Where have all the Wolves fans gone?
Wednesday 28th September 2011, 9:10AM BST.
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Wolves columnist John Lalley – from 50 years as a fan – mulls over chief executive Jez Moxey’s claims that pubs showing live Saturday 3pm football are hurting gates.
What are your views on the big debate that is rocking the game, in Wolverhampton and beyond?
Post your comments below.
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Its easy £30 for an adult say £20 for a child plus travel and food, thats easily £150 per game for an average family. Or you can go to your local spend £40 for the whole family and put the extra £110 towards your rent or mortgage. I love Wolves but the people who run the club are earning at least £200,000 a year dont need to worry about money like the rest of us.
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Down The Pub! But again the powers at be will get it wrong. They will say that banning football in pubs will bring the crowds back but it wont because people just cant afford it. They cant afford it. Reducing prices Moxey is the only way to get them back.
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People won’t pay £30+ to sit in a stand with no roof on like at Tottenham and neither will they pay £34+ to watch Wolves play Newcastle.
If two adults want to go it’ll cost them £70 plus the ridiculous booking fee if they use a debit card. People haven’t got that kind of money to watch Wolves play a mid table side.
Wolverhampton is located in the West Midlands not West London take a look at the bigger pitcure – the gates are shocking at Albion too. The economy in this part of world is shot.
Drop the prices down to £25 and the ground will be full.
It’s not pubs showing football driving fans away, it’s the greedy football clubs.
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£1380 for 1 adult and my 2 kids in the steve bull upper even though my 17 year old is a student(no discount on students for season tickets) is crazy.
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Totally agree with both comments above.
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lets face it, no Premier league club survives on gate money and it must amoun to a small fraction of their income. Why not charge £5 for kids and fill the bottom half of the Steve Bull with our future fans. £25 max for adults and you’ll not only sell out but create a better atmospehre. Come on Moxey it not hard is it. You would lose what £10/£15 per ticket but gain so much more. Your building a massive stadium for the future but wont have any fans left to fill it. Plus with a manager whos only ambition is to avoid the Europa, and ‘survive’ why should we bother turning up for anything other than the love of Wolves??
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If you are going to spend the type of money involved in going to the match you want to know you are going to have a good time and have the feel good factor afterwards. All so often this is not the case, and end up feeling we have wasted alot of money. Its not that hard to understand!
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I think the reasons are the lack of goals we score at the molineux, our football is not geared up to score goals,every one can see that we only have to lose two on the trot and our goal difference is minus!!! and there is also the charge for a card even a debit card when used to purchase tickets. Alan
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£40 to watch us play Newcastle says it all!! I respect moxey for the way he runs the club at a profit rather than like most clubs in the red, however who ever decides the ticket pricing policy has got it completely wrong.
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I went to every league game last season and it cost me a small fortune and had to make personal sacrifices. Of the away games this season, Blackburn’s ticket price was reasonable, Villa’s a disgrace – as it was on Sky plus home fans were charged from £25 and Liverpool have had a major hike in ticket prices. £40 to sit in the Smethwick aka the pigstye is a joke and we have the ludicrous prices that the likes of QPR and Chelsea charge, yet to come. Furthermore, the club charges a £1.50 booking fee on every transaction. For the Millwall game, we charged adults £15 and Villa charged a fiver. I think that answers your question, Pie n a Pint Moxey?
Personally I reckon Wolves get decent followings both home and away and other clubs are suffering much more!
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We lack ambition as the previous poster remarked. Economically, Premiership clubs are asking too much money for the ‘crowd’, which is an essential part of the match. Television has created a huge world wide market for football and that market will decrease if there are huge gaps on the terraces. Moxey should be going out of his way to encourage the 12th man, (crowd), for Wolves, not blaming fans for not paying his extortionate prices, to watch a team managed by a man with no ambition, other than to not be relegated.
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I have been a season ticket holder for the last 31 years, thats over 3/4 of my life. I live in Wolverhampton and most of my mates are Wolves fans or fans of other Midlands clubs. I talk to loads of people in pubs, through business and at the matches.
I believe I have a truer reflection on the feelings of Wolves fans than Mr. Moxey does from his directors box.
This recent fall in attenances is not an overnight revelation, the REAL fans have been walking away for several years now. I’d say only 10% of the ST holders I have known over the last 15 years still buy one.
The overwhealming issue without a doubt is price. It’s no good Jez saying we offer value and compare well with other clubs, if you ain’t selling the tickets there is something wrong. Wolves are a proper club with proper fans, proper fans who are now saying ‘enough is enough’.
We are not a fasionable marquee club who are going to pick up glory hunters or tourist fans, WE ARE WOLVES and I’m afraid the club has alienated quite a bit of it’s captive audience which are not being replaced.
Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton etc. realised they had similar problems several years ago and stepped in immediately to address them buy REDUCING the prices.
The next biggest reason people are being put off their club are the booking fees and the general feeling of being ripped off at every turn. I own and operated a credit card machine and are fully aware of the charges incurred and what Wolves charge is pure extorsion.
Couple that with high rate phone numbers, yearly shirt changes, the most expensive food and beer in Wolverhampton, Cat A prices for games like Newcastle, club shop discount for ST holders replaced by complicated scheme designed to make the club money. There the problems lie.
Even with all of the above taken into consideration, the product on offer is not very appealing, I ask you, how many games since we have been in The Premier League have been value for money?
The manager and his often questionable ability at this level keeps reminding us that survival is the sole aim, no cups, no Europe, just SURVIVE, and this having spent millions on VERY LITTLE quality. We really should be carefully and steadily improving with quality players andresults to show, time will tell but the vast majority of fans won’t or reluctantly now pay to watch a team of 7-8 (honest)Championship players struggle to punch above their weight week in week out.
Overall, and it’s not just Wolves, but football in general has priced out and turned it’s back on the fan and it’s only now that the clubs pocket is being hit that questions are raised.
I suggest the club, and others, get their heads out of the sand and DO SOMETHING DRASTIC NOW, because it’s only going to get worse.
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Jez Moxey and the others that run football, like to call us the fans ‘customers’ and football a ‘product’. So doesn’t it follow that the customers will look for a better value product.
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3-People will pay that, the ground will be 90% full if the club dont get the advertising wrong again. They only started selling the tickets for QPR a week before.
6- Because they are still a business. droping £10 off 6,000 tickets is £60,000. Everyone complains about not signing 20mil worth of players, but wont contribute. Wolves will continue to sell out this season.
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I wonder if Mr MOX knows how much it cost me and the wife to drive from Truro in Cornwall to Wolverhampton and back, I think not
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I went to the Villa game £43 for a totally forgettable game along with the travel cost I could have sat in my local and spent half that and felt better cos I had a few beers Jez I have got time for you as an exec but you’ve got this wrong
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No doubts at all – it’s the cost that’s killing it. I just about afforded my 3 season tickets this year – over £900 for my family and I’m still paying for it. I don’t think that’s too bad in comparison to a lot of other clubs, but having paid it, I can’t now afford for all 3 of us to go to away games like the Villa at £43.00. But we have to understand – it ain’t Jez Moxey’s fault – the problem lies with the greed of players and agents – this has been coming for years, believe me – the football bubble is about to burst – the clubs have to charge what they charge to be able to pay the players what they demand. I always said the players would kill the goose that layed the golden egg, but most of ‘em don’t care because by the time it happens they will have already taken the money and run.
