THE BORO'S once rigid pricing structure has finally cracked under the relentless downward pressure of falling attendences. Season ticket subsidence at the Riverside plus a crumbling walk up crowd has prompted the club to rip up the system of charging more for premium games.
Pegging the Liverpool game, traditionally one of the few nailed on 30,000+ bumper gates and normally a minimum £31 category A game, at "just" £24 a ticket for adults right across the ground represents a massive - and welcome - U-turn on pricing policy as a new chill wind of economic reality blows through football. But is it too little, too late?
Crowds have collapsed, there is now no escaping that. There have already been two sub-25,000 league gates. The first home game of the season could not have been more attractive, with a dugout debut for the new boss against the champions, yet drew only 29,198. The non-televised derby clash with Newcastle just scraped over 30,000 with a full away end - and more muted Magpies scattered around the rest of the ground.
Boro's price reduction is to be followed by a planned special initiative for the Charlton game, usually the lowest gate of the the season. That Boro have switched course in mid-season is commendable. They have recognised the reality and reacted - but you can't help but think they should have seen it coming and devised a pro-active pre-season strategy rather than coming up with firefighting proposals on the hoof.
The crisis is not just hitting Boro. It is universal. The football boom is well and truly over and while Sky are still pumping cash in, it is being promptly funnelled straight into players' pockets, a situation that is leaving fans sickened and alienated, and so long as the generously rewarded players don't produce results, angry.
The naive family friendly foam finger years of imported glamour, new grounds and big dreams are long gone, replaced with the sullen impatience and tetchy cynicism that comes with shattered ambitions. The party is over. Soon we will be back with the hardcore 18-20,000 we started with under Bruce Rioch at the start of the dream.
It is not a searing insight to see the recent trend. It has been apparent for two years to all but the most blinkered and those who believed the spin uncritically. Small screen saturation and soaring ticket prices leaving inflation wheezing in their wake have combined with a long fragile competitive balance of the league reaching tipping point and a cautious mentality from the dozen or so teams whose main motivation on matchdays is to avoid relegation at all costs.
West Ham attracted a crowd of just 25,898 last week and that is the shape of things to come. Almost 10,000 fans have walked away in the space of three or four seasons despite that period being unquestionably the most successful in the club's history.
It would be too simplistic to lay the blame for the complex cocktail of frustrations entirely at the feet of Steve McClaren but for Boro fans his reign became symbolic of what was happening in the game. He was quite explicit in insisting that entertainment was not on his radar and that frustrated fans must be educated to accept the sterile realities of a results driven business.
Fans have shown that do not need educating. They know when a £30 a shot entertainment does not offer value for money. Now the clubs have realised that too late. A string of clubs froze season ticket prices in the summer or offered incentives for kids - including Boro it must be said - while Blackburn have been slashing prices like the last day of a Blue Cross Sale... yet crowds remain on a slippery slope everywhere apart from Old Trafford and the Emirates .
That football does not understand the situation is clear. The suits still talk excitedly about 'the brand', 'the product' and 'exciting revenue streams' . Yet what they don't realise is that the product is not just the football. It is the whole matchday experience, the buzz, the passion, the feeling of engagement and a shared identity with the team. That is what is missing.
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