Fleecing.

[ChicagoLion]

so far, unless it's too early to tell, has binning Purslow made any remarkable improvements?

No, and I hope it is too early to judge.
If this stuff carry’s on next summer then they will deserve all the criticism that will inevitably follow.

[RamboandBruno]

On the subject of attendances there always seem to be small sections of the ground which don't appear to be sold - the bit at the right hand side (looking at the pitch) at the front of L1 in the Lower Holte for example. I always assumed they were slightly restricted view but why aren't the sold on that basis?

They are. I sit in the middle of L2, but on boxing day against Liverpool, my wife decided to come so she had my season ticket and i got one of the only few left, which was L1. From memory it was sold on a restricted view basis, the main restriction was you couldn’t see some of the witton lane including away supporters.

[pauliewalnuts]

If 35,000 season tickets became instantly available tomorrow how many would they really sell?

Obviously nothing like 35,000 as you're talking a specific point in time. I am not on the list, but if I was and they called me tomorrow and offered me one, I wouldn't buy one. If they called me in month, maybe I would.

However, the ground holds 42k, 3k away fans, 30k ST holders at the moment and probably 1-2k in the corporates.

If they decided fuck it, let's fill the ground with ST holders (they won't obviously), that's only 7k seats to sell, and I find it hard to believe they'd struggle to shift that many, which would mean we'd have 42k all in. Expand the ground to 50k and it's only another 8k seats.

Football is also one of those weird environments where, yes, demand is inelastic, but also, demand creates demand.

I know they get tourists yada yada but 10 years ago if you'd said West Ham would have the second highest average attendance in the league, people would say you were insane. But there you go.

re the ST list, I reckon there are tons of people like me - had a season ticket for years, many other years buying match by match, currently no season ticket and not on the list, latent but still ingrained support they can tap on.

I'd also say, we are, after this season, going to find ourselves with 7,000 seats less for two seasons, so that is in itself going to create a lot of pent-up demand.

This club has a truly enormous potential catchment area, has tons of history, still feels box-office despite decades of mediocrity. There is absolutely shit loads of potential here, in terms of numbers, and I am sure NSWE wouldn't have bought us, and wouldn't have bought in someone like Heck who did *exactly that* in Philadelphia if it wasn't for this.

There is a reason it's us getting bought by billionaires twice and not, say, Everton, or Leeds.

[pauliewalnuts]

Basically, we're massive.

[pauliewalnuts]

Have a look at this, from 2007, Professor Tom Cannon from Liverpool University, expert in football finance (and an Everton fan) talking about why some clubs got big investment at the time but not Everton.

WHY WEST HAM AND ASTON VILLA BUT NOT EVERTON?
With West Ham there was a very real London factor, as you have seen with a certain shift in football power from the north to the south. London is seen as one of the most dynamic economies in the world.

Another element with West Ham, which was a peculiarity, was a lot of the talk about possibilities linked to the 2012 Olympics and the possibility of a ground transfer to the Olympic Stadium

I think investors saw that as a real opportunity.

Villa are a genuine long-term potential club. They have history. They have won the European Cup and, despite the fact that Birmingham may get promoted to the Premiership next season, they are still the only major club in the Midlands.

That is a franchise that stretches almost from Leicester and the east Midlands right over to parts of central Wales.

The natural franchise for Villa is probably 15 million people, whereas the natural franchise for Everton is maybe 1.5m.

In financial terms, they look a much better bet than Everton. Their ground is in a good position and they are virtually debt-free.

And they had someone in Doug Ellis who, for all the criticism levelled at him, ran a tight ship that made them debt-free and relatively inexpensive to buy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/6469999.stm

Our problem previously was that we were for years run like a corner shop by Ellis, then bought by a billionaire who proved to be hopeless at anything connected with management and got bored, then left to rot for years.

Now we have people who have understood the above and have the brains and financial brawn to make it happen.

[Clampy]

Thank you Paulie. Now I've got that Pet Shop Boys song in my head.

[pauliewalnuts]

Sorry, it might help if you just ask yourself this question: do you want to be rich?

[Exeter 77]

On the subject of attendances there always seem to be small sections of the ground which don't appear to be sold - the bit at the right hand side (looking at the pitch) at the front of L1 in the Lower Holte for example. I always assumed they were slightly restricted view but why aren't the sold on that basis?

They are. I sit in the middle of L2, but on boxing day against Liverpool, my wife decided to come so she had my season ticket and i got one of the only few left, which was L1. From memory it was sold on a restricted view basis, the main restriction was you couldn’t see some of the witton lane including away supporters.

It must be because I sit more-or-less above that section towards the front of K2 I notice them more when they aren’t occupied.