Darlington's admission costs

OhMightyOne · **Joined:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:45 pm **Posts:** 220

Personally I think the £6 charged at Whitley and Spenny is enough. Other clubs charge £5. £8 would be ridiculous. If I'm right clubs like Ashington haven't changed their admission prices in over 7 or 8 years. Why should a club who come down to our league be any different? £6 is bad enough.

finchy · **Posted:** Sun May 27, 2012 1:01 pm

I can't understand why £8 is even being considered, every club needs money and the usual £5-£6 should be what they are charging, they are gonna get enough supporters through the gate to make themselfs plenty of cash to get the club back on an even keel, people pay 5-6 pound in the northern league and don't mind that, but when £8, £10, £15, gets spoke about then people will refuse to pay that, it sort of takes enjoyment out of the game of football for supporters!

Scott-BSAFC · **Posted:** Sun May 27, 2012 1:41 pm

finchy wrote:

I can't understand why £8 is even being considered, every club needs money and the usual £5-£6 should be what they are charging, they are gonna get enough supporters through the gate to make themselfs plenty of cash to get the club back on an even keel, people pay 5-6 pound in the northern league and don't mind that, but when £8, £10, £15, gets spoke about then people will refuse to pay that, it sort of takes enjoyment out of the game of football for supporters!

I think as said Darlington won't need to worry about away support. Their pricing plan will be entirely what they feel will be acceptable to their own supporters. I think if it's acceptable to them they'll charge as much as they can to build up funds for a promotion push/new stadium. They need to generate a lot of cash.

the mighty crook town · **Posted:** Sun May 27, 2012 2:32 pm

england wrote:

the mighty crook town wrote:

It will be intresting to see what they charge for entry.

Cant see it being a tenner or fifteen quid mind, they wont get anyone paying that from the away teams.

BARCELONA 2 CROOK TOWN 4 - HONEST!!

I really don't think they will be too concerned about away teams not bringing their 10 fans!

Have you ever been to a game where Spennymoor or Whitley Bay are the away team? :shock:

BARCELONA 2 CROOK TOWN 4 - HONEST!!

TheRealQuakerz · **Joined:** Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 pm **Posts:** 2238

the mighty crook town wrote:

It will be intresting to see what they charge for entry.

Cant see it being a tenner or fifteen quid mind, they wont get anyone paying that from the away teams.

BARCELONA 2 CROOK TOWN 4 - HONEST!!

Really though, how many away fans will we get anyway?

TheRealQuakerz · **Joined:** Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 pm **Posts:** 2238

2009vasewinner wrote:

Darlington have to realise that it the northern league they are playing in not the football league. Are they hoping just their own fans will come to their home games. While I could see opposing fans paying extra to watch their team away I cannot see many neutrals paying silly money to watchnorthern league football.

First of all, I can't see us charging "silly money" more like maybe £8. Secondly, again, what real effect will the price have on neutrals? Judging by the gates at step 5, although they easily seem to be the best in the country, a vast majority of clubs get 100-200 - now take away the home and away fans and how many neutrals are interested in NL football? A handful is my guess.

There aren't many neutrals even visit BSP/L2 matches.

TheRealQuakerz · **Joined:** Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 pm **Posts:** 2238

novus solator wrote:

Evo-Stik prices in the NL?

If that's true I'll not be going.

Why would you go to Darlo matches, you're from Washington?

england · **Joined:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:49 am **Posts:** 3328

Cant see it being a tenner or fifteen quid mind, they wont get anyone paying that from the away teams.

BARCELONA 2 CROOK TOWN 4 - HONEST!!

[/quote]

I really don't think they will be too concerned about away teams not bringing their 10 fans![/quote]

Have you ever been to a game where Spennymoor or Whitley Bay are the away team? :shock:

As Scott as mentioned there home crowds will make a much bigger difference than 2 away crowds twice a season which may bring 100 people.
BARCELONA 2 CROOK TOWN 4 - HONEST!!

[/quote]

TheRealQuakerz · **Joined:** Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 pm **Posts:** 2238

england wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are actually a northern league club

Eaststander is a Halifax fan, so no they're not.

Bambi_ChesterFC · **Joined:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 5:12 pm **Posts:** 1810

It's like I've travelled back in time to summer 2011 and summer 2010 when we released our ticket prices for NPL1/NPL Prem. We caused a right fuss two seasons in a row!