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we’ll the new stadium is being built, and we can’t stand in the way of progress….
i think jez needs to be more clever with marketting…
your average season ticket holder/die hard fan make up a small percentage of the attendees….
so we need more advertising…more special offers…(i.e like 2~1 offer for council employees last season)…
also we need to go back to the old way of paying in on the turnstile….to much supporter no’ fiasco’ puts peeps off..imagine the scenario…it’s a nice day, you fancy doing something…you’ve just got paid….i know i’ll go too the footy!!!! oh wait im not sure whether you can pay on the door….erm what was my supporter no’ again??!!!…
be more …cleverer jez!!!!!!!…
i think you will do it..but it def is a bad patch for the whole country and you will have to adapt you marketing strategy to suite goodluk…utws!
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There clear answer is, why should supporters spend their very hard earned money coming to Molineux when the lack of investment in the team is so obvious? OK, a nice new stadium, but without a team that can draw people in, it will be empty in the Championship. A lack of ambition from the manager and no interest in decent football from the CEO, not to mention the owner, means that people will always take the cheaper option. If it wasn’t on in the pubs, they still wouldn’t come. Finally, the shirts fiasco, the smart card debacle, and other things on the cheap this year just compound it all.
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I fear for the next generation of Wolves fans. The younger generation are simply not bothered about Wolves anymore and the cost of tickets isn’t helping. Driving through Hurst Hill Sedgley recently there was a group of youngsters playing football not one had a Wolves Shirts on, it was all Chelsea and Man Utd. The same scene is being played out all over the Black Country in Bilston, Coseley, Gornal, Tipton etc. I think of myself as lucky that I am able to afford my season ticket but even then I am restricted to taking my daughter to cup games on the basis of costs. Wolves need to realise that getting young fans hooked is getting them to Molineux in the first place and making it affordable for them and their parents to do so. Come on Wolves please listen to the fans for once before it is too late!!!!
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I’m fortunate enough to only have to pay for myself to go to matches as I have no kids. £375 on the earlybird is reasonable as it works out to just under £20 per game. This price in the west midlands is probably about right.
No. 4 Jase – If I was faced with your situation with 2 kids and spending £1380 plus all the extra matchday costs I quite simply would not go. You have my full support that this is not sustainable in the long term for you or the club.
If you speak to any fan they will tell you they would prefer to be at the match itself and not the pub but at this moment in time just cannot justify these inflated prices when they are having to nurse what they have left of their wages. Do they spend £28 -£34 on a ticket + matchday expense (£10 -£15) or go and spend a tenner at the pub?
£50+ per adult including all matchday costs (Ticket, food, drink, travel) as a minimum is quite simply too much when the average weekly wage in the west Midlands is £415 per week before tax. ( National Stats ) This in simple math is 12 % of someone’s gross weekly income or 15.5% of their net weekly income which for a 90 minute football match is quite simply too much. In some cases, people will be earning less than this which makes this stat even worse, and if kids are brought into the equation you begin to understand the problem. All the above is if people have actually got a job in today’s climate!
The moral of the story is that its nothing to do with the pubs as many loyal Wolves fans who would love to be at the match but quite simply cannot afford to be!
I’m one of the fortunate ones who only has to pay for myself on an relatively well priced earlybird but once I begin to have kids in the near future my position as a 15 year season ticket holder will be under serious review.
36,000 capacity when finished? Reduce the matchday costs and maybe, just maybe, it might start to fill up.
Don’t? Face an embarrassing amount of empty seats in a massive stadium.
We all love Wolves but we love our families more.
3 points Sat please!
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Well, as I’ve posted before, some of us “oldies” who live elsewhere in the country and have to add on petrol costs, etc. have had to re-examine our finances in these difficult times. In my case, health was another factor, so I guess I’m “natural wasteage” – there should perhaps be someone else waiting to take my place. I’d like to think, if I still lived in Wednesfield that I’d continue to attend, somehow. It would then be costing £40 – £50 (fuel/eats, etc.) less per game than it would now. I have to add, however, that if you journey for hours and pay heaven knows what for the privilege, you hope for a worthwhile “product” at the end. Travel to a cinema, theatre or a “gig” of some sort, you are more assured of what you are going to get for your money. That hasn’t always been the case at the Mol. Don’t get me wrong, my unswerving support goes back to 1951, so I’ve been there through thick and thin with everyone else – and will continue to do so.
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you do the maths we earn thousand a year bùt we are expected to pay your wages (you being most people involved in football ) of millions take less out of the game put a bit into the game and we may cömè back your greed has priced the average working man out of the game so look on your own door step for some one to blame. I will cömè back when you charge a reasonable fee. Untill then long live the pubs who show the games
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Expense, lack of ambition by the club not strengthening the side and not scoring goals, but the club will always look for different reasons.
A manager who is tactically inept.
Man Utd, can always fill their stadium, even though all games are shown on TV, and no I am not comparing us to them, just stating a fact
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“Drop the prices down to £25 and the ground will be full”. Yes, and the match day merchandises will be more than now. So the management’s money losses won’t be so mutch…
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@ “and will continue to do so” – I should have added: though not necessarily in person, but definitely in spirit.
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14.
Sell 6,000 seats @ £10 less (full stadium, better atmosphere, more pie n pint sales)
or
Sell 3,000 seats @ full price (empty seats, poorer atmosphere , less pie n pint sales)
mmmmm.. which one works better?
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During times of hardship leisure is often the first thing folks cut back on and more often than not the question of choice is irrelevant, the cash is simply not available.
Whilst one must admire and applaud the manner in which the executive at Wolves are running a ‘Tight Ship’. The product on offer is hardly conducive to keeping those who can find the funds from buying it.
I find it a bit rich that in moaning about the product being available at an affordable price in local pubs, English clubs including Wolves have already been paid for those screenings. It is SKY who are making it possible by their overseas sales to foreign TV companies, for which the EPL clubs are receiving a good share.
If everyone of those gathered around the TV in all the pubs around the area were to attend the next home game they would only make up a fraction of those who are shunning the current ‘Shoddy’ product and those who are simply priced out of attending.
Taking into consideration the economic situation the forward planning and behaviour at the club leaves at lot to be desired, exorbitant pricing across the board, extremely poor PR promising players they had no intention of buying and senior management slagging off Customers who dare to criticise, not really a recipe for a full house is it ? Customers, the audience, are not stupid and do appreciate that they are being offered a ‘Cheapo’ cut priced product for top cash.
Apart from the building development, the club needs some clever forward thinking policies, top quality management, especially quality coaching staff and most of all a winning exciting team who put Bums on Seats.
Any idiot can can put a pound on a pie and a pint, it takes real class to give the product substance and durability
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west brom had a bring a friend for £15 offer against fulham,almost 24,000 there,that must tell you somthing.
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I’m a season ticket holder, don’t think at the moment it’s too bad £350 for a season is reasonable but if I had young kids I couldn’t afford to take them, it worries me when I look around and see that it’s mostly middle age people who are there, we must encourage the next generation of supporters,
I also look around and see most kids in United and Liverpool tops it saddens me!
