Maximising Income

[Marlborough Red]

The 1,000 seats not sold to Forest yesterday could have brought in around £25 ,000.

Given the same allocation will be given to other Clubs who potentially could fill the end Leeds, Villa, Sheffield Wednesday to name but 3  ,the Club has missed out on at least  around £ 100,000 in ticket sales.

I could understand this if the 1,000 seats were available for City Fans in the corner next to the Dolman, (as the Man Utd game) but leaving 1,000 seats deliberately empty makes little sense when Bristol Sport are attempting to maximise income from Home fans by raising ticket prices , reducing discounts etc The extra income from away fans could indeed help to hold prices for home fans  in so many ways. 

[Rossi the Robin]

Not answering the question, but for the record, Forest had the second highest away following in the EFL this weekend

[Brann-red]

Also worth bearing in mind the additional spend from around the stadium , programmes , food etc would be a good amount . 

I sit in the middle with my opinion on it , I can convince myself as a businessman why you should do it and then as a city fan why not to do it ! 

[Lrrr]

Can only think we're very comfortable where we sit with regards to FFP, otherwise it would be foolish to turn down hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of pounds over the season

[Bar BS3]

I always think that if the seats aren’t going to be taken by Home fans, then why restrict the number of away fans that can be accommodated, within segregation requirements..? Not just us, but every club. 

I can fully understand what we did against Man Utd, where home fans sold every possible available seat, but when that’s not going to be the case, it seems crazy not to sell every seat that’s possible, to whoever wants them. 

[Natchfever]

50% more away fans maybe an increase in OB and stewards  which isn't cheap.

If the club is happy to forego the extra income 3-4 times a season then personally i'm all for restricting away fans and taking away any advantage it might give them by having a noisy packed following.

[Phileas Fogg]

1 minute ago, Loon plage said:

50% more away fans maybe an increase in OB and stewards  which isn't cheap.

If the club is happy to forego the extra income 3-4 times a season then personally i'm all for restricting away fans and taking away any advantage it might give them by having a noisy packed following.

Yep definitely makes a difference. Nothing worse than several thousand away fans out-singing the home support behind a goal.

I still don't really like having away fans behind a goal, should be away from the action where possible. A bit frustrating that we had a clean slate with stadium logistics and seemingly didn't think of that.. although I can understand why they're in the oldest stand.

[Mr Popodopolous]

7 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Yep definitely makes a difference. Nothing worse than several thousand away fans out-singing the home support behind a goal.

I still don't really like having away fans behind a goal, should be away from the action where possible. A bit frustrating that we had a clean slate with stadium logistics and seemingly didn't think of that.. although I can understand why they're in the oldest stand.

Where to put them though?

I know it's too late now, but looking back at it: There are plenty of long term season ticket holders in the Dolman so that stand would have been a problem. Then away fans who are usually fairly vocal and potentially crude language, Lansdown Stand would be a no for that reason, family stand. People wanted to be in their spiritual home of the East End (I know the South Stand is no East End but it's the same area of the ground). No solution would have satisfied everyone IMO.

[Phileas Fogg]

3 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Where to put them though?

I know it's too late now, but looking back at it: There are plenty of long term season ticket holders in the Dolman so that stand would have been a problem. Then away fans who are usually fairly vocal and potentially crude language, Lansdown Stand would be a no for that reason, family stand. People wanted to be in their spiritual home of the East End (I know the South Stand is no East End but it's the same area of the ground). No solution would have satisfied everyone IMO.

Yeah it's a problem, but we had a clean slate to get it right. Don't think there's a perfect solution really but in my opinion definitely better to only have home fans behind both goals.

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Yeah it's a problem, but we had a clean slate to get it right. Don't think there's a perfect solution really but in my opinion definitely better to only have home fans behind both goals.

Agree on that.

We saw the difference it made v the 2 Manchester clubs (I know we lost to Man City but still think it helped).

[phantom]

On 06/08/2018 at 08:53, Loon plage said:

50% more away fans maybe an increase in OB and stewards  which isn't cheap.

If the club is happy to forego the extra income 3-4 times a season then personally i'm all for restricting away fans and taking away any advantage it might give them by having a noisy packed following.

OB are only outside the ground and come at no cost to us surely?

As for the stewards, I would have thought due to the way the Forest fans were positioned it wouldn't have been that much more of an issue - stewards are hardly paid that well so 2/3 extra tickets sold would easily cover the wages

[View from the Dolman]

5 minutes ago, phantom said:

OB are only outside the ground and come at no cost to us surely?

As for the stewards, I would have thought due to the way the Forest fans were positioned it wouldn't have been that much more of an issue - stewards are hardly paid that well so 2/3 extra tickets sold would easily cover the wages

Police can often be inside the ground (including on Saturday v Forest) and this is chargeable to the club.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Plenty of police free games (apart from a couple of spotters) usually up and down the country these days.

Unsure how often at Ashton Gate this is the case though. Forest doesn't seem a particularly 'risk' game for us I don't think, yet there were a decent number between the Atyeo and Dolman?

[phantom]

17 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

Police can often be inside the ground (including on Saturday v Forest) and this is chargeable to the club.

You may know more about it that me @View from the Dolman but I thought the club only paid if there were "additional" officers required within the ground.

"Normal" policing numbers were something seperate?

[Fatalist]

On 06/08/2018 at 08:56, Phileas Fogg said:

Yep definitely makes a difference. Nothing worse than several thousand away fans out-singing the home support behind a goal.

I still don't really like having away fans behind a goal, should be away from the action where possible. A bit frustrating that we had a clean slate with stadium logistics and seemingly didn't think of that.. although I can understand why they're in the oldest stand.

There were "several thousand away fans", but they didn't make much noise, other than celebrating their goal.

Would another thousand of them really have affected the game? A big away following can bump up the atmosphere in general, for both sides and make it more of an occasion.

[Mr Popodopolous]

5 minutes ago, Fatalist said:

There were "several thousand away fans", but they didn't make much noise, other than celebrating their goal.

Would another thousand of them really have affected the game? A big away following can bump up the atmosphere in general, for both sides and make it more of an occasion.

Unsure I agree.

There were 2,700 (approx) for a start which to me isn't several thousand. Secondly little noise other than celebrating their goal? Depends where you were based tbh, sound has often had a problem travelling from the Atyeo, dunno if you were up the other end but I felt the Forest fans were quite noisy at times, not just the goal celebrations. Heard some quite loud chants of 'Is this a library' and similar.