Football is nothing without fans..

Sometimes the 140 or 280 character limit on Twitter just isn’t enough to talk about Fulham Football Club…

So make sure you have a fresh cup of coffee to hand (biscuits optional) and let’s get into it.

Last summer, the fear of FFP and Mitro’s departure…

After the highs of last season, it’s quite a surprise to think that there is a general feeling of unrest amongst the fan base. Especially, when everything felt so different less than twelve months ago. So how did we get here?

Well, I’m sure you’ve all seen the news in the last few months around PSR, FFP and club sustainability – with Everton being docked 10 points being the main headline.

This resulted in shockwaves being sent through many other Premier League clubs, including Fulham.

Obeying the rules of PSR & FFP isn’t a new challenge but one that has reared it’s ugly head more so than ever before. After one club’s accounts gets punished, the stage is set and more clubs are put under the microscope.

After Everton’s punishment, it emerged that the Toffees breached the rules again, but this time they were not alone as Nottingham Forest were also found guilty of a similar breach.

I won’t dwell on the financial details and how that operates though, so I’ll leave that to Pete Rutzler and his terrific article on The Athletic, which takes a deeper look at how Fulham escaped punishment.

In short, The Athletic covers a few key points:

• Fulham sailed incredibly close to the boundaries of FFP
• With Fulham being in the Championship + Premier League during the current account period, the amount we can afford to lose is much lower than other clubs around us like Crystal Palace – who have been in the PL throughout that time period.
• Last, but not least – “…the sale of Aleksandar Mitrovic, for £45m, was finalised after this accounting period (ending June 30, 2023) and will only count on next year’s books.”

This makes for interesting reading.

Due to our stint in the Championship during this period, our losses could not exceed £83m compared to those that had been in the Premier League for same accounting period, who could lose up to £105m for the same time frame. That may not sound like a lot – but when you are competing with clubs around you, you are already playing catchup, as well as being under tighter scrutiny as other clubs can afford to lose £22m more than you.

Lastly on this point, Fulham’s squad was looking incredibly thin when last season concluded, without the departure of Mitrovic. So any funds for that previous accounting period, had to go towards filling other positions and upon reflection (player by player) the arrivals have been good – although, Adama Traore is probably the exception given his absence.

I also get the impression that the club were hoping the Mitrovic deal would have been completed sooner, and not dragged out so that a replacement potentially could have been found with that money during that window.

Unfortunately, the reality of it was that the deal took a number of weeks as Fulham held firm over their valuation despite his wishes to leave.

If I try to be optimistic around it – it does mean a new accounting period + the Mitrovic money should become available in the summer if we secure our Premier League status for another season. If that is the case, we have the owners in place that do have the financial muscle to complete the much needed rebuild that Marco Silva’s squad needs – especially for a few younger faces in numerous positions. If that doesn’t happen, then I think bigger questions could be asked.

But let’s get into the main topic of why I decided to blow the dust off this blog one more time.

Football is a rich man’s game, but it doesn’t have to be for fans…

For those that haven’t followed, over the last 12 months or so, the club have started to price the fans out of the game and it simply has to stop.

Yes, we can try to blame inflation, the cost of living crisis and quite frankly, the disturbing numbers that it takes to run a football club – but without fans, we don’t have football as we know it.

It may be possible to sell some tickets for higher prices, but it comes with a trade off. A stadium full of tourists may sell tickets when you are playing the bigger teams, but the same tourists aren’t the people that will travel across the country, through thick and thin, regardless of the opponent or fixture importance.

It’s more than just a game or an afternoon’s entertainment. It’s the endless singing and support, the feeling of community and belonging, the hope and dreams of seeing your team on a cup run or forming their own underdog story. It’s bringing your friends or family to the game with you, or trying to persuade the next generation to follow in your footsteps as a Fulham fan.

If your pricing strategy prevents that and focuses on short-term tourists and holiday makers, then you lose that long-term growth and atmosphere that a sold out Craven Cottage can provide.

While it’s down to the playing staff to do the business on the pitch. A sold out home crowd can be the difference between winning and losing a game, and with that comes better revenue generated from league positions or entering new competitions.

When that happens, it doesn’t matter if you are playing 2-3 times a week, the crowd keeps coming, and the tickets remain sold as fans are absorbed about the journey their beloved club is undertaking.

I may be bias, but our club and stadium is something special.

It’s the perfect mix of the game that we all know and love today, and the stories that our parents, grandparents all fell in love with all those years ago.

