SWFC TRUST RESEARCH REPORT
NOV 2020 // PREPARED BY STEVE WILLIAMS AND THE SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY SUPPORTERS' TRUST SWFC TRUST PAGE | 02
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is the first research paper in a planned series to be published by the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Trust. The purpose of the series is to provide an evidence- base for changes that our members seek at our football club.
This paper focuses on matchday and season ticket prices, an issue that emerged as a significant worry for the fan-base from a Trust survey published in summer 2020. The survey was completed by over 1,500 respondents with 92% finding matchday ticket prices poor value for money. The Trust has since engaged its members in a consultation event on the subject, which was well attended and very successful in generating positive discussion about how Sheffield Wednesday’s ticketing strategy might look in the future.
Our research papers will either evaluate existing club operations or provide case studies from other clubs around the footballing world. This paper falls into the latter category, focusing on ticketing strategy at Nottingham Forest since their takeover, and season ticket prices in the Championship in the 2019-20 season.
The case studies presented in these research papers are not intended as a perfect template that Sheffield Wednesday should adopt. Instead, they provide data and inspiration from which constructive recommendations are on offer to reform Sheffield Wednesday and make it ready for the post-Covid era. They are forward- facing publications intended to contribute to debate about the vision for Sheffield Wednesday in the future.
The Trust would like to thank the author of this paper Steve Williams for all his patience, diligence, and hard work.
James Silverwood (Interim Chair, Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust) SWFC TRUST PAGE | 03
KEY FINDINGS
There are other ticketing models in the Championship, involving much cheaper pricing, that produce revenue results as effective as that produced by the strategy currently adopted by the SWFC - Lower ticket prices can drive attendances and matchday revenue
Projected figures for matchday and associated revenue in the 2018- 19 season at Sheffield Wednesday (accounts pending) suggest it was only £52,000 higher than the figure achieved by Nottingham Forest through considerably lower matchday ticket prices. Looking at this another way - the difference in revenue generated through more expensive ticket prices at Sheffield Wednesday was only enough to pay one player a weekly wage of £1,000.
The current ticketing strategy at Hillsborough is based on the assumption that season ticket holders can be convinced each season to renew in sufficient numbers. If season ticket holders ever decided not to pay the high prices charged at Hillsborough (see below) the strategy fails and revenue will plummet.
When compared to other Championship clubs, the cheapest season ticket available at Hillsborough in the 2019-20 season was the most expensive in the league (see table five). The cheapest season ticket at Hillsborough was £125.41 (38%) more expensive than the average cheapest Championship season ticket.
The most expensive season ticket available at Hillsborough in the 2019-20 season was the second highest in the Championship (see table six). SWFC TRUST PAGE | 04
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
Use the period of restriction on attendance at stadiums as an opportunity to reconsider the existing approach to ticketing strategy, including a reduction in cost.
A new ticketing strategy will incentivise fans to return to Hillsborough who may otherwise have lost the ‘habit’ of attending games during lockdown. Others may decide the cost of attending games at Hillsborough is unaffordable in a period of redundancy and job insecurity. This situation is complicated by the need to encourage season ticket holders to renew in Spring 2021, when there may be no guarantee that fans can return to attending in 2021-22.
Engage fans in re-designing the ticketing strategy at Hillsborough through extensive consultation. There is a thirst for fan engagement among supporters who want to contribute to development of the club’s long-term strategy.
Commit to a £30 limit on matchday ticket prices at Hillsborough. Data in this research paper suggest this is an informal rule at Nottingham Forest (see table one). Public commitment to such a rule would give a strong signal that there is a new approach to pricing at Hillsborough in the post-Covid era.
As we move towards a cheaper ticketing strategy the club can use its existing logistical structure for processing refunds to reimburse multiple-year season ticket holders who would otherwise be left out of pocket by the new approach to ticket prices. PAGE | 05 SWFC TRUST
Expanding Revenue by Recognising the Value of Supporters and Sensible Matchday Ticket Pricing
On 18 May 2017, a Greek consortium led by Evangelos Marinakis took over Nottingham Forest Football Club from the previous owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi. The new Chairman of Nottingham Forest, Nicholas Randall, issued an open letter acknowledging that ‘supporters are the lifeblood of any club’, continuing that the club’s new ownership was ‘keenly aware that the supporters have been taken for granted. We want to end that’. The letter went onto state that "we want to make sure that, in so far as possible, there are no empty seats on match days. We want the City Ground to be bouncing again and to become a fortress for the team".
