SWFC have sold 15,000 season tickets in less than a week and should comfortably exceed the 21,000 target.
I’ve seen some supporters asking:
“Is that definitely good financially? Wouldn’t fewer season tickets and more matchday sales generate more revenue?”
The answer is nuanced.
In pure theory, if 25,000 fans all paid matchday prices every game, revenue would exceed 25,000 season ticket holders.
But football economics are not that simple.
The key question is, How many season ticket holders would actually attend regularly without a season ticket?
I was amazed to learn that historically at least 10% of Wednesday season ticket holders do not attend every home game.
So let’s use some rough but reasonable assumptions based on the last League One season when Wednesday averaged 25,378 attendance:
2,000 away fans at an average yield of £20 (remember VAT is excluded and you have concessions, kids etc) = £0.9m revenue
4,000 home matchday sales at an average yield of £23 across 23 games (higher average price than away tickets) = £2.1m revenue
500 commercial customers that we will discount from this summary.
500 complimentary tickets (press, scouts, agents etc).
That leaves roughly 18,378 season ticket holders.
At an estimated average net yield of £300 per season ticket (after VAT, concessions etc), that equals:-
£5.5m season ticket revenue
Total estimated ticket revenue:
£8.5m
Now compare that to 21,000 season tickets sold.
That alone would generate roughly £6.3m
Meaning Wednesday would only need around £1.3m additional home matchday revenue (assuming away revenue is the same).
That equates to fewer than 2,500 additional matchday tickets per game to match the revenue above.
Given expected demand, that seems highly likely.
And that is before considering:-
increased sponsorship value
higher corporate demand
stronger kiosk sales
higher merchandise revenue
improved cashflow certainty
Because Hillsborough’s capacity is significantly above Wednesday’s historic average attendance, there is little doubt in my mind that higher season ticket sales are overwhelmingly positive financially.
Personally, I think Wednesday will exceed 23,000 season tickets.
It shows what is possible with:
sensible pricing
positive messaging
optimism
and reconnecting supporters with the club.
A phenomenal effort!
Launched less than a week ago... 15,000 already! 👏