Entertainment after a hard week in work.

[monmouth]

To be fair, I think the ticket price is very reasonable (I paid £100 for two tickets to a small provincial theatre last night). Season ticket works out at under £20 per game? For us oldies it was under £15. For me it’s the travel, food and drink that takes me over £60 per game, and reducing ticket price by a few quid doesn’t make a big hole in that. I don’t take any kids though. The travel time was getting more tiresome too with Newport, port talbot and Fabian (a few others will recognise this). What I do know, is I got fed up with zombie games and leaving feeling ‘meh’ for the journey back. Thats why I stopped, along with COVID freeing up my Saturdays.

If I still lived in Swansea or within local radius I would still have an ST and still go, irrespective of the fare on offer. It’s all about the inertia/value equation for me. At the moment, the telly is more appealing. Would I still call myself a fan…well I passionately want us to win and do well during the match…but I’m certainly not the obsessive I once was. So if ‘fan’ is short for fanatic then I guess not.

 

[Captain_Sham]

I dont understand the OP to be honest. I went because it what I always did. Its how me and my Dad bonded and then a reason to meet up as life happened. Its how stayed in touch with my roots when I lived away. It was always about my connection with my home town and my club. When we had success it was bonus. When had 30 years of struggle it was about support. It was never about entertainment. If you want to be entertained go to the circus.

 

[K23]

To be fair, I think the ticket price is very reasonable (I paid £100 for two tickets to a small provincial theatre last night). Season ticket works out at under £20 per game? For us oldies it was under £15. For me it’s the travel, food and drink that takes me over £60 per game, and reducing ticket price by a few quid doesn’t make a big hole in that. I don’t take any kids though. The travel time was getting more tiresome too with Newport, port talbot and Fabian (a few others will recognise this). What I do know, is I got fed up with zombie games and leaving feeling ‘meh’ for the journey back. Thats why I stopped, along with COVID freeing up my Saturdays.

If I still lived in Swansea or within local radius I would still have an ST and still go, irrespective of the fare on offer. It’s all about the inertia/value equation for me. At the moment, the telly is more appealing. Would I still call myself a fan…well I passionately want us to win and do well during the match…but I’m certainly not the obsessive I once was. So if ‘fan’ is short for fanatic then I guess not.

You and I have exchanged quite a few posts on this subject over the last few years as we both felt that what we were getting out of it wasn't worth the hassle of the travelling at our ages and the loss of my mate in June last year was a massive blow as I started travelling to games alone. The difference for me was that I got to spend time with my brother and nephew who live in Swansea and both have STs and bit by bit the football became less of a draw for me than meeting up with them so I persisted and kept my ST but I did stop going to midweek games. However, as a result of the wave of euphoria around the club since the changes earlier this year and the closed season activity, I actually started looking forward to the games for the first time since the pandemic. Now I can feel things slipping back to where they were and I hope things turn around soon as I may have choices to make.

 

[Smurph]

It's not so much about the cost, it's more the desire to leave the house on a cold and wet Tuesday/Weds evening to head to a stadium with awful transport links to freeze my nuts off for very little in return at the moment.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

Similar point to above.. it costs me £200 for a home game with my son everything included tickets to fuel. Each season ive been more selective of home games and favour away games. The club is pricing the ordinary fan out of the game. 5K empty seats is alarming yet nothing changes to bring the community together on the pitch entertainment or pricing structure.

Spot on.

You go down the stadium these days, and apart from the East stand corner by the away fans (which has always been Stone Island early 20s), and the south stand (which has always been pitched at families), it's mostly grey hair and bald heads everywhere. Affordability is a massive issue.

Clubs up and down the country are not responding to the financial reality unfolding around them, and it's going to come back and bite them on the arse eventually.

 

[Ringwood]

If I still lived in Swansea it would no effort for me to attend even to tolerate the performances. Worst thing for any exile is journey of 3 or 4 hours home gives you too much time to reflect and the effort you have made and whether it is truly worth it.

 

[FearOfAJackPlanet]

I dont understand the OP to be honest. I went because it what I always did. Its how me and my Dad bonded and then a reason to meet up as life happened. Its how stayed in touch with my roots when I lived away. It was always about my connection with my home town and my club. When we had success it was bonus. When had 30 years of struggle it was about support. It was never about entertainment. If you want to be entertained go to the circus.

Was going to post something similar, but didn't want to come across holier than thou, especially as I'm no longer in a position to attend games and so it's easy for me to type out the words if I'm not in this position. However, I do agree that entertainment was never a factor for the reasons you give. I also understand that as you age, life happens and there are real reasons why heading down to the games is not top of the list of priorities, even for those who also bleed the Swans and have the club and the city as a core part of their identity.

This is more about the 'casuals', and boosting crowds beyond the baseline, and with them it's more about results than entertainment. Win 7 in a row ugly and crowds will boost more than if we're looking like a pretty picture and not getting results.

 

[Captain_Sham]

Was going to post something similar, but didn't want to come across holier than thou, especially as I'm no longer in a position to attend games and so it's easy for me to type out the words if I'm not in this position. However, I do agree that entertainment was never a factor for the reasons you give. I also understand that as you age, life happens and there are real reasons why heading down to the games is not top of the list of priorities, even for those who also bleed the Swans and have the club and the city as a core part of their identity.