This open letter coincided with action to reduce the price of attending matches at the City Ground, producing impactful results (see table one). Nottingham Forest has seen attendances at matches increase, and perhaps most importantly, this contributes to improved results on the pitch. Improvement in attendances predated their performance last season, which saw Nottingham Forest just miss out on a playoff place.
Increases in attendances at the City Ground have driven matchday and associated revenue. The figure shown in column six of the table below is derived from figures in the Nottingham Forest company accounts available on Companies House website. It totals account entries for ‘ticket and membership sales’ with ‘catering’ and ‘programme and other matchday income’. Aggregating these revenues at the City Ground allows for a fair comparison with income at Sheffield Wednesday where account entries are far less detailed and matchday income is included in one account entry along with broadcasting revenue. This makes precise understanding of matchday revenue at Hillsborough tricky to determine. We return to this later in the paper.
Table One: Nottingham Forest's average attendances and matchday revenue, 2015- 16 to 2019-20
(SOURCE: EUROPEAN FOOTBALL STATISTICS & NOTTINGHAM FOREST COMPANY ACCOUNTS). 1 FIVE GAMES WERE NOT PLAYED AT THE CITY GROUND DUE TO COVID-19. PAGE | 06 SWFC TRUST
Nottingham Forest's average home attendance for the 2016/2017 season, prior to Mr. Marinakis’ takeover, was 20,333 with 10 crowds below 20,000. The following season the new regime reduced ticket prices. The first home game of the 2017/18 season against Millwall drew 28,065 supporters, which was 5,053 (21.9%) more than the first game of the previous season. The average attendance at the City Ground for the entire 2017/2018 season rose to 24,680, an increase of 4,347 on average in a year when they were not that successful on the pitch, finishing 17th in the Championship. The average attendance in the 2018/19 season was 28,144, an increase that would have been even larger if their ground had bigger capacity because many games in that season were sold out.
The policy of keeping ticket prices affordable at the City Ground has continued to produce results into the 2019/2020 season securing a 27,723 average before the global health pandemic stopped fans attending matches. The lowest home attendance this year was 24,577 for a home game against Middlesbrough, however, this was a significant 8,807 more than the lowest crowd in the 2016/17 season against Rotherham United (15,770). To put the success of Nottingham Forest's ticketing strategy into further perspective, a 24,577home attendance in 2016/2017 would have been the club's fourth highest of the season. This shows how in just two seasons Nottingham Forest’s decision to reduce ticket prices has reaped substantial rewards in terms of attendances. In the three seasons of Mr Marinakis's ownership, attendances have risen by 36.3%.
Statistics summarising attendances and ticket prices at Nottingham Forest for the previous 2019/20 season are presented in table two. The cheapest ticket price on average was £25. The most expensive on average was £29. PAGE | 07 SWFC TRUST
TABLE TWO: NOTTINGHAM FOREST FC ATTENDANCES AND TICKET PRICES 2019/20
The statistics for attendances and ticket prices at Hillsborough are presented in table three for comparison. The differences between the two are stark. The average attendance at Hillsborough in the 2019/20 season was 23,733 declining from 24,429 in 2018/19 and 25,995 in 2017/18. The average cheapest ticket on the Kop at SWFC (for the 18 games played) was £33.30 (33.2% more than at Forest). PAGE | 08 SWFC TRUST
TABLE THREE: SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY FC ATTENDANCES AND TICKET PRICES 2019/20
Sheffield Wednesday (average 22,162) and Nottingham Forest (average 22,146) have attracted remarkably similar attendances in the opening decades of the 21st century, until more recent seasons where the two clubs have gone in opposite directions with ticket pricing. Table four shows that the high average attendance achieved in the 2016- 2017 off the back of a season that took us to the Championship playoff final has not been sustained. PAGE | 09 SWFC TRUST
Since then, average attendances have declined by an average of 1,132 per season with the average attendance in 2019-20 only 1,091 higher than it was in Mr. Chansiri’s first year in charge of SWFC (2015-16). Falling attendances appear to coincide with declining matchday revenue. Precise data here is difficult to disentangle from Sheffield Wednesday company accounts, where the club is one of the few in the Championship to combine matchday and broadcast revenue into one figure. If matchday revenue declined by another £500,000 in 2018-19 (not an unreasonable estimate given that average attendance fell by 1,566) then matchday revenue stood at £9m. This would mean that in the 2018-19 season, our ticketing strategy gained us only £52,000 in extra matchday revenue than Nottingham Forest’s (see table one) - enough to pay an average weekly wage to a player of £1,000 per week.