Nothing can compare to seeing the Cottage in the corner, the wooden seats, the view of the Thames and how close you are to the action. Combine that with the new Riverside stand and very few clubs can offer a comparable matchday experience for fans and their players.

For some players, it’s that exact experience that keeps them at the club for so long or is the reason that they join the club in the first place over anyone else. Tom Cairney and Joao Palhinha spring to mind.

That may not be the case for every pro footballer, and I’m sure everyone has their price. But, even at the end of the spectrum where footballers are getting blank cheques in Saudi Arabia – some of the big names already want to leave after six months because playing in front of stadiums with empty seats and no atmosphere isn’t motivational or exciting.

You could say I’m being dramatic or over exaggerating, but fans are already choosing to vote with their feet and not stomach the extortionate prices that are being asked.

Price them out, and suddenly the stands become quieter and the players lose that connection with the club too. If that happens, what do we have left?

To be clear, I’m not expecting every game to be sold out, it just doesn’t happen given how crazy the fixture lists can get.

Our cup game against Newcastle is the prime example for this.

Without the greedy prices, there were already challenges to overcome with getting the fans to attend:

• Friday night football
• Televised on mainstream TV – ITV
• The 3rd of 4 home fixtures in January

So to charge £40 for an adult ticket, the most expensive ticket price for all the games in that round of the cup, is pure greed.

Even though I try my hardest to see both sides of an argument, I really can’t defend the strategy here.

Yes, you could argue that it raises the revenue of the football club. But the damage it does to the fanbase and those that are a part of the club are worth more than that.

Some quick maths will show:

19,000 (Newcastle attendance) x £40 a ticket = £760,000*

25,700 (Full capacity) x £20 a ticket = £514,000*

*Pie in the sky figures, but hopefully you catch my drift

Yes, the higher pricing strategy works if your sole goal is to increase match day revenues, but business isn’t that simple or linear.

Sometimes it’s worth taking a hit on the figures if you are building a more sustainable future and bringing more people to Fulham Football Club.

As I mentioned earlier, football is a generation game, your love for a club is generally passed down by loved ones but if you are no longer able to afford watching your club, then some people turn to alternative avenues and slowly Fulham isn’t the priority anymore.

In the past, when prices have been more reasonable I’ve taken many friends, family and loved ones to Craven Cottage – heck, I even managed to get a group of us to go to our home loss to Sheffield United in the cup all those years ago. My friends haven’t let me live it down, but despite the result, have come back to Craven Cottage a number times since.

If you replace the Fulham fans with ‘wealthy tourists‘ – you lose more than just a few fans. You lose the network of people that fans bring to games, reducing the number of potential long-term fans that could become a part of the community today, tomorrow and much further in the future.

It’d be like creating a website that works really well, but instead of focusing on the product, you chase ad revenue instead. Therefore you chase the money, sell more ad-space on your website, and as a result the experience changes for the worse. In the short-term the revenue is higher, but in the long-term your customers go elsewhere and it becomes very hard to bring them back once they’ve been pushed out.

Fan loyalty isn’t a myth, it’s a real thing and needed by every club in the football leagues. So when you have a dedicated group of fans, they have to be a top priority when you think about long-term growth of the club. Even more so, when you are competing in London with so many other clubs a few train stations away.

If you need another example of how important fans are, just look at Bradford City – they’ve been through multiple administrations and failed strategies, yet they still get over 15,000 fans in League Two. That club is proof that fan support isn’t a temporary thing. They’ve stuck by their club through some of the hardest times in football and despite being 18th in League Two are there every week trying to drive their club forward.

Maybe the tourist pricing is something the club could offer in the future, for a sub-section of seats in the new stand once it’s complete. But, in no case should our fans be replaced. We’re meant to be a family club, and that should remain at our core and should be thought about more given the situation.

As for a solution, I don’t have an immediate one but it’s clear that club and fans need to be reunited once more if we truly want to move forward.

If that means that more of us have to speak up about the pricing situation then we simply have to. If that means more organised protests, letters and whatever is possible it has to happen. It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be handled this way, but the club also has to be more active in discussing options and finding the right solution for all.

Both club and fanbases require each other to have a great relationship. Without the fans, you don’t have a football club – just an expensive athletic event without any sense of meaning or belonging.

I could go on and on about this, so if you’ve got this far and want to discuss it further, reach out – I’d love to hear from you!

On a personal note, to anyone that has taken the time to read this – I appreciate your time, and I hope it’s been an enjoyable read.

Want to get in touch? I’m always interested in talking about everything Fulham – so tweet me at @ABronsSmith.