Preston North End as many football clubs in the nationwide league face the problem of attracting football fans to their grounds. Reasons behind that could be listed a plenty. Television coverage makes it easier for the fan to watch everything from the comfort of his sofa; an admission price are quite high and in some cases unaffordable at some occasions in complete contrast to what is being offered on the pitch. Premiership is where all the glamour is, as well as most of the money making it easier for several premier league clubs to offer lower ticket prices to attract fans to their ‘spectacle’. In the next few paragraphs, involving a couple of articles I will be providing an inside look on views as well as facts from everyone included in the world of football business (clubs and fans)
Article 1: The fan’s insight
Football clubs often say that the club is its fans. On that note I thing that in a subject such as that it is important, if not the most important ‘angle’, to see what the fans think. I will be looking into forums, websites for stats et al and using a few multi media tools in order to build up that story.
A quick look at PNE’s official website http://www.pnefc.premiumtv.co.uk/ is enough for someone to realise how poor the attendances have been this season. The Deepdale football ground has a capacity (whilst a new stand is under construction that will increase its capacity) of 19,675. Yet the highest attendance so far this season has been 17.807 in the local derby against Blackpool with only the game against Burnley coming close with 16,149.
With an average attendance of just over 12,000, making it just 65% full on most match days, someone can easily conclude that a club that has been successful at this level and been close on making it on that elusive Premier League it is just not good enough.
A game that was cause for a lot of discussion was the FA Cup 3rd round tie at home to Scunthorpe. For the football purists the FA Cup is still a highly coveted trophy, as well as the most exciting cup competition in the world. That game attracted just 4,616 the lowest of the season which was a good indication of the problem. Football forums were bombarded with opinions and debates, some of them stirring controversy. A good example is illustrated at http://boards.footymad.net/mboard/fmb.php?tno=426&fid=204&sty=2&act=1&mid=2129882376, although local rivalries sometimes can confuse a debate like that. Of course there are a lot of forums out there to give the fans a voice that was not available in years gone by and sometimes they can be a bit controversial, whether by language or by adverse opinions, like in the example above
A lot of clubs have had problems attracting fans to cup games (as shown above) whether it is FA Cup, Carling Cup or for some clubs European football-UEFA Cup. Bolton Wanderers for example for almost their entire European campaign, which was long and included some good European names charged £10 for general admission and yet in most games the stadium was half empty. An indication that most households cannot afford 2 or 3 games a week financially a problem that clubs face constantly.
Recently I went to a Wigan Athletic game against Chelsea wanting to absorb the people’s opinion on that subject. I ve met 8 people in the JJB and funnily enough none of them were Wigan fans. Most of them were Liverpool fans that could not afford to go to Anfield and chose Wigan (who usually charge £15 or £20) to go and watch some football. One of them was a Preston North End fan and as well as the financial reasons, he claimed that the placement of the football ground does not help fans to go there. Deepdale is mainly a British-Asian community and not close to areas such as Ashton, Penwotham and Fulwood were a lot of the locals live.
Article 2: The club’s view
To get an insight of what and how the clubs face situations like these I spoke to Preston North End’s marketing director Andrew Pomfret. Part of the interview is included in the multimedia part of the story. Football clubs have to find innovative ways in order to attract customers to the product they are selling. The difference football has to other products and services on the market are that the appeal to its customers depends on performance, thus results. No matter what a club does if the team plays abysmal football likelihood is attendances will be low.
In order to create some kind of comparison I have taken a few other local (North West, Lancashire) clubs to provide other case studies as comparisons. A clear outcome that someone can easily reach is that most football league clubs have more or less the same prices. No matter if you watch Bury in mid-table of League 2 or Burley pushing for a playoff spot in the Champiosnhip most clubs charge around £12-20. Unfortunately different clubs have different marketing techniques but as Andrew clearly states in his interview the main focus of most clubs is getting down to grass roots and attracting the young generation, what in their eyes is the next generation of fans.
This clearly shows that for quite a few clubs surviving financially is a very difficult task, one they strive to achieve at all costs. That is where Premiership clubs such as Wigan mentioned above or Blackburn Rovers with a yearly income a few times higher from lower league clubs can sometimes afford to sell their tickets for less with a view of making sure they are filling their stadiums. Teams such as Wigan Athletic which 20 years ago were wondering in the ‘wilderness’ of leagues outside the nationwide leagues resort to such strategies to develop a nucleus of fans for the next generation and try to achieve growth as a company.
Multimedia/Interactive
Sources-Contacts
Interviewee: Andrew Pomfret, PNE Marketing Director-Interview was conducted with Marantz Nov 2007 (for some reason it will not upload, I will try it later)
Video was made using my own mobile phone (use this link if it does not display http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FANJMksnU6A)
Photo story was made from pictures of some of the websites below
http://www.pnefc.premiumtv.co.uk/
http://www.scunthorpe-united.premiumtv.co.uk/
http://www.lilywhites.net/
http://www.rivals.net/FORUM/
http://www.prestonlancs.com/
http://www.flickr.com/
http://boards.footymad.net/
I used various football clubs websites just to compare ticket prices (Crewe Alexandra, Bury, Morecambe etc.)