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i’m an albion fan posting on this as a neutral, as i believe this affects every genuine football fan in the country
if live football in pubs is at all to blame for falling attendances, it can surely be only in a very minimal way. it’s worth pointing out that Charlton last saturday sold tickets for £5 across the board. they got 20,000 in the ground, an increase of 6,000 on their previous game. so where were the missing Charlton fans for the previous game? watching them in the pub? i don’t think so because they weren’t on!
albion’s gates are falling also. why? as most of you on here point out, we’re looking at at least 60 quid for an adult and two kids, and that’s before anybody’s had a drink or a bite to eat. sky high ticket prices, coupled with the fact that the bulk of our fan base (albion and wolves) come from heavy industrial backgrounds, at a time when industry is almost dead on its backside and unemployment continues to soar
add to all this the wages footballers are paid now. i read somewhere recently that Robbie Savage is one of the richest people in the midlands with a fortune of over £10 million. TEN MILLION?! a half decent championship player who never quite cut it at the top level? then take the likes of the idiotic Asley Cole, the spoilt little brat Tevez, and the utterly despisable Joey Barton. they’ll all retire at the age of 36 as multi-millionaires. and WE are supposed to pay for them!
now don’t get me wrong, i still love football, and i still get to as many games as i can (not many these days) because it’s in my blood. but it’s just not the game i fell in love with 35 years ago
i, like so many others, am tiring of the obscenity of it all. if you’ve taken the time to read this, then cheers and have a good season, whether at the molineux, in the boozer, or sat at home with the radio stuck to yer ear ‘ole…
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crockett48 – A couple of things. The clubs were paid for the matches to be screened abroad, theres a reason why no clubs alowed sky to air matches between 3 and 5 on a saturday and that was so it wouldnt affect attendances, they are quite right to be complaining about the pubs screening it, as Im sure if they would ever agree to the screening of matches in the UK, they would want allot more money to make up for loss of ticket sales. Im sure this will result in a hefty hike in prices for the foreign broadcasters during their next contract negotiations.
Also, when has anyone at Wolves in this current Regime prommised us players. They have a policy of not talking about out transfer business so of course they dont.
Theres allot of people strapped for cash at the moment which no doubt doesnt help. Then people have the choice of watching it in the pub or going to watch it at the Mol, So its obvious allot of people have switch to the pub to save a fair bit of cash. It really is as simple as that. People claiming its the football being played are talking crap, were playing just as well as last year if not better, and we managed to keep our attendances up last year.
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I am truly amazed. This topic seems to have united the fan base like none other and quite rightly. I live in Surrey, was born in Wolverhampton and have two daughters. Having been a Wolves fan all my life I am desperate that my two girls don’t get into another club and the only way to do this is to take them to games (lets leave the children cruelty bit to one side given the mental anguish I have suffered over the years!). It cost me £60 in fuel, plus a meal, plus tickets, programmes, and all the other extras so it is circa £200 a match. If I do this 5 times a season I might cement a love of the old gold, if I can’t they will either start supporting Chelsea or not bother. The club needs to make it easier for me to get my kids to a game – make it cheaper, make the experience better – give us a reason to go. I see what Chelsea do for the youngsters in our area and I can only watch in admiration at how they capture them at a young age and keep them. We have no chance if we don’t make it easy and do so more often.
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BOGOFF! No I don’t mean you should all ‘go away’ but why doesn’t the club try the supermarket gimmick of Buy One Get One Free occasionally?
At todays prices, as many of you before me are saying, football is just too expensive and that’s the main reason why fans and families in particular don’t go to games.
TV football is not totally to blame as Jez Moxey would have us believe although it does make us think twice about going out and braving the bad weather when you could be nice and warm by the fireside with a nice 4 pack and still have money left in your pocket.
Its not the same I know – but much cheaper!
Football is living beyond its means. Players are paid more in a week than most of us earn in a year.
Many clubs are spending way beyond their income and who in the end has to pay? – Of course the fans!
Sorry Jez but Wolves like many other clubs will not get full houses at todays entrance prices other than those top games where fans will save their money to see the Rooneys, Gerrards and Doyles!!!
So BOGOFF Jez, it just may be the answer?
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I work in the video games industry and work real hard for a year and half creating a game that will eventually hit the shelves for £30 – £40 for a one off product. How the football clubs can justify charging £40 plus every other week sometimes twice a week is ridiculous. It is so expensive.
I don’t think it is pub viewing. people want the matchday experience TV cannot offer. yes you will get people who will use the pubs to get something for nothing, but if the clubs didn’t price people out they would still come whether it is on tv or not. Moxey said “build it and they will come”…. Not if the price is too high they wont.
Surley it makes sence to pack the club out with cheaper tickets and sell more food and drink and merchandise doesn’t it?
The booking fee is such a con!! £1.50 per ticket on the same debit card! Why is this charge there? it doesn’t cost anything to process a card on the internet and why is the charge per tickets? Absolute CON!!
I don’t live in Wolves so don’t know, but are their any adverts around advertising games? I know Villa have billboards everwhere in brum. Maybe some marketing needs to be done to also bring the people back? local tv adds? special offers, group discounts family discounts? reward points that actually make the ticket prices cheaper the more you go ect….
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When I first had a season ticket just before 1990 it was less than £100 now 20 years later, we are talking over 4 times the amont to watch a match.. back in 1990 a pint of lager was about 95p, that has gone up about 250 percent now.. If a season ticket had gone up the same, we would be paying about £250 maybe a bit more. Yes we are in the premier league now, but with modern technology, there is no insentive to watch a match live. When in truth supporters are being ripped off. It is about time, Wolves allowed supporters in for free or less at matches like the league cup at least. So that the young supporters get a chance to watch matches.. When I was 16 I could watch the match for less than £5, which did not seem so bad then.. I just don’t know how children can afford to go these days..
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Totally agree with Greg, Alan, The Flying Winger etc
I’m a STH but can completely understand people not wanting to turn up.
We made the fewest signings this summer considering O’Hara was already here and Dorus is just a replacement for Hahnemann, basically we signed Johnson! Why?
Where is all the money? Even Everton bought in 2 new faces to play regular football.
I’d guess going towards a stadium that will not be filled, we had a perfectly good stadium and we’ll end up with something like St. Andrews where only one or 2 stands are updated.
Isn’t it clear that SEB has struggled in the EPL (with both goals and fitness), Vokes surely can’t be counted upon and if you’re going to take Ward upfront (where I feel he’s performed admirably) then you need to buy a left back, if you leave Ward there, you need to buy a striker! Is that not obvious??? It is to me. I feel we’ve effectively started the new season with 2 (3 at a push) strikers, neither of which are completely robust! I don’t understand the sale of Maierhoffer. Yes he may not have been great but he would have been better than what we’re doing.
I still don’t really see that Doyle and Fletcher work well together, completely different style to me. Fletcher likes to run on to things and wins headers to knock onto a runner (like Ward) Doyle is completely different, just doesn’t work for me.
I could rant all day so I can completely understand why the ground is empty!!!
We’re screaming out for a quality central midfielder or 2!
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@31 – Good on you, sherlock. Have a good season, too (one place behind us, mind!).
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Dropping ticket prices mid season is not going to happen, it risks upsetting the 16,000 Season ticket holders who ahve paid their money in full on the basis of getting a discount over the season.
Its the money from STH that buy the new players at the start of every season. If jez wants to fill the ground and have guaranteed income, knock 15% of ST next year and the ground will be packed.
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I thought it was only me who realised ages ago that Wolves have lost that certain ‘connection’ with their fans. Obviously not.
The Molineux mega-bucks earners may be cosily insulated from the harsh realities of bankrupt Britain, but working class Wolvo certainly aint -or hadn’t our pampered heirarchy noticed? It seems too much cash also insulates such people from possessing common sense.
When it comes to paying bills and keeping a roof over your head, many true fans are simply going to say ‘no’ to rip-off professional football, and who can blame them? It’s all about getting your priorities right in life, looking after your family and keeping your head above water. Another phrase is ‘good housekeeping’, Jez -so, if popping down their local boozer to take in a game is all a lot of fans can afford, surely you should approve, Jez? After all, you priced them out, mate, and that’s the harsh reality -so get used to it. While the man in the street is cutting costs just to survive, I doubt you’ve so much as trimmed down your regular petrol tanker delivery of hair gel, Jez.
Get all four stands demolished and rebuilt; get the capacity up to the projected 50,000 and charge £10-15 admission. That’ll get you packed houses, Wolves. That said, much as a nice, modern stadium would be, most fans just want success on the field. You could stick a bloody rope around the pitch and still pull a huge crowd if the team -and pricing structure- is right.
