Savvy_Monkey shares his views on the evolution of the club and asks if fans are ready for a more corporate approach?
A few weeks back, I looked forward to the QPR game having seen us totally outclassed by Arsenal, and having been a City fan for nearly 30 years it`s easy to get pessimistic. I was prepared for another early-winter slip-up, and wrote an article positioning the need for realism. However, we didn`t slip up, in fact as the game progressed fortune/fate (call it what you will) favoured us and in the end we were fairly comfortable despite Neil Warnock`s post-match musings to the contrary.
Yes, there is a long way to go, but I`m confident and bold enough having seen two years of the Lambert-era evolve that this year we`ll have enough to stay up. There are 3 clubs worse than us and whatever magic Lambert has in his veins, it just works. Not beating Newcastle on Saturday was just not on the agenda.
As a fan, this is unnerving. Everything is comfortable, everything is working and times are good, right? Well maybe. There is something that is concerning, and I`m not sure the club have thought it through. If they have, then I`m not sure the supporters are ready for it.
The direction the club as a business entity is taking is what`s on my mind. I`ve written positively about the McNally tenure before and as a commercially wired individual myself I have a huge amount of respect for this ‘hardening` of the financial side of our football club. That however, is the key point, it`s our football club. Not David McNally`s, not Alan Bowkett`s, not even Delia’s, it`s ours.
The thing is, it feels like things they are a-changing. If I were running the club as a business, I`d do exactly the same things. I`d raise ticket prices, I`d pay off the debt, I`d maximise the revenue by introducing inappropriate fees for lost season tickets (£50), by growing high-end hospitality and catering.
However, are City fans ready for this? Are they prepared to be treated as units of value rather than fans? Will some fans long for the Delia softly-softly approach of years gone by? Delia has said before that football is run almost as a charity for fans. Well not any more it isn`t. Bowkett stated at the AGM that he wanted us to be externally debt free by the end of next season. To achieve this, the primary focus of those in command is going to have to be fiscal not friendly, greedy not generous. Will continued success on the pitch gloss over this? Maybe.
For what seems like eternity, the price of a casual ticket has been between £20 and £40. The price of a casual ticket in the Jarrold Stand for the Newcastle game was £55. £55. Never has the direction that the club is being taken been so clear. If we want to be successful and sustainable long-term, the club has to make choices and raising ticket prices when the ground could be sold out twice over isn`t a choice it`s common sense. As is growing match day revenue per head, and income from fees. Everything about the club will have to be focussed on making as much money as possible.
The media blackout also adds weight to this argument. The club see players and staff as their assets and woe betide anyone who asks for access through unofficial lines. Neil Doncaster would never have fallen out with Look East, but if we want success then perhaps we need a McNally. Which means that for all the good football and success, we`re all likely to need to make sacrifices as every last penny is squeezed from us.
I admire the current regime, but no one wants Carrow Road to become elitist, corporate and out of reach of everyday fans. Let`s hope those with yellow and green blood that pay the wages and enormous (nevertheless deserved) bonuses of those at the helm are ready for the new order. If we keep winning, they probably will be.
OTBC.
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