Other tennis blogs
Sunday 20 April 2008
Sunday 6 April 2008
6/4/08 Miami Masters
First Masters of the season before the tour goes to Europe and clay courts and there we are in familiar surroundings Rafael Nadal in the final with Nikolay Davydenko. Federer headed home for yet another tournament in 2008 by a guy he used to torment everywhere he met him- Andy Roddick.
Nadal brushed easily past checz Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-2 while Davydenko beat Andy roddick for the first time in six (6) years after Roddick finally managed to beat his worst nightmare Roger Federer. NO SENSE!!! You bet..
Now,in regards to the final Davydenko is the first ever Russian to reach the Miami Masters final whereas spaniards have 3 final defeats in that same tournament (http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/miami_fridaysf.asp) Both players have good records this year as well as in finals and of course are no. 2 and no. 4 in the world respectively so it should be a closely fought encounter.
Defeated semi finalist Andy Roddick compared Davydenko to Andre Aggassi sying: He doesn't give an inch. He stands kind of similar to Andre. He stands right on the baseline and picks it off each way. He kind of just picks a spot and goes for it. I think when he's on he's very, very good."
Nadal brushed easily past checz Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-2 while Davydenko beat Andy roddick for the first time in six (6) years after Roddick finally managed to beat his worst nightmare Roger Federer. NO SENSE!!! You bet..
Now,in regards to the final Davydenko is the first ever Russian to reach the Miami Masters final whereas spaniards have 3 final defeats in that same tournament (http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/miami_fridaysf.asp) Both players have good records this year as well as in finals and of course are no. 2 and no. 4 in the world respectively so it should be a closely fought encounter.
Defeated semi finalist Andy Roddick compared Davydenko to Andre Aggassi sying: He doesn't give an inch. He stands kind of similar to Andre. He stands right on the baseline and picks it off each way. He kind of just picks a spot and goes for it. I think when he's on he's very, very good."
Sunday 30 March 2008
Is Federer past it? 29/3/2008
That is the question that everyone in the tennis world is currently trying to answer. Lots of journalists have written articles (or blogs) trying to get down to the root of the problem (!!), but a lot of people argue that his peak might have gone and the only way, from the amazing standards the great swiss tennis player has set for himself, is downwards.
Of course it m ight be up to him to rectify the situation. Two months into the season, as Mike Mcintyre from the Pro Tennis Fan blogshpere points out www.protennisfan.com, and he is yet to win a title. Actually he is yet to compete to a final after another disappointing loss to wild card entrant to the Indian Wells in Miami, american Mardy Fish. And it was not only the fact that he lost but also the fact that he lost two sets to love with the almost embarassing scoreline of 6-2, 6-3.
Coming into the season the man himself clarified but his big goal for the season, his subsequent "holy grail" is the French Open th one that has slipped away from him many times in recent seasons. Of course everyone was almost certain that he would pass Pete Sampras's all time grand slam record of 14 titles, currently being on 11 but at this stage no one would bet on it. Maybe a small indication of the amazing consistency and class of the great american who dominated courts in the 90s.
Personally I keep thinking that come the time to play on clay he will start hitting the form we all know he can achieve and perhaps triumph in Roland Garros, he will come good in tennis's equivalent of football's business end of the season. But of course this is just my hunch of how things might go because reality seems a bit (if not a lot different).
The Independent's Derrick Whyte- http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis says that Roger Federer after his humiliating defeat conceded that the way Fish played on the day hye was unplayable. Of course we are talking about mardy Fish no 98 in the world and a man who has won more than 200 titles so needless to say that Federer suffers from a long standing loss of form.
This was the year he could go in the record books in Wimbledon as well so I guess it is up to him to pull his sleeves up and woe the adoring tennis public with masterful preformances but more importantly make sure he finishes the job he, with his hard work and talent of course started a few years ago, become the bset tennis player of all time.
Of course it m ight be up to him to rectify the situation. Two months into the season, as Mike Mcintyre from the Pro Tennis Fan blogshpere points out www.protennisfan.com, and he is yet to win a title. Actually he is yet to compete to a final after another disappointing loss to wild card entrant to the Indian Wells in Miami, american Mardy Fish. And it was not only the fact that he lost but also the fact that he lost two sets to love with the almost embarassing scoreline of 6-2, 6-3.
Coming into the season the man himself clarified but his big goal for the season, his subsequent "holy grail" is the French Open th one that has slipped away from him many times in recent seasons. Of course everyone was almost certain that he would pass Pete Sampras's all time grand slam record of 14 titles, currently being on 11 but at this stage no one would bet on it. Maybe a small indication of the amazing consistency and class of the great american who dominated courts in the 90s.
Personally I keep thinking that come the time to play on clay he will start hitting the form we all know he can achieve and perhaps triumph in Roland Garros, he will come good in tennis's equivalent of football's business end of the season. But of course this is just my hunch of how things might go because reality seems a bit (if not a lot different).
The Independent's Derrick Whyte- http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis says that Roger Federer after his humiliating defeat conceded that the way Fish played on the day hye was unplayable. Of course we are talking about mardy Fish no 98 in the world and a man who has won more than 200 titles so needless to say that Federer suffers from a long standing loss of form.
This was the year he could go in the record books in Wimbledon as well so I guess it is up to him to pull his sleeves up and woe the adoring tennis public with masterful preformances but more importantly make sure he finishes the job he, with his hard work and talent of course started a few years ago, become the bset tennis player of all time.
Wednesday 27 February 2008
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