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To say pricing is a contentious issue with Sheffield Wednesday fans would be an understatement. The pricing of everything from single match tickets, to season tickets to the replica shirts has created a divide amongst the fans which has stirred passions on both sides of that divide.
Some fans claim that higher prices are a necessary evil to allow us to compete at the top of the division, where other fans argue we are a working class people who are being priced out of the club we love. There is no clear right and wrong here. Money in football is crazy now, and it does leave a slightly bitter taste when you see just how much some players earn. I have seen payslips for players playing in the English Football League and even “average” players command very respectable salaries. The focus of this blog is not to bemoan wages in football though. I am looking at investment; primarily investment at Sheffield Wednesday. Now before you assume that this is just another article about us needing extra investment into the club, I would like to assure you it is not. This, instead, is an article about how the club can invest in the future of Sheffield Wednesday. It is also going to argue how higher pricing now is a dangerous strategy for long-term growth and is very much a short-term plan aimed, and dependent, on promotion. 
We can debate all day long about what a football club is. What is Sheffield Wednesday? Is it the stadium? Players? Chairman? Or is it the fans? To an extent, it is all of these things, but as the stadium, players and chairman all change, the fans are the one constant. It is the fans that carry the soul and history of the club through time, from one generation to another. Supporting a football club means you are part of a club; you have a shared identity with thousands of other people and that single shared identity might be the only thing you have in common.
Over the last twenty, thirty years or so since football became increasingly available on television I would argue that kids now are more likely to be attracted to the high profile Premier League or European leagues, than their local club which might be a second or even third tier club. For a club like ours, we have had little to cheer over the past two decades. We have had two promotions from League One, but those were mostly with relief that our time in that division was over. It was a case of getting back on track rather than over-achieving. In the grand scheme of things, most sensible football fans would agree that League One is not where Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Sunderland or Manchester City should be. We’ve all been there in the past couple of decades though. This is where the difference between the club and the team is important. Your team can be League One quality at the same time your club is Premier League quality, but I digress.
With football becoming increasingly available, kids now can watch teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Juventus on a weekly basis. They can go into a shop in the city centre and buy a replica kit for those clubs. In Sheffield, this past week, I saw two kids wearing Wednesday shirts near my Gran’s house. I saw a kid in a Blades shirt, and I’m waiting to hear back from social services about that, and I saw two kids, days apart, in full Barcelona kits. In 2018 it is often easier to buy a Barcelona shirt than a local club’s shirt in the city centre or in the shopping malls.
My fear is that over time, we will lose the passionate fans as generations come and go. With the current pricing at Hillsborough, my worry is that many parents can no longer afford to take their kids to the game. When I started going to the match with my Dad in 1990, it cost £7.50 between us; £5 adult and £2.50 for me. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, £5 in 1990 is the equivalent of £10.80 today. However, a standard ticket on the Kop for our next home match is £36 for an adult. My £2.50 ticket would be the equivalent of £5.40 now, but a child of my (then) age would have to pay £10 now. If it is no longer possible to take kids to the game on a semi-regular basis, then it is much harder to build the connection between the club and the young supporter. Is it any wonder that a young kid in Sheffield feels more connected to Manchester City, who he may watch on television fifteen times or more a season, than Sheffield Wednesday who he might see once or twice? I wonder how much money we actually make from shirt sales and other merchandise. It seems that we are approaching it from the perspective of putting the price way up and hoping that the hard-core fans will still buy it. This will work to a degree, but it’s rather short-sighted in my opinion. When someone wears a Sheffield Wednesday shirt, they are not just declaring their support for the club, they are advertising the brand and the club. The fan is paying the club to advertise on their behalf. So rather than creating a product (shirt) that only the wealthy can buy, why are we not approaching this from the angle of getting as many shirts sold as possible? 
Just two examples from message boards about how pricing is alienating the next generation.
In retail there is a term; loss-leader. This is a product which is sold at a loss to attract customers to the store. For example, a supermarket may sell a popular item like alcohol at a loss to entice customers to do their weekly shop at that store. I’m not suggesting we sell shirts at a loss, but that we maybe rethink the pricing so that rather than shirts being a luxury purchase they are a standard purchase. Maybe even offer a free junior shirt with each adult shirt sold. The advantage here is that you are helping to promote the Sheffield Wednesday brand and cementing our identity with the next generation of fans.
Is a young football fan more or less likely to feel a connection with their local club if they have the current shirt? I’m enough of a realist to know we are not likely to see a drastic change in match ticket pricing. I would hope we could see a more considered approach to pricing of merchandise though. My point is that we should not view merchandise sales as a way to get money into the club now. We should also see it as an investment, where the club potentially loses money (or takes a hit on how much they make) to invest in creating a new generation of fans in the long-term. The major issue with this approach is that many owners and chairman are not going to be around for longer than just a few years, and as such are not too concerned with investing for the long-term good of the club they own. In general, I think you see three types of owners in football. There is the wealthy fan who buys their club and pumps money into it. There is the mega-rich owner who buys a club to play with. The final type of owner is the one who wants to buy and then sell for a profit. There is nothing wrong with any of these approaches, but the problem with the last type of owner is that their investment tends to be more short-term; buy players, get promoted and then sell for a profit.