The old, crumbling South Bank shed may have long gone, but memories of 25,000 fans packed in there on big, floodlit nights still abide. And they were real fans, Jez, at a time when fans could truly relate to their club. Not so now, I feel.
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The Premier League is being funded by a massive increase in the Global Media Rights Packages.
In 2003/4 Our Prem TV income was £14million
Last Season it was £42 million (lowest was Blackpool £39.8 million)
The UK attendence Market and indeed TV revenue market is in decline due to the recession
Ironically it will hopefully be the importance of the Global Rights Income that will force ticket prices down
Why?
That income dwarwfs ticket income manyfold …The Premier League needs packed stadiums to help ‘sell the sizzle’ Worldwide
Watch This Space
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I don’t really have a problem with players wages, if the clubs are earning millions and the players are trying to be successfull to help better the club and in turn better their earnings surely they should get a slice of the pie. Look at the film industry a good film can make 100′s of millions so why shouldn’t the actors demand millions per film? I don’t follow golf but i heard the other day some bloke won $11.5 million in one tournament? and poster above said Savage earned £10 million in his entire career. If the money is their they should be entitled to take thier share. I know the problem is we pay for it on the gates this is the issue, but if the gate money doesnt really run the club then why cant they lower the ticket cost? would be nice to see a breakdown of the financies and see where our money really goes!
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Altho this is partly a nationwide problem, it is very much a Wolves-specific thing.
£375 for an early bird is reasonable, but that is not available unless you pay £528 to buy in – yes £528 !! The cheapest ST available to non-ST holders. Way higher than anywhere else in the region, and way higher than similar stature struggling premiership clubs. Also there is no reduction for 18-21 year olds, like there is at nearly all other clubs. Cat A prices are a joke at £39.50 v Newcastle. Moxey states it is pubs, but note 4 for £40 for this fixture have sold out, its just the £39.50 seats that will not sell out. If the ‘cheapest’available price for all games was £25, if 18-21′s ‘new’ ST prices were reduced by £200, and ‘new’ ST cheapest by £100 (£425), Wolves would attract at least 2000 fans back. That would make up the loss of revenue. Its hard to get fans back once they are priced out Mr Morgan!
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Further to the debate, we are now in the third season of Mick’s Premier League campaign and hopefully we will finish higher than in the previous two. For the first, I suspect many fans went along to see teams we had previously only seen on TV. There was novelty value and also we knew we were in for a tough time. It was something we could live with. For the second season, we stuck with it, hoping for better things. Well, we survived by the skin of our teeth – and the novelty was wearing off. We are into the third season, we had a good start followed by two losses including the QPR debacle, and things hopefully will pick up and be better – but as we are all saying, the recession is biting hard. We are taking a long hard look at where our money is going. For some of us, live football attendance is having to take the hit. For others, success on the pitch (a la Stoke) will ensure their attendance – as long as the money holds out. Over to you Jez and Steve. UTW.
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32…totally oblivious to reality as always…I’m afraid the fottball we are now being served up is GARBAGE, this is enough in itself to keep the fans away. It’s no surprise we play well against Fulham get a decent croed, but, because we lost against Spurs peole thne start to see again that it is the same old boring tripe at Molineux. All of my kids wanted to go on Saturday, in the end I was lucky enough to get one free ticket for one of them , and had to buy two tickets for 79 quid( including 2 x ludicrous booking fees), however two kids still miss out.If it was 15 quid like Millwall, ( when we all attended), it is so much more palatable. Fans are not stupid, they would rather sit in comfort and dry ! conditions unless the product is worth paying extortionate admission prices to witness “live”. What they have seen is little investment by the club in improving the chance of us seeing better football, ( QPR classic case), or the chance of a top half of the table finish. 38 quid a ticket for relegation cannon fodder just shows how out of touch Moxey (and his croney Wolfyedd) are, they have no idea how to put bums on seats, but, with teh team sliding towards the relegation spots, and, a recession in place, they sure will have to do something next year. As for me, I will NOT be going to amy more games until I have saved for a “half season ticket” ( two of them) so I can at least rotate attendances between my kids. Sad state of affairs, and some out of touch fans on here too…..need to have a long hard look at themselves. If we drop, ( which isn’t certain or otherwise) that stand is going to look like a very big white elephant. Moxey…Wolves…sort it, and sort it quickly….let’s see some sort of offer on the Man City cup tie for a start being as it is on TV …( I bet Jez isn’t whingeing about that!)
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Hi Wolfdhedd,
Clubs had no say as to what time the overseas buyers screened, that clause was never part of their agreement with the foreign franchisee.
I’ve been involved in previous deals with UK and foreign broadcasters who, thirty years ago were receiving live feeds for live transmission from the then first division, the local TV company receiving £10,000 a game, whilst the home club were getting as little as £500.00 for Saturday evening highlights. Let me tell you, as SAF said this week, TV will do as they please. With technology racing ahead this is only the beginning. The Chairmen will not place restrictions on SKY or any other company because they have now become in dire need of the cash. The big successful clubs don’t give a dam as they fill their seats every game and with full houses plus a reported 69 million last season from SKY, No one at Man U gives a dam about a handful of supporters in pubs around Wolverhampton. The Status Quo will remain.
If Moxy want’s to be ‘In The Game’ then he must stop doing it on the cheap and go some way toward competing with the big boys on the field. Actually his old club Stoke are well on the way to doing just that and I predict their TV fund will be a lot more than ours this season.
I’m to old to climb the gates or walls now but it was not that long ago when I had to do just that after a 50,000 lock out at 2.30pm. Those days can now return with the right policies and a big thank you to Sir Jack.
It was said a few months ago that they would do whatever is required to improve the team and that if it meant spending to prevent another nail biting end they would do it. Yes I agree, no names but the inference was clearly there in terms of improving the squad. It was, so far, False Promise of player acquisitions. Sadly the man can’t even play the best he has.
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im a home and away season ticket holder and i think our support is terrible!
BUT
Jez Moxley needs to lower the prices, stupid money, nobody going to pay £40 to watch everton and £9 for pie and a pint when you can go to your local and watch it for free,
Millwall i paid £10 on the night, if they had left it at £5 on the gate you would of filled the ground
He is out pricing the fans, disgusting
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Why do the majority of people choose to drink and eat outside of the ground ?, the same reason people are choosing to watch games in the pub – IT’S CHEAPER AND THEY DON’T LIKE BEING RIPPED OFF
As a season ticket holder I also feel the club take for granted our continued business. I am a Jack Harris Flank ticket holder and this season for all home games I have been temporarily moved to the worst possible seats available in the Steve Bull upper or lower. You know, those seats at the very far end of the stand which normally are the last to sell. Dead simple, the club gives us the crap seats whilst selling the more desirable centre position seats to “pay as you go” fans. More money to the club, two fingers to the season ticket holders.
Add this to debit card charges, compulsory fees on all season ticket sales, rip off food and drink prices and the club wonder why people are staying away.
The football industry and not just my beloved Wolves, must be the only business organisation that treats it’s most loyal customers with such contempt, believing they will return for more every year. I THINK TIMES ARE A CHANGING
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Someone has just shouted out in the office that Villa are offering two tickets for the Wigan game on Saturday at £30 on their website. Need I say more Moxey.
Let’s see what they charge for the Man City cup game? I went to the Millwall game and begrudgingly paid £15. Anymore than that and I too will be in the Wanderer or McGhees watching it!
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Cost of tickets yes! Saturdays game is a family day two adults two children £40.00 brilliant idea more of please.
The booking fee should be looked at and it should be per transaction not per ticket. The cost of food and drink at the Molineux is scandalous. Families cannot afford these prices.
