[Salopbaggie]

So the club has signed up to ifollow, the EFL scheme which allows for watching live championship games.

How wonderful that sounds until you look at it, for £45 per season you get what we currently get now for FREE; live audio commentary, video highlights etc. If you want to watch any match live the cost will be between £10.00 and £14.00 per game and will not be available for any match on television, or if you look at it as, an average of 5-6 games per month or £55 to £77 per month, plus the £45 per season for the season pass.

I did check with iFollow the club did not have to sign up to the deal it was their own choice. So no streams as we are in the Chump and now no audio commentary either.

[Florida Baggie]

So the club has signed up to ifollow, the EFL scheme which allows for watching live championship games.

How wonderful that sounds until you look at it, for £45 per season you get what we currently get now for FREE; live audio commentary, video highlights etc.  If you want to watch any match live the cost will be between £10.00 and £14.00 per game and will not be available for any match on television, or if you look at it as, an average of 5-6 games per month or £55 to £77 per month, plus the £45 per season for the season pass.

I did check with iFollow the club did not have to sign up to the deal it was their own choice.  So no streams as we are in the Chump and now no audio commentary either.
           

Just had an email over here in Florida, they want $140 for the season with the same restrictions on live games.
Last year I got ALL the Premier games that weren't screened on NBC Sports for $49 for the season!

[4evaabaggie]

Does football really want to kill off grassroots fans ....... I can see it now ....... kick off season 2025/26, snack bars selling pimms, cucumber sandwiches, champers, prawn cocktails, all to people wearing boaters, bow ties and striped jackets ... "okay yah what a spiffing hit towards the net stopper chappy" ringing out from the leather armchair filled spectator viewing gardens ........

Once again milk the cash cow til it hurts ........ working man's game ....... your having a loff.

[drewks]

Love that post 4eva!
How can I spiffingly double like, stairs?

[WBA-Josh]

Love that post 4eva!
How can I spiffingly double like,  stairs?

You can spiffingly like my post drewks and I can transfer it across to 4eva.

Good post 4eva but you forgot the complimentary white tiger cub that will given to each toff.

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Like transferred. Pleasure doing spiffing business with you.

[talkSAFT]

You forgot to mention "footy"!

[WBA-Josh]

It’s not really a secret that football fans are seen more as sources of incomes by clubs and football providers such as Sky and BT and it’s only going to get worse in my opinion. I expect that in 10 years, the cheaper season tickets will cost over £1000 and cheap match tickets will be over £200 at least. Maybe even more than that.

Football for the future generations is really going to suck.

[Salopbaggie]

It’s not really a secret that football fans are seen more as sources of incomes by clubs and football providers such as Sky and BT and it’s only going to get worse in my opinion. I expect that in 10 years, the cheaper season tickets will cost over £1000 and cheap match tickets will be over £200 at least. Maybe even more than that.  

Football for the future generations is really going to suck.

Josh you got me thinking about prices so I thought I would have a look at a comparison of season ticket prices, in context.

In 1883 a bank clerk on average earned 22/- per week (thats around £1.10 for our younger members   ).  For 1883/1884 the season ticket price to watch the Albion at Four Acres was 3/- (.15p) or 13.64% of their weekly wage.

   

In June 2018 the average weekly wage of a bank clerk was £335.58 and the cost of a season ticket is between £329.00 and £429.00, so a mean average of £379.00 for an adult season ticket or 112.94% of the clerks weekly wage.

That means in annual terms our (very old) clerk;

In 1883 earned £57/2/0 (£57 & 2 shillings), so their season ticket cost them 0.26% of their annual wage.

In 2018 earned £17,450, so their season ticket cost them 2.18% of their annual wage.

To put that into a real, like for like comparison, the drum roll moment .

If the cost of a season ticket had simply kept pace with the wages earned, the cost of a season ticket would be in 2018  ................................ £45.70.

Or again looking at it another way our bank clerk could have brought his own season ticket and one each for 7 of their mates and still be in pocket.

[WBA-Josh]

Thanks for the posting that Salop.

An example of high prices is Manchester United's season tickets cost between £532 and £950 and the highest can easily cost more than one person's monthly wage. Borussia Dortmund in comparison have a high of 746 euros and a low of 215 euros for the standing zone. That is more reasonable but still expensive. You really have to look outside of the top leagues and instead look into the 2nd divisions and below to see more reasonable prices.

Also it's good to see what drewks was earning in 1883.

[St Charles Owl]

IFollow was introduced last season for the first time for Championship games. Prior to that we could get commentary but no moving pictures and if the game was not on Sky/BT in the UK, then you wouldn’t find any streams either. So last season for those fans who lived abroad the ifollow service was a fabulous upgrade over what was previously available and I plus a few others on here immediately jumped at the chance and subscribed. For me the service was great, except its just video, no commentary although I think that may be changing this season but not sure. If you have a good internet connection its great but I found it better on my ipad rather than a computer.

For $140 I thought it was good value, I got to see every Wednesday game for the first time in 17 years since I left the UK, and I have renewed for this season as well!!

For you guys this will not feel like a good deal but thats because you have been used to every PL game being either live on tv or at the very least a bunch of streams from various sites. In the Championship you simply don’t have that level of options, so while its an extra cost it will be likely the only way you can see the games live if you can’t be there. As Florida said, we get multiple PL games live for free and then can pay $49 for NBC Gold to see the rest if we want, but its only last season they introduced that charge, prior to that all games were free.

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Sorry, forgot to add that the $140 season subscription is only available to fans living abroad. Also worth noting that WBA as Salop said do not have to sign up for this service, but they are now governed by the EFL and they cannot provide free services as far as I am aware for this. Some clubs, mainly recent ex-PL teams, do not use ifollow (which is the EFL version) but used a different one but I think there is still a charge.