The availability of football on television, and the insane prices charged to attend matches now, means that we are in real danger of alienating the next generation of fans. We are in an age where top quality football can be watched online for little or no cost. Those who read my blog regularly will know I follow a Romanian Second Division club, CS Sportul Snagov. I can watch their games back on Facebook, or through online betting sites I have an account with. If I want, I can watch games from over a dozen leagues for free through these accounts.
Our current pricing strategy is designed to get people to buy a season ticket. It has worked to a degree with more people in recent years buying season tickets. I wonder how much of that increase in the number of season ticket holders was down to pricing and how much was down to our relative success since Mr Chansiri bought the club. We were told to pay more for top quality football. The first season under Carlos saw good football and a play-off final. The next season saw decent football, for the most part, and a play-off semi-final. Then last season we saw abysmal football and a brief flirtation with a relegation scrap. The prices did not come down though. Our average attendance dropped by over a thousand from 2016/2017 to 2017/2018. I’ve seen posts on social media where long-time fans of the club are saying they are done with attending games now. Some fans will respond by calling these dejected fans “flouncers” or “part-time fans” or simply claiming they are not “real fans”. The thing is, everyone has a breaking point. We have had worse times than this, obviously. Sometimes it can be the small things that push someone past breaking point. If we have a pricing structure that is turning long-time fans away and preventing new fans from being created, then this is not good for the long-term health of the club. It’s admirable that there are fans out there that will pay any price to see Sheffield Wednesday play, but the number of those fans is reducing. You don’t know your own breaking point until you reach it. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
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It’s that time of the year again, when conversation turns to the apparent devaluation of the Football League Cup. It seems as though this discussion has been coming up this time of year for over a decade now. I remember when Arsenal made a big deal of playing their younger players in the League Cup and how some people saw that as disrespectful. I’m rather ambivalent about the League Cup. On one hand, I would like to see it treated with a bit more respect. On the other hand, I can understand why most football clubs treat it as an afterthought.
In the modern game, I think there are too many games played. I’m not going to ramble on at length about how back in the day players would play three times a week on muddy fields kicking a ball that weighed three stone. The fact is, the game has evolved and the athleticism involved now means it is difficult for players to perform at their peak for forty, sometimes fifty-plus games a season. Squad rotation is a major part of football now and the League Cup is seen as the poor relation compared to the F.A. Cup and the normal league campaign. So, do the major clubs actually treat the League Cup as an afterthought? Since Sheffield Wednesday beat Manchester United in 1991, there have been twenty-seven League Cup finals. Since 1991, by my count, there have been twelve different winners. Manchester United (five) Chelsea (four) Liverpool (four) Manchester City (three) Spurs (two) Leicester (two) Aston Villa (two) Arsenal (once) Blackburn (once) Middlesbrough (once) Swansea (once) Birmingham (once) 
Assuming I have my Sheffield Wednesday knowledge up to date, we are the last club to win the League Cup from outside the top division, in 1991. So for all the talk of the competition being “devalued”, it has been won by a top flight team every season for almost three decades. Out of the previous twenty-seven finals, nineteen have been won by those clubs typically expected to challenge for the top-four Premier League places; Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs.
Is it just a case of all clubs devaluing the League Cup and those clubs with the most strength in depth having more success? Possibly. It is sad to see the cup thought of in such a way. The question is how to make the cup more attractive; how to make it more exciting. I have a few ideas, some of which are pure fantasy, and possibly border on the absurd. Others, I think, are more grounded in reality and may help shake things up in a positive way. Make it purely a League Cup Make the League Cup a competition for clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two only. The early rounds of the Cup would be regionalised and played before the normal League season starts. This would also replace the EFL Trophy. Pros The Premier League clubs would no longer have to compete, meaning the top-six clubs would not be distracted from fighting for the top four places and the other fourteen clubs can continue to fight to avoid relegation. With only one domestic Cup competition open to these clubs, the F.A. Cup may regain some of its’ prestige as well. Cons The League Cup would no longer be available as a consolation prize to Premier League Clubs who fail to win the Premier League or the F.A. Cup. Football League clubs will no longer get the chance to be drawn against a Premier League team’s reserves in the early rounds of the League Cup. There is also the question of the prize. It’s no longer sufficient for clubs to win a competition just for the prestige. There has to be some tangible reward. I doubt that the powers-that-be would sign off giving a European place to the winners of a Cup that only second-tier clubs can win. A substantial cash prize would be an idea, but the money has to come from somewhere and no major sponsor would throw money at a competition that the Manchester clubs or Chelsea, Spurs or Liverpool are not entering. Another, out of the box, idea would be to give the winners of the League Cup a points bonus in the division they are in for that season. I’m not in favour of this idea as it would tinker with the League format too much. Although there would be some novelty and amusement in seeing the League Cup winners clinch the last play-off spot due to a points bonus for winning the Cup. Overall, without the star power of the Premier League or the tangible reward of a European place the League Cup does not have much appeal when compared with the match-to-match slog of the regular League. Idea Rating: Poor 
Create a joint Anglo-Scottish League Cup
