Bradford City are interesting...

[Canaryboy]

Never realised that there is a revolution happening at Bradford City?

They got bought out by German owners, who reduced season ticket prices to £199 (German style prices!).

They had 18500 season ticket holders last season (up from 8000 the season before last). That's a huge number for any side in League One!

And are set to finally appoint a German manager.... who will probably sign more German players to add to the 5 they already have.

Will be really interesting to see how this approach goes.

I wonder whether if applying a German ethos to a British club and succeeding (low ticket prices etc, and they've made comments about making pay more performance related and based on bonuses), I wonder whether if Bradford can establish themselves at a higher level we may either see more German ownership of British clubs (e.g. hopefully us), or more British clubs moving towards a more sustainable German style model?

Nobody seems to have really paid any attention to what is happening at Bradford which is a bit weird, because going from 8000 season ticket holders to 18500 in two seasons is remarkable so they should make for a great case study over the next 3, 5, 10 years.... even if they put prices up in the future they will be capturing a new generation of fans who fall in love with their club.

Keep getting Northern sides complain about all of the competition from other clubs, and from rugby clubs, and there are Bradford a rugby city next to Leeds who can more than double their gates overnight.

Hope they do well to be honest because its refreshing to see.

 

[Canaryboy]

One interesting comment from their owners was that in Germany the typical player will earn only 50% of their wages in 'basic' and have to achieve the other 50% by achieving results (and presumably staying fit?),but in England its nearer 90% guaranteed.

So I wonder how many of our German players are on deals like that here, and whether under this German model Matt Jarvis would probably be earning £12.5k a week instead of £25k a week right now (guessing wages). Or whether Zimmermann gets an extra £3k for a clean sheet, which is why he throws himself in front of everything?

I personally think UK football moving more towards the German model would be brilliant, but it would realistically require the government to approve safe standing so that clubs can massively expand their capacity and then reduce ticket prices (at least in standing areas),because we've got nothing to gain by decreasing prices whilst our gates are near capacity.

But safe standing in half of the ground and we're suddenly at 40,000 to 45,000 capacity and could have £249 season tickets in standing areas to pack the place out? Something needs to radically change in English football, fans are becoming defranchised, can relate less and less with the players, feel like they are being ripped off, and the atmosphere at English football is terrible these days.

 

[morty]

Yeah that is interesting, I was totally unaware of what was going on at Bradford!

 

[OldRobert]

Yeah that is interesting, I was totally unaware of what was going on at Bradford!

Like everyone I reckon..................

 

[Canaryboy]

Like everyone I reckon..................

Its closer to me than Ipswich is to you.

I might go and catch a game there next season to see what the atmosphere is like, if I'm feeling brave (Bradford is an absolute shithole).

 

[Dubai Mark]

That's interesting and ,many thanks for posting the details

 

[Number 9]

You say interesting.....

 

[dj161]

I seem to remember a few years back that Bradford had a great initiative with season tickets in that if you bought a season ticket you'd get one free for your child, they viewed it as it's better to have someone in the seat who might spend a few quid on a pack of sweets and a bottle of drink than to just have the seat be empty, great idea, obviously wouldn't work here with our season ticket sales, but at that level I'm surprised more clubs haven't tried something like that

 

[Canaryboy]

You say interesting.....

Alright so the season ticket experiment is irrelevant to us because we don't have a half empty stadium to try and fill.

But its at least a little interesting in the sense that Bradford are probably about to appoint a German manager and fill their squad with German players, which makes them the League One equivalent of us?

 

[Canaryboy]

EDIT: They've just appointed their English Under 18 manager as their first team manager

 

[OldRobert]

Alright so the season ticket experiment is irrelevant to us because we don't have a half empty stadium to try and fill.

I can think of a club not a million miles from ours who could benefit from a BOGOF season ticket scheme to help fill the ground!

 

[Canaryboy]

I can think of a club not a million miles from ours who could benefit from a BOGOF season ticket scheme to help fill the ground!

They probably still wouldn't get attendances like ours, they seem to be in terminal decline. Controlled demolition and a new 15000 seater would be more sensible for a sustainable future in League Two.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I can think of a club not a million miles from ours who could benefit from a BOGOF season ticket scheme to help fill the ground!

I believe they did a number of promotions to get extra people in. One of them was something a season ticket holder could buy up to three more tickets for a tenner each.

 

[OldRobert]

I believe they did a number of promotions to get extra people in. One of them was something a season ticket holder could buy up to three more tickets for a tenner each.

Blimey, that's a whole £30 for 3......................that's a helluva lot!

 

[Number 9]

Bradford City are interesting......aha