TABLE FOUR: SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY’S AVERAGE ATTENDANCES AND MATCHDAY REVENUE, 2015-16 TO 2019-20
Sheffield Wednesday’s apparent ticketing strategy since Mr. Chansiri’s takeover has been to convert pay-on-the-gate supporters into season ticket holders. This strategy is sustainable in the long-term only if it is able to achieve three objectives. First, it continues to attract a stream of pay-on-the-gate supports who can be converted into season ticket holders. Second that the club attracts the next generation of supporter who might become a season ticket holder in the future. PAGE | 10 SWFC TRUST
The figures in table four suggest the club is starting to struggle in both these regards with attendances falling towards the hard-core group of supporters who were with the club in the 2015-16 season.
Third, that season-ticket prices remain competitive encouraging season ticket holders to renew each year in good times and bad.
Tables five and six show the season ticket prices at Hillsborough are not competitive. The cheapest season ticket at Hillsborough in the 2019-20 season was the most expensive in the Championship been £125.41 (38%) more expensive than the average cheapest Championship season ticket..The most expensive season ticket at Hillsborough in the 2019-20 was the second highest in the Championship. Ticketing strategy at Hillsborough is further complicated by the current health pandemic meaning the club will need to convince season ticket holders to renew in the spring of 2021 when there might be no guarantee that football will resume with supporters in stadiums.
TABLE FIVE: CHEAPEST ADULT SEASON TICKET PRICE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, 2019-20 SEASON PAGE | 11 SWFC TRUST
6 - Luton Town’s season tickets are priced at £400 for these who have held them for 5 or more years. Those who have had a season ticket for 2 years pay £425 and new customers pay £450.
7 - Leeds United ticket office confirmed that there are adult season tickets priced at 3249 and that these are situated in the East Upper Wings from row S to Z.
8 - Derby County has reduced prices for those renewing for the third successive year (quoted above),first year renewals (£409 and £635) 2nd year renewals (£370 and £594), and new customer (£419 and £645).
9- Stoke City sells a season ticket at £299 on the condition that the customer can be placed anywhere in the stadium. The cheapest ticket for an allocated seat is £344.
10 - Fulham is redeveloping its ground and its capacity is consequently much reduced. It has displaced season ticket holders. It had a waiting list for season ticket and appears to communicate privately with those on the list
TABLE SIX: MOST EXPENSIVE ADULT SEASON TICKET PRICES IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, 2019-20 SEASON
11 - Fulham is redeveloping its ground and its capacity is consequently much reduced. It has displaced season ticket holders. It had a waiting list for season ticket and appears to communicate privately with those on the list SWFC TRUST PAGE | 12
CONCLUSION
It cannot be guaranteed that fans will return to Hillsborough in their same numbers once lockdown is over. Some may have lost the ‘habit’. Others may decide the cost of attending games at Hillsborough is something they cannot afford in a period of redundancy and job insecurity. This is complicated because the club most likely have the unenviable prospect of convincing season ticket holders to renew when there is no guarantee that fans can return to stadium for the 2021-22 season.
Public recognition that Sheffield Wednesday is adopting a new ticketing strategy of the post-Covid world would provide a powerful incentive and encourage fans to return to Hillsborough. There are other ticketing models in football, involving much cheaper pricing, that are proven to work at least as effectively as the strategy the club currently pursues. In this research paper, we have shown that lower ticket prices can drive matchday revenue and contribute to success on the pitch when matched with a project that engages and values supporters.