Many away fans were against us charing £10 to sit down in div 1 north but when we then announced we were charging £12 in the Prem all hell broke loose! Some FCUM boycotted and only brought about 350 as a result. We still got over 3,000 that evening, mind

.

Anyway, my point is that IF Darlo do ask a bit more on the gate they won't be doing anything unprecedented for a club of their size. The fact is they've got a large fanbase who are used to paying £15+ for a league match and who won't mind paying (for example) £8 - even if it is at a much lower level & expensive compared to other clubs.

The point about putting off away fans is moot IMO. We could have let all away fans in for free these last two years and we still wouldn't have seen more than around 50 or so for the most part. We had some fantastic visitors from sides including Harrogate, Witton, Northwich etc who didn't moan about prices and made great occasion of the fixture.

Setting your prices to make them 'away fan friendly' makes no financial sense for clubs like Darlo. Higher pricing may not be 'in the spirit' of the league but it works. Our charge of £12 for 2011/12 was considered to be a complete rip-off and wildly overpriced. In the end we averaged well over 2,700 - an increase of 400 on 2010/11. This includes a crowd of 5,009 for our penultimate home game vs Vics. Speaks for itself.

SyMpOsIuM · **Posted:** Sun May 27, 2012 4:11 pm

Bambi_ChesterFC wrote:

It's like I've travelled back in time to summer 2011 and summer 2010 when we released our ticket prices for NPL1/NPL Prem. We caused a right fuss two seasons in a row!

Many away fans were against us charing £10 to sit down in div 1 north but when we then announced we were charging £12 in the Prem all hell broke loose! Some FCUM boycotted and only brought about 350 as a result. We still got over 3,000 that evening, mind

.

Anyway, my point is that IF Darlo do ask a bit more on the gate they won't be doing anything unprecedented for a club of their size. The fact is they've got a large fanbase who are used to paying £15+ for a league match and who won't mind paying (for example) £8 - even if it is at a much lower level & expensive compared to other clubs.

The point about putting off away fans is moot IMO. We could have let all away fans in for free these last two years and we still wouldn't have seen more than around 50 or so for the most part. We had some fantastic visitors from sides including Harrogate, Witton, Northwich etc who didn't moan about prices and made great occasion of the fixture.

Setting your prices to make them 'away fan friendly' makes no financial sense for clubs like Darlo. Higher pricing may not be 'in the spirit' of the league but it works. Our charge of £12 for 2011/12 was considered to be a complete rip-off and wildly overpriced. In the end we averaged well over 2,700 - an increase of 400 on 2010/11. This includes a crowd of 5,009 for our penultimate home game vs Vics. Speaks for itself.

I think the difference however is that you still have your own former football league ground, we darlington are playing at a current northern league ground. Only time will tell what effect the prices when decided will have on the visit of away fans.

Phoenix · **Joined:** Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:53 pm **Posts:** 190

It has to be acknowledged that the higher the admission price the more neutrals are put off and I can imagine there will be a lot of neutrals wanting to go see Darlo next season.

One thing I cannot understand is that who would pay more than £6 to see what is essentially a NL team with NL standard players or have Darlo got access to an unlimite dcheque book all of a sudden and forgotten about the debt?

quakersam · **Joined:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:44 pm **Posts:** 649

No of course we haven't forgot about the debt. The whole reason for charging that bit extra is to help to pay it, help to move to a ground in Darlington and help with a promotion push

TheRealQuakerz · **Joined:** Sun May 06, 2012 5:17 pm **Posts:** 2238

Phoenix wrote:

One thing I cannot understand is that who would pay more than £6 to see what is essentially a NL team with NL standard players or have Darlo got access to an unlimite dcheque book all of a sudden and forgotten about the debt?

Was that your attempt at winning the contradiction of the year award?

Phoenix · **Joined:** Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:53 pm **Posts:** 190

Just out of interest - any idea what sort of ground you are hoping to move back to in Darlington? Haver you got your eyes on any. In fact are there any that are even NL standard let alone Conference standard?

If you are looking at Football League again then you need a ground that can be adapted for that occasion when it arises. Otherwise you will be looking for a new gorund every two years or so if success comes your way.

If there are none to suit at present then the only answer is to build one. That would cost in the region of £4 million for a Conference standard ground. Do the maths add up? Is this feasible?

Please note these questions are asked in good faith - there is no sarcasm intended. i am seriously interested in the 'business plan'.

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