The Surcharge and the Ticket Prices

Last updated : 30 December 2005 By Richard Oldroyd
Steve Cotterill - has got the team riding high
Many of these are long-term complaints – in particular, that tickets are generally too expensive. Out of respect to season ticket holders, these cannot be addressed until the end of the season.

But there are measures which can be taken immediately – which, with Steve Cotterill’s team riding high and scenting an opportunity, should be taken.

Seizing the day, and all that. Taking advantage of the tide in flood to reach a fortune. In this case, offering the encouragement which might see the faithful flock behind Cotterill’s men.

These chances don’t come along too often.

The headline ticket price isn’t going to change right now. Fair enough. Yet the club have already acted to make some offers for the New Year. The half season ticket is an intelligent move which should be applauded.

But don’t just stop at that. Offer a few other promotions: Dad and Lad at a reduced price, or a family of four for £50, for example; or buy three tickets for any given home match, and get a fourth free. That sort of thing – creative marketing to pull the punters in.

And then, of course, there is the thorny issue of the surcharge.

I doubt any single pricing innovation from the club has been quite so controversial, or downright unpopular. Personally, I’m not sure any innovation has been quite so difficult to justify either, although Dave Edmundson has attempted to do so.

I’ll leave others to debate the logic. What is indisputable is that it hasn’t worked, and it has succeeded spectacularly in alienating many fans. The quiet disappearance of the surcharge for an increasing number of games is a tacit admission of its failure.

The club have never sought to justify the surcharge on economic grounds. Rather, the argument ran that the move would encourage fans to buy in advance, reducing match day queues, and allowing the club to improve its profile of Clarets fans amongst those who previously strolled up at five to three with £20 in their pocket. The surcharge would have been judged a success if no-one had used it, and if no-one had stopped going to games as a result of it.

We can therefore draw the conclusion that withdrawing the surcharge will not affect the club’s economics at all. In fact, the obvious result would be an increase in revenue as those who have been staying away on principle bury the hatchet and return to the fold.

It is often said that a football club and its fans have a similar relationship to a married couple. Quite so. The partnership is one of mutual dependency.

And partners sometimes fall out, often over trivial things which gradually gain a disproportionate importance. In the end, someone has to back down and swallow their pride for a greater good. There is ultimately a bigger picture; someone has to say sorry.

Just now, Burnley want bigger crowds to generate revenue and to inspire the team to greater deeds. Just sneaking the surcharge out through a side door might have that effect, but to really publicise its abandonment would have seriously bigger impact.

So, if you’re reading this, Dave Edmundson, let me suggest a pitch to you.

Firstly, drop it. For good. Make a scene about it – distribute a column round the local press, go on the radio, tell the world that you’ve listened, heard, considered and acted, to give the fans what they want. And say you are sorry, accept you made a mistake. Say that although you had the best of intentions, you got it wrong.

Do all this with a catch. There were some fine words in the match day programme against Watford about ambition. Say it again – you have ambition, and that you’ve taken these steps because you need the whole of the Burnley world behind you, travelling in the same direction.

I think it will work, I ready do. But here is the real point – unless you try it you’ll never know. You have nothing to lose, and really quite a lot to gain.