Jez if you want bums on seat then do omething about it and reduce these prices.
I am a season ticket holder and used to travel away as well but unfortunately I cannot afford to do this anymore £30-40 per ticket, Travel club prices and food and drink for me on my own for the day your talking £50.60 per day.
Unemployment is rife in Wolverhampton. Some Fans have not had pay rise for a while. It is alright for you Jez you earn a very good wage.
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I have not seen a thread more worthwhile than this one for some time.I hope Mr Moxley reads it. I agree with all the comments above. I am lucky enough to afford a season ticket for myself and my son but that will stop when I have to contribute to his college costs as well. The fact is premier league football is a business that can’t continue to operate as it does. The fans are being priced out of the stadium. The players wages dominate the club finances and it only needs Sky to start cutting back its sponsorship and the wholething will grind to a halt. I applaud Wolves’s attempts to put the brakes on but they must be more aware of how the fans are being exploited as marketing targets. Loyalty yes. Emmotional marketing tricks to squeeze every penny out of us -NO!
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It seems that everyone is agreed then. The prices are too high and there is no question about that. Would the price be too high of Wolves were currently top of the league and looking like contenders? Probably not. Man Utd prove that by filling 80,000 seats every week. So maybe what we are talking about is value for money. If it is value for money, at what point do we think price and value are in equilibrium? That’s a technical term but I’m sure you get the meaning. Dropping the price doesn’t guarantee the seats are filled so Wolves have some work to do to find out what the price should be. Then again, this isn’t as straight forward as a customer/supplier relationship someone mentioned earlier. People do associate with their club and attendances will change with the fortunes of the team. There are also negative issues that adversely affect the punters’ choice as to whether or not they attend matches. O’Hara parading a brand new £125,000 car for his 23 year old girlfriend must be a real turn off for lots of fans. Me included. There I am driving to matches in a 10 year old Astra and paying top whack to get inside the ground. If the rumours are true that Wolves are offering McFadden £60k per week, then the mind boggles. That’s £3.1 million per year or 5900 of those £528 season tickets mentioned earlier. £60k per week? Most of us would be lucky if we had a job that paid us £60k over 3 years – and that is IF we had a job.
The big danger on the horizon however is that fans finances become more stretched. What happens when money is so tight that the subscriptions to Sky start to drop off? If Sky can’t pay the clubs the enormous amounts they do, then the clubs won’t be able to pay the players’ wages that they do. Everyone becomes a Portsmouth or Leeds. With the exception of the clubs who are funded by Sheiks and Russian oligarchs, most depend on television revenue. Take that away and we could find we have no game – never mind no Wolves! Football has danced with the devil – and the devil is calling all the tunes.
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Im not a Wolves fan but last Saturday I was visiting Liverpool. Walking along the Dock Road I saw a top of the range coach parked outside the Hilton hotel, with Wolves team banner in the windscreen. Why when playing at Liverpool, 2 hours at most away, does the team need to spend on a night in a topflight hotel. To me they are a team of underperforming journeymen (and manager), living the good life at the fans expense.
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45.jiwal why don’t you clear off and watch the steptoes at the poorthorns then you really would have something to drip about.
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as a forma season ticket holder of over 20 years i had to make some choices and giving up my ticket was one of them
i feel ticket prices are pricing the average supporter out of the game
i do not watch the games in the pubs but enjoy sky sports saturday show at home or bbc wm when driving
in these hard times i feel football should address there customers as other businesses are doing with offers, great deals to keep there custom
they have to face up to we have other choices.
you will never beat going into a ground but we have to make hard choices
i feel £20.00 -£25.00 is a fare price for football and i bet it would be full ever week
why not try it what you got to lose
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doggone, Man U are now advertising for season ticket holders. Its not just us who cant afford it.
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53, so they dont all go out on the beer. Arsenal and a lot of top clubs now go to a hotel before HOME games. I know because I stay in London where Arsenal and Chelsea stay before Home games.
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JIWAL – Nice to see that you dont even say what was wrong with my post. Whats the point in refering to my comment if your not going to say why. I try and stick to the facts, and base my oppinion on those facts, so everything included in my post was as close to reality as your going to get. I said in the other thread which didnt get through, even though we dont agree on anything, I hope we can both agree that Wolves have had a good season come May.
crockett48 – What i meant was, the deal was agreed with the foreign broadcasters because it obviously doesnt affect ticket sales. It doesnt matter what time the broadcasters air them as it has very little affect on our ticket sales, whereas with sky broadcasting in the UK, broadcasting at 3.00 would have a huge effect on our ticket sales. The pubs arent paying for the right to screen these matches, they are paying for the equipment to receive overseas signals. I think that the clubs have a right to be annoyed at that, as if they wanted the matches live in the UK, they would have just agreed a more profitable deal with Sky.
I think we all was expecting a few more faces, at the very least a loan signing or 2, so I understand where your coming from there. Hopefully we dont regret the decision of not strengthening a little more.
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Stong emotive stuff from all above, and all true. The economic strife this country is embroiled in at the moment, will reflect the attendance to matches while the club fails to recognise the cost to the average fan. Picture the scene, it is a time in the far future, the beloved game belongs to the filthy rich and the corporate sponsor (not so far in the future I feel) and both teams run out to tumultuous applause played over the tannoy. The ground however is empty, this is because the seating belongs to the corporate sponsors now, and as they have no one they want to schmooze at the moment, there is no one there. The Wolves accountants however will be entering “all tickets sold” and “capacity crowd” in their ledgers. Nightmare scenario? I wonder. Back to the present, the most successful retail outlet in the country at the moment is Poundland. Caters to the masses, recognises the need and curbs it’ profit margin mentality. Any pay cuts in the offing at the ground? I doubt it. Wake up Mox, you were bought in as an astute business man, there are others out there.
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GeeBeeMU
Firstly its all to do with the sports science of players. If the players are forced to sit then the acid builds up in there body reducing the effect on performance…
Secondly, they may have travelled on Saturday morning and gone to the said hotel in order to rest in order to counteract the first point i made.
I only now occasionally go to the molineux as i cannot afford it however i choose to watch football at Telford United or occasionally Kidderminster where the lads play with as much passion as the boys in the prem… i get a good afternoon out and for a fraction of the price!
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One example:- Blackburn away £50 in the tank £30 for the ticket another £10 to park the car and that’s for a disabled vehicle. In desperation asked where the pub was and was directed over the road from the ground.Upon entering, bostin’ for a pint, was asked for another £2!!! So that is £92 quid and I ain’t had a beer yet. Ordered a pint, another £3.25 for some soapy water called Thwaites, which down here is a fork lift. I would have had a pie but I only had £40 on me!!!Good job we won.
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Wolfhedd- 58. yes we do agree that we live in hope we have a good season…although I guess our differing versions of what a good season constitutes would be poles apart. Apologies if I come across a bit harsh, I’m really frustrated and just want the best for all us loyal fans …including yourself…cheers
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GeeBeeMU.
Didn’t you know mate ? it’s tradition, they all do it, it’s to stop ‘em getting pissed up on a Friday night. Most clubs take them away for home games too. Sad ole world, aint it.
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As most have said, it is down to price and a fair summary of all that has gone wrong with football. When we just paid a few shillings at the turnstile we could all turn up when we wanted and elt kindred spirits with the players. Now they are paid ludicrous wages while everyone else struggles to make end meets and we are world’s apart and most can’t afford to buy tickets, especially if you want to take your kids.
Answer is simple (but sadly virtually impossible as we are too far gone). Stop paying stupid wages and drop prices back to reality. No other consumer facing business could operate like football in today’s world, maybe football might find out eventually that it can’t forever if it wants to keep fans.
