The missing 2/3 thousand.

[Ricky]

I've noticed that at the back of the central block on the Kop, there are a lot of season ticket holders who only turn up about half the time. This is the back 2 or 3 rows as well. Loads of empty seats up there yesterday. This isn't just a school holidays thing either, it's been a regular occurrence.

That's the state of things. If fans up there don't really give a shit, I don't know who will.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

I didn't go to the Inter Milan game but was told it was announced we'd sold a record number of season tickets.
Anyone know the truth?

I’m not sure if clubs ever do reveal the truth about things like ticket sales. Surely the less the tax man knows, the better (from the clubs point of view)?

 

[Nick Jansky]

I really do not understand why clubs have such high prices. For years everyone has been saying it, reduce prices and fill more seats. Use the Bradford model.

!

Because it’s done Bradford loads of good over the last few years.....,,

Clubs charge what they do because they can and people still come. Our attendances are fantastic, we averaged less than this in 74/75 for instance, our most successful season in my lifetime of watching the Blades with Currie & Woodward on show every week. Which suggests to me that we’ve got it about right.

 

[Topplayersleave]

The missing few thousand is due to us selling Brooks and people not being entirely convinced about our new recruits. The slackish early start to the season will have reinforced this opinion.
I bet a sizeable amount of people when they heard the news that we'd sold Brookes said "Right that's it, they can Foxtrot Oscar" "They'll never change and they'll never learn"

Some of them will have just forgotten about it and carried on regardless, but some will be sat at home digging their heels in and waiting to see what happens with the new recruits before coming back.

Meanwhile at least £100,000 of the £12 million has been lost in gate receipts so far, after only two games

 

[Birdwell Blade]

Because it’s done Bradford loads of good over the last few years.....,,

Clubs charge what they do because they can and people still come. Our attendances are fantastic, we averaged less than this in 74/75 for instance, our most successful season in my lifetime of watching the Blades with Currie & Woodward on show every week. Which suggests to me that we’ve got it about right.

How has it not done Bradford any good? The last time I went there to watch us, the ground was full, atmosphere was great. I’m not saying they’re perfect but there’s no need for the sarcasm. The point I’m making on ticket prices is about clubs in general, not just us.

 

[Nick Jansky]

How has it not done Bradford any good? The last time I went there to watch us, the ground was full, atmosphere was great. I’m not saying they’re perfect but there’s no need for the sarcasm. The point I’m making on ticket prices is about clubs in general, not just us.

I don’t disagree and it wasn’t sarcastic. But Bradford (who I like & admire as a club) have been marooned in L1 & L2 for years despite their attendances, because what they charge isn’t enough to sustain a proper promotion challenge.

 

[Sheffsteel]

The missing few thousand is due to us selling Brooks and people not being entirely convinced about our new recruits. The slackish early start to the season will have reinforced this opinion.
I bet a sizeable amount of people when they heard the news that we'd sold Brookes said "Right that's it, they can Foxtrot Oscar" "They'll never change and they'll never learn"

Some of them will have just forgotten about it and carried on regardless, but some will be sat at home digging their heels in and waiting to see what happens with the new recruits before coming back.

Meanwhile at least £100,000 of the £12 million has been lost in gate receipts so far, after only two games

Never know if you’re being serious or just on the wind up.
So you reckon if we make a big signing then gates go up by 3000.
We’ve made relatively big signings In the past and the gate has hardly been effected.
We could buy back Brooks tomorrow and facts from previous years shows it would put about 500 on the gate.

We’ve just bought Oliver Norwood, which based on his 2 matches will effect the success of our team much more than Brooks ever could.

People need to remember it’s a team game, not bothered who we buy and sell, as long it makes the team better, winning matches and ideally playing entertaining football. Yesterday we didn’t have Brooks but it was still entertaining and we looked good (not great tho).

