That's not really the clubs fault though is it?
25,000+ -
Not that I trust Barber and his bullshit 'tickets sold' attendances anyway, they don't announce the truthful attendance for league games so Saturday won't be any different..
The travel that the club accepted a majority weren't paying for anyway?
I think it's a shame that people on here are hoping for an half empty stadium. The club wants to move forward and compete at the top level, in doing this prices will rise. Add into that the transport costs.
25,000+ - I'm sorry, but if we can sell 26500 tickets for a televised game against WATFORD, we should be sold out for this match.
Not that I trust Barber and his bullshit 'tickets sold' attendances anyway, they don't announce the truthful attendance for league games so Saturday won't be any different.
The meaningless Chelsea game was £30, so in most areas was actually cheaper, and against more glamorous opponents (Champions of Europe!), and we only just sold 16,000 (from memory) the day before the game. About 4000 of those were Chelsea 'fans'. Admittedly it WAS meaningless, but it wasn't on free to air TV, and was at 3pm on a Saturday. This is against less glamourous opponents we've played recently, our home form is dire and it's on ITV1 at a funny time. It was blindingly obvious to all but the most blue tinted spec wearers that these prices were hopelessly out of touch with what they should have been.
Unfortunately though, Barber's here for the £ decisions. It seems unlikely to me, but maybe a crowd of 19,500 at these joke prices will bring in more revenue than 27,000 paying more reasonable prices? But it's impossible to prove that without knowing how much the average punter brings in in merchandise/food sales etc, and also the proportion who pay kids tickets. If that is the case, then it's a real worry that fans will continue to be shafted and pay the highest prices in the league.
Agree with you on the 25K number, we still might do it though.
As for the attendance thing, this is nothing to do with Mr Barber, it's almost every EPL and Championship club now, and others, and abroad too, it's not unusual, it seem 100% wrong, but it is the norm.
Travel that many thousands of fans were stealing The club still had to pay for it, in excess of £1M it cost the club in addition to the travel vouchers fans actually bought.
19500 x £30 average = 585000
27500 x £20 average = 550000
19500 x £30 average = £585000
27500 x £22 average = £605000
It's not hard to make up numbers to suit your usual pro club agenda, and you've completely ignored the impact on an extra 8000 people spending money at the ground.
If they want a full ground they can't keep rising prices, hopefully this highlights that to Barber before he starts charging £40+
Just swapped my usual WSU ticket for 1 adult & 2 kids in the family stand, as both my kids want to come. £40 for the lot, so only £11 to pay for the kids. nice
I used your figures in post #341.
I paid my £30 last year, I paid it last year in the price of my season ticket.
£24 for a Newcastle ticket last year, £28 this year.
I'm not blaming the club for making people pay for travel, but I don't think this defends £39 tickets in some areas, it's daylight robbery.
Anyway, we'll see what attendance they conjure up on Saturday...
How would you feel [MENTION=30]Withdean Wanderer[/MENTION], if Paul Barber did want to lower prices for this match but was talked out of it?
WSU is normally full with season ticket holders and would be surprised if not full, why else are they no on the website.
I think it's a shame that people on here are hoping for an half empty stadium. The club wants to move forward and compete at the top level, in doing this prices will rise. Add into that the transport costs.
Or putting out a strong squad to get a much needed morale boosting victory. Pardew must also be sweating about his futurecan see Newcastle putting out a weak team - they need to concentrate on staying in the Premier League at the moment surely.
I think it's a shame that fans will let themselves get ripped off and give the club licence to continue to rip them off in future. If the crowd is over 24k then maybe the club are right. Less than that I think they have it badly wrong. And for those comparing last seasons gate, it was a sell out so no more fans could have gone.