This is more about the 'casuals', and boosting crowds beyond the baseline, and with them it's more about results than entertainment. Win 7 in a row ugly and crowds will boost more than if we're looking like a pretty picture and not getting results.

I wasnt trying to be holier than thou. I dont even go any more so I cant really be, but I as I said entertainment never came into it. I got so fed up of the Premier league that when my Dad stopped going due to bei ng too old, there was no reason to carry on. The season they binned Guidolin was the final straw.

 

[cmajack]

Spot on.

You go down the stadium these days, and apart from the East stand corner by the away fans (which has always been Stone Island early 20s), and the south stand (which has always been pitched at families), it's mostly grey hair and bald heads everywhere. Affordability is a massive issue.

Clubs up and down the country are not responding to the financial reality unfolding around them, and it's going to come back and bite them on the arse eventually.

You wouldn't have seen my bald head today, had my hat on ( bloody freezing) . On a serious note, a lot of youngsters do have the money today, they think nothing of spending £100 plus on a night out in wind street on a Saturday night. They just choose not to spend it attending football matches, like we used to years ago. It's all on Sky these days, red button, midweek games, and Champions league football. Unless you had a side like the big 6 or like we did under Laudrup there doesn't seem the appetite with todays generation to turn up week in week out in mostly winter conditions.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

You wouldn't have seen my bald head today, had my hat on ( bloody freezing) . On a serious note, a lot of youngsters do have the money today, they think nothing of spending £100 plus on a night out in wind street on a Saturday night. They just choose not to spend it attending football matches, like we used to years ago. It's all on Sky these days, red button, midweek games, and Champions league football. Unless you had a side like the big 6 or like we did under Laudrup there doesn't seem the appetite with todays generation to turn up week in week out in mostly winter conditions.

Hmm. Not so sure about that. It's well reported that young people don't drink as much as previous generations so I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. Also, £100 now is probably equivalent to £50 for a night out 20 years ago, it is far more expensive to drink in most pubs these days (unless you want to drink in a sh*thole).

Bury your head in the sand by all means but the next generation of fans is being priced out.

 

[monmouth]

Hmm. Not so sure about that. It's well reported that young people don't drink as much as previous generations so I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. Also, £100 now is probably equivalent to £50 for a night out 20 years ago, it is far more expensive to drink in most pubs these days (unless you want to drink in a sh*thole).

Bury your head in the sand by all means but the next generation of fans is being priced out.

To be fair live tv does make a difference to when I was young. MoTD was all we had.

There is a squeeze but I suspect most just don’t have the habit like we did. Thats supports the argument for free or cheap seats of course. An empty stand is disastrous for now and ten years from now.

 

[cmajack]

Hmm. Not so sure about that. It's well reported that young people don't drink as much as previous generations so I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. Also, £100 now is probably equivalent to £50 for a night out 20 years ago, it is far more expensive to drink in most pubs these days (unless you want to drink in a sh*thole).

Bury your head in the sand by all means but the next generation of fans is being priced out.

Have had a lot to do with the public over the years through my job, heard countless stories of how much gets spent on a weekend in Swansea. One guy actually told me he spent £200 in a single night .

 

[cmajack]

Hmm. Not so sure about that. It's well reported that young people don't drink as much as previous generations so I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. Also, £100 now is probably equivalent to £50 for a night out 20 years ago, it is far more expensive to drink in most pubs these days (unless you want to drink in a sh*thole).

Bury your head in the sand by all means but the next generation of fans is being priced out.

I'm not burying my head in the sand at all. I'm saying with so much football on tv these days and so many other choices available to youngsters today that attending football matches ( like i used to in late 60s early 70s) hasn't got the same appeal to them. Do you think if tickets had been priced at £10 each for the QPR game that it would have affected the attendance greatly? I honestly have my doubts.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

Have had a lot to do with the public over the years through my job, heard countless stories of how much gets spent on a weekend in Swansea. One guy actually told me he spent £200 in a single night .

Fair enough but that still doesn't really prove anything.

As someone who regularly frequented Wind St 20 years ago, and who still occasionally gets down there time to time, the difference is night and day. Esp on a Friday or Saturday night, which is like a ghost town these days, comparatively. Most bars you can walk in and get served in 5-10 mins. Twenty years ago you were fighting like sardines for 20 mins just to get near the bar.

Generally, people are not going out and spending money recreationally like they used to because they're more squeezed than previous generations. It's up to the Swans to wake up to that imo.

 

[cmajack]

Hmm. Not so sure about that. It's well reported that young people don't drink as much as previous generations so I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. Also, £100 now is probably equivalent to £50 for a night out 20 years ago, it is far more expensive to drink in most pubs these days (unless you want to drink in a sh*thole).

Bury your head in the sand by all means but the next generation of fans is being priced out.

I'm just as worried about attendances as you are. There's very little atmosphere over the stadium these days. If we managed to get a few extra thousand over there on " Kids for a quid" how many do you think would return after seeing the product on display this season.