 

[Bert]

The missing few thousand is due to us selling Brooks and people not being entirely convinced about our new recruits. The slackish early start to the season will have reinforced this opinion.
I bet a sizeable amount of people when they heard the news that we'd sold Brookes said "Right that's it, they can Foxtrot Oscar" "They'll never change and they'll never learn"

Some of them will have just forgotten about it and carried on regardless, but some will be sat at home digging their heels in and waiting to see what happens with the new recruits before coming back.

Meanwhile at least £100,000 of the £12 million has been lost in gate receipts so far, after only two games

You're spot on there Sherlock, it's been an absolute disaster us selling Brooks and spending a fifth of the money on Norwood.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I don’t disagree and it wasn’t sarcastic. But Bradford (who I like & admire as a club) have been marooned in L1 & L2 for years despite their attendances, because what they charge isn’t enough to sustain a proper promotion challenge.

I admire Bradford as a club too, decent fanbase with passionate proper fans.
We thought we had it bad but Bradford City must be the most under performing city club in the UK.

Very brave move by their Chairman to charge cheap season ticket prices but their budget is still small.

 

[Sheffsteel]

You're spot on there Sherlock, it's been an absolute disaster us selling Brooks and spending a fifth of the money on Norwood.

And we made a 12 million profit on a squad player who was mainly sub. Yeh sounds like terrible business.
Agree Brooks had fantastic potential, but buying potential is always cheaper than buying tried and tested players,

Also to be honest you can’t judge Brooks based on this years form.
Playing for us, he would have expectancy and be under pressure, playing for Bournemouth he’s given time to adjust.

Playing at Bournemouth he’s surrounded by better players, so might make it easier to bring out his best.

 

[Camden Blade]

Because it’s done Bradford loads of good over the last few years.....,,

Clubs charge what they do because they can and people still come. Our attendances are fantastic, we averaged less than this in 74/75 for instance, our most successful season in my lifetime of watching the Blades with Currie & Woodward on show every week. Which suggests to me that we’ve got it about right.

Agree our attendances are good. But there are a lot missing from last season but I think that will pick up. Also thought we'd take more to qpr. Sunderland away last season sold out before general sale. Back in those days 70s 80s the actual attendance and the recorded attendance were two different things. Money is a factor. Enthusiasm was high last season after promotion but I think under Wilder atmosphere and attendances have been the best they've been for years. I am certainly attending more games now.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Another scenario which could have happened if we’d have kept Brooks.

Brooks is furious and upset that he’s had his dream move to the PL more then doubling his wages blocked.
Bournemouth explain to Brooks agent that they are desperate to sign him and are even prepared to wait until the January transfer window or next season but don’t want him to be as impressive otherwise other clubs might want him.

Brooks agent has this idea for him to deliberately go through the motions/ slightly under perform this season.
Our fans have massive expectation and put all the responsibility on Brooks, he fails to deliver and gets booed by some of our fans.
Brooks can’t wait to get away from SU, he’s out of form and Bourmouth agree to take him off our hands in the JTW for a cut price 5 million.

Most people on here would then be saying it was obvious Brooks was still struggling with his glandular fever or it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it anymore after we stopped him moving and we should have sold him for 12 million when we could. When will the board ever learn? Also if we’d have kept Brooks we wouldn’t have the finances to strengthen the squad as much, so we would be weaker.

The club will have been aware of the above and no doubt Wilder will have had deep conversations with Brooks and his agent to test if he still has desire to develope at SU or has he had his head turned.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Clubs will set the prices at an optimal level, i.e. that at which the price is the most they hope to get away with without getting a serious drop-off in the gate. They will also front load the Cat A games early in the season when the weather is better and before any trends develop as to where the season is heading. Similarly, Cat B games will be reserved for Fedruary midweek games to give the gate a bit of a boost rather than everyone saying "fuck this, it's freezing outside, not paying that" and staying away en masse.