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JIWAL – I understand, In many ways the negative fans just want our club to acheive as much as possible, and even though myself and others may sometimes feel your being unrealistic at times, it still doesnt detract from the fact that you like any other Wolves supporter wants our club to be great again. I dont think anyone would disagree that we would have been allot happier with a few more faces, and a better result against QPR, Im hoping for a mid table finnish this season of around 10th place. I would probably be ok with 14th to 10th, I would be delighted with anything higher.
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So our expectations and hopes are not poles apart after all, and I echo your hopes. I will be in the Great Western on Saturday if you fancy a pint :)
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This lot make me laugh…..”Buy players , invest in transfers, increase the wages” they all demand….”oh but buy the way can you reduce ticket prices please”…..come on get real!
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I have been a sesason ticket holder for many years and if people like me are becoming slowly disenchanted with the club then it is hardly surprising we are getting smaller gates. Why is this? Here are my reasons:
1. An owner who hardly ever communicates with the fans.
2. A club that gives the impression it is only interested in screwing as much money out of the fans without investing in the team.
3. No good youth players coming through.
4 The prospect of a dour annual relegation struggle each year with very little chance of success in the cups.
5 An owner who seems more interested in investing in property than players.
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@ – brightonwolf – Hang on, sweeping statement that. Don’t generalise: not all the posts on this thread read like that.
We can’t turn the clock back, and shouldn’t want to – but it has to be said that it is such a different world of football now – as John Lalley said.
I can remember, in the 50s, Nigel Sims (remember him?) living a few doors from me. Used to exchange pleasantries as we passed in the street. Wouldn’t happen now – we wouldn’t be living in the same street!
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me and my family went up against blackburn last game of the season,all the tickets had sold out apart from the uncovered seating the corner,35 quid each for 4 of us,i have got to admit the seating is terrible to say the least the seats were broken i might as well have sat on the floor.i was going to go and ask for the money back,a joke,wolves have never looked after the fans.i wasnt bothered about the rain or being uncovered but a desent seat for 35 quid wouldnt go a miss
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another thing blackburn fans were offered half price tickets for game and £10 pound voucher for food and drink.has a way of getting the fans backing.wat has the wolves ceo given us?sweet fa….oh sorry he turfed the southbank lads out(season ticket holders)for the game against sandwell town we lost 3.0 pride etc..BUT HE GIVE U A FREE PIE!!! wat u want blood..makes my blood boil
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Nice to see fans getting along and agreeing in this thread =)
Sunderland have brought anyone and everyone and look at them… new faces doesn’t mean success!
I asked in a previouse post if anyone knew what that red thing was in the new stand? surley it can’t be a roof support? have a look on the live webcam. for some reason E&s decided not to post that message on here??
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@Solentwolfe
I know it was a sweeping statement and dont want to offend the great majority of fans who post stuff on here and who live in the “real world”.
Football today is indeed very different to years ago.I grew up in Wolverhampton and Peter Knowles Girlfriend lived with her mum at the top of my road!But thats the way it is and Wolves ( and its fans have to live with that).
We have been extremely lucky in recent years to pull back from the depths of the lower leagues, thanks mainly to Sir Jack.We are now in the best place we have been in 30 years.My point is that the management of the club are doing a fantastic job in continuing to rebuild the club ( because thats what they are doing)We are not there yet but the constant back biting and moaning from many does no one any good.
Money doesnt grow on trees and we have no right to demand that indeviduals fund unrealistic transfers and wages from their own pocket, or that thy take risks with the clubs future existance (In or out of the Prem).Especially when they then start moaning about ticket prices!!!!
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JIWAL is there a tele in the Great Western? Bathams and bootball sounds good to me.:)
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Perhaps the obscenely overpaid players, managers/coaches and hangers on will one day get the message that they are receiving money so far beyond their worth, that the gravy train simply has to stop. In truth, they should cringe in shame!!
The prices for attending a game are in line with paying people of limited academic ability ridiculous wages, but the people being asked to pay the entrance fees have only the funds that represent their true worth to their communities.
If all fans of all clubs stayed away for even a couple of months the message might get home. But, judging by the intellect one sees whenever players/managers etc are subjected to the public scrutiny, and the money Sky et al can screw from the game by utilising such blockheads, the day of judgement may yet be some way off. BUT, it will come!
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Stop pricing working class families out of football. It costs far to much to attend football games these days however Wolves are quick to boast that they haven’t increased their ticket prices for several seasons on the other side of that Wolves haven’t responded to the reccession either and given fans a break! The new Molinuex when completed will have far greater seats, We struggle to fill it now! Moxley & Hayward should wake up and smell the coffee, Its perfectly fine for them with their millions in the bank to make such comments as Television has ruined football. They don’t have mortgages to pay and kids to feed. Most Wolves games are not even screened on television (SKY)so I don’t see where they are coming from. The bottom line is, If you wan’t bums on seats drop your ticket prices, More people would then attend games and get behind the team. these people would in turn spend their money on refreshments (And lets not go into the ridiculous prices of those, thats another story) in turn this will increase proffits. Not to mention the fact that with more support their the team might actually play better and finish higher in the premier league resulting in more money for the club! Its about time the club helped out fans during these difficult financial times which many families are struggling through!
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one of the highest unemployment areas in the country, people being made redundant every day, spiralling food and fuel ( petrol and heating ) costs and moxey blames the pubs, sorry jez well wide of the mark in fact so wide Doyler would be proud of you ! simple way to increase gates, discount for those of us that have to sign on, it was done in the 80′s and maybe before that ( not old enough to go back that far ) come Jez its the only way to get the gates up because ots not the pubs at fault, people cant afford the beer prices let alone the taxi fares back.
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I got offered a champions league ticket at old trafford the other day for £25. I cant see wolves for £25. I also remember when i only had to pay £6.50 for an childs ticket and the average attendance was 27,000. Fair enough we are a premiere league team but unlike like the players and the rest of the wolves bosses, the fans dont earn premiere wages. I went and watched the wolves v qpr and wolves v liverpool game down the pub and spent a grand total of £20 If i had have gone to both games i would have probably spent £120 if not more. Untill price’s are reduced i shall carry on going down the pub. Morgan and Moxey put an adult ticket to £20 and child to £10 or even lower and you will get that new stadium of yours full, otherwise you better make the new seating design impressive because thats what everyone will see! Wolves have a massive fan base and its only your fault that there not going to the games! Think about it lads
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Football used to be the working person’s game.Now that the middle classes have jumped on the bandwagon and started following the game,the majority of working people cannot afford these prices.Still what goes round comes round.
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I think there is a deal of commonsense in the posts so far. If Wolverhampton Wanderers wish to increase the “gate” then they have to look at pricing. Clearly an area that has had the bottom pulled out from its economy is not going to be able to produce vast numbers of wealthy people able to afford the kind of prices mentioned.
Perhaps Mr. Moxey should look at differential pricing. Increase the prices of the seats close to the field and reduce those further away. It works in theatres.
I am sure this is probably done to some extent. The comments above say “not nearly enough”.
On the issue of players’ pay I think Wolves are setting an example but that will be hard to enforce as and if they become more successful. To keep players’ pay down requires you languish at the bottom of the league. Move up and your players’ pay increases exponentially. It should not be so. The premiership rules should prevent this. Unfortunately the Premiership is, I believe, controlled by the very people who benefit most from this unfair situation.
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1
What do they say in the Yank Presidential elections ,’it is the economy,stupid’.That is why gates are dropping.
2
Don’t expect 3 points on Saturday.The players will be at Steve Morgan’s golf day today.It is not the golf that is the problem ,but the 6 pints of larger and two bottles of expensive vino that will do for the players at the Gala afterwards.I don’t think we have got a point following the golf days for the two previous years.