At present the only way English and Scottish clubs can meet is in Europe. If a joint League Cup was created it would be interesting and novel. The new Anglo-Scottish Cup would have to be regionalised at first in the early rounds. With absolutely no disrespect intended, no one wants to see Yeovil travel to Elgin midweek for a Cup game. However, as the rounds progress we could see fixtures such as Hibs v Preston, Hearts v Sheffield Wednesday, Rangers v Spurs, Celtic v Manchester City. All fixtures that are fresh, new and exciting for the fans of those clubs. Pros The prestige of winning a Cup that is open to both England and Scotland would be great for a club’s reputation. If the format was correctly thought out, with early rounds being regionalised, it would spur teams on to get to the later rounds when the two countries get drawn against each other. There would likely be huge sponsorship interest which would create a large pot of money. This could be filtered down through the leagues. In my, somewhat hopeful world, the bigger clubs would agree to share the money much more generously with the lower league clubs in Scotland and England. Cons Logistically, this could be problematic but that is an issue that can be worked through. This would replace the Scottish League Cup and English League Cup. The question remains over what happens to the “spare” European qualification place. Although this would be a great idea for many clubs, I can see why some clubs would rather not do it. As things stand, Celtic have a virtual monopoly on Scottish football. If this went ahead, they are much less likely to win the League Cup. However, if marketed right it could be a huge money spinner for them to host Manchester United, for example, at home in the later stages of a domestic knock-out competition. Overall, I think this idea could gather momentum if the Scottish and English powers-that-be were agreeable. Idea Rating: Good, but unlikely to happen. Formalise the Youth Team/Squad Rotation element As many clubs change their starting line-up for the early rounds of the League Cup, formalise the arrangement and enforce it. Make it a requirement that any player picked for the League Cup cannot play in the League fixture immediately before or after the League Cup match. Also, an age cap could be brought in whereby the average age of the match day squad has to be below a certain threshold (but this might be a step too far, and too complex to enforce). Pros Youth and fringe players have a lifeline to get some first team football and maybe put themselves in the shop window for future League fixtures or transfers. Fans would get to see players they don’t normally see. Matches would be unpredictable. Cons Major issues with accusations of match fixing. Let’s say that Sheffield Wednesday are in the semi-final of the League Cup against Arsenal. The match before the Arsenal game we play Reading who are battling relegation. We drop Forestieri, Bannan and Reach for the Reading game and get beat. We play Arsenal and lose. Then we can’t play those three players when we play Aston Villa who need a win to overtake Sheffield United in the play-offs. We travel to Villa and lose. The whole League picture could change if clubs start dropping star players to make them available for the later stages of the League Cup. Making the Cup a Youth/Fringe player only competition just formalises the status as a second-rate competition. Sponsors would be difficult to attract and once the novelty wore off, and it would pretty quickly, the competition would probably end up being cancelled or rebooted in some other format. Overall, a very poor idea. Idea Rating: Terrible
Create a League Cup Spectacle
Pre-season, all clubs in the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two are placed in a draw in to twenty-three groups of four. Twenty groups will have one Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two side. Three groups will have a mix of the twelve remaining Championship, League One and Two clubs. The clubs in each group play each other once in typical group format. This would be done Friday, Monday and Thursday prior to the start of the season. The top club from each group would progress as would the nine best second place clubs. Later in the season, when there is another break in the League season, the remaining thirty-two clubs would play the round of thirty-two on a Friday, the round of sixteen on the Monday and the quarter-finals on the Thursday. The semi-finals and final would be played as normal in the later stages of the season. Pros It’s always exciting to see football played in an intense format where the matches come thick and fast. This format would ensure that the lower league clubs get a chance to play the big clubs each season. It would create some interesting match ups and create a summer competition before the “proper” season starts. The competition could even be done in such a way so that the twenty Premier League sides and the three relegated sides in the Championship could act as “hosts” for the competition with games being played exclusively at their ground. Cons Some clubs would not take kindly to losing the chance for money-spinning pre-season games in Asia and the US. This would be a logistical nightmare and create a real headache for the fixture planners. It would not reduce the number of games and could result in the competition becoming even more of an irrelevance. It would reduce the chances of a League One or Two club getting a favourable Cup run through fortunate draws. Overall, too much of a head ache to be realistic. Idea Rating: Pretty damn poor. Do you have any suggestions for improving the League Cup? Let me know in the comments. If you enjoy reading Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Also, if you would like to contribute to Now We Live please refer to our submissions page.
A Sheffield-Snagov double this weekend, with The Owls earning a scrappy win against Ipswich and Snagov taking their third win in the opening four games to go top of the Liga II table. Overall, a good weekend for Sheffield football with the red and white third of Sheffield getting a good win at Bolton.
It’s difficult to judge where Sheffield Wednesday are at the moment. We’ve had some really poor performances but since Chansiri bought the club this is our best start to a season after five league games. With all the doom and gloom around the club, we would do well to remember this and give Jos Luhukay some credit. Since coming to the club he has worked with a squad of unfit and injured players and guided them to some very good results. As I mentioned in a previous blog, in our last ten games of last season we had automatic promotion form. This season, Luhukay is blending youth with experience and still getting a respectable points haul, despite a couple of poor individual results.
Looking ahead to September, I think this month will really set the tone for the season. We will know what our squad will be until the January transfer window and we have a run of fixtures against clubs with different objectives for the reason. This will give us a more accurate idea of what our, realistic, expectations should be.
