Reality or Dreams

[Biggles]

People moan about our prices etc but how about telling us what price do you feel should be the Max admission prices to Nene Park.

The other question is should we forget about The Football League and keep our prices at a level that would give us a budget to build a squad capable to stay around mid table each season and just be content with Football at a reasonable price.

The truth is every season teams with Budgets far more than ours either drop or get promoted to our division and last season sometimes looks like a fluke, can we really compete :?:

It is easy to say we should have ambitions to get back to the Football League but the hard truth is that we do not have a large enough fan base to pay for this and what fan base we have are not really willing to pay the price needed and the other factor is we will not every season be able to sell players to just keep us afloat and the taxman from the doors chasing a dream.

Disclaimer

Of course we will now go on a 35 League games winning run, get Manure or Chelski in the 3rd round of the F.A cup and make a fortune and piss this Tinpot League and live Happy ever after.

[Rushdenjim]

At the end of the day the price for entry should reflect the teams around us. The floating fan has a number of decisions to make. Rushden for £17, K*ttering charge a tenner, wobblers £18 and you can go see egg chasing for £25. The average person isnt bothered whether the stand looks nice or whatever. All they care about is the team (the form, the team they are playing) and the price. £17 is clearly too much for some people. But the board and KC have obviously done the sums and decided that 900 people at £17 creates more money that 1200 at £13-£16.

However, when you look at price changes, you need to look at the basic economics. Is the product the club is selling inelastic or elastic, in other words, does demand go down when price goes up. A great example of inelastic products is petrol, petrol keeps on rising and rising, we moan about it, but still keep on buying it. In my opinion, football is a eslatic product, none of us NEED to watch it, none of us NEED to see Rushden and Diamonds. So why increase the price when they knew demand would fall. what are we averaging at home, 1000, 1100 maybe, too low and prices are too high!!

[Bob's Bitch]

Personally I'd be happier if we cut our cloth accordingly and if that meant us staying in mid-table then so be it. Budgeting for attendances of 1,000, staying mid-table and having a cup/trophy run every now and then would mean the Club would be sustainable. The FL is the holy grail and if we were in it then I think it would be hard not to make a profit every season considering the £50k they give for youth development and the £250k TV money you also get. However, despite this I don't think we should be racking up massive losses by trying to get into it, especially considering how strong the Conference is at the moment. Playing the long game, trying to break even/manufacture a small profit for a couple of seasons and waiting until Luton/Crawley/AFCW go up so we're one of the more favoured teams would be a good strategy IMO, although it depends what KC's business plan is obviously.

[Three of Diamonds]

Biggles, in reply to your points. The reality is that this club loses money, year on year and is subsidised by it's chairman. Each club has a different set up so a different set of bills in order to maintain it. When KC first came here I asked him why had left a moderately successful FL club (Peterborough) to take over an ailing Conference one (ours), all he said was he was keen to be his own boss. So, it's the chairman's judgement as to what the club charges on the gate at the end of the day. On most things I've openly supported and defended the club, on the recent pricing policy I've criticised because I don't think it's fair nor reasonable. Looking at the stats so far this season we're still losing home fans (per game on average) compared to last season. That concerns me because it means KC will have to dig deeper into his pockets, and I genuinely like the cut of his jib (I've never met the man so don't know what he's like).
IMO, as it stands if we could build a team to reach the FL, this club would be in a far better state to cope due to the monies in sponsorship from the FL and FA, a total somewhere near £500k. THEN this club just MIGHT start to turn a profit.
I saw 4 title winning sides at I'boro' Diamonds before the merger, fanbases had nothing to do with it.