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Having just forked out £83 on 2 tickets for our visit to the Hawthorns could i ask a Albion fan to advise what they are paying?
It seems to me that clubs do not want the problem of away fans!
I have been watching Wolves home and away since 1968. I became a season ticket holder in the 70′s then you could go into the North Bank or South Bank and stand wherever you wanted, for around £25 for the season!
Yes, times have changed and the average wage is now £10 per hour (if your lucky)but to most people paying the equivelent of a weeks shopping money to attend a football match is criminal. Clubs only appear to be interested in the corporate client not the real fans anymore. I recall attending an away game at QPR in the early 70,s having made my way by Train and the underground only to find i had lost or had my wallet stolen,(in those days you paid on the gate) finding the players entrance i spoke to John McAlle who without a moments hesitation gave me 2 complimentary tickets for the game. I doubt that would happen today!
In all my years of following Wolves this is the only freebie i have ever had. Even now I am unable to get a response to any emails sent to Wolves with suggestions.
Answers simple Jez, treat fans/Supporters with respect, make the pricing policy clear and fair think about discounts for Students – Servicemen & Ex-Servicemen- Disabled and above all Listen!
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I was a season ticket holder ever since they put seats in the South Bank – even throughout the Mghoo years.. But it was Hoddle that finally did it for me. Complete apathy! So I finally cut the chord. Now over subsequent years I have been going less and less and last year I never even made it to a single match!
Now, I rate Mick very highly as the best manager we have had since I first started going to the Wolves in 1986. I also have the highest disposable income I’ve ever had. We are now finally in the premier league…
But I won’t get a new season ticket. Why? There are a number of reasons.
1. I don’t like getting ripped off and today’s ticket prices and “booking fees” are exactly that.
2. I’ve found better things to spend my money and my time on. In football you can never guarantee the result, or even the performance under our best manager for 30 years (QPR?).
3. Being treated with apathy over the years by this football club. I’ve got a long memory and I really don’t like my custom being took totally for granted.
But for me the main reason is the following..
4. I just don’t have any heroes in football anymore. I used to idolize Bully, and after he’d retired Alex Rae kept me coming back a while after that. But there just isn’t any loyalty in football anymore. There wasn’t a great deal back in Bully’s day, which made him shine out all the more. But now, we all know that Doyle’s 4 year deal isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if we go down or Arsenal come in with big money in January.
The vast majority of football players are mercenaries. The clubs try to screw every penny out of their fans to go some way to paying the obscene wage bills, and all the time the big clubs get the big money in (or are allowed to run up MASSIVE debt) and RUIN THE GAME! A provincial club like Wolves will NEVER win this league again, the way football is run at the moment.
So if they want to save their attendances, save the game.. LOWER the ticket prices and CAP the player’s wages!
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It was 10 euros last night in certain areas at the mestalla which works out to £8. now thats a champions league game against chelsea. ticket pricing in england is becoming a disgrace.
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82, James,
tickets are 42 quid in most parts of the ground, so you’ve done well to save yerself a quid mate! don’t spend it all at once will ya?
83, steve
excellent points, especially your 4th point. just reiterates what i said yesterday. it’s hard to idolise a footballer who earns in a week what it takes an Accident and Emergency nurse two years to earn
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A topic that has united fans is very rare indeed but one that is being echoed all over the country. There is now a huge gap between players and fans in terms of earning power, attitude and morality. I can remember when a few of the Wolves players used to catch the 58 bus from their digs in Dudley to Wolverhampton on match days. That was in the 70′s, so not all that long ago and when Wolves were a decent top division team. It was an affordable pastime for working class fans, who, like my Dad, used to watch Wolves and Albion home games on alternative weeks. Nowadays, most players don’t identify with or have any time for the fans (Wolves players are actually very good at this so can’t criticise them, but have look at when away teams coaches arrive at Molineux, most of then don’t even acknowledge their own fans). Even average players now earn over a million pounds a year, and when they clearly are not performing (like the QPR game) the supporters are venomous in their reaction, and who can honestly blame them?
The other problem is that we are getting ripped off at every turn. The shop discount for STHs has been removed but dressed up as a benefit, the extra charges for paying over the phone when there is no other way of realistically buying tickets, £2.20 for a cup of instant tea (our work machine dispenses identical items at 30p and makes a profit), lucicrous food and drink prices, premium rate phone charges and queues kept deliberatley long to increase income. The list goes on, but the fans are not stupid and are seeing through these cons.
Wolves does not have glory hunting fans all over the country who will buy merchandise so unless we look after our own fans, and encourage youngsters to come to games, our support will dwindle away.
Games have been available free on the internet for several years so this talk of TV being to blame is an excuse not to tackle the true reasons for falling gates.
Jez often comments that our prices are competetive and in line with other clubs, which is probably true, but he needs to realise that our competition is not other clubs, it is the option of not going to games at all.
Finally, to put all this into perspective, I work for a children’s chaity, and one of our partners is a charity that supports hundreds of bereaved children when their parents die. They are closing because our morally bankrupt government have removed their funding. The ANNUAL grant that has been cut is less than the average weekly Wolves player’s wage.
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I was in Barcelona last year for a short holiday and I paid 35 Euros to watch Barcelona v Villa Real. 88,000 supporters – fantastic atmosphere, quality performance – cheap as chips. I rest my case.
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The common thread to all is high prices, for tickets refreshments etc.I would think at clubs like Man. U. etc, if a fan chooses to relinquish his season ticket and not attend because of the above reasons, there would be a vast waiting list of people wanting to take their place.I do not think this applies to us. So Mox, look after what you have because you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
We looked after you with some of the highest attendances in the Championship, week in week out, and our reward? you price us out of our club.
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Dearest Jez,
It’s the economy, stupid.
Bill
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The 3 M’s and up to a point the playing staff,have forgotten that football clubs belong to the supporters, if you do not look after the product by innovation and common sense the club is worthless. Only the land has any value.
The pub, and the football club, are in business competition with each other, both sell pies and liquids of variuos flavours, it is up to Moxey to give value for money and on this seasons showing, the pub is winning.
The problem football has with players’ wages is that in the in the bad old days, they gave skimpy wages to the players, locked the players into a unbreakable one sided contracts, failed to modernise ground and many will remember walking through inches of urine in the toilet half time.
Football grounds were for men, if you do not believe me, does any one remember a ladies toilet in the stadium. Recent years has seen the remarkable rise of families at matches and boy , do they get milked. Selling tickets as single when group buying, booking fee charges, shame on you. Sounds more like the Pirates of the Carrabean. Discount rates would provide for a rise in numbers attending. Study the super market offers, two for the price of one. Just stop blaming the pubs Jez, you have had far too easy, now let us see you earn your corn?
In the bad old days you could be going to a match by bus and you could sit by one of your heros. Civic Hall on a Saturday night and various players would be just another crowd of socialable young men at the dance. OK they give their time to charities, yes, so do a good many other everyday people.
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I don’t suppose for a minute that Mr Moxey has read any of the comments posted by fans in his pathetic side swipe article on TV coverage but any marketing person worth their salt would be stupid not to take notice.
It’s a sad sad reflection on the club that they clearly have no regard for the people who pay to watch the dross currently being served up. The neck of Morgan and Moxey to come out with promises of intent which then are shamelessly broken, beggars belief. (Of course it shouldn’t, being common practice is most walks of life these days)
Has this club invested even 75% of what it earned in promotion? If it has, then there should still be the 30 million Morgan said he would spend. Or has Mick blown that on players we haven’t even been told about?
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87, Good Comment.
