Friday Freebie: What's your price point for watching non-league football?

Over price and they simply don't come to watch

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Everyone has a price point when it comes to everyday items and leisure pursuits are no different either so getting the right admission fee can be the difference between attracting a few extras and possibly longer term supporters versus, well I’m not quite sure at times.

I always maintain that £22 at my club Barnet for National League football is too expensive, £20 I believe is the correct price point and I expect to pay more if we ever get back to the Football League. From that point downwards I understand that leagues don’t enforce a maximum charge but a minimum, but where do you draw the line?

Last week on Twitter/X I saw a club in Sussex charging £10 to watch Step 6 football. Naturally I re-tweeted it, calling it ridiculous. Let’s be honest here and no disrespect to any Step 6 or 7 clubs out there reading this part, relegation from Step 6 for some returns the club to park pitches and roped off playing surfaces.

While that isn’t the case across the complete non-league pyramid it does happen but that’s not the only reason I saw fit to pull it up. Ask yourself this question, would you yourself pay £10 to watch that level of football?

And if you would then commonly where Step 4 is £10 entrance fee what’s your price point for that? And so on? You see where I’m coming from on this? It’s not only the point of paying that price to watch, but the quality also clearly isn’t the same as Step 4 and you are paying to watch the football on the pitch, nothing else.

Plenty came at me, but not one came back with a sensible debate or reason bar just one person, it was more like arguing for the sake of it or justifying that bills and costs have gone up and so should admission prices.

No other club in their league charges the same, I haven’t paid more than £9 to watch one step higher so where is the logic to their debate? Quite frankly, there wasn’t one. Someone even went so far as to question ‘what do I know about the costs of running a football club’.

Well, read through this blog from the very beginning and you will see I’ve done my time at Step 6 as a Secretary and Treasurer, I know how much the books don’t balance and that was over three years ago. One or two think I know nothing about non-league football as well, but well you readers are the judge of that week in, week out.

Anyway, back to the point in hand we’re discussing! It shouldn’t matter whether a club has their own ground, rents it, or shares with someone else, you can’t overprice your football, people simply won’t come.

Or if they do, it’s highly likely that they won’t spend any more once inside the ground, that extra they would have spent on getting in. That secondary spend is where clubs at these levels make their money, I mean just think about it, price it sensibly and people will come and then again, they will likely spend on food and drink once inside, even if they purchase just once.

But, charge a silly price and people aren’t going to be come in the first place, how much money have you lost not just from one fan, but several? As it was the attendance that night was 35, that probably includes a few freebies as well, but when the Step 4 club on the same ground charges the same amount surely someone needs to take the reality check and sort it out.

But what do you think? Should their be maximum admission charges instead of minimum? What’s your price point for each level and where does it become too expensive for the product on the pitch? Let me know in the comments below.