Cod Almighty | Diary
The price we pay
3 March 2020
It's match day, but for the first time this season Casual Diary will not be attending. Last minute work commitments mean that two days away are just not possible.
I will be forced to rely on Radio Hull, and my mental picture of Home Park. This will be outdated though as the old stand to the left of the visitors' corner has been replaced. It was one of the few to rival the Main Stand for age, so the Old Lady has seen another challenger off.
My first years at Blundell Park were as a resident of the Main Stand. My mam and myself would take up our chosen position four steps up just to the Pontoon side of the tunnel and await the entertainment. The fact that this was 1968 and Town were anything but entertaining didn't matter. We regularly got beat as we ended up being relegated and then seeking re-election, but there was never a question that we would attend. We had little money but we always had enough to make the few pence it cost to attend Blundell Park, and pay the bus fare on the numerous specials that made their way there from all corners of the town.
Despite our inept performances, questionable formations and regular defeats, I have no recollection of the crowd around me abusing the inhabitants of the dugouts or the team as they trudged off. It may not be true but what I remember is resigned acceptance, polite applause and grumblings about club chairman FA Would. Today's fans could take note but I don't want to dwell on that point now.
What I will say is that if I had been born more recently but in similar circumstances, my visits to see Town would only have been only when the local school gave out freebies. When I was deemed old enough to go to the Pontoon, we'd pay an extra tanner to pay for the roof that had been put on it a decade before. Even with decimalisation and that extra tanner, the cost of watching Town was seven and a half pence. The average wage of a manual worker then was £28, or £13 if you were under 21. The cost of Division Four football was therefore 0.25 per cent of the weekly wage.
Had I made today's game the price of the ticket would have been £25. Our own tickets are £20. Today a 35-hour minimum wage job would net you £276 take home pay, or an apprentice rate of £100 if you are under 21. The cost of fourth flight football has therefore risen to very nearly 10 per cent of income, or 25 per cent for those under 21.
North East Lincolnshire has a low wage economy with significant numbers on zero-hours contracts. When it comes to deciding how to spend your cash, its a far bigger decision whether to fork out a tenth rather than a hundredth of your hard-earned, in the hope you will be entertained. The fact that a manager with a reputation for entertainment, who has gone about engaging with the town in a way not seen since the early 1980s, can only attract 4,500 to Blundell Park is a testament to this.
On the train back from Swindon we sat among Wednesday and Bradford fans in the buffet. The talk got around to Wednesday's board trying to flog ten-year season tickets for £6-8,000 a pop. Most fans weren't touching it, not believing the club could be guaranteed to stay out of administration for ten years.
We discussed our own board's idea to sell next season's season tickets early and cash in on the Holloway effect and his honeymoon period. We doubted, having spent north of £3,000 already watching Town this season, that we'd be happy to fund Fenty to the tune of another £300, despite it being 50 per cent cheaper than Wednesday.
Only the Bradford fans had no doubt they'd renew come the end of the season, with a season ticket book price of £150. The crowds Bradford get continue to be a stratosphere above anyone else in the division and most in the division above. Had I been born 50 years later than I was, if hadn't been 'lucky' enough to be born in Bradford I would have been priced out of football. Our new leader may want to reflect on that before he asks us to pay for next season in March.
On tonight's game, James Hanson is out, and it will be interesting to see if our captain returns. Plymouth can struggle at home, so to the 100 or so who make it tonight: well done, and I hope you're commitment is rewarded. If we get a point I will be happy, but I don't have an eight-hour coach journey home.
That point, if we get it, would maintain our record of gaining roughly 60 per cent of the points available since the turn of the year. If we maintain that, we might just sneak into that final play-off place and break past a 5,000 attendance at home. It's the hope that kills you.
UTM.