Excluding season tickets, United are generally playing about with 10k POD's and the objective will be to get most of these in by price adjustment rather than only 2k. League position is obviously the largest single factor but there's still a limit to what they can charge as the pigs are now finding out to their cost. They're talking of sub 20k for the upcoming Millwall game and have obviously had enough of the guff they've been fed.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

I don’t disagree and it wasn’t sarcastic. But Bradford (who I like & admire as a club) have been marooned in L1 & L2 for years despite their attendances, because what they charge isn’t enough to sustain a proper promotion challenge.

If that’s true then fair enough.

 

[Topplayersleave]

You're spot on there Sherlock, it's been an absolute disaster us selling Brooks and spending a fifth of the money on Norwood.

Yes, my point being that stay away fans won't know that Norwood is a good player
They will find out if the standard remains high and then they'll return

But there's no denying that a percentage of last season's regulars will only see the same lack of ambition

 

[Topplayersleave]

Never know if you’re being serious or just on the wind up.
So you reckon if we make a big signing then gates go up by 3000.
We’ve made relatively big signings In the past and the gate has hardly been effected.
We could buy back Brooks tomorrow and facts from previous years shows it would put about 500 on the gate.

We’ve just bought Oliver Norwood, which based on his 2 matches will effect the success of our team much more than Brooks ever could.

People need to remember it’s a team game, not bothered who we buy and sell, as long it makes the team better, winning matches and ideally playing entertaining football. Yesterday we didn’t have Brooks but it was still entertaining and we looked good (not great tho).

No I'm not on a wind up, I think it's fairly safe to say that David Brooks sale has influenced 10% of the support to put their match going on hold for a while until they see that 1) We have replaced him and 2) Those replacements are of sufficient quality

The level of support that people are willing to give the club varies from person to person and even the 23800 that were there yesterday can be whittled down much further if they disagree with the sale of players.

I'd say selling a young potential superstar is the number one cause of dissent amongst supporters, and the ones that don't live, breathe, eat and sleep Sheffield United will disappear when that decision is made to sell.

After all most of those that stayed away will not be season ticket holders. They'll turn up for games if their happy enough about things, but if not they've lost nothing by not turning up

 

[bromtom]

No I'm not on a wind up, I think it's fairly safe to say that David Brooks sale has influenced 10% of the support to put their match going on hold for a while until they see that 1) We have replaced him and 2) Those replacements are of sufficient quality

The level of support that people are willing to give the club varies from person to person and even the 23800 that were there yesterday can be whittled down much further if they disagree with the sale of players.

I'd say selling a young potential superstar is the number one cause of dissent amongst supporters, and the ones that don't live, breathe, eat and sleep Sheffield United will disappear when that decision is made to sell.

To be honest while Brooks going might have pissed some off, if they're as fair weather as that then us signing Woodburn from Liverpool would have probably got them right back because unless you've been living under a rock, he's one of the biggest potential talents in the English leagues.

Not saying he's as good or better, but he would have undone the a lot of the damage for the casuals.

I think the shit start and pricing is the issue. We got 24654 against Swansea and I'd say attributing the 654 to Swansea fans would be generous, so 24,000+ Blades which is same as last season.

We lost and played pretty poorly, then we got thrashed at Boro, and we barely won at QPR playing average football, positivity wasn't very high. Nobody was at Hull really and that was our best performance until yesterday, and the Norwich game should have been Cat B.

Another good performance against Bolton and we'll be back about 25 for the Birmingham or whoever is after Villa. Villa will be a big attendance anyway you'd imagine.

 

[Topplayersleave]

To be honest while Brooks going might have pissed some off, if they're as fair weather as that then us signing Woodburn from Liverpool would have probably got them right back because unless you've been living under a rock, he's one of the biggest potential talents in the English leagues.

Not saying he's as good or better, but he would have undone the a lot of the damage for the casuals.

I think the shit start and pricing is the issue. We got 24654 against Swansea and I'd say attributing the 654 to Swansea fans would be generous, so 24,000+ Blades which is same as last season.