SWFC September Fixtures 01/09/2018 Reading (away) 15/09/2018 Stoke (home) 19/09/2018 Forest (away) 22/09/2018 Villa (away) 28/09/2018 Leeds (home – on a Friday night, in a spectacularly stupid decision) It’s going to be a tough run-in and I can’t help but think that Reading is a vital game, even this early in the season. With Reading already looking like they will be fighting relegation, we need to put them to the sword. If our season takes and turn for the worse and we find ourselves battling Reading for survival, three points taken from them now could be huge by the time April and May come around. Stoke are a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment. Forest and Leeds are going to be very tough and I’d snatch your hands off for two points from those games now. As for Villa, I personally think we’ll be up for that game following the disgusting refereeing performance at Hillsborough last season. Referees have a tough job to do but having watched hundreds of games at Hillsborough since my first match in 1990 I have not seen anything quite like the Villa match last season. As an absolute minimum we need to be taking five points from those five games to keep our heads just above the waters of relegation. Apparently our aim is promotion this season. Anything less than nine points and that’s a non-starter, in my opinion (which is that promotion is not going to happen without several players joining the club). We still need pace. We still need a top central defender. We still need a midfield monster. We’ve needed these players since Wembley a few years ago.
CS Sportul Snagov – September Preview
On the 1st of September Snagov travel to Brăila to play ACS Dacia Unirea Brăila, who are yet to win this season. I’ve not travelled to that side of Romania on any of my visits, but I hear it’s a nice part of the country. The following week Snagov host Ripensia Timişoara which is a place where several family friends come from or still live. Timişoara is a place I want to visit, as well as Cluj and Craiova. A friend of mine is a big Universitatea Craiova fan and was delighted that they won the Romanian Cup last season. Their new stadium is a thing of beauty as well. 
On the 15th September Snagov then make the long trip to Timişoara to play ACS Poli Timişoara, before finishing the month against UTA Arad at home and then Academica Clinceni away.
The EFL Championship It’s already starting to look like a two-horse race for top spot with Leeds and Middlesbrough charging ahead. Although I’m happy to give Jos Luhukay time to make his mark with The Owls, it’s extremely frustrating that we missed the boat with Tony Pulis. I can’t help but wonder how we would have fared last season had we parted company with Carlos earlier in the season and brought Pulis in. His football might not be pretty but it’s pretty damn effective. I can’t see Bolton fighting for promotion this season and I fully expect Villa to remain roughly where they are; top-six. I think there will be a lot of teams battling for top-six this season. I can see the top half of the table staying fairly close for most of the season with those teams able to string two or three wins together on the spin jumping from mid-table to the play-offs. If we can stay in contention until January, then we might see some more ambition and risk taking in terms of transfers to help push us over the line. I’m amazed at the start Sheffield United have had, and Derby for that matter. I don’t think Sheffield United have the quality or stamina to maintain a play-off push, and I expect they will drop off over the coming weeks. Derby are a side that always seem to threaten a good season and then go on to disappoint. Frank Lampard will have drawn a lot of attention to the club, but should they disappoint again it will simply highlight that disappointment even more. At the bottom of the table, I’m not too surprised to see Reading, QPR, Birmingham or Hull in the lower third. Ipswich is a bit surprising and I think they will pull away over the next few weeks. I also think Preston will have enough to not get dragged into a serious relegation battle. There is something thoroughly unlikeable about Birmingham and I would like to see them relegated. I’ve had some bad experiences with Birmingham fans over the years and the way they appointed Zola was absurd. As I’m writing this, Rotherham are on the verge of getting a win against Millwall. Although Rotherham are having a good start relatively speaking, I think it will be a season of struggle for The Millers. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
I don’t think anyone, other than the most optimistic supporter, thought we would win against Millwall in midweek. I must admit that once I saw the starting line up, I was sure we would get hammered. It was a very happy surprise to see us win and a great feeling to see us win with a team with several academy players starting. There was also the positive news that Lucas Joao has signed a contract extension. I have been critical of Joao in the past but last season he seemed to grow as a player and his contribution, alongside Nuhiu was vital in steering us clear of a relegation scrap.
Today we play Ipswich who are managed by Paul Hurst, who I believe supports The Owls and will want to get a win against us. Ipswich are a team I always feel uneasy about us playing as they tend to be a team we don’t do well against. Last season we drew at Ipswich and lost at home. The season before we lost at home and earned a win away, and the season prior to that we lost away and drew at home. In the last six meetings we have picked up five points. It’s not a great return against a team that, on paper, are no better than an average Championship side. I hope that we approach today with the same mix of youth and experience. I am excited at seeing how Matt Penney fares with a run in the first team. His left foot seems to create some wonder goals; check out the YouTube video below:
Following the Brentford defeat, there was some talk of Bannan being unhappy with our manager and I was worried that we might not see the best of Barry Bannan but he produced a fantastic goal against Millwall midweek that must surely be a contender for an award. It’s good to see Bannan get a goal as I feel it’s a part of his game that could improve and as a club we really need our midfielders to contribute more goals. Last season, our highest scoring midfielder (Adam Reach) managed four league goals.
CS Sportul Snagov continue their Liga II campaign tomorrow morning when they entertain SSC Farul Constanta. A win tomorrow could see Snagov go top of the division. I will be keeping a close eye on this game as I’ve started to really feel a connection to the club, and it is something that SWFC could really learn from. I follow both clubs on Facebook, but see more updates from the small Romanian club than I do from The Owls. These updates are not anything ground breaking but just brief updates and messages from the players and backroom staff urging fans to come and attend the game. Not every message from the club needs to be an essay or lecture, but just a simple message reminding people that the club exists and an appeal from player to fan could be an effective way of encouraging fans to attend games.
