Cod Almighty | Diary

You're lower-league - don't rip off your fans

17 December 2015

Devon Diary writes: Quite often I find myself writing about football finances in the diary. There's the frankly ridiculous state of affairs at Northampton. There are the mind-boggling numbers being talked about at Bolton. And there's the perilous state of Torquay United's accounts. 

The figures talked about at Torquay and Bolton are as far apart as their standings in the league structure: more than £170,000,000 of debt for the Trotters versus a potential deficit in the order of £100,000 for the Gulls. But for both it means big trouble.

That difference is a real indicator of the inequalities in modern football.

The operating budgets of clubs in the Conference compared to the Football League (forget about the Premier League) perhaps go some way to explaining why there are so few non-League teams making it to the third round this year. Good on you, Eastleigh, and good luck to you.

Unless you've been meditating in a Himalayan shrine (and even then you'd probably have heard the news) you'll be aware that Town came agonisingly close but fell at the final hurdle. A final, added-time hurdle, after the last hurdles had been er… hurdled. Wicklow summed it up yesterday when he compared it to a Buckley team thrashing an opponent but losing 1-0. 

But for Ogogo's last-gasp winner we would have joined Exeter City in the third round. Exeter have a plum tie against Liverpool. It's at home, so not quite as 'plum' as a visit to Anfield would be, but still pretty much guaranteed to be a sell-out – which is welcome for a fan owned club like the Grecians.

I was surprised to learn this week that the tie will also be a 'sell-out' in terms of the way the club is treating its fans. Exeter announced that they will be upping their adult ticket prices by some 40 per cent and the prices of students' and kids' concessions will be quadrupled.

Maximise your profits today, Exeter City, but I hope that your fans are willing to forgive and forget that if at some point in the future ends don't quite meet again.

Would we do that? Would Grimsby Town up their prices in such a way to profit in the short term from their long-term and long-suffering fans? I'd like to think not – but we're out of it anyhow, so we don't need to worry. For this season at least.

Next up for us is the visit of high-flying Dover Athletic and although we have games in hand on them we need to put down a marker and give them a sound beating. Podge and the boys will be itching to get a result after the disappointment of Tuesday evening, but what stands in our way? I saw Dover beat Torquay a couple of months ago and to be honest I'm surprised to see them so high up the table. Even with Aswad Thomas in the side they're no big shakes. That night Aswad played pretty well, getting up and down the flank and linking up with the attack – but he wouldn't get a look-in with this current Town side. 

So, it's a win on Saturday and again on Tuesday? See you next week.