Lower Gates Down To Form Slump As Well As Economic One

Last updated : 08 September 2011 By Jim Bonner

Neville Dalton is a journalist and a Portsmouth fan of more than 40 years.

I’m not one to toe the corporate line when it comes to ticketing and admission arrangements at Fratton Park.

But I do wonder whether it’s a bit early for scaremongering or hasty conclusions about why Pompey’s attendances have fallen this season.

The News has rightly reflected the feelings of many fans in an article blaming the slight fall in attendance so far this season on the hefty price increases.

It points out that league gates at Fratton this season have fallen by 6% compared with a Championship average of 4%, and it suggests ticket-price increases of up to 50% are the main reason.

There is clearly something in this – not least that some fans have stated that the prices are preventing them attending games.

But as with most matters regarding sport and finance, I don’t believe it’s quite as simple as that.

For a start, a direct comparison of charges with last season is not entirely fair.

The previous Pompey administration deliberately pegged price increases last term to compensate for the club’s relegation from the Premier League and its pitiful conduct that left it on the brink of extinction.

Against that, of course, is the fact that Pompey are now facing lesser sides – although there are four more league games per season.

None the less, the cost of admission – both on the day, when there is this ridiculous £2 surcharge, and for season-ticketholders – is uncomfortably high for most of us and prohibitively so for many.

My gripe back in March was as much about the add-on costs and restrictions on how to pay the hefty lump sum for season tickets as the actually price.

But it remains true that only a fraction of the 12.5% rise for most early-bird purchasers could be attributed to the reasons given at the time – the increase in VAT and administrative changes imposed upon it.

This has been compounded for the more casual supporters, who – when Pompey are facing one of the so-called Category A teams – must fork out £30 compared with last season’s £20 (not to mention the surcharge).

The club has already acknowledged it feels uncomfortable about the size of the price increases imposed by a board containing some different personnel from the current one.

Season-ticket conundrum

It has introduced some interim incentives, designed to offer fans a discount for set numbers of matches.

And it says the season-ticket arrangements prevent it lowering prices across the board.

But is its charging policy so unfair? Is that really the reason fewer people have slipped through the Fratton Park turnstiles this season.

For one thing, comparisons at this early stage of the season are a little spurious.

Pompey have played only three league games so far – hardly a sufficient sample size to draw meaningful conclusions in any statistical analysis.

Moreover, the first home league game was played on the second Saturday of August – when surely thousands of people were on their summer holidays – presumably affecting the size of the crowds at the first couple of matches.

In previous recessions, there were no such early starts to a season. Neither was there live football on TV most of the weekend to compete for time and attention.

More relevant, perhaps, is the value for money the supporters are getting.

As I have acknowledged, admission is pricey, and as someone who is now working as a freelance, I thought twice – if not three times – before committing several hundred precious pounds to a season-ticket renewal.

But people’s judgments about whether to do the same are surely influenced by various factors, and not merely the price per se:

Whether they have jobs at all; whether their priorities have changed; whether the recession gives them the same freedom of choice they used to enjoy – and whether it’s worth shelling out up to £30 on second-rate football.

Because that is what Pompey and their opponents have been serving up for much of the past year or so.

Not without excuses, mind – as we’ve already considered previously, it’s a minor miracle that we have a team at all, let alone are still competing in football’s second tier after all the obstacles Steve Cotterill has encountered in his efforts to put out a competitive team each week.

And even though he now has a squad that he can genuinely call his own, it’s still too early to judge him, with half his recruits having spent little more than a couple of sessions on the training ground together.

Poor football

Admittedly, the signs weren’t that promising against Cardiff, but I’m more than happy to give Cotterill and his players a little time to prove their value.

I certainly would hope to be seeing a pacier, more fluent outfit come the winter.

And I trust the team’s card count will continue to have dropped by then, as it has noticeably since my recent rant on Pompey’s dreadful disciplinary record.

But as I write, the style and quality of the football has generally been poor, as have many individual performances.

Really, it’s no wonder fans have not been flocking through the gates to part with their hard-earned notes.

I hope to make a more detailed comparison soon, but even now, it’s perhaps worth remembering that the last time the team featured regularly in mid-to-lower table in the second tier attendances were not so different.

In the three league games to date, Pompey’s attendances have ranged between 13,438 and 16,496 for an average of 14,762.

In 2001-2, while gates were a little higher at the start of the season (although only 13,614 turned up to watch a Prosinecki-inspired Pompey beat Grimsby Town 4-2), by the turn of the year they were hovering between 12,000 and 14,000 - and there was not the excuse of a recession then.

If we look back at previous recession eras, we find Pompey’s gates were often between 9,000 and 15,000 after the initial optimism had worn off, dependent in part on how Pompey were doing at the time.

Yes, it’s noticeable that crowd sizes are down, especially compared with our recent past in the Premier League.

But there is a host of reasons for that. And don’t forget the club has to work to what it considers a viable business plan, too.

None of us wants to see a return to out-of-control budgets.

The fact remains, lower gates are not unique to Pompey.

And in a recession I’m afraid they are to be expected.