Put it this way, if you were a SWFC fan and you were on the fence about going to day and you were scrolling through Facebook and you see a post that grabs your attention. It’s a photo of, let’s say, Adam Reach in his tracksuit. He’s stood in the centre circle at an empty Hillsborough and accompanying the picture is a simple message; something along the lines of “When this ground is full, there’s no better place to play. It gives us all that extra fire to play well. Come and be a part of it.” That would be a simple job requiring just a few minutes of time from the SWFC social media team and even if it encourages just a handful of fans to attend, then that’s a win. There’s been matches I’ve been hesitant to go to, but when I’ve seen someone post a video of a good SWFC win or goal it’s made me stand up and go to Hillsborough. Surely, I can’t be alone in this.
I’m hoping that we see some players come into the club in the next few days as I think the squad desperately needs some new ideas and fresh energy. I think the academy players have helped somewhat with this, but the atmosphere at Hillsborough is balanced on a knife edge at the moment. All it would take is a bad spell of football and I fear the atmosphere could turn toxic. We need players who can lead both on and off the pitch. We need strong personalities who can guide our younger players through, what could be, a very difficult season. On a more practical note, we need pace in the team. It’s absurd that we’ve had three seasons to add pace and a midfield beast to the team and have failed to do so. It may be that we still need to let players leave before we can bring anyone in, despite the embargo being lifted.
My prediction today is for a high scoring win for the Owls. I’m thinking maybe 3-2 or 3-1. Maybe this is just fickle optimism following our win midweek, and maybe I’m thinking with my heart instead of my head. Maybe my prediction is based more in hope than logic, but football is an emotional sport and that’s what makes it so addictive. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
23,416 was the declared attendance for the match against Hull but that is pretty disappointing for the first home game of the season against fairly local opposition. Apparently there was a boycott from the Hull fans who balked at paying £39 for a ticket. I think the cheapest ticket for an adult SWFC fan was also £39 for today, assuming you didn’t pay the £50/£90 for one of the membership packages. 23,416. This is over 2,000 less than last season when our first home match was against London opposition, and roughly 2,000 less than when we played against Hull at home last season. The season before last, our opening home game was on Sky and still brought in over 30,000 fans. Something is wrong here.
The prices are horrendous. Sheffield is a big city but hardly boasts the same economy as London, Manchester, Liverpool or even Leeds (see the image taken from Wikipedia below). Despite this, our ticket prices are incredibly high. The average salary in Sheffield is, according to some quick google-fu, around £22,500. The average salary in London is roughly £35,000. 
So, the cheapest ticket for an adult against Hull was £39 for a non-member. I just checked out Q.P.R. who our cross city rivals beat today (a good win, it pains me to say), and what their prices are for the Wigan match at Loftus Road on Saturday 25th August. I checked two different stands and for an adult the ticket is £33. Now, I know I could spend ages looking at the different pricing categories and whatnot, but this is just a quick exercise that I’m completing as I type.
The Q.P.R. tickets are roughly 15% cheaper than ours despite income in Sheffield coming in at roughly 64% of that in London. It does not make any sort of sense. I’ve heard time and time again that the golden rule of retail is to know your customer. Football is not the same as retail, but when your club states openly that if you want to see top football you have to pay top prices, then it is the club that brings the value-for-money discussion out in to the open. 
Pay on the gate prices for Sheffield Wednesday's Kop for the match against Hull.
I haven’t renewed my season ticket for this season which is a shame. I felt a little anxious this afternoon with not going to the game. I liked my Saturday afternoon routine, even though I was going to the match on my own with my previous match buddies all having stopped over the years. I would grab a coffee and walk to Hillsborough listening to a podcast or audiobook. I’d sit with the guys around me and exchange a few words here and there and then post-match walk back home listening to Praise or Grumble. It was the time I had to myself, because I prefer my own company at times. The football was almost secondary in some respects.
It’s not just myself that has not renewed. Several people I work with have also not renewed and there are several posters from Owlstalk who have also not renewed. I was in the office last week and sat with a guy who also had a season ticket last season and did not renew. I asked if he was going this weekend and he just gave a short laugh and replied “not at those prices”. That’s the thing, in a city like Sheffield the pay-on-the-gate prices are going to ruin this club. Let’s assume for a moment that the average attendance this season falls by 2,000 per match and those are all POTG fans. Assuming the ratio is one adult to one child (probably nowhere near that, but let’s be conservative) then we will be losing £1,127,000 in gate receipts over the season, not to mention the extra revenue for match programmes and Megastore sales.
There is another reason why the POTG prices are a disgrace. It’s about the investment in the future fans and getting them into the club. To use a retail term, tickets for kids should be “loss-leaders”. I would suggest something radical here, if an adult ticket is £39 and an Under 11 ticket is £10, why not offer a dual ticket for an adult and Under 11 for £39. Encourage people to bring their kids. There are many people who work lots of Saturdays and cannot justify a season ticket, nor can they justify a membership as you have to attend a lot of games for it to be worth it. There will be a substantial number of parents in Sheffield with kids who want to go to the match. These parents may get the opportunity to take their kids to only a handful of games a season. But when they look at the prices, it becomes a non-starter. Two adults and two children for tickets and the associated transport, food and drink costs comes to well over a £100. My first game was in 1990. On the Kop it cost £5 for my Uncle and £2.50 for me, if I remember correctly. £5 to £39; a 680% increase.
