The Price of Football

The Wednesday Revolution

   
For those of you not familiar with Sheffield Wednesday, the club is going through a quiet revolution. We have been bought out by a Thai business man Dejphon Chansiri for £37.5m, His family control Thai Union Frozen Products, the worlds largest producer of tinned tuna. Its fair to say that I have never bought so much tuna, the cupboards are overflowing and we are now stacking it in the garage. Alison despairs at me, but the cats of Baston have never been so well fed!

 Mr Chansiri has bought a club that  has been navigated through difficult waters by Milan Manderic and is now on a steady footing. Everyone is optimistic about the future, fuelled by  the PR machine that has already started to turn.

He is going to respect the club traditions, he is aiming to get Wednesday back to the premiership   by 2017 which will coincide with the clubs 150 year anniversary. Not only that he is spending £1m on a new pitch (that's a few more tins of tuna we are going to have to buy) and replace the old scoreboard. Finally he is putting up season ticket prices by 9% - what!? 9% where's that come from.

Now when he says that he will respect the club traditions I take that to mean, he isn't going to do a Vincent Tan and change the club colours to a nice shade of tuna fish red. But what about the history of the club, the working man's game, the reason for being. I can't believe there will be many people who will see their income rise by 9% this year, and for some Wednesdayites, this price hike will be a serious consideration when balancing family budgets. Is it the start of the prawn sandwich brigade (or maybe Tuna sandwich brigade) taking over Hillsborough? I hope not.

It does beg the question what the increase of 9% is based on, only two industries could get away with this level of increase football and the train companies. It's certainly not based on our performance this year, although I would accept that we are in a much better place than we have been for a couple of seasons, we have the lowest home goal scoring record in the championship and one of the worst home win records. The increase appears to be based on the promise of things to come. On the club website Mr Chansiri says "together we must push forward both now and in the future, if we are to realise our dreams of reaching the Premier League .... Because together we can make our dreams come true, buying a season ticket is the best possible way of showing support to myself off the pitch and the team on it"

Now call my an old cynic, but if I went to my boss at work and said I'd like a 9% pay increase, because if you do I will make your dreams come true, I suspect I might get told where to go. I would be expected to deliver against some challenging targets before any pay conversations were even considered. Put it another way, if Mr Chansiri's workforce, did the same I suspect he would be outraged at the nonsensical proposal, based on poor performance, a depressed economy and low inflation.

But maybe things are not so bad and all he is doing is bringing us in line with the rest of the Championship. As I write this Bournemouth have not released their 2015/16 prices, and Middlesbrough and Derby were 2nd and 3rd in the league, which is where we aspire to be. Our new prices would be in line with Middlesbrough and more expensive than Derby, but of course they are performing at a better level than Wednesday. Taking the 2015/16 season ticket prices for all three clubs and applying them pro rata to achievements so far this season is quite interesting. Wednesday fans would be paying £77 per win and £28 per goal, compared to £28 and £9 at Middlesbrough and £15 and £7 at Derby ie Wednesday have to make significant progress, to justify that 9% increase. Added to that we have a stadium that has one of the highest capacities in the championship, but on average we only achieve 55% stadium occupancy. Surely this has to be one of the biggest opportunities for the club to drive up income, rather than burdening the already loyal core supporters.

Lets hope that all goes according to plan, if not I suspect there will be no reduction in ticket prices. Of course we will be there come good or bad,Wednesday till we die, but respecting the traditions of the club and supporters has to be the number one priority for Mr Chansiri.

Finally in the spirit of working together I have written to Wednesday to offer my services in relaying the pitch for £750k and I will chuck in a free 55" TV to replace the old scoreboard. That's a saving of 192k tins of tuna. I've not had a response yet.