TAKE NOTE JEZ MOXEY
FC Barcelona season ticket holders can phone into the ticket office and tell the ticket sales that they will not be attending certain or specific matches. Said ticket holder gets a 50% refund and the ticket is then put on re sale to the general public.
Make senses to a business head Jez, or not?
Not surprising then that Barca can at least 3/4 fill the stadium every home game. More business sense, or not, Jez?
The philosophy at Barca is that the fans are everything. They come first. The duty of the club, its total staff and all players is to give the best entertainment possible to it’s paying public.
FC Barcelona is of course owned by the fans, not a property speculator with his own interests as his root motivation. If Barca fans are not happy with the way the club behaves or the team performs, they can vote in a new President and board every four years.
English football might well sit up and take note.
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the fans have gone exactly where they were expected to go.
i mean.
recession
rising prices
impotent government
multinational companies ripping off the customers
the economy shrinking
the national debt
and the folks that are working, choosing where to spend what spare cash they have.
so the ordinary folk have either stayed at home to watch on tv or gone to the pub. both cheaper than the live event.
come on the wolves
wwfc 2 newcastle 1
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The only way to make Moxey etc realise how much money it costs a working class person to attend is by making them pay the same percentage of what they earn as us,..if you take an average fan taking home £250 a week then look how much an average match day experience costs him with ticket, travel costs, food and drink you will probably find a conservative figure to be around £70, thats almost 30% of his total income on one footie match!!…would Jez be happy to part with 30% of his weekly wage, although not knowing how much Moxey earns I would put this percentage figure in the thousands,….hands up who thinks he would part with that percentage of his wage to watch Wolves..none?, didnt think so, but thats exactly what he expects of the average fan, then has the cheek to moan when they find a cheaper way of watching their beloved Wolves.
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72,..if you look they are fitting the roof steelwork, which by the way we produced at my work, the “red thing” is a temporary support for the steelwork until it is supported properly by the usual framework and cables.
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Very good posts on here, but I fear nothing will be done to address the balance. Football has got too greedy. There is nothing better than watching your team play live, the smell of the ground, banter of the fans but alas this may soon have to be a happy memory. As an early bird sth I’m getting a better deal, but pre-season I called the ticket line for Real Zaragoza game, I don’t live in W-ton (and have in the past travelled from Spain and Devon to watch the game) and although 2nd in the queue, took 15 mins to get through – £1.50 in phone call, £1.50 to pay for ticket – I accept they have to post it to me but what a rip off!!! And as for a cup of tea for £2.20, get real! £10 a ticket for Millwall game was a good deal, but I’m sure this wasn’t advertised anywhere? Was it in the express & star? Lower the prices and get the youngsters back in. I was hooked in the early 70′s but then I did get to watch the great Georgie Best play.
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I agree with most of these posts, my own view is that a wage cap needs to be brought in ASAP, then clubs could go back to normal gate prices and fill grounds,it would also make football a sport again.
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I commented on this years ago. Supporters have finally come around to the logic that what you are paying for is not worth the quality you see on the pitch. Unemployment and lack of cash has finally brought it home.
Do you really want to pay £30-£40 to see performances like at Villa and QPR? Are the performances worth a ferrari for a girlfriend? That photo really shoved it down your throats didn’t it?
The falling attendances will be a godsend because it will act as an incentive to improve. When they start playing as though they are proud to represent a great club and eager to get results rather than as a ticket for a ferrari, the club will move forward.
The management must also take their share of the blame for not investing in better players. Don’t forget, the Compton training ground was improved on the pretext of attracting better players and then talk of an even better training ground for the same reason. What’s the point of spending all that money attracting players if you have no intention of purchasing them?
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The biggest Moxey ‘stealth’ rip off and a personel bugbear of mine is The Early Bird. A lot of people here are saying it is decent value, and I guess maybe it is in todays climate.
But why oh why do the most loyal fans and current season ticket holders have the yearly gun held to our heads with buy it now not even knowing which division we’ll even be playing in OR you pay higher later?
The Early Bird extracts our money around 6 months before a ball is kicked and an almighty 15 months before you recieve the remainder of what you have bought (ie the last game of the season).
Jez is obviously happy to sell the VAST majority of season tickets at the Early Bird price anyway, so why can’t he sell them at that price in the summer to everyone?
New or returning season ticket holders are without doubt being put off by having to pay the inflated price initially, the inflated price that actually makes it one of the highest ‘cheapest season tickets’ in whole of the The Premiership.
You can’t fool all of us all of the time Jez, your beloved Early Bird is just another marketing tool designed to maximise the extraction of fans money. Why don’t you save on all the Early Bird advertising and charge us all that price in the summer?
Surely Jez, you can’t be that scared that letting fans make their own informed decision whether or not to renew once the season ends will hit sales, especially in the event of relegation or another naff season ? !! ?
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Does anyone remember the 2p special they did in the 80′s linked with West Midlands transport. You could take any bus for 2p and get in the game for 2p. I asked my Dad i I could go and he gave me 10p saying I only needed 6p and keep the change!! Those were the days.
What has not happened at any EPL club is a serious look at ticketing methods and strategies for sale.
Some of the things I see in the US that could be deployed easily are ticket kiosks (unmanned , you just walk up, swipe your credit card and pay), variable rate tickets (ticket prices drop or go up during the run up to the game), advance purchase specials, combinations (3 homes and 2 away etc).
If you can get the ground full for the same revenue you get 21,000 in for then its a win-win for everyone. The fans get in and the club gets more sales from food etc.
The best thing I have ever seen is here in Atlanta at the Braves baseball, you pay $8 (5 quid) for a general admission ticket and it puts you in an area with a bar and restaraunt, limited views of the game and only seats in the bar/food area). Its brilliant. Atmos is great. I realize this would be revolutionary in England and you would have to deal with the nutters but as we are building a new stadium we should be looking at stuff like this.
Personally, I was happy standing on the South bonk and a bovril at half time but times move on..
Charlie
ATLANTA WOLVES
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Myself and family own 4 season tickets at a cost of £1,500. Here we go again Jez the big man controller, while he sits there in his big fat cat office earning i think a reported £350,000 a year and he wonders where the fans have gone, he needs to get into the real world and re visit the ticket prices and the stupid £1.50 booking fee they charge (what a rip off for the devoted loyal wolves fans )that’s how we are repaid for our loyalty, On another note we have a manager that is content with just surviving every season were has our ambition gone isn’t it about time we built a quality strong competitive side first then the fans would stay and more come, then build a better stadium if needed? this will then bring in more fans and a new generation also. We could of easily had our pick of quality players during the transfer time but no we let them all go to the opposition instead. Wake up Mr Moxey and Mr MaCarthy and smell the coffee, all the die hard wolves fans can see this so why can’t you. Need i say anymore I could but I will be here for another 2-3 hours.
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reducing the cost of a ticket to sell seats is a great idea but does it work to the point of some of the above comments we reduce prices for cup games etc and still keep one stand shut due to not enough tickets being sold, i know its only usually notts county or Rotherham but wolves fans shouldnt be bothered wether its Bristol or Man utd, now what does put bums on seats is good football and big names, maybe thats the area we should be looking at
anyway whos going tomorrow UTW
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Shayne,
I fear the problem is that they only smell the money not the coffee, never mind taste its possibilities. I also fear the Mick McCarthy would love to be known as a manager who managed to keep Wolves in the Prem, not as a man who was prepared to risk his job to get Wolves where the fans want them to be. AND NOT, Sir Billy Wolfedd et al, where they were sixty years ago. Just committed, entertaining with competent management, who love a challenge and wante to make Wolves once again exciting. Is it really too much to ask?
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Drop the price by a fiver. Lose insane booking fee and youll fill the stadium. Even people traveling to see the wolves like us will only watch one game beacause the cost is so high.
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