In other football news, CS Sportul Snagov earned a 2-0 home win in their first game back at Snagov. For a few months the club had been forced to play their fixtures away from their home stadium due to the pitch being replaced. This makes a win and a draw from their first two fixtures. Next week Snagov make the short trip to the nation’s capital to play Daco-Getica București, formerly known as Juventus București. However, in the last year they were forced to change name under pressure from the Italian giants of the same name. This will be a tough match for Snagov as DG București were relegated from Liga 1 last season. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
So it seems to be promotion or bust, according to reports coming out of the forum held by the club last night. The club confirmed what has been suspected by a number of fans over the last few months and years; that spending large sums of money on average players will lead to a breach of Profit and Sustainability rules brought in by the EFL.
Since the 2016/2017 season (when our spending really seemed to take off) we have had a lot of players come into the club. Our success rate with those transfers has been almost completely terrible. I’ve used the following website to look at our transfers in since 2016/2017, as I don’t pretend to have a perfect memory. Any errors in these records are due to the website I’m using; https://www.transfermarkt.com/sheffield-wednesday/transfers/verein/1035/plus/0?saison_id=2016&pos=&detailpos=&w_s= 2016/2017 Incoming Transfers Urby Emanuelson - Transfer Will Buckley - Loan Jordan Rhodes – Loan leading to full transfer Callum McManaman - Loan David Jones - Transfer Daniel Pudil – Transfer Jordan Thorniley – Transfer Vincent Sasso – Transfer Jake Kean – Transfer Steven Fletcher – Transfer Sam Winnall – Transfer Morgan Fox – Transfer Almen Abdi – Transfer Adam Reach – Transfer 2017/2018 Incoming Transfers Jacob Butterfield – Loan Frederico Venancio – Loan George Boyd – Transfer Joey Pelupessy – Transfer Joost van Aken – Transfer
How many of these players were an improvement on what came before? How many of these players contributed in a meaningful way to the team or squad?
Prior to 2016/2017 we also had the following failed transfers on our books: Claude Dielna Modou Sougou Filipe Melo Lewis McGugan Sergiu Bus Darryl Lachman Marco Matias There are some transfers on this list that were worth the gamble, when viewed in isolation. Sam Winnall seemed a bargain. George Boyd seemed a useful addition having played week in, week out in the Premier League. Then there are some that, to put it politely, raise an eyebrow. Who thought it would be better to spend a rumoured £3M on Joost van Aken, when the known and dependable Vincent Sasso was available for free? Why did we sign two proven wingers on loan, Buckley and McManaman, and then hardly play them? Why did we break the club record to sign Jordan Rhodes at a time when we had strength in depth in attack, and were crying out for a box-to-box midfield monster?
I don’t claim to know what is going on behind the scenes at Hillsborough, and much of what I write comes from observation and deduction. I don’t think the Jordan Rhodes transfer killed the club, despite what some people suggest. Rather, I think it was many of the transfers that came before, with players such as Urby Emanuelson, Almen Abdi and Morgan Fox being signed and then contributing little or nothing. Carrying players who seemed to be continuously injured or just “unavailable” like McGugan, Matias and Melo also contributed. Then there were the loan signings that added nothing of value like Buckley and McManaman.
At the start of this blog I talk about how our spending seemingly took off in 2016/2017, and that subsequent transfers did not really seem to add much or improve the squad. Let’s look at some of the incoming transfers from the season before; 2015/2016 Incoming Transfers (selected ones only) Gary Hooper Fernando Forestieri Jack Hunt Barry Bannan Ross Wallace Lucas Joao And the season before; 2014/2015 Incoming Transfers (selected ones only) Sam Hutchinson Keiren Westwood Tom Lees If someone was to put together our strongest starting line-up, it would probably be a variation of; Westwood Palmer Lees Hutchinson Pudil Reach Bannan Lee Forestieri Hooper Nuhiu How many of these players arrived as a result of the big spending from 2016 onward? It is unforgivable that we have spent so much money and not improved the line-up. We are still half a team away from being a play-off contender. No, the Jordan Rhodes transfer is not to blame. Signing after signing that weakened the squad instead of strengthening is to blame.
I’m not anti-Chansiri. I think he’s approached the task of getting us promoted with enthusiasm and good intentions. It is the execution that is lacking. There also seems to be a cultural divide with Mr Chansiri not understanding his fan base. We are a club starved of success with fans living off past glories. We are, for the most part, a self-deprecating bunch who laugh and joke through adversity. But we are, for the most part, a working class group of fans from a northern and fairly unfashionable city. It sticks in the craw when we are expected to pay more for tickets than many clubs in the nation’s capital. It also frustrates when we are told to pay top dollar if we want to see success on the pitch; the visit to Wembley was nice but can hardly be considered “success”.
So far, the Chansiri era has been a failure which was almost a huge success but there is often a fine line between ecstasy and despair when gambling and that appears to be what we have done. With the club now under an embargo there seems to be no back up plan. The fans are still expected to pay more for season tickets, match tickets, membership, replica shirts and now even free radio commentary has been taken away. All this whilst the performance on the pitch declines and our squad loses quality and depth. I read on one of the Sheffield Wednesday message boards that the club needs to have a £20M turnaround this season to avoid further sanction. I’m not sure how accurate this figure is, but it does not seem too unrealistic given the spending we have seen in recent seasons. Fortunately, a £20M saving should not be that difficult to achieve but it will involve some fairly drastic changes in approach.