We lost and played pretty poorly, then we got thrashed at Boro, and we barely won at QPR playing average football, positivity wasn't very high. Nobody was at Hull really and that was our best performance until yesterday.

Another good performance against Bolton and we'll be back about 25 for the Birmingham or whoever is after Villa. Villa will be a big attendance anyway you'd imagine.

All fans are the same
Our support could easily be whittled down to 12 - 15,000 hardcore if circumstances were bad enough, and these figures are no different to many other clubs like SWFC, Derby, Forest, Leeds, Birmingham, Wolves, West Brom etc

This means another 10,000 of those that were there yesterday are not hard-core fans, they could quite easily make their minds up to not go anymore unlike the 12 - 15,000 that are hopelessly devoted

 

[Bladesthorpe]

I’m not sure if clubs ever do reveal the truth about things like ticket sales. Surely the less the tax man knows, the better (from the clubs point of view)?

Yes the announcement by Gary Sinclair made at the Inter game said our season ticket sales were the highest ever in the clubs history.

 

[Sheffsteel]

All fans are the same
Our support could easily be whittled down to 12 - 15,000 hardcore if circumstances were bad enough, and these figures are no different to many other clubs like SWFC, Derby, Forest, Leeds, Birmingham, Wolves, West Brom etc

This means another 10,000 of those that were there yesterday are not hard-core fans, they could quite easily make their minds up to not go anymore unlike the 12 - 15,000 that are hopelessly devoted

In the 80’s our hardcore was 12-15,000
But now our hardcore is 18 or 19,000, as proven by recently spending 6 consecutive seasons in league 1.

Agree with the other comment, in the main Woodburn is rated a better prospect than Brooks.
Even the Liverpool fans are convinced he’ll make their first team squad.

 

[EddieColquhoun]

Our support could easily be whittled down to 12 - 15,000 hardcore if circumstances were bad enough,

Fifth season in League One, under Adkins, averaged 19,803.

 

[South Bucks]

Club could partner with travel companies like east midland and cross country trains and others and sell combined packages / reduced day tickets but chooses not to.
Saw no blades on the trains to and from London yesterday.
Remote fans are not going to spend mega bucks on day train tickets every fortnight.

 

[bromtom]

Fifth season in League One, under Adkins, averaged 19,803.

Yeah but facts get in the way of saying we have poor support.

You're looking at the 90's to get anywhere near that low an averafe attendance.

 

[Sean Thornton]

All fans are the same
Our support could easily be whittled down to 12 - 15,000 hardcore if circumstances were bad enough, and these figures are no different to many other clubs like SWFC, Derby, Forest, Leeds, Birmingham, Wolves, West Brom etc

This means another 10,000 of those that were there yesterday are not hard-core fans, they could quite easily make their minds up to not go anymore unlike the 12 - 15,000 that are hopelessly devoted

But they haven't, so you're comments are nonsense.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Football is not a TV programme.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Success on the field will have BDTBL bursting at the seems. Our support stands up very well considering we were down a rabbit hole for 6 seasons. In all that time just think of all the young un’s in the city looking for a successful team to support. The Pork never really prospered in our absence.

 

[Shirty Blade]

Sorry. I'm one of the missing thousands. On me Jollies in Spain. Bumped into a family of five other blades in the costa darada so that accounts for eight of us.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Really don’t know what all fuss is about? Look down the list of attendances in the Champs. Only the seatsmashers beat us on Saturday. They are freak club in a one club city who attract headbangers from fours corners of the UK.
So...........

 

[blackydog]

We're in Cornwall so 3 down but I did pass on our STs. Don't know yet if they we're used.

 

[I should coco]

I bet a sizeable amount of people when they heard the news that we'd sold Brookes said "Right that's it, they can Foxtrot Oscar" "They'll never change and they'll never learn"

Some even went as far as setting up forum identities to post critical overly negative tripe.