Bladder Stress

A full Wembley. Spurs to the left Chelsea to the right

One of my bugbears is people who leave football matches before the the end. It might be the Yorkshireman in me, I've paid for it, so I'm not leaving until I've had my moneys worth, but its more than that I just don't get it. You wouldn't leave the cinema before the end of the film, disturbing people as you push past and missing that last minute twist, so why do  people feel the need to start leaving a football match 10 minutes before the end. Good or bad, I've paid my money and I will express my view at the end of the game, that's why you go to watch football. However based on recent experience I think I am going to have to temper my view.

For those of you who follow my ramblings, you will know that during my long leave I met a fellow Wednesday fan in the village. We have recently been to a couple of Wednesday away matches together, the problem is that we usually have a few pre match beers (if you've ever watched Wednesday, you will understand why this is important) and our time management goes out of the window. For both matches we have missed the kick off and a goal. I apologise to the people we had to chuck out of our seats, and for shuffling past people who had settled to watch the games.

My mate acquired two Club Wembley tickets to go to the League Cup Final, between Spurs and Chelsea. We planned our travel, drinking and entrance to the stadium to perfection. With seconds to go before kick off we entered the stadium to be greeted with a wall of sound and a sea of colour -3rd time lucky I thought. I've never been to the new Wembley, and I have to say its impressive. Having seen some of the major stadiums in Europe this summer, this has to rank as one of the best, and I believe it is only the Nou Camp that has a greater capacity.

The Wembley arch in Chelsea blue

As half time approached the beer was starting to have a probably not unexpected effect on my bladder. With a determination not to leave before the half time whistle I hung on and then mde a dash for it. My heart sank as I entered the concourse. I don't think I've been anywhere where there were queues this long for the gents. I moved from one queue to the next, thinking the further I walked I would find a toilet without a queue. This is bonkers the £750m national stadium and there aren't enough toilets, it cant be that they wern't expecting a good percentage of the 90,000 people to go to the toilet at half time. I had a choice I had to just wait it out or make an emergency dash for the front of one of the queues. I am British so I politely hung on for what felt like an eternity, moving from side to side and breaking into a sweat at one point. Finally my time came, I've never been so relieved, I must have been stood there for about 5 mins, it just wouldn't stop. Come on Wembley get this sorted, it cant be that complicated to provide adequate facilities.

 As part of the Club Wembley tickets we had access to a private bar, so of course it would have been rude not to make use of it and have a swift one after my bladder stress. But I guess it was the one that tipped the balance and we obviously lost the plot on our time management. I suppose on reflection, the clue was that the bar was empty. As we made our way back to our seats, yes you've guessed it, we missed the start of the second half and Chelsea's second goal. Our record remains intact!

Great day though and nice to attend a cup final without the stress of your team taking part. Although next time I go I hope it is to watch Wednesday.

For the Real Ale Lovers

Like gold dust

I always walk across to my local the White Horse with a sense of anticipation and excitement as to what real ales might be on tap. They always have a 'locale' on usually from Hopshackle Brewery or Star Brewing Company in Market Deeping, all of which are very nice. But every so often you walk in and there is a special beer on. One that you weren't expecting and it just makes your night when you see it there on the bar. That happened the other day, when I walked in and Jaipur from Thornbridge Brewery was on. I'd had this beer before a few times in Sheffield but I didn't expect to see it my village local. I could taste it before my pint was pulled. It was bliss. Thinking this was the pinnacle and I shouldn't expect any further major surprises, I was taken aback when on my next visit Abbeydale Absolution a clonking beer from my home town was on tap.There is something about that special moment, a perfect real ale in your local village pub, life just doesnt get much better.

Thornbridge have brought out Jaipur X a 10% IPA. These are like gold dust, you have to be quick off the mark to get one. Bob was in the Greystones in Sheffield and spotted some bottles behind the bar. He has secured one for me, and managed to get it home safely. It is under 24 hour alarm, in a temperature controlled environment. At £7 a bottle its also covered by insurance!. I can taste the beer now, I just might have to pop up to Sheffield to say hello to Bob.