My Plan
It might be unpopular, but I would sell Forestieri and Westwood. In the current market, a player like Forestieri should bring in at least £10M. What I don’t know is whether we have a sell-on clause with Watford. Westwood would probably not bring in that much in way of a fee, maybe £2M at a push, but his wages must be sizable. I would hazard a guess that between two players, the combined wage must not be far off £40K per week. Accounting for hard negotiating from the buying clubs due to our financial plight, we can probably expect to net maybe £8M from those two players. The saving in wages is another £2M. So, we’re halfway there already. The next step is to try and get some of the fringe players off the books. If Matias can be shipped out for the duration of his contract on loan, even if we have to pay half his wages then we should do it. He contributes nothing. I would rather we pay half his wages than all of them, even if he is unavailable for us. I don’t know how much he is on, but it’s probably a decent wedge. Anything saved here is a bonus. Another consideration is the F.A. Cup and League Cup. I would treat this with the utmost respect and importance. A decent run in both cups could bring in some much needed cash. Unless we are in the midst of a huge relegation battle, I would play the strongest side we have in the cup games and advance as far as possible, rather than playing a second string side that is defeated by lower league opposition looking for a scalp. With the lottery of the cup draw, there are no guarantees here but we can at least move the odds of a good cup run slightly in our favour. The next part of the plan involves going through the records of sale for any recent player sales. If we have sell-on clauses that we can cash-in on, then this may be the time to do it. I am not sure how plausible the reverse is, but we can always ask clubs we have bought players from if they would be willing to renegotiate terms on transfers. For example, if we still have £4M to pay over two years, would they accept £4.1M spread over three years? I’m not sure if the transfers of Jack Hunt and Jordan Rhodes factor in to the £20M swing needed, but if they do then we would not be that far away at all from meeting that saving. I would then appoint an advisor to work alongside Mr Chansiri. This would be someone from the area, who understands the area. Someone who knows the club and the fans. Someone who can have a quiet word and say; “say it like this, instead of like that”. Often with Mr Chansiri my issue is not with the act but with the execution. Finally, just tell us in plain words what the situation is. Fans of this club will rally when needed if they are made to feel valued. If they are given the impression they are not wanted or valued, then it does not affect just them but their friends and family too. If an elderly fan who attended hundreds of matches, before Mr Chansiri could even point out Sheffield on a map, is now told he cannot listen to our games on the radio because we have to think about the majority of fans, who does that fan’s children and grandchildren perceive this club? It’s a major faux pas and shames the club. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
If there was ever a time when Sheffield Wednesday needed a good start it was today. As I’ve previously posted there are a number of off the field issues causing embarrassment and frustration amongst the fans at the moment. A win, or at least a positive performance today, could have gone some way to relieving some of that ill feeling.
The game ended up following that old predictable format with Wednesday. The only word that comes to mind is apathy. There just seems to be a resigned, defeated and apathetic atmosphere around the club. There’s no fight, passion or cutting edge. I don’t get to many away games due to work. I trawl through the message boards and forums. I read posts from people whose judgement I trust. In the context of the match stats from today it does not look good. 
One of the local journalists reported today that Wednesday are under some sort of embargo which he expects to be announced soon. It’s hard to see where the positives are going to come from at the moment. The transfer window closes on August 9th and with Keiren Westwood being left out of the squad it looks all but certain he will be moving on.
There is a real possibility that the atmosphere around the club will turn toxic very quickly if our fortunes do not improve. There are unconfirmed reports on the message boards of fighting amongst Wednesday fans at Wigan today. Like I say, these are unconfirmed by official sources but have been reported by multiple posters on the boards. I hope it’s not true, but my suspicion is there probably was some trouble. It’s a sad state of affairs when adults drink to excess and then start fighting at a football match. I would be shocked if alcohol was not involved in some way.
I’ve just spotted a link to the goals from today. At least our goals were well taken. Nuhiu showed a lot of persistence to score his goal and Forestieri’s was a good finish as well. Just a shame that all three of our goals were awfully defended. At least Jordan Rhodes didn’t score for Norwich. I think it would have broken the internet in Sheffield.
Next week we play Hull at home. This is the first season in a while where I have not renewed my season ticket. In the last couple of years I have missed around a quarter of our games due to work and holidays, but I always took the hit because I believed. The thing is, when I could not go I literally could not give my ticket away for free for those games. This season, I figured I would attend games on a pay-on-the-gate fan. I’ve just checked the prices for next week; minimum £39 as a non-member. That is simply not going to happen.
Let’s put it in context to how I have spent my Saturday evening; Peddler Market (free entry) with my girlfriend. Sampled several items of street food (£30 between the two of us). Then we went to watch Ant-Man and The Wasp at The Light. I have a membership there (£16 per month) and my girlfriend had a discount code so she paid £6. Snacks and drinks were £4. A full evening for two people came to about the same as a match day ticket for Sheffield Wednesday. In other footballing news, Sportul Snagov (my second team) got their season underway in the Romanian Liga 2 as they travelled to Petrolul Ploiești. Earning a respectable draw they play CS Mioveni next week in their first home game of the campaign. I’m looking forward to watching Snagov play in person next time I am there. It will be refreshing to watch a game of football without the baggage that comes with supporting Sheffield Wednesday at the moment. Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
I really enjoyed this summer’s football. I was not looking forward to the World Cup and feared another humiliation for England. There was almost no expectation of success for us and in the end I believe that helped us progress as far as we did. The lack of pressure, for the first time in years, meant our players could play with more freedom. In many ways, I saw parallels between the England squad at the World Cup and Sheffield Wednesday this season. For the past two seasons we have had high expectations and ultimately failed whereas this season I think most reasonable fans would agree our goals are probably somewhat more modest; a respectable league position and some entertainment.
