Another View on the Blues/Bulls Saga

The interest in the 'disagreement' over the pricing of the tickets to watch next Tuesday's Carling Cup game between Birmingham City and Hereford United and subsequent views from Simon Wright, a contributer to Bulls News, continued today with an article on the www.joysandsorrows.co.uk website. The author, Aff, said that he hadn't intended giving the subject, Cup Ticket Upset, an entire article but he had been somewhat annoyed by the coverage.

The basic gist:
Blues wanted to charge £5 for adults and £2 for kids for season ticket holders of both clubs with everyone else paying £10 adults and £2 kids. Hereford United said no. It went to the Football League. The Football League sided with the Football League club. Prices will be £10 and £5 across the board.

I then came across an article on a Hereford United site where they have their say on Blues and the ticket situation.(see Simon Wright's article from yesterday) Originally I was just going to dismiss it and not bother mentioning it. But then I noticed that it was the seventh most popular Blues story according to clicks on Newsnow

Upon seeing that, I decided that I might as well comment on the accusation that 'Blues have no class' and the pricing of tickets for the game. And so hence, this article exists.

I genuinely believe that Blues were trying to make the gate as big as possible. We've dropped prices a number of times before and it's a nice incentive for season ticket holders who have previously stated displeasure at not getting reductions on Cup tickets etc.

Hereford didn't agree with Blues original pricing plan. They cite booze and burgers as a reason, which is amusing (not saying it's right or wrong, it's just amusing).

A reason, according to a quote in the Blues statement (which was released first) seems to be that Hereford wouldn't be making as much money out of the fixture if the prices were lower for season ticket holders. Fair enough.

Regardless of what division a club is in or how big a club is (I happen to think that Hereford being a smaller club is irrelevant here), surely they want to maximize what potential revenue is available to them? In this instance, dropping prices won't exactly harm Blues by much financially but they would've gained something by sweetening up season ticket holders.

The Blues statement does seem to fire the first cheap shot. It states that Hereford objected to the pricing structure because they would not make any money out of this.

Well, as mentioned above, what's wrong with that? I don't see why the need for this particular part. State what you wanted to do, state why it didn't happen and wish everyone a good night's entertainment regardless. Taking a dig at a club like Hereford makes us look a bit petty.

Price won't make one iota of difference to Hereford, this is a big game for them and they'll come in numbers and enjoy it. And I hope they do. On their official site, they've defended their right to fight for more gate receipts and stated that this is still the cheapest game of the round.

Now, onto the article on the Hereford fan site (Bulls News).

Some of the writers gripes seem strange considering we've never actually played them in a competitive game before (according to Soccerbase although I'm sure I have a memory of a lower-league cup encounter once?) The article's author openly admits to having a dislike of us and perhaps that's the reason for so many cheap shots, inaccuracies and sweeping generalisations.

He does bring up an interesting point about the attendance though. Last time we had a dispute with a league club about prices at St Andrew's for a League Cup tie, it was Macclesfield. The club had to charge full price and Macclesfield came and played, if memory serves, in front of 6,000 and were dispatched 6-0.

Last season's League Cup attendances saw just under 13,000 for a home tie against Shrewsbury Town and just over 10,000 for a tie against Wrexham. The tie against Liverpool pulled in 23,000. I just wish I could remember the prices for the individual ties! I would assume it was £10 per ticket for both Wrexham and Shrewsbury with a slight discount for season ticket holders. Liverpool was more expensive, and on the TV - although I'm willing to be corrected on that.

The atmosphere is also likely to be below par save the away fans in ties such as this. I really don't want to become one of those arrogant Premiership fans but this is a bigger game for Hereford United. Expecting us to treat it as a big game and be up for it isn't realistic. I've seen Blues play Liverpool etc when we were in Division Two and no doubt, for us it was huge but for them, it was a run of the mill third round.

So next Tuesday, I hope Hereford fans - and Blues fans - turn out in force and enjoy a thoroughly entertaining game of football. Ideally both fans will be up for it and there'll be plenty of banter, no empty seats and a healthy profit on the bank statements of both clubs.

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