Conference South admission prices

To kick this one off St.Albans will apparently charge £15 next season as their basic adult admission. Just as well my travel costs will be minimal for that one.

Shocking.Think i will give that one a miss.
That will probably be the dearest admission price in the south next season.

You could buy a terrace ticket for a relatively nearby League 2 club for that.   

St Albans have just shot themselves in the foot ridiculous price.   

and yet people happily travelled all the way from bath and paid a couple of quid less to visit the soulless urban waste where concord play! while i agree £15 is very steep for non league, st albans is probably the nicest town and ground in the league and should charge somewhere near £50 if there was a sliding scale!

And the 15 quid now wont even buy you the chance to watch 44 year old former City er legend Paul Bastock who has been released by the Clarence Park outfit.

I think St Albans have to charge whatever they feel is right to cover their costs. There is a clear relationship between team budget and where you finish in the league and that applies from the very top to bottom. If they and their fans want to stay in this league the they have to pay what it takes. Same as us. and given the limited sources of funding to non-league clubs then gate money is crucial.
I don't know how Bundesliga and La Liga clubs charge so little.

Gate money isn't as crucial as everyone thinks, it makes up about a 3rd of all income. Nothing to be regarded lightly but the bars make the most money for any club.

German clubs charge so little because they have the mass of fans to back it up. I think it needs one very bold club to set their prices at say £8 for adults for one season and then market their club properly and their gates would get bigger, and if they continued it for say 5 years then their crowds would be huge. The more people in the ground the better the players respond to it and you'd also have more away fans coming as they know it's a cheap day out.

Imagine if your town or city had other tourist attractions too, then the local council could link up with that club and encourage more trade to that area. Hotel deals, weekend break type thing for couples etc, reduced attractions on the Sunday for match day ticket holders, the possibilities are endless just needs a club to take the plunge.

Innovative thinking Mark; sadly British management, especially local authorities, are about as imaginative as a slug is a quick mover.  

But this is Conference South football, would people really think "I'm not paying £12 to watch that. I'll pay £10 though"?

I think what Mark has said would be ok for a higher level but at ours, in my opinion, it wouldn't make much difference. It's been said time and time again that football is overpriced to watch, and it is. But even if we cut our prices to say a tenner for adults this season I really don't think an extra 400 will suddenly appear to watch us do battle against the likes of Concord and Staines.

diehards will pay just about whatever the charge (even at somewhere like havant or concord), occasionals will be selective (watch a home match with the league leaders but not boreham wood) while the majority of sports followers will be put off by the price, aslong with other factors. the prices at my local southern league club would have to be around £2 to entice me along, while the friendly welcome, facilities and developing young squad suggests more occasionals should be getting along to TP this season - most die hards will presumably have season tickets, which reduce the price. must be better value than getting drenched watching brucie's boys underachieve on the wreck....

I believe I'm right in saying some German clubs give you your bus/train/tram ticket money back (well off) the admission price. So if you were say to get the number 5 bus from town to TP at a cost of x amount (I think it's about £2.50 one way), the club would then give that price off the gate when you produce your bus ticket used that day. That way it's encouraging public transport and more space in the car park. Or a 2 for 1 pint in the bar voucher to use after the game when you produce a bus or train ticket. Means fans will be using the bar more and spending an extra £3 on getting the 2 for 1 pint deal. Then you have got those fans for an extra hour potentially after the game, buying food maybe from the bar....

All good sound thinking Mark, and plenty of food for thought. Talking of food - I wish there was an outlet within the bar area for a regular chance to buy hot food, especially pre-match (I remember there used to be). It would not be difficult to better what is on offer inside the ground - both in price and quality - and it would provide profit for the Club! We have been let down twice recently (the latest being last Saturday) in that such food was advertised within promotion of games, but when we arrived early for lunch we were told that there was no provision for it after all. The only excuse was gleaned from a member of the bar staff who said that they were short staffed!! That was bad advertising to say the least, and, if the likes of us are now put off from relying on a similar enticement to attend early in the future, I imagine quite a few others will be too. Sharpen up Bath City - if the shortfall of staff was unforseeable, a notice of apology at the bar on the day would have been the least I would have expected.