How is it that we can continue to shoot ourselves in the foot? Last season was our 150th anniversary. We managed to make a mess of the kit launch, cakeball and the planned friendly against a top side. We then had a terrible season for injuries with almost a full match day squad out at one point. We then jobbed out to the opposition on a fairly regular basis. As the season wore on most of us were resigned to a transitional season. When Carlos did not leave immediately after the humiliation at home to Sheffield United, I think most of reasonable fans hoped Carlos would turn us round but knew in our heart of hearts it was just a matter of time waiting until he eventually left and we could move on. As the season drew to a close and our players returned to fitness and form we won twenty points from our last ten games. Over the course of a season that would be title winning form. We had a lot to be positive about. How is it possible to make a mess of this?
The first step is to create a bizarre membership scheme with adults paying £90 for a year’s membership [1]. As a member you will receive £5 off each home match ticket purchased. So if you attended every home game you would make a decent saving on the face of it, but let’s be honest our match day prices are extortionate anyway. You also get huge discounts at the Megastore but I am fairly certain many of these vouchers will not be used. The Megastore is an embarrassment with hardly anything worth purchasing. Apart from the kit launch (another thing we can’t get right) I would be surprised if the Megastore actually earned us money. The last few times I have visited the shop I have left empty handed. The very last time I went was with the intention of buying some memorabilia for some foreign friends of mine. I could not find anything suitable that was of sufficient quality. I struggled to find anything that was not downright embarrassing. There are a few other benefits of membership including cheaper tickets for certain games in the season. Overall, it’s hardly an attractive membership scheme.
The second step is to have a staggered release of the new kit and charge £99 for the “pro-fit” shirt for an adult. Then there are delays in stocking the full range including the standard shirt that fans would normally buy. Then there is the sizing. On a popular Wednesday fan page on Facebook there was a post announcing that the club were chasing up stock of the XXXXXL and XXXXXXL shirts. I didn’t get happy alone with the X key there. The stocking of XXXXXL and XXXXXXL is actually an issue. I’m going to be blunt with my next opinion, but if a Championship club is having to stock XXXXXL and XXXXXXL shirts then I would argue that someone has royally cocked up the baseline sizing of the shirts.
The third step is to continue with a pricing structure for match day and season tickets that alienates fans. The prices are too high and although we have had good sales in the last couple of years I would suspect this is more to do with the relative success on the field (a play-off final and semi-final) in two of the last three years. I would be shocked if season ticket sales this season are anything like the past two years.
The final step is to be the only club out of sixty-two to refuse a new deal with the BBC for local radio commentary on live games [2]. I can understand the club’s frustration if the BBC are wanting to reduce the fees by a tenth. However, there are things more important than money in football. The first is maintaining good relations with the fan base. I have heard some “fans” stating that it’s only a few games that will not be covered and that real fans should pay the £4.49 per month for the club’s own internet based commentary service. This argument is flawed in so many ways. First of all, the club relies on the goodwill of the fans. If the fans fall out with the club, they no longer spend their money on the club. The people arguing that it’s just a few games and that they should just stump up the £4.49 per month are not the people affected. This is the difference between sympathy and empathy. The fans most affected by this are the fans that will be unable or unwilling to pay the £4.49 per month. I’m talking about those who are elderly and unfamiliar with the internet. I’m talking about those people who may not be able to easily use the internet; I read a story of a blind fan who relied on the radio to listen to some SWFC games. Just because it does not affect you, it does not mean it does not affect someone. If we believe “We’re All Wednesday Aren’t We” then we should stand by these fans. The club has failed massively in this respect. The fans sustain the club and many of the fans affected, like the elderly, are fans who stood on an open kop through the decades cheering this club on; sustaining this club so that fans of my generation have a Sheffield Wednesday to follow.
We might, might, make money from the iFollow service. But is that money really worth the ill-feeling it has created in the fan base? Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can turn attention to the match tomorrow. Wigan smashed League One last season and will no doubt be riding high on that success. For the Owls it has been a fairly subdued pre-season footballing wise. There have been no signings of note and the suspected fire-sale has not really happened either. Several players left who were out of contract and Jordan Rhodes has left on loan to Norwich. The squad we have left is still more than capable of competing at the upper end of the table on paper. The big question mark is over their fitness. If we can maintain a decent level of fitness throughout the season then there is no reason why we can’t finish top-ten, maybe higher. The lack of expectation this season may propel us further up the table but we can’t expect a lack of expectation to bring success. The club needs a good start to the season with all the off the field problems. My prediction is that we will come away with a point after an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed exploring Now We Live, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to contribute to Now We Live, please refer to our submissions page.
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David ScothernCritic. Writer. Thinker. Observer. Creator of nowwelive.com. Archives
January 2019
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