The number of younger kids at these European away games actually surprises me, as I do see quite a few – it’s not all people ‘my age’ on these Euro away trips. But it is very expensive to do these games and there aren’t thousands or hundreds and hundreds of younger fans at them.
The cost of the tickets for PL games has made a weekly or fortnightly trip to a PL game out of reach for many. Even the travel costs to home games are not so cheap anymore. Plus food & drink added.
We will not have the younger fans coming through as we did in the past when we were all getting to games each week. It is far too expensive, with my own club being one of the worst culprits, if not the worst. I fear for the future of it all – and not just Chelsea. The hyped-peak of PL footie was reached 2 or 3 years ago.
Chelsea do not need a new stadium. We won’t full it – just like most of the other European stadia that are bigger than our one. Gourlay’s obsession with getting up the capacity ladder from being 18th in Europe doesn’t mention the fact that most of the big mainland Europe stadia are occupied at 70-80% average attendance. As for my own club, last year the loyalty points required for a new season tkt went down to zero. Basically, they were on general sale. There used to be a waiting list, which whilst was nowhere near the size of some clubs’ lists there was a waiting list, all the same. Loyalty points from the previous season needed to be a certain level to take up any that became available. Obviously those who had the most points were offered them first. It came down and down last season – to zero! The exact figure of those who didn’t renew at the Bridge was between 2k and 5k, we are told. No-one knows the exact figure except the club itself. We only have 25k season tkt holders, so we can see which way it is all going at the Bridge. That clueless knt Boas hasn’t help this season, but now he’s gone there is some optimism around for moving forward with some better results – but we all know we need some new players. I wonder how many won’t renew this season?
Sorry to sound so pessimistic.