This should come with the full disclosure that I am not a businessman, I have to my knowledge never owned a football club, and I have absolutely zero inside clue on how a Premier League club works.
However, what I *do* know is the great city of Wolverhampton, its people, and that 38-weekend-a-year headache known as its football club.
The situation we find ourselves in needs no reminders, it simply is what it is at this point. But it is imperative that we make the most of what we’ve got as we head in to the 26/27 season, which, barring some HILARIOUS miracle, will see us playing Championship football. We need a full head of steam, smart business, and ultimately, the roar of 30,000+ Wolves fans pushing the team back to the promised land.
But here’s the thing; I don’t know if you’ve picked a paper up, or even put your hand in your pocket, but the financial situation we, the people, find ourselves in is in dire straits. At a time where Lurpak* is only used by the landed gentry and using pay in three at McDonalds is just good financial sense, football has become a luxury item that needs to justify its place on a bank statement, rather than just being a natural part of life.
Fans have, sadly and understandably, been giving up their season tickets. Why wouldn’t they? They shelled out the best portion of a grand for a season of abject misery in a structure that is falling apart, or in some cases, a structure that has been “temporary” on and off for over 20 years now. Temporary means, well, temporary. For a short time, not long enough that it can buy a pint, and subsequently not be ID’d for said pint anymore. £525 a season to sit in that, but when you factor in the astronomical price of ponchos, you might be in profit.
There are six stadiums in the Premier League *younger* than the Graham Hughes Stand itself. Not stands, stadiums. Six! The Graham Hughes Stand, in theory, is old enough to be the Hill Dickinson Stadium’s Dad! However, I’m unsure of the mechanics of how a football stand could be a football stadium’s Dad, but you get the picture. The stadium being broadly unfit for purpose is the key headline here.
So, going back to the “I’m not a businessman” bit earlier in the piece, I’m not a businessman, however, if I were Mr Shi, I’d be making a big fuss that ticket prices would be coming down. I’d stand on it, things haven’t been great, but we, the new leadership recognise that if you want to watch your local football club, Wolves is definitely the club for you.
I’d come out the blocks, and say we’re capping season tickets at £500 and match tickets at £30. We’re not cheapening the product, god no, the product’s been cheapening itself organically on the pitch. No, we’re making sure that Wolves is in the heart of a working class community, and that working class community feels like they can actually afford to come. Maybe not a season ticket or every game, but man, Preston at home? You’ll take a £30 bath on that bad boy. You’ve spent more money to watch us get horsed by less famous teams, £30 is a solid investment for three potential points.
I’ll make a big splash about it, we’ll get Wolfie and Bully to pose with a massive pair of scissors. Maybe get them to cut a big pound coin in half. Find who’s had season tickets the longest and get them on board with it. Get some kids from the local primary. Wolves are your local club, and we’re making sure that everyone from the local community can enjoy one of the world’s most famous football clubs.
I’d sit you all down and say look, the prices *might* go up when we’re back in the Premier League, but they might not! Tell you what, if we have a good season in the Prem, I’ll put the prices up, but not by too much. You know what? Having a full, rocking stadium every week is better than charging high prices.
When you’re selling players for £50,000,000, the overall difference in ticket revenue starts becoming pocket change really. We’ll do the smart business in the back room, get some sponsorship deals and such, then pass the cost savings on to you, you know, the people who were here before us and will be here after us? We’re Fosun, the business guys! We’ll do business and let you enjoy the business of watching football!
Now, that’s what I would do, if I were Nathan Shi, and I wanted to get an incredibly pissed off fanbase back on side. You can only slash the price of shirts so many times, you need to do something that’s ultimately tangible for the fans. A “self-sustainable” football club without any fans is useless.
Sure, it’s optics, but to borrow a phrase from *my* footballing idol, RuPaul, we’re all born naked and the rest is optics.
So, to get back into the real world, I’m not Nathan Shi, but surely this hip, young CEO knows that he can build up some good credit and get the fans back on side after a tumultuous time under his brother Jeff**.
What did he say at the latest fan advisory board? Introduce himself, good, 150th anniversary, interesting, I’d have a blue and white hooped shirt as a wink to when we were St Luke’s, infrastructure, great, you need infrastructure, ah yeah here we are, ticketing.
*”He [Shi] stressed that pricing must be considered as part of a longer-term strategy rather than a single-season reaction”*
Ah. Oh. Er. I see. Remains to be seen, but it doesn’t scream “we’re slashing prices, and slashing them hard”. It, to me, smells more like “we’ll benchmark prices against Champions League clubs and a week’s all inclusive in Marbella”. By all means, Mr Shi, prove me and the thousands of other Wolves fans wrong here, but this vague, non-committal statement doesn’t exactly plant a flag in the ground.
Now, a “long-term strategy” is great. I have a long-term strategy too, to get married to Sabrina Carpenter.
I find the lingo of the modern businessperson inane at best and insane at worst, but using “long-term strategy” as an excuse to nickel and dime fans is just meaningless nonsense. Every club in the Championship has a “long-term strategy” of getting into the Premier League. What club ultimately doesn’t? Who sits around a boardroom going “our long term strategy is to be relegated to League One”? “We have exciting plans to be shit”? “Our fans will enjoy the exciting rollercoaster of bankruptcy”?
Give over, of course our long term strategy is to get back into the Premier League, much like every Premier League team’s strategy is to win the bastard thing. It’s great that some of Fosun’s greatest minds have come together to decide we should be good at football. You don’t learn genius like that at the University of Wolverhampton! Where were you when we were shit?
Talking about ticket prices feels like the most irrelevant thing in the world, however, it is the one area where you, the fan, can actually make the most difference. If games are well attended, fans aren’t counting the cost of the latest horsing, and are in full voice, well, it’s the 12th man, isn’t it?
We can’t buy players, we can’t sell players, we can’t sack the manager, and we can’t negotiate sponsorship deals. However, what we can do, is pass over some of our hard earned, or not hard earned, I don’t judge, to support our football club. If the cost is prohibitive, or not worth it, we turn away. Attendances fall, morale falls, and a football club can live and die on the backing of fans, financial or otherwise.
And ultimately, ticketing is also an area where Shi and the club can make the most impact. They can choose the manager, have a hand in choosing the players, but they can’t lead a horse to water and make it drink.
What they can do is create the foundation of a community led atmosphere at the club. It’s not just a direct debit and a scanned barcode, that seat can be a lifeline, a chance to socialise, a ray of sunshine in a dark world. Win, lose, or draw, going to the match can be something to look forward to, but what happens when it becomes too much, or not worth it.
Simply put, players come and go, heroes become villains, but the fans are forever. Mr Shi, your “long-term strategy” should be to look after the people who live and die Wolverhampton Wanderers.
*Talking Wolves do not expressly endorse Lurpak, other spreadable butter brands available. Consult your local greengrocer for more.
**You can’t prove he isn’t.
