 until July 5th, initially had a target of 15,000 sales for 2015/16 but the Bantams have now upped that to 17,500 having already shifted over 11,000.

Speaking to the official club website, chief operating officer James Mason said: "With approximately 20 per cent of those 10,000/11,000 being new season-ticket holders, and with some of our strongest weekends to come with people getting paid etc, we have revised our target."

And Accrington Stanley are offering Over-65's the chance to buy a 20-year season ticket for the cost of 5 full price 2014/15 Concession season tickets which cost £200.

"This particular initiative was one actually suggested to me by some of our more vintage supporters and I think it is a great idea,” said Stanley Chairman Peter Marsden.

"Not only do our Golden Oldies (who have earned their stripes) get a chance to buy a season ticket for the next 20 years at a favourable price but it gives the Club a little more cash during the close season."

Target 15,000 At Bradford City

A pioneering club when it comes to consistently low-priced season tickets, Bradford City have gone a step further for 2015/16 by cutting Adult prices by a further £50 from last summer to £149 which works out at £6.50 per game for a whole League One campaign.

The Bantams are setting a target of 15,000 sales after another exciting campaign which saw them reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, their second great cup run of recent seasons.

In a twist on 'Pay What You Want, joint-chairman Mark Lawn has said: “We believe we’ll get more fans in – and it might encourage those who say they want to pay more to buy one for someone new to come. A family member or friend to help build on what we believe is the best atmosphere in the League."

The initial cutting of season ticket prices helped create a solid supporter base and attendances that were fairly resistant to events on the pitch, helpful as Bradford endured a few lean seasons in League Two.

Their revival under Phil Parkinson, with promotion into League One, a trip to Wembley for the League Cup final and this season's famous win at Chelsea has created the kind of revenue that allows the club to continue rewarding their loyal fans without harming their competitiveness on the field.

Bradford City Set Maximum £15 FA Cup Ticket Price

Featured in these pages over the summer for the continuation of their pioneering scheme on Season Tickets, few clubs deserve the additional income that cup success brings more than Bradford City FC.

And the Bantams are in the news again for positive reasons with the announcement of ticket prices for their FA Cup quarter-final against Reading on Sunday 7th March at 12:45pm.

After their recent win over Sunderland at the Coral Windows Stadium, the club say they 'hope to try and generate the same interest and demand that created a very special atmosphere and as a ‘sell out’ one of our biggest crowds here since 1960.'

That means adult tickets on sale for just £15 with over-60's and students £10 and juniors (under-16) at £5. Full details available on the official club website. Well done to Reading too for agreeing to these prices.

Season Ticket Sales Remain Strong at Bradford City

Bradford City have announced season ticket sales of just over 12,000 for the 2014/15 season after the end of the early bird offer that once again saw the Bantams offer some of the best value tickets in the country. 

That figure is a slight drop on last summer but one the club had been expecting as sales last time around came on the back of promotion and two trips to Wembley.

"It still represents a real backing of the club and the manager again which helps us to continue to make forward steps," director of operations David Baldwin told the Telegraph & Argus.

City have long been ahead of the game in offering a clear, good value price for their season tickets (£199 for adults this time around, frozen for a third successive year and on sale from February) and have been rewarded with consistently high attendances for the past seven seasons regardless of fortunes on the pitch.

With a stable income in the summer, financial planning surely becomes easier and any extra money (e.g from 2012/13's League Cup run) becomes a genuine bonus rather than a lifeline.

Season Ticket Update: Bradford & Notts County

An update on two of the League One clubs whose season ticket initiatives we have highlighted here on Affordable Football.

Bradford City have been ahead of the game in many ways in offering season tickets at consistently low prices over the past few years and have done so again for 2014/15 with over 3,500 sold to date.

The cost has been frozen for the third consecutive season and prices are clear and straightforward at £199 for adults, £149 for concessions and £99 for juniors if purchased before the end of May. For adults that means League One football at less than £9 a game.

Notts County, meanwhile, have introduced The Bench for next season as a means of making supporters feel more involved at Meadow Lane when they buy a season ticket (prices of which have been reduced to a four-year low).

A good example of how that is working in practice is on the official club website with lapsed season ticket holder Steve Saunders invited behind the scenes when buying his ticket.

Upwardly Mobile But Bradford City Keep Season Tickets Down

One of the most consistently successful experiments with ticket pricing over recent years has been Bradford City's decision in the summer of 2007 to offer season tickets at a big discount in a bid to build and retain their fanbase irrespective (as much as possible) of fortunes on the pitch.

Over 12,000 season tickets were sold for the 2007/08 season and average gates jumped from 8,694 in 2006/07 (in a higher division) to 13,756 the following year, not dipping below 10,000 since.

The move may have been born out of necessity at a time when the Bantams had fallen from the Premier League into the basement of the Football League but it has proved to be such a success that it has been maintained as City have become more upwardly mobile with their promotion back into League One and the famous run to Wembley last season.

Last week saw the announcement about season tickets for 2014/15 with adult tickets priced at £199, concessions at £149 and under-16's at £99, the third campaign in a row for which prices have been frozen, and with a decent 'early-bird' window from March to May in which to purchase.